House treats a fitness guru with a weighty secret while 13 enters a clinical trial and Cuddy moves closer into House's personal space.
First — hot off the NBC press release: Hugh Laurie will be hosting Saturday Night Live December 13! Joining Hugh will be hip-hop artist Kanye West. (Now back to our regularly scheduled episode review.)…
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76 - Kate
Hi Barbara, I've just discovered this site and I must say that I'm glad I did.
Regarding your "three minds" about the House/Cuddy aspect of this episode, I think House's boob grab was more than a deflection, I think it was a test. I think he's trying to assess how much of his crap Cuddy will put up with before she gives up on him.
As you mentioned in your essay on House in love (can't wait for pt. 2 btw), House rarely puts himself out there emotionally. He was so hurt by Stacy that I think he's testing Cuddy before he lets her get too close. If she can put up with his insensitivity and games without giving up on him, then their relationship has staying power and he won't have to deal with the pain of loosing yet another person that he loves if the relationship ends. I think that once he's satisfied that Cuddy won't run off the second the going gets tough, we'll start to see more of the tender side of House, the side that so far we've only seen in Season 2 with Stacy.
77 - Melissa
Great review.
What I find so interesting about this episode is that even almost a week later, I am still finding new layers to mull over and analyze. That's why I love this cray relationship between House and Cuddy. I can't remember any other show where two character have had such a fascinating, complex, infuriating and heartbreaking interaction.
Once thing that has been really at the forefront of my mind since the episode in which House wrote Cuddy the performance review is how SIMILAR these two are emotionally. (what you want you run away from, what you need you haven't a clue). Both are terrified of intimacy and of rejection, and use their careers as a substitute for emotional connection. However, what both crave most is unconditional love. Cuddy through her desire for a child, and House through his constant testing of the boundaries of his friendships with both CUddy and Wilson, trying to see how far he can push it to ensure they won't abandon him.
What is interesting is that House and Cuddy have such different self - protection mechanisms. Cuddy hides behind rules and order. She's the penultimate perfectionist. She thinks this brings her security and it keeps her from having to take risks. The rules make her invulnerable. They keep life orderly and spare her the messines of emotional connection.
House, on the other hand, hides behind defiance of the rules and rebellion againt social mores. He can't be rejected if he doesn't try to "fit in" to society. He's forged his identity on being the rude, crass, disagreeable genius who doesn't have to ever put himself out there because everyone has already written him off as a lost cause (except Wilson and Cuddy).
So this makes their interaction all the more fascinating for me...How do these two try to navigate a relationship when they are outwardly so different but inwardly so similar? and I think in the last couple episodes we saw each coming close to stepping out of their comfort zones - hence the parallel scenes of each at the window, "looking in" at what could be, and ultimately running away.
I do believe that they love each other, and probably have for a long time, because I think if they didn't this situation wouldn't be so intense. I sincerely hope they do NOT drop this storyline. I know they need to drag it out, but it has so much potential. I think it gives two amaing actors such great material to work with, esp. LE, whose talent has not been sufficiently used until this season, IMO.
Okay, this was very lengthy, sorry!
78 - Claire
Barbara, I just love your "of three minds" ending to this review. It is as Cinnamon says, the writers are playing us and I don't mind being played at all.
For my part, the Emmy nomination for this episode must go to the costume designer. That first little number with the low neck and little ties on the sleeves belonged at the 8th grade dance. The last outfit -- I really can't blame House for grabbing her boobs -- they were just all hiked up there being offered up. Yes, yes, he was a jerk, I know. It was cruel. But that suit with the boobs hike up, the tight skirt, and the tottering high heels was a parody-level. Lisa Eddelstein must have had the giggles when she put all that on and saw herself in the mirror. It was simply hysterical! And yet, that made it all the more painful. Dr. Cuddy is vulnerable herself.
In some ways, Cuddy is just as juvenile as House. Both have put work ahead of relationships and both have love the games.
A very good story arch indeed.
79 - Veresna Ussep
Once again, thanks to your marvelous and entertaining analysis. Are you going to wait until after this week's (December 9) episode to finish and post Part 2 of the House/love analysis?
One thought that occurred to me this morning is that a few weeks ago it would have been completely in character for House (after Cuddy's "I think we should kiss now") to SAY "We've already done that, how about I move on to making a grab for your boob now?" and make an exit, classic House deflection. The fact that he stayed there and did it instead does lead me to think that a part of him was indeed 'testing' and I do not think he really had any idea of why he was doing it, but was very unhappy with how it ended. Upon rewatching, I also think that the fact that he kept his hand there as she turned and made the other comment was also telling, and I'm still not sure if it was trying to somehow repair the damage or to make sure that if she was going to be mad, she was going to be really mad. But his slumped body language as she left does tell volumes.
Another gesture that really caught my attention was when Cuddy stormed into the office telling him not to do the brain biopsy, to rule out the other possibilities first. That long, rotating gesture with his arm before raising his fist to his mouth and blowing is rather threatening, you feel the need to flinch away. That gesture (Hugh Laurie's inspiration, I'm sure) also lets us know that House is getting to be feeling very penned in by her proximity and may also lead into the following confrontation between them.
I agree that the writers and the performers here have raised a number of intriguing avenues that can branch off of what transpired in this episode. That they've managed to raise the show back into one of the best on television after what I consider to be the debacle of the fourth season gives me hope that they will continue to amaze me.
Veresna
80 - Sheelagh
For me personally, the analyzes by Melissa(#77)nails the House/Cuddy relationship so aptly. I had also been considering House's Performance Appraisal on Cuddy in Season 4 & how it realted to this arc. Melsssa really provided a lot of insight and folded it up with the story progression for me. I appreciate the thoughtful story analysis by this Blog's readers for a show I truly adore and want to continue to shine.
81 - jim
The comments on your blog, Barbara, are some of the best around. Thanks again.
The longer an episode percolates, the more I ask what the writers might have intended.
This time, it seems they wanted to give the audience, who relate to House and Cuddy, a glimpse of what the writers imagine we want - House and Cuddy in close and intimate proximity. But in so doing, they also wanted to make sure we realized it wasn't a good idea over the long-term. Judging from the episode, not even over the short-term. So, they had Cuddy become a parody of herself. This almost "Betty Boop" Cuddy had the effect of goading House into asking himself in disbelief, "I agreed to this?".
The writers showed us our 'fool's paradise'. In Romeo and Juliet, we hear the injunction, "...if ye should lead her into a fool's paradise it were a gross kind of behavior...truly it were an ill thing to be offered to any gentelwoman." House never offers false hope.
82 - barbara barnett
jim--how right you are. You guys are the best. great analysis all round. So many ideas and interpretations.
I wonder what the writers have in mind for the end of tomorrow night, knowing that we're in for a month-long hiatus (at least). It's really like the end of the first half of the season.
