“I haven’t slept through the night since Kutner died.” House’s (the ever-amazing Hugh Laurie) grave admission to Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) towards the end of “House Divided” tells us how worried House is about his own sanity. In that confession, the normally very guarded House finally articulates the depth to which he has been affected by Kutner’s death.
What a fantastic episode. The best House, M.D. episodes combine humor, drama, tension and fun; darkness and light. This one had all of that and more — a pivotal episode in this very dark character arc for House (perhaps the darkest yet – and that’s saying something).
As this week’s wild ride of an episode, “House Divided,” progresses, Amber’s (Anne Dudek in a phenomenal performance) constant and increasingly aggressive presence becomes more and more difficult for House to cover, as all around him begin to wonder what’s wrong. Sleep deprived and exhausted, House knows she is simply a hallucination, his overworked and sleepless brain playing visual and auditory tricks on him. Taunting him, she asks why she is the one to plague him; why she has become the avatar for his subconscious mind.
With strong resonances to last season’s finale episodes “House’s Head” and “Wilson’s Heart,” Amber reveals what many of us have known all along. House carries with him an awful lot of guilt—the weight of the world, in some ways. Deny and deflect as he does and has, he still feels responsibility for Amber, and more recently for Kutner. “Maybe your guilt over Kutner’s suicide reminds you of how guilty you felt about me,” she needles.
Refusing to engage with a figment of his imagination, House insists to her that she is “the product of my exhausted brain.” But whatever has brought her to House, she sticks to him like “white on rice.” But in an almost creepy progression, Amber morphs from simple annoyance to constant muse to something more sinister. By the episode’s end, House sees her for what she is — his worst inclinations unbound and at play in his conscious, troubled mind. “House Divided” indeed.
We often see House struggling alone in the dark of his office or apartment with his thoughts about a patient, an ethical decision — or even his own life. What are the thoughts that float through that “rat maze of a brain” (as Wilson has put it) that provide House his genius and his biggest problems? With Amber the external embodiment of House’s thoughts, we see how his thought process works. But he’s playing with fire. (So what else is new?)
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jen
Barbara, as great as the episode, I truly look forward to your House Report. I love, love, just flat out love the show and HL, and so much becomes clearer after your take. I loved the ep from start to finish and worry so much for House and his problems. Can't wait for the next two weeks! I am so glad to have found your website and blog. You, like HL are awesome!Thank you for writing!
2 - Reba
Dear Barbara,
Again such a great review. I must say that one of the saddest moments for me was House alone in the bath tub, not able to share the fun with the others. The immersion of Amber was interesting, the way he knew she was not real, but still treated her as real in a way. Excellent acting from Hugh Laurie. But also, what a delightful comment from Wilson about Caligula. Made me laugh our loud. And it was great to see the team unwind, however dangerous the outcome.
3 - Flo
Good review. Thanks barbara. Indeed, what a freaking great episode.
Very dark but one of the most funnier at the same time.
So dark that, without the funny part, it would be almost unwatchable.
Anne Dudek was fantastic. She played House (or a part of him) very well. The scenes when House has to deal with the others when she is here are really well done. Dealing with her but hiding his condition from his ducklings. Good.
The bathtub scene is great and scary when House realize that Amber is not a "good hallucination".
House is in a scary place right now. Very close to the breakdown. He can't carry so much and add another guilt (Chase).
The weight became too heavy and he is tired of supporting it. Maybe you're right: it's time for a change.
I, too, liked forteen in this episode. Foreman is cool when is drunk. Paying for seeing his girlfriend have fun like that with a stripper: hell yeah! What guy wouldn't do that? Also good scene with Chase. You can see that these two are friend, it was nice.
All of the bachelor party thing was great and really funny. Karamel and Wilson looool!!
I also liked Cuddy. This is the kind of episode which you know why sometimes House calls her mummy.
the scene when she takes care of the drunk duckling and calls House is great. It was like: Mom is calling Dad to tell him the children came back home drunk.
She really is a caring person. That explain the scene in the end. She knows something is wrong with House since Kutner is dead. She knows him too well to not having seen it. She probably foreseen it since "Simple Explanation". House can't lie to her. She always knows when he is not fine. So it tells her that he is sleepless since kutner died. Terrible scene really. Sad.
The last two episodes look also dark which is logical. I think the end of this season will be the more dramatic one ever.
I will have to see this episode a second time, it really was a great one.
4 - barbara barnett
Hope you all like the new site! Pass the word. My review is featured on the main TV/Film Page with a lovely little picture of the House gang!
