Cameron has made her choice — for now — and Chase is the lucky recipient of her affections. The "I'll miss you" and the arm touch suggest her feelings for House have been deliberately submerged rather than eliminated. But she's learned from House over the years. She's harder and less gullible, as Wilson pointed out recently. She's also learned about House, and puts her newfound non-gullibility to work. Whatever her feelings for him, House and his twisted heart will be just fine without her.
What follows is a weirdly companionable scene between House and Esteban, sharing House's "genuine American cigars." Esteban is at least a step up from original recipe coma guy — he can talk back and partake in the smoking/drinking male bonding ritual. He also has the benefit of not being judgmental Wilson, and doesn't have any reason to care that House doesn't care.
Esteban: You must be very upset.
House: Yeah, I must be.
Esteban: But you're not.
House: I don't think I am. I think I'm OK.
Esteban: What are you going to do?
House: God only knows.
He comes home to the new guitar he apparently ordered to replace the one he's had since grade nine. Change is addictive, it seems, and the cane-guitar playing must have given him a taste of something snappier, too. As Josh Ritter's "I'm a Good Man" plays ironically, I have to consider that he is a good man, as long as he's judged on a Housian curve and not by the standards of St. Wilson, for example, who doesn't have a problem with faking caring. House looks just fine playing that new guitar, when he would seem to have just made a complete mess of his professional and possibly personal life.
Now that's the kind of cliffhanger I like. I have no predictions for how this is all going to play out next season, except that I'm highly skeptical Omar Epps, Jennifer Morrison, and Jesse Spencer are off the show. Is the mass exodus another engineered lesson for House courtesy of Wilson and Cuddy? Is it a ploy by the team, or at least Cameron, to win Chase his job back? Or is all as it appears, and the ducklings have decided they're ready to swim on their own and House has decided that he's ready for change?
Okay, I have one prediction, but I'm not making any bets on this one: I think they'll all be back, but in different capacities. At the very least, this regrouping could put to rest the never-ending fellowships without getting into tedious administrative detail. By the end of the episode, all three have decided they're ready to move on from House's tutelage, but I'm skeptical that means we've seen the last of them.
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.