Much to mull. I was going to post part II of House in Love today, but I think I'll wait until after tomorrow's episode airs, so I can make sure my thoughts incorporate the resolution to this part of the story.
83 - Melissa
Thank you, Sheelagh! I love the analysis on this blog. It's given me so many different perspectives on this show. Since the end of the second season I have been seeing major House/Cuddy parallels. Which may be because I recently re-watched seasons 2, 3 and 4 in order (yes, I have too much time on my hands!). But it sort of drove it home for me.
I think this is part of what makes their interaction so volatile. They understand one another and know how to get under each others' skin. But of course, once deeper feelings are brought to the surface, they engage in this extended game of tag or hot potato. They've got the same emotional insecurities. So what brings them together also drives them apart.
This last episode made me so sad for Cuddy, just as The Itch made me so sad for House. There was something really unnerving about the groping scene, and I love that I am able to keep reevaluating exactly what it meant.
84 - Eve K
Jim: I so agree that Cuddy has Betty BooB (couldn't resist) tendencies in this episode. That doesn't become her. And that clumsy playing with the ball thing - not cute! And not sexy. Just annoying.
I don't really think that "sexy dressed Cuddy" is necessary to make House interested, id rather see her just elegant and not trying to be sexy. Maybe then she would be more sexy. I like bossy Cuddy. She rules.
And I also want to say that I enjoy reading all the comments on this page (this episode must set some kind of record? Over 80 comments?) And they all bring something new to "the differentials".
And off course - we have no life - but who cares, we are not alone.(-;
One last episode tomorrow and then there is no more TV for me the rest of the holidays, I think my family will like that.
85 - barbara barnett
EveK--I think this is the most comments I've gotten on an article (except for my political articles--and, trust me, these are more articulate and insightful). Or close anyway.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I simply haven't had the time to respond to everyone's ideas and analyses, but you have all done such a great job doing that. It's been a pleasure to read them all.
Just got word that Doris Egan and Leonard Dick received a WRiters Guild nomination for "Don't Ever Change." Cool and well-deserved.
86 - Orange450
Barbara, I'm absolutely thrilled about the Writer's Guild nomination for Don't Ever Change!!
I'd been pretty nervous about that episode before it aired, and I was delighted afterwards, and appreciative of what a terrific job TPTB had done. All my fears (of poorly researched, stereotypical writing, portrayals, etc.) had been in vain. I realize in retrospect that I should have known better - after all, the show is famous for complexity and nuance, and it did not disappoint. And in the final scene - my worlds collided, and I turned into a very happy, very squeeing fangirl :-)
87 - Orange450
jim wrote:
"This time, it seems they wanted to give the audience, who relate to House and Cuddy, a glimpse of what the writers imagine we want - House and Cuddy in close and intimate proximity. But in so doing, they also wanted to make sure we realized it wasn't a good idea over the long-term. Judging from the episode, not even over the short-term. So, they had Cuddy become a parody of herself. This almost "Betty Boop" Cuddy had the effect of goading House into asking himself in disbelief, "I agreed to this?"."
jim, I also experience the "episode percolating" effect - what a good way to put it! I hear what you're saying about this situation, but I also think it's possible that we're first being shown "the wrong way to do it" - from both House AND Cuddy's perspectives. I don't think that tomorrow's episode will give us any permanent resolution of this pas de deux just yet, and I think (or hope?) it's possible that we're being set up for both of them to come around and learn from their mistakes, and try to correct them.
88 - barbara barnett
Orange--I really felt that DEC was done so beautifully and respectfully (of course David Shore would never have heard the end of it with two Aish HaTorah rabbis as brothers :) (exec directors of Aish at that!)
I think tomorrow will end a chapter (and do it with an emotional cliffhanger) but not end the story. Not by a long shot :)
89 - Orange450
Barbara, I've heard that at Aish they call David "the Shore that got away" ;-) I also read somewhere that Leonard Dick studied there for a while as well.
90 - Luisa Borges
Great batch of new comments and differentials. The team is sharp and I have enjoyed reading every single one of the comments above.
Great news about the Writer´s Guild, very much deserved.
And loved the Cuddy Betty Boop (and then BooB)insights, as well as the one about House mouthing something, how very observant.
Sure, as Eve K said, we have no life, but who cares, it´s been a fun week and tomorrow we´ll have a lot more to mull over.
I hope to read Barbara´s House in Love essay and then the epi review as well as everyone´s takes on both.
Hope we´re left with a major cliffhanger in the end of tomorrows epi, something to keep us guessing and bitting our nails for the next month.
All the best to everyone!
91 - Mrs Jane
Greetings from Croatia, the fanbase here really is international!
I've only recently discovered this web-site, read all of the posts on recent and "best of" episodes (and the soundtrack review as well and my favourite House in Love and...), it's been a lot of fun!
I too agree with Melissa (what you want you run away from, what you need you haven't a clue), so I'm looking forward to the development.
One other thing, Taub has really got some quality airtime in the last episode or two, I wish they developed his character more, it seems to me there is a lot of material there.
92 - Flo
I agree that there was some emotion when she said "everyone knows this is going somewhere." but that can be seen as emotionless because she said the "we're supposed to kiss now" in a matter-of-factly kind of way. It was an invitation as much as an observation.
As for the last scene, this is the cinema studient in me talking but I think this is very interesting to see that the angle of camera on her doesn't change at all. There is just one cut in that scene just for us to see what she is seing but that's it. She walks towards the camera, stops and then goes away, disappointed. The camera didn't move. Meaning that she runs away from House just as she went to him.
She could have just entered the office and introduce herself to the girl. It wouldn't have been totally out of character. Except that in the scene she is vulnerable. I think it took her a lot of courage to do all what she did in that episode, especially to confront him in his office.
As I said in my previous post, it's apparently been a long time since she went to a real relationship with a man and she's got issues too. It's not easy for her to open up to someone like that just as it is for House.
That's why I think in that last scene she realizes that she opened up too much. All her fears come back.
Now it's wait and see.
93 - Thim
I have just a small question: Anyone knows what's the name of the song at the end?
94 - blahblahblah
Marie Antoinette never said let them eat cake
95 - Chris79
Unlikely most of you guys, here, I found the "boob grab" - Lord, is the term annoying! - rather funny. But, I'm quite a jerk, myself! I read it on two levels : on one hand, House's inappropriate move looks more like he's testing Cuddy (or may be as some desperate attempt to push her away, as someone intended previously). But, on the other hand, it also resonates with his "Have you seen my balls?" and Cuddy's - hilarious - indirect answer on her cellphone : "I just had to explain to him that I had his balls and he's not getting them back!"… If a woman has a man's balls (even though metaphorically), what would be the proper answer he could give her so he can get even? Given the power play between House and Cuddy, I think the "boob grab" (even though physically) makes twice more sense, actually! Of course, the first reason is the most relevant one, and the second one - which made the scene so particularly funny to me - is just my own extrapolation, but I think as twisted as House's mind is, both are possible!
