Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most powerful of them all? This excellent character exploration of Gregory House, MD (played by the always-compelling Hugh Laurie) was served up as frothy as the peppermint mocha latte that I’m sipping while I write this episode commentary. “Mirror, Mirror,” House, MD episode 4x05, treats us to glimpses of the fellow candidates, the three graduates of House’s diagnostic fellowship as well as Wilson and Cuddy.
The patient of the week has a condition called Giovannini’s Mirror Syndrome. The relevant manifestation of this condition is that the sufferer, having no memory or sense of himself, mimics those around him. Wilson suggests, based on his own reading into mirror syndrome, that the mirror patient mimics the dominant personality in the room. All of this, and the ultimate diagnosis of the cause of the mirror syndrome, is less interesting than the underlying narrative in this clever, fast-moving, and very densely packed episode written by House, MD veteran David Foster. Foster has given us such wonderfully revealing episodes as “All In” in season two, another deep and dense episode gift-wrapped in game-playing and fun.
As the doctors in House’s sphere have their encounters with “mirror man,” they learn a few truths about themselves, which are (of course) shared with us. Neat way for the viewers to obtain background on the remaining six candidates without a lot of unnecessary exposition. And we also learn that all of them are insecure enough (understandably so) to be affected by the patient’s mimicry of their traits.
Amber, aka “Cutthroat Bitch” knows that she is unlikeable. But knowing that, she has a need to always be right. If she’s always right, it doesn’t matter that everyone dislikes her. Hmmm. That assessment sounds awfully familiar to me. It sounds quite a bit like the good doc, himself. It is House who feels that being “right” is his ticket into society. Being “right” trumps being a “freak” or an outcast (as House sees himself). That reveal echoes back to last season’s “Son of Coma Guy,” in which House so eloquently expressed this integral part of his psyche in his Buraku story.
Article comments
1 - Laura
Wonderful review! I really enjoyed your analysis. :)
2 - Barbara Barnett
Thanks Laura. The episode also really showed House as the master: picking up on subtle clues that everyone else would have missed; using the meager gleanings from the patient's care to create a believable mirror image of him--and talking softly and patiently to a troubled patient. These are the things that make House heroic; make us love him despite his very human flaws.
3 - Louise
Barbara,
A good review let's me see new things in a work and gives me a coherent perspective. This is an excellent review! In addition to the perspective, you write beautifully. Now, I have to go back and watch the Wilson-House-mirror patient interaction and the Cuddy-House-patient interaction to see if I understood them the same way you did. (Okay, so I would have watched several time anyway, but this gives me some fresh perspective.) I love your description of the Wilson's manipulation of House and agree that Wilson is often wrong--but lovingly wrong.
For this series to continue much longer, they are going to have to find a way to occasionally shift the focus off House to take the pressure off the amazing Mr. Laurie. I have long thought that Wilson's character is the flip side of House--someone with similar issues who handles them in precisely opposite way. Wilson is my choice for the character to be expanded. Dr. W is one twisted dude himself! Exploring what makes the much-married, politically smooth, and protective Wilson tick would keep the depth, pace and addictive flavor the keeps us all watching and re watching the episodes. Wilson is and always has been House's mirror.
Thank you! I'll be back to check you musings on the next episode.
4 - Barbara Barnett
A good review let's me see new things in a work and gives me a coherent perspective. This is an excellent review! In addition to the perspective, you write beautifully.
Laura--thank you for your kind words. Most of the House post-mortem reviews are really recaps. Some are humorous, some are straight on the nose play-by-plays, some are summaries; many of them are quite excellent. I wanted to do something a bit different. So while reviews/commentaries in this series will never be comprehensive, I do promise to try go for slightly different takes and oblique angles.
I like your idea that Wilson is a sort of mirror image of House--his polar opposite. It fits.
As far as taking some of the load off of Hugh Laurie, I recall what happened when the producers tried that with X-Files. It didn't work very well (at least not for me). The show really does revolve around House, and I would be fairly skeptical of an attempt to play with that to any great degree. (But, as they say, your mileage may vary --YMMV.
Barbara
5 - Barbara Barnett
oops. Mea culpa! I meant Louise, not Laura. The quote at the top of my comment is attributed to Louise. Apologies.