It was hard to review this one by itself. So much is not known about House and his state of mind, his health, etc.
It's hard to believe the season's almost over, and yet I anticipate the last two eps and can't wait. But I don't want the season to end.
5 - Donna
Barbara-
What an episode. As you said all the right elements integrated into this script that make House,MD. brilliant. Congrats to the entire show staff for this one!
IMHO, I think this one is your best reviews/analysis of any House episode to date. Everything about House's gradual mental deterioration that began nearly a year ago w/HH and fueled especially by his guilt/personal responsibilty, was spot on by you and, officially confirmed during this episode.
It's obvious now to House and we viewers, that his 'Amber' part isn't just dark and dangerous but has surfaced in hallucination form to bury/destroy the good House: everything from his brilliance to his jerkiness. I'll be on the edge of my seat through the final 2 eps of this season (wink, wink..obvious cliffhanger set-up) to see how much more hell House will suffer psychlogically. He'll definitely need the 2 most important 'guardian angels/saviors' in his life -Wilson and Cuddy- to help him through through his journey back to mental health.
6 - simplethings
Great review. Can't compliment them enough. You always manage to cut right into the depth of the show and explain it more articulately than anyone.
I need to rewatch this one several times to grasp it, but I am curious about the scene in which House finally comes clean to Cuddy about not sleeping. Amber's role there as his subconcious confused me and I'm not sure if it was deliberately ambiguous or if I was missing her message.
Was she eyeballing House and telling him silently to confess to Cuddy? Or to will him into silence with her stare? Or did she look shy like House undoubtedly can be when confronted in a state like this, and around Cuddy who he assumedly has feelings for?
I'd love to get your thoughts as I thought it was significant that throughout the episode Amber was continually speaking until this moment.
I'm on the edge of my seat until Monday. This show makes me want to push through my weekends!
7 - XJK
Barbara - as ever, thanks for your great review. As ever, armed with your comments, I'm rewatching it this evening!
What a brilliantly dark episode. This is what I love most about House, one moment I'm laughing aloud at the idea of Wilson attempting to walk home from his own apartment, in another my heart is breaking as House blames himself for yet another (near) death. His struggle with guilt and his own sanity is all the worse for his outwardly normal behaviour - Wilson is more concerned with keeping him away from the bachelor party than the fact that he's talking to himself. It's worrying how he accepts the hallucination, trusts it; he is so scared of losing his mojo that he pushes himself to the edge of insanity (over the edge?) to keep it.
I've mentioned it already, but the scene in the bathroom was so hard hitting, so poignant, as he shies away from the crowd of people he gathered there. I think he threw the party partly for who he used to be; he used to be the guy who partied all night and woke up the next morning with a couple of strippers. But he's not up to engaging with the real world at the moment - every exchange he had was with the encouragement of 'Amber'.
ON the other side of it, Cuddy hooking the ducklings up to drips to sober them up enough to be doctors was brilliant, drunk Wilson was a joy to watch, and some of the early conversations with Amber were inspred!
Thanks again Barbara - I too am eagerly anticipating the next two episodes... although I don't want the season to end!
8 - Melanie
Dear Barbara,
I'm glad I finally found your review ! I was really looking forward to reading your thoughts on this fantastic episode, which is IMO the best of the season so far. I held my breath the whole time, looking with fascination into House's mind - House first enjoying recovering his medical mojo, then celebrating solving the case with Amber in the bathtub, but finally coming back to reality, realizing Amber also symbolizes his bad impulses. It reminds me of a classical tragedy... lightened by outstanding comedy moments - how fun was it to watch the team partying (Wilson especially !), having fun not in the hospital !
Just one question you may want to answer. Like Simplethings, I wonder why Amber was making such a face when House was in Cuddy's office. Was she telling him to confess, or not to confess ? Was it a vision of House's subsconscious regarding his relationship with Cuddy ? If so, it would symbolize House's sadness, loneliness, and self-restraint towards the possibility of a relationship with Cuddy...
Let me know what you think... ?
Melanie.
9 - blacktop
This was by far the best written episode in a consistently strong season. As Barbara has noted, Amber presence disintegrates from annoying nag to seductively effective muse to frightening avatar of House's id during the course of this episode.