Another thing which got my attention too, is how most of the people think Cuddy is "the normal one" and House the "mad one". As if it was as simple as "the good boss" and "the jerky employee". Cuddy can be as much of a jerk herself than House is. She proved it all along the show.
Of course, the late episode "The Greater Good" in Season 5, is a good example of it, as she herself admits she was a jerk throughout the whole episode. But, in fact, in the very Pilot episode, which is, somehow, a very good parallel to "Let Them Eat Cake" - you'll see why, she already was a jerk to him.
Remember the elevator scene (the very first scene of Dr Cuddy on the show, by the way), when House is getting back home and she asks him "To what?" and House says : "Nice"?
There's also the run to the stairs, so she can be sure he won't follow her and House's ironic comment that's there no more respect for crippled people. Not to mention her "I'm pretty sure I could out run you". Though she feels guilty about it, for some reason, she's the only one (Vogler and Tritter, excepted, but for other reasons, obviously) who's not condescending about his being a cripple, because, in her way, she also is. And as she attacks him on his - visible - weakness (his leg), he responds on her - hidden - weakness (she can't have children). It's a game between them along the whole show. Only when she's too much emotionally involved, then lost ("Finding Judas" and "Joy"), does she take it personally. The fact she can't get pregnant, is Cuddy's cripple, reflecting House's leg : being incapable of baring a child means failure, Cuddy's greatest fear. As House's leg with a dead muscle means pain, his greatest fear.
That they can joke about their greatest fears is very telling about how much they know each other and how much they are "in sync".
Now, remember how "Let Them Eat Cake" starts? In the elevator (I wonder whether that's not reminding me something? Never mind!), Cuddy starts the "Who's the bigger jerk?" game, as she wonders House has taken the file of a patient without fighting, he says : "No point. I'm in an elevator. Can't run away"; then, she says : "You can't run away anyway!". Soooo - deliciously - mean! And that's House reply : "That was just mean".
Second shot : out of the elevator. Cuddy is still walking aside House. As he wonders "Why [they're] still together", Cuddy says : "We're going to our office". And House to answer : "Pronoun confusion. Starts kicking in when you pass child bearing age!". Again, soooo - deliciously - mean. And Cuddy herself replies : "Well, that was mean". But she's not mad at him. In fact, she continues joking about her desk which "won't fit in [the hostages taker of "Last Resort"] cell".
The two can really be obnoxious towards each other. And it's a great part of the fun in the show… At least for me.
[It makes me think : has anybody ever noticed that Cuddy finds House funny? And that House himself says to Wilson she is in "Forever"? How could they possibly show more their resemblance than in humor? House sense of humor is either mean, either sexual, irreverent anyway, most of the time, and, alright, witty, and even kind sometimes. Cuddy's sense of humor is also rather mean and sexual, as we see in "Let Them Eat Cake", but not only (I do remember some hilarious comment about House's cane in the first season) and witty]
House, Cuddy and Wilson, are jerks. They can be obnoxious, manipulative, liars, cheaters (especially Wilson), disrespectful of the law, regardless of Good and Evil and all that bullshit… They're fun! Okay, House is most overtly a bastard (and as I can't be objective with Hugh Laurie, my dear "Roger the Jingle", I won't start a panegyric on his acting so wonderfully that - American!!! - bastard, right now), we expect him to be a jerk, the surprise comes when he's not, and with the reasons why he's not. But the respectable Dean of Medicine Lisa Cuddy and the kind head of Oncology Department James Wilson, with their acceptable figures of dignity and all the blah blah blah that comes with, are no less interesting. Because respectability is their mask, their trespassing the borders is even more delightful. I think House appreciates that about them. He said once to Wilson ("Forever") : "People think you're the nice one"; and to Cuddy ("Joy") : "[…] You're a control seeking narcissist". He knows them and their flaws (but someone like House wouldn't have flawless people as friends. Besides, there are no such persons).
House is always testing his friends and the borders of their friendships to know if "unconditional love" exists, as he said Wilson once. Being a jerk towards them is a BIG part of it. But they never miss an occasion to do likewise.
Cuddy doesn't understand House just because she loves him (well it helps sometimes, but there's nothing to do with love, here). She understands him and tolerate his jerkiness, because she's like him. She's not his contrary but a variant of him (as Wilson is, in his way).
The two of them like control as they are fearful creatures. As I said before, House is afraid of pain, Cuddy of failure. They both use work to express, each in their own way, the control they want to take over the fear. That's why they so much love their jobs, it's their only way to cope with their fear.
House takes each case as a puzzle because it's challenging enough for his - brilliant - mind to avoid thinking about how miserable he is, crippled and lonely. I do remember House telling someone, about Taub, that being miserable would make him better in his job or something alike. He also, in "Who's Your Daddy?", meant to his - old - team that to become such a great artist as the jazz pianist whose music they were listening to, it required misery (as misery feeds art… Common thinking!)… Inspiring! No wonder House can only express himself properly through art. Through music, more precisely.
Cuddy assumes her job as Dean of Medicine and hospital administrator very efficiently, because she's good at it and she likes being good at it. Remember what she told Stacy, about the fact she was "pissed off being second of [her] promotion" in "Humpty Dumpty", though she got her M.D. at 25? She's "competitive by nature" (as House says about himself, in "Histories", to the two young interns). And in competition she's very gifted, her fast social success (and her ability to respond to House, after all those years) being the best proof of it. Her professional success and her job keep her away from thinking how empty her life is, and how much she failed personally. And if you add to that she's been desperately trying to get pregnant…
Their power play since Season 1 is inspiring, so far. It's all about control. "I have it", "you have it", "I let you believe you have it"… Manipulation, lies, blackmail, bets, humiliation… No rules! Of course, she's his boss, he's her employee, but House always wants to keep things balanced between them, so they can be kind of equals. Here's starts the game…
Both House and Cuddy are emotionally weird. House more especially since his infarction and Stacy's departure, Cuddy… Well, I'd say she's always been an emotional freak. She's as secret as House, so little do we know about her life… And I'm cool with that! Imagining things before you know them, is much more interesting than just knowing them. It involves much more brain activity, anyway. How life would be like - and worth - without a touch of mystery, I ask you?
So, Cuddy. Scarcely have I ever met - in an American show - such a strange creature. Even stranger than House, actually! House is an heterodox - stricto sensu - character, with logic as spinal column. It works for me! But Cuddy is apparently ("apparently" being the keyword, here) an orthodox - still stricto sensu - character, who has her own personal logic (sometimes quite tough to decipher) as spinal column and whose heterodoxy never shows up when, nor even the way, you expect it would. I guess that's why I appreciate her character. She's rather intriguing. That, and the fact she can be a jerk, too! So seldom do authors dare to use female characters in all their aspects (and Cuddy certainly does have a lot of aspects). And even when they do, it's so often a mere caricature of women… In that way, Cuddy's character, more than a gift to TV Memories, is a jewel (funny though! As jewel is the perfect translation of Edelstein. "Edel", meaning either "high quality", or "precious" in German, and "Stein", stone…). For God's sake, the woman is soooo crazy!