Barbara
6 - Robin
I really enjoy your reviews and the subtext you pick up on. You really surprise me with the idea of the fellows mirroring House. And its so obvious once its pointed out. Thanks
7 - Amanda
LOVED the episode! Especially loved HOUSE dancing at the end in the patient's room and his bet with Chase. I was quite surprised by that!
I hope Hugh is feeling well. WE LOVE YOU, HUGH!
What happens now with the writer's strike??
Does it mean Hugh gets to go home for a while?
I sure hope so!
8 - bliffle
Of course, "House M.D." is a gigantic joke on the viewers because he's nothing more or less than an elaborate inverse hoax on George W. Bush. Petulant, spoiled, drug addicted, unpleasant, living in an artificial drug-induced dream world and enabled by over-indulgent enablers, he wreaks havoc justified only by a deux ex machina arrived at by a miraculous leap of logic. House' solutions are no less unexpected than Bushes, except that Bushes miracles never occur, what with having to live in the real world and all, rather than the miraculous world of TV fiction (i.e., lie) writers.
The joke is on the viewers, many of whom would be surprised to find that they've been rooting for their Arch Political Villain all this time.
9 - Barbara Barnett
Thanks Robin and Amanda for chiming in. Now that the WGA strike looks like it's going to really happen, who knows. David Shore is not only a writer, but the creator of the show, and most of the writers are also producers. I would believe that they would honor the strike. I've heard that there are about 11 scripts in the can, so they can go for awhile without new scripts, and maybe by then the strike will be settled.
Bliffle--I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I do not see House the same way you do in the least. And I will leave it at that.
Barbara.
10 - bliffle
The moral problem of House is that he performs miracles to salvage his abusiveness. It's totally selfish. A real hero might be abusive to perform good deeds, but House is just the opposite: his good deeds are contrived to justify his misdeeds. He is not, for example, Dr. Ben Casey, who was rude to the people around him in order to save his patients. Perhaps we had better heroes in the 1950s. Perhaps we had better people then.
Bush demonstrates the deadly fallacy of the Man On The White Horse, a superhero dictator who, given enough power and indulgence and imbued with moral purity, can go forward in the world and right wrongs and slay dragons. House is only saved from the natural consequence of this by the indulgence of hollywood writers, I.E., professional liars. Bush has writers lieing up a storm for him but they do not have the option of changing reality, so it doesn't work.
In spite of all the superpowers we have given Hero Bush, waiving the constitution, financing a bootless war, surrendering our treasure to his cohorts, believing Real Hard that he is pure of heart, he cannot perform the requisite miracles.
We should take this as a lesson and understand that this is why the dismal record of Bush, Stalin, Hitler, etc., exposes the corruption of House: absolute power leads to absolute corruption. For, you see, Bush is as much a creation of failings of our vain hope for superheroes as House or Superman or Batman.
The only possible result of a character like House is that he ends up a suicide or gibbering idiot in an asylum. Unpitied, unloved, and eventually only remembered in infamy.
11 - Louise
I just don't see the "villainous" House or the comparison to our current administration. First, House takes as good as he gives. I've had bosses who maintained a public persona of sweetness and niceness but whose actions revealed a vicious and abusive streak. (Terminating a couple of people they did not like while the individuals were battling cancer comes to mind.) One would never have said something to these smiling little tyrants like things people say to House. Second, what often gets House in difficulty is his insistence on the truth--in many ways he has a diamond hard integrity, okay with a few lies throw in. But, House knows he's lying when he lies--he's not convinced himself of the truth of the lie. If you listen carefully, House says "I was wrong" quite frequently. (Reluctantly, but frequently.) His assessment of truth involves an analysis of empirical evidence and with new evidence he changes his mind--quite the opposite of the comparison made above. Yes, House discounts popular opinion. But, his insistence on a stand is not stubbornly clinging to ideology or dogma. It is an empirical assessment. Remember the placebo Cuddy gave him rather than morphine? He even accepted the empirical evidence in that case. Arrogant? He does see his own analysis of the evidence as generally superior. That quite often proves to be the case. But there is a good deal humility to bowing to evidence and reason and changing one's mind. That is not a capacity all people have. I find it is one I admire.