I think that the final scene between House and Cuddy with Amber looking on was pivotal for the rest of the season. It was fascinating to see how Anne Dudek played that scene. Amber, House's destructive id was silenced at last, but very much present. Her eyes were bright, as though with tears. She seemed subdued, either by her failure with the diagnosis or by Cuddy's presence itself. It was as though Amber feared being exposed and defeated if House were to tell Cuddy about his hallucination. I thought that Amber signalled to House with permission to reveal to Cuddy the toll his insommnia was taking and the root cause in Kutner's suicide. But when he looked again at Amber, I thought she signalled a warning against revealing her own presence. So House didn't tell Cuddy he was experiencing an hallucination, keeping firm those high wall of his guarded soul, and Amber was able to triumphantly reappear the next morning.The eyes of both women seemed to bore right through House as he sought, but did not get, Amber's further permission to reveal the presence of the hallucination itself. Cuddy seemed to understand that the guarded House had let her in as much as he could at that moment and she left the door open with her acceptance and unquestioning support. This moment captured the core of their relationship beautifully.
Cuddy giving breath mints to cover up the drunkenness of her staff was wonderfully emblematic of her risky, but practical approach to running the hospital as a whole. Her confidence and daring were on full display in that tiny moment.
I don't think that Amber's role was so much about exposing House's guilty conscience as about revealing the anger, hostility, and hurt that lie near the center of his make-up. Through Amber's increasingly uncontrolled suggestions, House was separating himself from the people who matter most to him, his friends and colleagues. Amber's suggestions to House about the bachelor party were directed at either humiliating Wilson or harming Chase and damaging his relationship with Cameron.
How ironic that while the wasp-tongued Amber was quick to disparage the team as nothing more than attractive clothes hangers for their lab coats, it was in fact the dogged persistence of Foreman and the others that resulted in the successful solution to the mystery. I guess we were suppposed to see this as a case of House losing his mojo. But for me, this was a good reminder that House's methods have very real limitations that even genius cannot always overcome. Sometimes it is in fact necessary to closely examine the actual patient in order to figure out the diagnosis, rather than the strategy of retreating to the safety and solitude of the mental exercises and the white board that House usually favors.
The scariest scene for me was the DDX in which House's preoccupation with Amber drew him into a darkening cave of isolation. The lighting and direction in that scene was gripping, I felt. The fact that she interpreted the frightening experience as evidence of House's increased concentration on essential things (like her) was the information that confirmed House was slipping into a dissassociative state from which he could not recover without assistance.
10 - nicole.o
I thuroughly enjoyed this episode! One of my favorites.
I want to comment on the preview for next week. I am trying to figure out how all the pieces with House and Cuddy come together...
We see her on his couch in promo pics holding his hand while he leans his head back with eyes closed, in the same outfit she is standing in the doorway when she says "You want to kiss me right now don't you." In the couch pictures she looks concerned, in the doorway she sounds playful. I don't think the doorway scene comes before the couch scene (Cuddy doesn't look like they just made out)making me think he is dreaming the doorway scene while his eyes are closed and she is next to him on the couch. The only way that makes sense is if she left and then knocked on the door again...coming back for more? Cut to them both in different clothes (shirts at least)when House is passed out on the bathroom floor and Cuddy screams "NO!" and leans over him. I'm confused. I seriously hope House is not dreaming the doorway scene but the attitude in it doesn't fit the dramatics of the other moments between them? The preview makes it look like the doorway is after the bathroom floor pass out but that doesn't seem right? We've all had our own ideas and now with more clues I'm trying to piece it together....Still confused as ever.... Barbara, are they going to put up the 4 sneak peaks again?
Monday could not come soon enough. I'm going to have serious withdrawals after this season is over....I'm excited and sad and the same time. Why do I let a show get to me this much? Ah well....haha
11 - Val
Thank you Barbara! Your review was so very appreciated for this very dark and excellent episode. The way you break it down to the bare bones always adds to my viewing, but especially this time around.
House is always so layered and this episode was no exception. The transformation of "Amber" from a sort of muse to a dark manifestation was brilliant and some of the funniest moments were when they spoke at the same time with the same thought. Excellent timing from both Laurie and Dudeck!
The parallel with the patient was not as easy to see this time around. Perhaps there was meant to be none as House seems to be unintentionaly slipping away, but the quality of life theme did hit me right away as he urged Chase to put in the implant. "Half-Wit" and "Painless" were mentioned as episodes touching upon quality of life, but the one that came to my mind during the ordeal was "Meaning" and the patient House treated simply to see about improving his quality of life...where was House at that point in time? He had just had another conversation with his mind (in the form of "Moriarty") and was in somewhat good form due to the ketamine treatment(but that was fading fast). The placement of the implant was significant, I thought, because though House is in a much graver state now than three years ago, he still tried to improve Seth's quality of life. Something he has tried to do for himself time and time again.