Cuddy is a perpetual unsatisfied woman, as she is a perfectionist. The end of the review House made about her ("No more Mr. Nice Guy"), "What you want, you run away from. What you need, you don't have a clue. What you've accomplished, makes you proud… But you are still miserable!", is a good analysis of that trait of her character.
Cuddy's basic fear of commitment makes her an emotional cripple as much as House is (so they're both double cripples, physically and emotionally). I think this is why she wanted so much a child. To find "unconditional love", in a way, but also to prove herself she wasn't totally emotionally crippled. Which would make of her baby a metaphorical cane, actually… Creepy!
I do believe her being a perfectionist, is her response to the fact she knows she's a freak, but just don't want to admit, 'cause she deludes herself that she could fix it, eventually. And she wants to be normal, which is socially right. I think her situation mirrors pretty well House's one, here too. She wraps herself in a perfect image of normality to hide her being freak to the rest of the world, he wraps himself in his heterodox stature, his being a freak, to hide to the rest of the world he wants to be normal. But as he knows very well, "you can't always get what you want". However, "normality [definitely] is overrated", so…
Knowing but the few we know about Cuddy, we, nonetheless, have some clues here and there about how complex she is emotionally. Sometimes even given by herself. But when it comes to House, and though it's clear she is emotionally connected to him (what a wonderfully subtle euphemism for such an obvious love… Had to give a great antithesis to follow. A shame I'm not just in mood for oxymoronic verse!), she's even more secret.
She can deal and even play the flirtation game with him. It's unemotional. She feels secure in unemotional. But when it becomes to personal matters and that she's not too involved emotionally to figure out she is being emotional (like when House's dying or suffering… which happened to the guy a great deal of times), she's as, maybe more, freaked out than he is. What makes her fear so much commitment? Part of the explanation is that, like I said before, she's a perfectionist. I guess, that's what House intended to make her understand in "Humpty Dumpty", saying : "You're not happy until things are just right. Which means two things : you're a good boss and you'll never be happy". Looking for perfection (the greatest illusion ever, as perfection is an Absolute, therefore can't be something human… Can be but for some god, goddess, David Bowie or Charlie Watts, whoever God might be! Has to be Charlie Watts, the guy is coolest man ever!), Cuddy can but screw up every relationship she has, in so far as she deludes herself she can find a perfect life with a perfect man. And as we all know there are no such things… It's endless. Actually, her quest tells more about her father than everything else. But, curiously enough, House may be the perfect choice for her. As he's not perfect (far far from it!) and though their possible relationship would be twisted and somehow unhealthy, it would be a solid one, just in not being perfect and normal. Those two people are the quite the same. So, why is she so afraid of her feelings towards him (I mean except the fear of losing control, which is obviously one of her - as it is for House - main concerns… Thought it was implied, but I want to make sure I make myself clear… Like I've ever been clear! I have my own dialectic, anyone who read this will have to cope with it!)? I think the whole thing starts with the mysterious love/friendship (has this ever been friendship at all?) story they had years before, hiding - though transpiring - behind the weird and highly both amusing and dramatic "non-relationship" (as House calls it in "Last Resort") between present House and Cuddy, that we've been witnessing for few years, now. I feel like that emotional background sets her character, as she was very young at that time. That's why we can't know all of it now, because there won't be any mystery/fun anymore. It'd be a pity! Whether she dumped him or he did, it would tell us a lot about her and the second reason of her pathologic fear of commitment, anyway.
The best episode to mention to find out what's behind this "non-relationship" thing, is "The Itch". In that episode, the exceedingly charming - Robert Sean Leonard - Wilson talks to Cuddy, after having learned from House (but she perfectly see where he wants to go. How deductive is Cuddy's character, by the way! Less than House's one, but still) they kissed… Wonderful line of Wilson, after Cuddy's rationalization that she "leaned on [House]", because he was a friend : "Funny! I've leaned on friends in the past. Never leaned so far my tongue fell into their mouth". Irresistible!
I have nothing particular to say about "the kiss". I suppose it had to be, and it's a great element for the crazy team writing HOUSE M.D. scenarii (one scenario, two scenarii. Sorry, remaining from years and years of Latin, from junior high school to University!), but the looks they both have just after (especially Cuddy), is engraved in my mind! I've barely laughed that much after a kiss (I barely laugh after a kiss, anyway. I mean, I think… I'm not that insensitive… Well, maybe I am)! It reminded me in "Humpty Dumpty", though it has nothing to see with it, what (and especially how) House, just after Cuddy and Cameron's departure, says to Chase when the latter learns Foreman and him are going to break out Cuddy's house (funny thing to say "Cuddy's house", isn't it?), Chase both wondering and worrying about it. House says : "You see, it is shocking!". House and Cuddy looked both so shocked. Call me cold-hearted, but I just couldn't help laughing!
"Therefore no more, but to the matter"! "The Itch", so. Most of the people think Cuddy was rationalizing, saying to Wilson why she has never "thought of House" as a lover. But her answer is so peculiar. AND so precise. Wilson thinks it proves she did think of House "this way". But Wilson so often misunderstands people (that's why, amusingly enough, he took House's joke about Cuddy, despite his tone, as truth. And it turned out Wilson was right, for once). Little does Cuddy betrays her secrets. However, I suspect what she told Wilson wasn't what she imagined a relationship with House would be, but what happened years before. Let me explain :
She starts with "We know how it will end". "We"? We, who? Then she analyzes very precisely "a relationship with House", giving several reasons that will make it exciting first, but will soon lead the two in "the inevitable blow up, recriminations […]". As far as Wilson knows, he has seen House involved for years with Stacy. He has no reason to think it would end badly this time (as House already had his infarction) for House and Cuddy. So, who the Devil is the "we"? I think "she", might be the more proper pronoun (again "pronoun confusion", but Cuddy often do that. It's her way of not being personally involved, when things get too serious).
What she says about "the novelty, the hostility, the forbiddingness", does however tell us something interesting about her character and resonates with what House says about her to Wilson in "Forever", when he learns Cuddy asked Wilson out : "You're too nice for her to like you" (God, does he know her!). Cuddy though seeking perfection, and dating boy scouts, is attracted to "bad boys". It goes perfectly with her real self, but being so much hidden behind the mask of respectability, it sounds funny to hear that from her. And explains more explicitly that, even though she admires House because he's a brilliant doctor and all that - and that it attracts her, his nasty attitude has as much a powerful effect on her. She's attracted to his "bad boy" side, as he's attracted to her body (though he does appreciate her intellect as well). And I firmly believe that whatever happened between the two of them, when they were younger, it was already the case. "People don't change"! I also think that's why they act so childishly : they still have the same mentality and the same look on each other they had before. Only, the difficulties they've been through explain their mutual - yet different - protectiveness to each other, when they're really down.
