"Insensitive" could really be the subtitle to this entire series. House, M.D.: Insensitive Bastard has a nice ring to it. Too bad they've already got the billboards printed with plain old House.
The episode title, however, refers most obviously to the patient of the week, bratty teenager Hannah Morgenthal, born with a rare condition called CIPA that makes her unable to feel pain or regulate her body temperature.
And House, who is disdainful of everyone, superior to everyone, finds himself, you might say, hypersensitive: jealous of his patient and of Cuddy's date.
The jealousy is at first hilarious rather than heartbreaking. Hannah comes to the hospital after a car accident has seriously wounded her mother and possibly wounded her - but who can tell, when she doesn't hurt, won't let them examine her for internal injuries, and refuses to admit she has CIPA.
Foreman doesn't buy House's instant diagnosis, even though the first of his several reasons - she denies she has CIPA without ever asking what it is - convinced me. That plus the title of the episode, and the previews that talked about the patient's inability to feel pain. Still.
Before smacking her with his cane, House also picks up on her Jewish name, pointing out that Ashkenazi Jews are at higher risk for the disorder, and makes some really lame Jewish jokes at her expense. Almost as lame as the black jokes he usually directs at Foreman. House's barbs seem to sting only when he actually means them.
When Hannah refuses to submit to tests, House and Hannah get into the Battle of the Handicaps Part II, following last week's match between House and the researcher in the wheelchair. Hannah can't cry. "Neither can I," House sneers. She has to check her eyes every morning for corneal scratches. He has to check his for jaundice from the Vicodin shutting down his liver. She can't run without checking her joints for swelling. He can't run. She can't be held by a boy for too long without overheating. He can't be held by a girl for too long because he only pays them for an hour.
Already, with the acknowledgment of his Vicodin habit's long term side effects, and the running prostitution joke-that's-not-just-a-joke-after-"Distractions," and Cuddy dating someone she met online after all House's jokes-that-weren't-jokes about that, and Foreman's once-seen girlfriend making a reappearance, and the reference to House's fellows being in a program (albeit one that probably should have an end point really soon, if not already past), "Insensitive" makes enough connections to the past to feel like it actually fits into a series. Yet it has a nice twist so it doesn't just feel like a comfortable old shoe: the cool diagnosis came at the beginning of the episode.
Article comments
1 - DJRadiohead
It's a good thing I don't love this show. What's three weeks between episodes? Hells holy acre, why the hell can't we get a three-week break from American Idol?
Post-Tritter the show seems to be sliding back into its familiar format. I don't know how I feel about that. I suppose it will come down to a week-to-week basis. This past week they found ways to do things with the characters within the framework of the familiar show outline. It was good.
I hope they do something with Wilson and Chase soon. Neither is my favorite character, but both seem to be in real holding patterns. I'm as tired of Wilson being House's conscience as Wilson is, and Chase just seems to take up space.
3 weeks. Bastards.
2 - Kaonashi
I liked this episode more than the last two. I thought it was cool that in one scene the trio are given a chance to come up with a diagnosis all by themselves (Chase's "torture" plan). I also think that House has a crush on Cuddy but just refuses to admit it, even to himself.
The tapeworm scene was seriously disgusting! I did laugh though, when that nurse whips out her camera phone to take its picture.
It'll be fun to see how Chase and Cameron's new FTF relationship will work out. I wonder if this storyline came about because the two actors are engaged in real life?