There were light bits. One in particular...I liked Flo's comparison of the scene with the drunk ducklings and Cuddy to a Mom calling Dad (House)saying the kids came home drunk lol! I had originally enjoyed the scene, but that added spin...I have to laugh thinking about it again. And boy can House juggle!
I've seen Hugh Laurie in many roles, but I don't think I've seen him play anything so dark (and I feel like House may be headed to down a dark road for a bit). So far, it has been amazing. No wonder I still love it!
12 - wackjob
Thank you for this thoughtful analysis, Barbara. When I saw the episode on Monday, I was at first irritated by Amber's character, and I've had a lot of trouble with the idea of House wanting to kill Chase. It seems absolutely ridiculous on every level. I could understand Karamel viz. a new level of humiliation for Wilson, but as a death weapon? Is he going to try to kill Cuddy's baby next? That, for me, was the one part that did not add up at all, although I believe you wrote that it is adding to his unresolved guilt.
Be that as it may, the corpse-burning scene brilliantly showcased Laurie's gift for physical comedy, and I loved the new dynamic between Foreman and Thirteen, how he not only accepts her bisexuality but is really turned on by it.
How are we supposed to wait for next Monday? AUGH!!!
13 - cj_housegirl
Barbara a great article as usual. I loved this episode and have already watched it three times. Each time something new about House/Amber or his crew is revealed to me. The layers in this episode are amazing. I can't help thinking about Hugh Laurie's comments that the last six episodes of House are very ambitious. That man spoke the truth.
It was funny, sad, sweet and frightening all at the same time. I loved House's preparations for the bachelor party and that scene in the morgue was one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen -- period.
I too couldn't believe House would set up a bachelor party and then party with everyone else. It just doesn't seem like him. It was both amusing and sad that he set it up, got it started and then spent the night locked away in the bathroom in isolation from everyone else. On the other hand, House could throw a party for me any day!
The bath tub scene with Amber was frightening as House suddenly realizes that his unfailing trust in Amber was a mistake. She was dangerous/destructive and that meant he was dangerous or could be dangerous. Both Anne Dudek and Hugh Laurie were absolutely amazing in this episode.
House Divided was a well written character drama with tons of depth and layers to it that also had so much humour and was just plain fun.
Barbara, put me down as someone who wants to see the preview option available again. Thanks.
14 - Shaz
I think this is one of the best House episodes, if not the best ever. Loved it.
A number of people have already mentioned the bath tub scene already but I think one of the keys to that scene is the fact of what happens when House thinks he needs no one as is invincible. He asks Amber what did his team does, and Amber answered flippantly they look good in their lab coat (other than Tab). A well House knows (as does Cuddy and everyone else) he absolutely needs a team of doctors to bounce ideas off and most importantly, to disagree with him. They are his checks and balances. Why didn't his team do their job and challenge him this time round? Instead they meekly did everything House asked them to do.
Incidentally, really do not like the new BC format!
15 - millie
i used to view this site from my cell phone (out of sheer laziness i didnt feel like booting up my computer) since the upgrade i cant view the site aymore from my phone :(
16 - barbara barnett
Was she eyeballing House and telling him silently to confess to Cuddy? Or to will him into silence with her stare? Or did she look shy like House undoubtedly can be when confronted in a state like this, and around Cuddy who he assumedly has feelings for?
Ah that is the question...Blacktop made some very good observations about what Amber was up to in that scene. when House goes to Cuddy, he has nothing left. He's beyond exhausted, his hallucination is slowly draining away his sense of self and quickly draining (and had throughout the episode) his self-confidence. At the end of the episode, it was as if he was trying to ignore what his mind was telling him, and for the moment at least, he was successful. Maybe Cuddy's presence--a lifeline for him was keeping him safe from the lifeline he had begun to cling to. Amber. That could explain her silence.
Or, as Blacktop said, his subconscious mind is urging him to get help. Maybe even Amber's increasingly aggressive presence was also that urging. (sort of like unexpected pain tells you to get yourself checked out.) At first, House does try to get help. The Sleeping pills from Wilson. But he gets sidetracked by his curiosity about the hallucination. Like I said, he was playing with fire. Because he couldn't control it.