And then, the thing that bugged me for ten good minutes, before I figured out, what I just said about Cuddy's sayings : "[…] And we don't talk for two months"… "Two months"? Okay, there may be patterns in relationships. And, actually, the Lube guy in "Insensitive" and the marine in "Top Secret" are the only men that we know about. Not precisely the kind of men she would cross every morning, so she can say "we don't talk for two months", implying they'll be like good old friends, after. Besides, as it ended with the Lube guy, and given the shortness of her relationship with the marine, it doesn't make sense. Of course, as she's House's boss and sees him every day and her sentence makes sense. Breaking up with someone you see every day is awkward. But why the hell, that precision? "Two months"… Unless, she's talking about something real, there's no way she could be that precise. Had she said "for months" or "for a while", I would have bought it, but those "two months" are illogical. There's a French expression for that : "Ça sent le vécu!"… But I can't think of any proper translation, nor any English/American idiomatic turn that could render the irony of it. As Italians say : "Traduttore, Traditore", so the best way I could explain it, would be that it's more like she actually experienced what she says to Wilson, than imagines it. That's frustrating! God, I wish you could understand "Ça sent le vécu!" thoroughly, with the light irony behind it…
As House and Cuddy knew each other in college as they were both in Michigan (as we've learned in "Humpty Dumpty"), and as we assume it was at that time they slept together (as we've been more or less told by both House and Cuddy, in "Top Secret", they did), for it could but be before Stacy (and University time without sex would be quite pointless! Without a considerable amount of beer and vodka too, by the way. University definitely rhymes with depravity!), the "two months" of avoidance after the "blow up" make sense. As for the details of that mysterious story between House and Cuddy, God only knows… Or David Shore… I'm always so confused about it!
Cuddy's look to Wilson, when she realizes what she just said is very telling. And shows, if some of us were doubting it, how Lisa Edelstein is a great actress. Luckily for Cuddy, Wilson doesn't have the faintest idea what she's referring to (settling definitely in our minds, that he doesn't know what happened between her and House. Isn't it weird, that House never told his best friend about it?). I liked the deflection : "I'll be more careful with my tongue in the future". Cuddy can be so funny! And then, there's the other look, when Wilson acknowledges her that things don't have to end up badly between them (he will say that to House too). That look of hers so much says : "I know better!". What she says to Wilson in her office after having figured out his plan to make House jealous (deductive, I tell you!), and after an utterly daring and funny line (Wilson astonishment is priceless!) : "Trust me, everybody would be happier if we aren't dating!", tends to accredit the theory that she's not imagining things, she's not even rationalizing, she remembers. "Trust me"? Seems to me like she really knows what she's talking about…
In "The Softer Side", there's another moment of misunderstanding between Cuddy and Wilson, when he storms in her office accusing her of sleeping with House. Look at her reaction. She looks annoyed first, then when he continues with the bagel story, she doesn't seem to get what he's saying, until hearing about the case House took "without a fight" and the fact he honored the request of his patient's parents, she understand he's speaking of present (still doesn't know!). This time, again, she makes one of her a typical joke to deflect (this kind of attitude does ring a bell!). "Yes, those were my terms for sleeping with him", was a good one! But Wilson insists : "[House] is in a good mood" (!!!). Meaning, for Wilson, the only way House could be almost happy ("House doesn't do happy, pain or no pain", as Cuddy says later to Wilson rightfully), so he would behave quite normally and even be kind to people would be to sleep with Cuddy. It tells a lot about himself. And Cuddy to answer : "Sex with me will explain that. But what it doesn't explain is why I'm not curled up in a ball, weeping in shame!"… Funny and yet intriguing. Do I have to say "Ça sent le vécu!" again?
I think it's the fear of losing House once more, in "Last Resort" and his ambiguous words at the end of that episode, and the still palpable tension the kiss installed between them, though they both rationalized it, that settled the plot she uses in "Let Them Eat Cake" in Cuddy's mind.
As Cuddy fears commitment like plague, it's an interesting move she made in this episode. No less than House does she lives in denial (of who she really is, of what she really wants, of what she really needs…), and here she was being direct, though not completely direct (she barely is), she intended to change that in "Let Them Eat Cake" (by the way, how could they possibly have translated "brioche", by "cake" which actually means "gâteau"? Once more "Traduttore, traditore"!). House surely noticed that enormous progress, and as certain he was that "People don't change", this change (a huge breach in his worldview) freaked him out. His test could have been to check if she was ready to accept anything from him (as well as a rude manner to tell her to slow down, as he's not ready to change himself to commit, yet he knows he has to), even his distasteful manners. To test if she could accept he wouldn't change at all. When she leaves disappointed (he has his answer), he looks sad, he always is when she's truly disappointed (which shows how "so in sync" they are emotionally). And as it was his fault, he doubly is.
House said to Wilson in "The Itch" that he was "better off alone", after Wilson told him to take his chance with Cuddy (not without listing her qualities, the same House told him she has in "Forever", when Cuddy and Wilson had dinner together). I can't think about House's words that he's "better off alone", without immediately thinking of Benedick, in "Much Ado About Nothing", after he was hooked by Don Pedro's plot, and has learned from him, Claudio (hey, Robert Sean Leonard!) and Leonato, that Beatrice (wonderful Emma Thompson… It's a small world isn't it?) loved him. Benedick rationalizes his past usual sayings that he would remain a bachelor with that hilarious sentence : "When I said I will die a bachelor, I did not think I would live till I were married". It goes wonderfully with House's character.
House and Cuddy, are - I agree - some (post?) modern Benedick and Beatrice (with a bit of Petrucchio and Katharina mixed in each of them), as their wit game reminds the one Shakespeare's characters were playing… "The harpy" line about Cuddy was very Benedick's style.
Cuddy as a literature character is somewhere between Elizabethan theater and pre-Victorian novels. Somewhere between Shakespeare's Beatrice or Viola ("The Twelfth Night") and Jane Austen's Anne Elliot ("Persuasion") and Elizabeth Bennett ("Pride and Prejudice"; and House's sometimes as obnoxious as Darcy, with his pride), with a touch of Kazuo Ishiguro's Miss Kenton ("The Remains of the Days"; and House as Stevens would be perfect, as he can't tell her anything about his feelings and can't share intimacy).
Wow, I had no idea I had been that chatty! Well, I guess this post comes too late, but I discovered this place quite recently and I'm still reading the old entries and comments, both being very interesting on different levels.
96 - Flo
Never too late Chris79!! I've just finished to read your essay for the second time and I think you have some very interesting insights!
I agree that the "boob grab" can be viewed as resonance of the "have you seen my balls," scene. Writers like to put scenes that can be mirrored like this so why not. Like you said both explanations are possible.
