What doesn't is the fact that Marina's heart continues to beat after the machine is turned off. "Holy crap," House says when she wakes up, giving a plaintive shrug up to the heavens. The God he doesn't believe in is making House look bad. Esteban has apparently converted from House worship to another kind of belief: "God sent her back to me. It's a miracle."
"How come God gets credit whenever something good happens?" House grumbles to the remnants of his team. "What if it wasn't human error? Maybe it was God's error — a congenital defect."
He needs his powers of persuasion and manipulation to convince the happy and highly photogenic couple that Marina's apparent good health is a temporary state, and they should submit to the same test that stopped her heart in the first place. Esteban points out that House was wrong about there being no hope for his wife when they pulled the plug.
"My mistakes don't prove there's a God. You came a long way to see me. Are you going to put her life in God's hands or mine?" It's a similar argument to the season one "Damned If You Do," which was the first episode to suggest that House is not quite a devout atheist himself.
Well, sure, since they came all that way, why not trust the man who's admitted he's wrong a lot? But they do, because doctors trump miracles for nuns and recent converts alike.
"I better not see you praying," House jokes to Esteban during the procedure. "I don't want to have to fight for credit on this."
House's prediction turns out to be accurate, and his acute powers of deduction solved the case again. One more operation, and Marina will be fine.
"Thank God," she says.
"Don't make me slap you," he retorts, and suddenly I can see a little Jackie Gleason in the very un-Jackie-Gleason-ish Hugh Laurie.
So House fixes what God breaks. That's pretty heady stuff. No wonder everyone — including House himself -- is so enamoured with the dark-humoured doctor. Everyone except Foreman.
At the last possible moment, House finally admits he wants Foreman to stay, that he needs him. But he fails at showing he cares for either Foreman or his patients, and because of that, experiences a rare failure in his attempts to persuade or manipulate.
"I don't want to solve cases, I want to save lives," declares the unmoved Foreman.
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.
7 - reybo
What is it with supervising sound editor Brad Norta? The background music is twice the volume it should be in this episode, and covers the dialogue. No one in the audio department noticed this?
Alas, it's one of two recurring bad features of this series, the other being the choice of background music. Sometimes ok, sometimes execrable.