At the end, when he goes into Cuddy he's back to the understanding that he needs help (he needs the sleeping pills). And Amber by granting permission is telling him that it's alright to do it.
If the FOX PR Machine releases promos, you can be sure that I will post them on Blogcritics (would I deny you all that pleasure?)
I can't wait for Monday.
17 - Jen
I just love all of the insight into this show from everyone! It makes waiting for Monday just a tad bit easier, and watching the ep over and over helps too. Everyone has such great things to add. What will we do over the summer? This is the best Lit class I have ever attended!
18 - Wnkybx
Thanks for the review, Barbara! It was very well written as usual, and you ask some terrific questions.
This episode made me feel uneasy (just as I'm sure it was intended to). I loved how Amber gives House's mind a voice. We usually hear the ducklings throw out ideas, but we never usually hear what he's thinking as he's processing their suggestions until he says, "Foreman is right. Go get the MRI, yada yada yada."
Although House was disturbed by Amber's presence, I found it interesting that he latched on to her rather than tune her out. He desperately WANTS to believe in himself and in his medical mojo, even if he has to listen to her to do so. Their secret conversations reminded me of an exclusive treehouse club where they're the only ones invited, and they enjoy being by themselves. House's comment in the bathtub about how his team was essentially worthless seemed to me to be his internal defense mechanism of rejecting the ducklings before he loses anymore of them, the way he unexpectedly lost Kutner. Remember how House hallucinated Foreman's presence at the beginning of season 4 (he probably actually saw Chase and Cameron, but Foreman was physically in NYC at Mercy Hospital)?
19 - Wnkybx
Ack! Accidentally hit the publish button before I finished my thought. Anyway, House was deeply rocked by Foreman's decision to leave, and losing him temporarily caused him to hallucinate. Given the magnitude of his life-changing experiences this past season, I wouldn't be surprised if "Amber" wreaks much more havoc in the next couple of episodes.
In an earlier discussion I was wondering if House would lose his diagnostic gift for a while, forcing him to re-evaluate what he values in life. Taking away the main element by which he defines himself will cause him to have an existential crisis, and I wonder what he will learn from the experience. I'm definitely staying tuned ...
20 - Celaeno
In the weeks preceding this deliciously twisted episode, my speculation was focused almost solely on the role hallucination!Amber would play in House's life. Would she act as an embodiment of his guilt, taunting and torturing? Or would she be his "savior" like she was at the end of season 4, and pull him back from the brink of despair?
As many people have said, it seems as though Amber's presence will force House to seriously reconsider what he values in life. I see now that she's back to play both roles. She will torture House and scare the hell out of him, and, in doing so, save him from himself - just like she did on that pristine white bus.
House's writers just RADIATE gorgeous parallels.
21 - Veresna
Thanks as always for your wonderfully insightful review. And another episode directed by the incomparable Greg Yaitanes! I guess that now I can hope that his exec-producer title means he will be a very frequent director. I am thrilled that you will be interviewing Doris Egan. I have wondered if you will ever get the chance to interview Hugh Laurie himself (a girl can dream can't she)?
22 - Peachie
Barbara,
Love the article...You are the best. As everyone else, I can't wait to read your review and everyone else's comments.
My comment is on Amber and House in Cuddy's office. I don't think her facial expressions were trying to tell him not to tell Cuddy or to tell Cuddy. I think she was letting him decide for himself on this one. Why she wouldn't give him advice on how to deal with Cuddy is what I question. Is it because its a no brainer (he likes her and should be with her) or is it because he really doesn't want a relationship with her, he just wants to sleep with her.
23 - orange450
Barbara, many thanks for a wonderful review. As usual, you bring out every nuanced thread of meaning, and weave them all together into a beautiful tapestry of coherence :-)
I also thought the episode was outstanding. One of the very best of the season. (It occured to me that since the mid-point of the season, I've been describing every single episode as "one of the very best of the season". TPTB are batting 1000, and this has been no ordinary season - not that any House season has ever been ordinary...)
Like Celaeno, above, I had the sense that Amber was to be included among the saviors that appeared in that episode. But after Monday night, the logic behind the choice of Amber as avatar is even clearer than it might have been before, and the potential is there (should TPTB choose) to effect a lovely closure for the ideas that House and Amber have left hanging ever since the end of Games.
While there's no doubt that House's combined guilt over Amber's death and his consternation in the wake of Kutner's makes her the perfect choice for his subconscious, I think the parallel goes even farther. As many of us observed early on in S4 - shortly after she began to show her true colors as a contestant - Amber was a young House in many ways.