When you say that Cuddy can be a jerk I tend to agree even if I would more say that she can be House's jerk. At the same time, it is all a game, they are not jerking each other around just to do that. The only time House was really horrible with her was when he said to her that it was a good thing she failed to become a mom because "you/she suck at it". On the other hand, we know he didn't really meant it.
Cuddy's pranks in "The greater Good" were mean but I can understand why she did them.
Otherwise, you're absolutely right, there is no such thing as "the good one" or "the jerk one". Writing is more nuanced than that, especially in this tv show. Nobody can labelled the characters. They are more too complex for us to do that.
Cuddy aknowledged their mutual dance as a game, in the first season (sorry don't remember which episode). She actually says it: "It is a game".
House and her are both good players. They know each other for a really long time and very well. They know each other flaws and they're not afraid of calling the other on it.
In LTEC, the elevator scene and the next one which you refered, are good exemples of this: yes they were making mean comments and they knew it. It was purely a game and they weren't mad at each other for those comments.
I like how they can talk like that too. Speaks volume about their relationship, about how they like, know and trust each other.
"Both House and Cuddy are emotionally weird."
They are emotionnaly troubled.
"Cuddy's basic fear of commitment makes her an emotional cripple as much as House is".
Totally agree with this. Like I said in my first comment for this episode:
"I think we forget too much to talk about Cuddy's problems with men and her relationships (or in her case, her lack of relationships) with them. She has big issues too.
We can see that she wasn't in a relationship for a very long time. The show doesn't even refer to one (contrary to House -> Stacy). She also has her fears of love and romance and I think that is why some of the scenes were showed in her point of view. I think it was to show us that she isn't so sure about it herself and that she is as scared as House is but deals with it (or tries to anyway) in a different way. It would be interesting to know more about her past when in comes to relationships."
"She understands him and tolerate his jerkiness because she's like him"
yes they have a lot in common. They really do have strong similarities. They are both confident and sucessful in their jobs but both desperately suck in the social and personal level. They are both afraid of loneliness but can't help themself to do everything to remain lonely. It is like a refuge and their worst nightmare at the same time.
"Both emotionally crippled". Nice way of putting it. When I said: "What House is also afraid of is happiness and success in a personal kind of way. I think he is afraid of a relationship with Cuddy not because of its potential failure but because of its potential success. He is scared that it might actually work."
It can be reversed. She also is afraid of the potential success.
"House is very aware of that and that's what scares him. In its own weird, dysfonctional way, this relationship could work."
same goes with Cuddy.
"So, Cuddy. Scarcely have I ever met - in an American show - such a strange creature. Even stranger than House, actually! House is an heterodox - stricto sensu - character, with logic as spinal column. But Cuddy is apparently ("apparently" being the keyword, here) an orthodox - still stricto sensu - character, who has her own personal logic (sometimes quite tough to decipher) as spinal column and whose heterodoxy never shows up when, nor even the way, you expect it would. She's rather intriguing. That, and the fact she can be a jerk, too! So seldom do authors dare to use female characters in all their aspects (and Cuddy certainly does have a lot of aspects). And even when they do, it's so often a mere caricature of women... In that way, Cuddy's character, more than a gift to TV Memories, is a jewel. For God's sake, the woman is soooo crazy!"
Very interesting point. She is as lost as House is.
I totally agree, it is reassuring to see a woman character with great good looks being so psychologically profound and ambiguous and sometimes tortured. Really good writing and absolutely great performance by Edelstein!
I agree that when she talks to Wilson about the possibility of a relationship with House in "The Itch" she referes of a past experience and not imagining what it would be like. You're right, her speech was too precise to be just imagination.
As a french I understand your "ça sent le vécu" point and I agree.
Finally as being a Shakespeare fan I find your reference to "Much Ado About Nothing" fun and interesting. I love that play.
97 - Chris79
Flo - You're French? No kidding! So am I... Salut, donc! We kind of tending to prove that French people don't suck THAT MUCH at speaking English! I mean, I think... I mean, I hope! :-)
Of course, Cuddy is a jerk only to House (but that makes her a jerk anyway. Remember in "Mirror, Mirror", when she replaces House's Vicodin stash with laxatives, after having replaced his regular Vicodin? Hilarious!)! The episode you mentioned, when she says "it's a game" ("Occam's Razor"), perfectly sets their particular relationship. Wilson's question, just after that scene, "What's between you and Cuddy?" and his deductions that House's behaviour towards her indicates something, settle in viewers' minds that, actually, there is something particular. And House's sentence "There's not a thin line between love and hate..." is far too wrathfully said to prove them wrong. Besides, House doesn't hate her...
And you're right she, indeed, is "tortured". Well, she's not exactly Stéphane Mallarmé, but... Her lack of self-confidence as a human being (in opposition to her professional confidence, except when she compares herself to House as a doctor), her emotional awkwardness and the way she tries to hide them is just fascinating!
Even in her emotional interactions with others she's awkward (but she can be very supportive for others, if she's not personally involved). Remember when she talks to her dying handyman in "Humpty Dumpty" (okay, lots of guilt in it, but guilt, it's a feeling, right?), or when she talks to the little girl in "Finding Judas", or even the way she handles her new baby, at first?
Lisa Cuddy really is a compelling, intriguing and all the more interesting character. Being House's variant, she was endowed with a little more emotional - issues and - material than him (and a little less skills).
Bon, ben, à un de ces quatre, Flo! (As we guys in France say! LOL)
98 - Flo
we don't suck at all at speaking english lol!!
I liked your reference to stephane mallarmé!! it was really funny!!
"Occam's Razor" right!!! Thanks!
yes she is very confident in her job but on a personal and emotional level...she's a mess. She admitted it in "Joy to the World" in a nice scene with a great confrontation with the patient.
oui à un de ces quatre! J'espère sur ce blog. barabara écrit bien et tu as plein de choses intéressantes à dire apparemment!
so long! (as we say in english)
99 - wackjob
Having just seen the episode for the first time, although it broadcast a few months ago, I felt that House's boob grab was perfectly in character. Cuddy was in his face, challenging him; he will always push back and try to push the other person's buttons. If he senses Cuddy wants romance, he'll give her a crudely sexual gesture. (How many thousands of crudely sexual remarks has he made to her face?) And then look at how crestfallen he was when she left. I'm guessing he really hated himself at the moment, even more than usual.
Obviously the "actress" was a hooker--that's always where House gets his sexual release, and of course he would know some of them well enough to know which one who could pull off a stunt like that. I felt that they had obviously had sex more than a few times and were laughing and joking with friendly camaraderie, nothing more (although they probably had sex later as well).
I'm disappointed that it's 10 episodes later and there's been almost no movement on that front!
100 - Chris79
I was sure you would appreciate the Stéphane Mallarmé reference! Un vrai joyeux luron, ce bon vieux Stéphane, hein?
Oh, and we do suck at speaking English!
