And he's still avoided talking to Esteban about what's going on with his wife, not out of early-Cameron-like hesitance to share bad news, but perpetual-House-like indifference to the emotional impact on the patient and family. He has no facts, therefore he has nothing to tell the husband.
Esteban came 1,000 miles to see House, though, so the few extra feet to his office aren't an obstacle. "How do you fix something if you don't look at it?" he demands of the doctor who still hasn't examined his wife. Good question, and I like the metaphoric possibilities as well. Though it's hard to say if House is fixing his life by examining it.
Even examining her heart during the bypass surgery doesn't yield any clues, though, and House discovers that her heart can't be restarted. She is, in effect, dead, kept on the machine only so the husband can say goodbye.
Still, House stalls, wanting to solve the case even if it's too late to save the patient.
"How can we tell him there's no hope when we don't know why there's no hope?" he asks a doubting Foreman. "If he pulls the plug it means he's failed."
"If he pulls the plug, it means you've failed," Foreman counters.
"And you're okay with that?"
In other words, the differing perspectives are meaningless. Whether the motivation to solve the mystery, even if it's too late, is to give the husband some certainty before pulling the plug, or to give House some certainty before giving up, the outcome is the same.
"I don't care. I really don't care. My motives are pure," House explains to Cuddy after she attempts to get him to admit that he wants a storybook ending for his ocean-crossed lovers. He isn't ready to let go of the mystery because, unlike the patient they lost in "Family," thanks to the bypass machine there is a chance he doesn't have to conduct an autopsy to make the diagnosis.
His patient isn't the only one with the cold, dead heart. House really is that heartless, that the story of a young couple risking their lives to see him doesn't move him. They're just another day on the job, just another case to be solved, and, to hear him tell it, that's a good thing, letting his determination be based on rationality rather than emotion.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Great recap, as always. I was desperately waiting for this after watching the show (taped) last night.
Two things:
1. The guitar was from eighth grade, he said.
2. I think Cameron said what she did ("I've gotten all I can from this job.") to mirror what House had told Chase, which she would have learned as pillow talk with Chase.
One of the best episodes yet, and a fantastic un-cliffhanger. Your connections to past episodes are fantastic. House is embracing manic change because he doesn't do anything by halves, but I think we'll find he can't handle the change as well as he thinks he can.
2 - Diane Kristine
1) Curse you and your good memory :) Wilson or House said 8th, the other said 9th, and I didn't have the recording with me to help remember who said what.
2) I agree, though I don't know if it means a) it's a ploy to get Chase his job back b) she realized it's true c) something my tiny brain hasn't thought of. I'm thinking a) but the show often goes in directions I hadn't considered.
3 - Maddoc
Wilson said 8th grade.Is it just me or the new guitar was a replica of the old one?I think with his fellows,he went big.Change is a risk.So he took it where he could distance himself from it at an intellectual level.But when it comes to personal change,be it anything,he goes small,hence the replica replacement.
And I agree with his last outburst at Foreman.Who cares what a doctor's motives are when he fixes his patients.I think he does care.It is impossible not to.But there is a huge difference between simple caring and making it into an emotional booby-trap.And even if he doesn't,how could caring make it any different for the patient?Why are 'his' motives such a big deal?Everybody has motives.Who are we to define which ones are good to have and which ones not so good.Wilson and even Cuddy have been harping this ever since season 3 started.I just don't get it.
4 - Joey
[Quote]No, he really, really doesn't care, and he's had enough of the people around him thinking he is[/Quote]
Remember "Euphoria"? He seemed to care a lot then.
5 - Diane Kristine
Were you trying to quote the heart of gold line from the review, or did someone else use the line with "care" in it? Because being an occasional human being doesn't qualify someone as having a heart of gold.
But, while I wouldn't characterize it as anywhere near "a lot," he cares selectively - he put Foreman's life in danger, and Foreman is one of the few people in his narrow life. He cares about Wilson to the greatest extent he's capable, and let it show in Son of Coma Guy and Babies and Bathwater. I'd say he connected to the little boy in Lines in the Sand, and the woman in Control, too, though "care" might be a strong way to put it.
But about most patients? About this particular patient? Not one bit. And throughout season three, he seems to care even less than seasons one and two, even putting his own needs and addiction above the patient's benefit in some cases.
6 - Sub
Am I the only one who noticed that House had tears in his eyes when he was sitting back at home staring at his old guitar while Esteban was leaving him a voicemail? His eyes were red, puffy and there were definite tear streaks below his eyes.