(I once commented that she, House and Bosley represented the three "Ghosts" from Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Amber was "House past", when he was young, strong, hotly competitive and full of piss and vinegar (but with a strong - and not always hidden - caring streak). House, of course, was "House present", and if House was lucky, Bosley was "House yet to come (in a happier vein)", when he would hopefully have mellowed and ripened to a sager wisdom. But I digress...)
And Amber's progress in this episode, from simple annoyance all the way to something much darker, mirrors the trajectory of House's downward spiral throughout much of S5 (besides all the other examples, I'm also thinking of his seemingly cruel treatment of Taub). But even tho' House is in a bad place right now, much of the season has (IMO) shown us his sincere, albeit halting, attempts at real growth and change. So I think (and hope) Amber may be here to push him along that way, and represent his learning some important life lessons. (Before he manages to vanquish her - as I'm sure he will - in some fashion that will be incredible to watch.)
In one of my comments on the Saviors review, I quoted the dialogue from the end of Games, where House tells Amber that she plays the game better than anyone else, but has to be willing to be wrong, willing to lose in order to work for him. So perhaps that will finally happen now. Perhaps something is in store that will drive that lesson home to House (oy!) in some way (about Kutner? about his own lifestyle? about Cuddy?...), and Amber will finally have "worked" for House.
I'm not sure this makes any sense. It's perfectly clear in my own mind, but seems to have gotten strangely convoluted on its way out :-)
Besides the "Caligula" line, which was priceless, I also loved Amber's "damn those imaginary pens". And what about House wearing his bluetooth earpiece so that people would think he was on the phone when he was talking to Amber? Inspired!! As was Anne Dudek. She deserves an Emmy for this recurring role!
Btw, I really don't like the new site. I preferred seeing all the comments without having to do the "next 20" thing. And I can't see where to preview the comments. Is that gone, or am I just missing in on a much-too-busy web page?
24 - j.i.m.
Barbara, Your review is a fitting addition to an inspired episode. And the new site, with the House team photo, resembles an inviting magazine.
Barbara wrote, "By the episode’s end, House sees her (!Amber) for what she is -- his worst inclinations unbound and at play in his conscious, troubled mind. “House Divided” indeed."
Both Seth, the POTW, and House are being forced to change. Seth, by his mother, and House, by himself, while looking in a mirror at !Amber (himself). Is !Amber going to scare House out of the bus this time? Did he get back on the bus when he opted to return to PPTHospital in "The Softer Side"? House ultimately resisted change in that previous episode after initially embracing it, just as Seth did in this episode. After contemplation, both wanted to return to their familiar comfort zone, House to PPTHospital and Seth to his special school. Even so, House's tentative safety zone did not endure as Kutner's suicide finally succeeded in overturning his world at PPTH.
By blacktop, "I don't think that Amber's role was so much about exposing House's guilty conscience as about revealing the anger, hostility, and hurt that lie near the center of his make-up."
I see !Amber as a part of House that is separated from his conscience, leaving !Amber with no internal compass of right or wrong; no mature emotions and thus, no anger or culpability. The question is how well "conscious House" controls !Amber, not what !Amber is capable of because she is, of course, capable of anything. Further, House's anger doesn't inhabit his center but rather he is constantly pushing his anger away. He turns away the anger that he feels when his current "family", Wilson and Cuddy, mistreat him. He does this by forgiving or excusing them. The anger and disappointment he feels for his parents he directs toward himself, not Wilson, Cuddy, Cameron or Chase. However, he doesn't want his friends happy as that is surely a fool's paradise, according to him. He takes out his disappointment in mankind on innocent colleagues, underlings, and bystanders. But this disappointment is made of a darkly mischievous nature rather than a lethal one.
On another subject, I loved your interpretation of Cuddy's actions, especially the significance of the breath mints.
25 - Anna (from Italy)
Dear Barbara,thank you as usual for your always brilliant review. I have not posted for a long time, but I have always read your thoughtful analyses of the episodes.
And what an episode it was: dark, threatening and at the same time incredibly funny at moments. Once again, I have found H.Laurie's performance extraordinary, even more extraordinary than usual , if this is possible. And Ann Dudek, though less slim than when I remembered her in last season finale,simply fantastic.
Just a little note: I laughed out loud when Hugh pronounced the Italian word" limoncello" while tasting ice cream: never in my life had I heard an English person pronounce an Italian word without any native accent; he sounded Italian to me. This man has amazing talents!