See you! :-)
101 - cj_housegirl
Chris79 I loved your essay and you make so many excellent points. I loved how you were able to reflect the Cuddy of this season with her actions in seasons one to three. Many people seem to think Cuddy has changed this season. I don't think so. She's exactly as she has always been. But, many people seem to want the oh-so fictional "professional" version of Cuddy.
There are archetypes in Hollywood about what a "professional" woman is supposed to act like which tends to be overly idealized. Cuddy breaks that archetype as does House as the Hollywood anti-hero. That's why they get compared to literary characters because it is generally only in literature that you find such complex characterizations.
I love the fact this show sets you up with familiar Hollywood iconic characters, story-lines and plot devices but ends it all as the antithesis of those things.
As for Ça sent le vécu! I would translate this as "it smells like living" which I think is a really terrific saying. I don't think there is an appropriate English translation, except for idioms like: If it smells like a duck, and walks like a duck...or even "where there's smoke there's fire." Basically, it's the notion that there are times where the evidence is enough. You don't need to be told or to actually see something to know it exists or once existed. In this case, the fact that Cuddy can give such detailed information about how a relationship with House would go we can assume that that information is based on "living knowledge" rather than imagination. Very good.
I think both House and Cuddy are rather complex characters and enjoy watching their rather insane relationship.
102 - Chris79
@ cj_housegirl :
"Chris79 I loved your essay and you make so many excellent points. I loved how you were able to reflect the Cuddy of this season with her actions in seasons one to three."
Well, thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Each of House, Cuddy and Wilson have evolved since the beginning of House M.D., but I guess, there is sometimes confusion between "evolution" and "change"... Cuddy hasn't changed. Few things have changed in her (and in her life), but her personality is still the same. She's more direct, or rather less able to hide her feelings, as the 5th season ends, but she's still the good old Lisa Cuddy with funny lines, emotional awkardness, and, yes, still professional too.
"There are archetypes in Hollywood about what a "professional" woman is supposed to act like which tends to be overly idealized. Cuddy breaks that archetype as does House as the Hollywood anti-hero. That's why they get compared to literary characters because it is generally only in literature that you find such complex characterizations.
I love the fact this show sets you up with familiar Hollywood iconic characters, story-lines and plot devices but ends it all as the antithesis of those things."
Cuddy's character is such a delight, especially for a woman (I can only think of Miss Parker in "The Pretender", to find a compelling female TV character... Most were - and still are - males. I did loved X-Files when a was a teen - until season 5, but Scully was such a bore! It was all about Mulder for me!), as she has lots of aspects, remains mysterious AND is really funny (that, of course, is the talent of both writers and actress behind the character). Seriously I thought of Jane Austen a lot of times, hearing her replying to House(though she's a lot more daring than Austen's heroins... Question of time!)!
"As for Ça sent le vécu! I would translate this as "it smells like living" which I think is a really terrific saying. I don't think there is an appropriate English translation, except for idioms like: If it smells like a duck, and walks like a duck...or even "where there's smoke there's fire"."
I wouldn't have translated "Ça sent le vécu" literally. I know it kind of works, but it's the kind of expressions you use with a particular tone to render the irony of it (when you say it, it's really funny!). As I said before: "Traduttore, Traditore!" (Translator, traitor!) and I like being able to express things the way I think them (but with my crazy slightly hypermnesiac brain, it's always a challenge to be simple and to make myself clear. That's why I told I have my own dialectic, cope with it! I do speak this way too, it's a total nightmare for the others!), or it'll stay on my mind and bug me!
The idioms you're referring to exist in French, though slightly different : if it smells like a duck, would be rather for us "si ça ressemble à un canard, que ça marche comme un canard..." ("if it looks like a duck, if it walks like a duck…") and the other one would be translated by "il n'y a pas de fumée sans feu" ("there’s no smoke without fire")... And it doesn't fit that much, or does it?
Anyway, I got a real interest reading the articles and the comments around here... I guess, when I'll be done with it all, I'll make some more comments, on some more recent stuff.
As for House/Cuddy relationship, it's not insane... It's... unusual! (What a great euphemism, huh?) :-)
103 - Amie
Chris79 : Great insights! Love everything you said. I really liked how you linked it all to the first season. It really proves that no one changed, no one is "out of character"
I also really liked how you explained better than I would have what a complex caracter Cuddy is (and why she is my second favourite character on this show... or could it be because I relate to her a lot?)
I've never thought she was out of character. Because, even in real life, people don't always act coherently. It's easy, watching from afar, with a god almighty vision on their world, to say "she should do that, she shouldn't have behaved that way". I mean, he that has never snapped at someone who didn't deserve it because he was in a cranky mood, let him first cast a stone at her.
It's really good to see TV characters that are not black or white, not stereotyped.
Amber was(is?) also a great "gray" female character. I was so sad to see her die.
I also like your reference to "Much Ado About Nothing" as I've always thought of House and Cuddy as a modern day Beatrice and Benedict. And, as the famous Shakespearian couple, their long time knowledge of each other and their comfortable banter gives a solid basis to their relationship, which is much more likely to work out than the one of Claudio/Hero. They know their strength, they know their weaknesses, their flaws. No surprises. They've seen the worst! LOL.
Which is why I think their relationship can work out, if the writers dare to go that way.
As for the boobgrab, I always thought about the american teenager baseball metaphor.
He got to "first base" with her (that is, kissing).
"Cuddy: I think we're supposed to kiss now. House: No, we already did that"
SO, what's the next step, in House's mind? Second base! That is, groping. (I checked the wikipedia page to be sure. Cause I always get confused about 2nd and 3rd base : )
House specifically mentions the baseball metaphor in "the Itch" (Wilson: You... hit that? Like making out? Or full-on sex? Or...
House: I've got a chart laid out with all the bases. I'll take you through it.)
CQFD - oops, another french expression (QED : quod erat demonstrandum)
He was continuing the games that Cuddy had started in the episode.
But I must say my favourite part of this scene is after Cuddy leaves, when he bows his head and slumps his shoulders, you can very slightly hear him say (but you can totally read his lips) : "F*ck!"
They weren't in sync here... He didn't get Cuddy wasn't playing anymore.
He tries, in the episode after (JTTW) to play again, to see if she's still in the game, but Cuddy is never in the mood, looks annoyed most of the time and never goes along (but still has some very funny lines).
And House at the end, gives up ("Merry Xmas, Cuddy"). End of chapter.
Man I love these conversations on this blog! Thanks Barbara!
The wait for the next episode is killing me and your blog is what keeps me going!
104 - Amie
"As for House/Cuddy relationship, it's not insane... It's... unusual! "
Actually, I find it neither insane, nor unusual! Well, it IS unusual for TV. But so true to real life. People being scared of their feelings (oh, and I loved the parallel with Remains of the Day, too)
Am I the only one here who thinks that?
I would even go as far as saying I don't think House and Cuddy are damaged. They're just humans with fears and expectations and flaws... (that goes for every other character on the show)
105 - cj_housegirl
"Unusual" for television I like that. I like your "second base" theory Amie. It works because we know from S1 episodes that House has at least some knowledge of baseball plus he did mention the base thing to Wilson. I hadn't thought about House wanting to move the relationship along by hitting second base because they already did first base. (lol)That's funny.
I think one of the reasons that House was playing games with Cuddy is because he and Cuddy have always played games with each other. House has always pursued her in some manner or another and she has always said no to him, in her rather snarky way. This time she isn't saying no and House is wondering what "game" she is playing. That's why he asks her straight out before the boob grab if she's screwing with him, playing with his feelings for her. Her answer is to ask the same question back. They can't be honest with each other about their emotions for each other because they are both acting to emotionally self-protect. I think that is very true to life.
Chris79 My french is not that great and what I know is Canadian so...;) The idioms I used don't exactly correlate to your expression. I was just trying to say I think I get what you mean with it. I also think it is pretty cool and accurate in the context of Cuddy's discussion with Wilson about what a relationship with House would be like. :)
106 - Chris79
@Amie :
- I like the conversations around here too! It's great to think a lot of people from different countries are able to discuss rather cleverly about the not less clever show "HOUSE MD".
- I understood the metaphor "I hit that" was a sport one (as House likes sport), but I wasn't to sure what sport it was (except basket ball, soccer and tennis... My knowledge on sport sucks. To say nothing about my practice of it!). In France, we're not very familiar (huge, HUGE euphemism!) with baseball (I vaguely remember playing softball in high school, do you think it counts?).
Your analysis makes perfect sense anyway. It's excellent! Now, I'm waiting for your essay making the parallel between Love in general and Baseball (5000 words at least). I want names, years AND stats. I'm sure I'll like it! :-)
- Of course, they are "in sync" emotionally when Cuddy leaves House's office! She's miserable, he's miserable because he made her miserable... He only continues to jerk her around in "Joy To The World", because he seriously thought his rude move to test her in "Let Them Eat Cake" was enough to maintain Cuddy at a certain distance too. And yet she is back in his office... What does that mean? That his test can go further? That she's now testing him? "Competitor by nature", House doesn't understand that she's not playing with the teenager case! He keeps playing the game (also because it's all he knows... Playing games with Cuddy)! Until he realizes it's not a game for her. He can't see why this kid so much echoes the young Cuddy.
I think, by the way, this teenager mirrors on the outside, how Cuddy felt - and still feel - on the inside when she was a teen. It reflects the image of the freak she has of herself. It's a common pseudo psychological thinking that being adult, we're still the kid we have been or something like that... As I said before somewhere, Cuddy knows she's a freak, and what best time for feeling a freak than the time you're a teen (though I liked the time I was a teen! Seriously, it was great! I spent it on 3 continents, I've done the stupidest things you could ever think of - and when I say "the stupidest things", I really mean "THE STUPIDEST THINGS" - and 90's rock was cool! As for my being a freak, I've always known I was and I've always been pretty cool with that! Why fighting it? We are who we are... Beautiful lapalissade!)?
- What I meant by House/Cuddy relationship is unusual (I'm not the kind who think people should get involved at all, anyway... Schopenhauer is one of my personal God! My Pantheon is crowded with writers, philosophers, painters and musicians...), was that their twisted worldviews and the way they act to each other, their games (which honestly doesn't happen in real life. At least, not that much and not on that level... Or you're really a special one!) can but appear as unusual for anybody, and therefore make their relationship unusual, but it makes perfect sense with their personalities.
You never wonder why those two childish middle-aged characters and their weird relationship fascinate so much teenagers and young adults still watching dumb shows like "One Three Hill" (the "Dawson 's Creek" of the years 2000), "Gossip Girl" and other dumber stuff (but I guess "De gustibus and coloribus non disputandum"... I suddenly feel Scholastic! LOL)? Because, they're not mature! And not mature people have non-mature relationships! Non-mature relationships are weird, over complicated and fascinating! Well, at least, it's fascinating because it's not real (but the genius of the whole "HOUSE MD" team, writers and actors, is to make it realistic) and because, we're the viewers! Living it wouldn't be that fascinating, I guess.
I'm not judging here, 'cause I could barely consider myself as a mature person (which should perhaps worry me, as I'm not getting younger)! When I said "I'm quite a jerk myself", I wasn't exaggerating (ask my friends and my mother!)... :-)
Actually, what strikes me in House and Cuddy relationship is how it reveals their psychological issues, how it deals with the phobia of each of them (pain for House, failure for Cuddy) and, of course, I enjoy the funny lines it involves.
It's funny you don't think they're damaged! Of course, they're humans with fears ad al that. We're all human with fears. I, myself fear birds (so, I'm human after all! I wasn't too sure... The magic of syllogism!)... But you happen to get through your fears as you grow up, as you get older, at least, you tame your fears. Or you end up, like the guy in "The Itch"! Metaphorically, both House and Cuddy are like this guy. They're stuck in their work and the world they built around it. They're not 20, they're not even 30... There's something pathologic about the way they act, and why they acted like that so long. What do they expect? You can't even be sure... They aren't even sure! Except, they don't want to suffer. Okay, nobody wants to suffer (except masochists!), but it's a rational thing to try, to experience things (even House did with Stacy, which makes me think Cuddy is the more damaged of the two), even though you go through suffering, if there's the least chance of getting something good (I wouldn't say Happiness, 'cause I don't believe in Happiness... I don't believe in Absolute!), most of the people do that. Most of the people got the guts to try several times to experience things that feel good, no matter what the result is. Isn't what the whole life made of : trying? When you're unable to do that, there's an underlying pathologic issue somewhere! Now, they're slightly moving, because they're realizing acting this way, make them even more miserable and involves their greatest fears too. So, "minima de malis" : they move!
I've got another theatrical reference for House and Cuddy, by the way : Marivaux ("On ne badine pas avec l'amour"...)
@cj_housegirl :
Canadian French? From Québec, you mean? Don't you know those Canadians are the Ayatollahs of French speaking? The Guardians of the Temple "du beau parler"! Even translating into French things that don't need to be translated, actually... Good God! How much more French than that could you know? :-)
I got your point about the expressions related to "Ça sent le vécu!", but I just wanted to be precise (and possibly helpful... But you never can be sure with me! LOL). I always want to be precise, it's ONE of my biggest flaws, as it's quite obsessive. As you certainly noticed my thoughts come in a rather anarchic way, so being precise enable me to put some discipline, so to speak, in that mess I call my thoughts. But, I'm always too precise, telling what I think and what it makes me think of or remind me (bloody digressions!), in the same time... You'll have to deal with it, 'cause it's not going to be otherwise! And believe me, it's way more unbearable when I speak in French! Speaking in a foreign language constrain me to use but the few vocabulary I know (would you believe me if I told you I started to learn English in junior high school thanks to German? No kidding!). Imagine what I'm capable of in my own language... Scary, huh? ;-)