(Warning: spoilers for the episode that aired Nov. 29)
This week's House opens with a feisty mom soothing her daughters' nerves before their big talent show number, when they are upset at rich Sally Ayersman's snooty remarks about their costumes. “If Sally's mean to you again, I'm just going to have to key her daddy's new convertible,” mom Kayla says with hilarious near-foreshadowing.
When we see her popping painkillers in the audience as her precious kids take the stage and massacre “Itty Bitty Pretty One,” it's almost a funny moment – except that the CGI shots of her oozing gut tell us it's really not very funny at all.
This set up provides the introduction to some fun with very non-formulaic structure, as “The Mistake” unfolds with hospital lawyer Stacy (Sela Ward) preparing mistake-maker Chase (Jesse Spencer) and his boss House (Hugh Laurie) for a peer review following the patient's death, and we see their alternate and sometimes opposing versions of past events.
Despite that definite article "the", there are a few mistakes referenced in “The Mistake.” The most obvious is Chase's that led to Kayla's misdiagnosis and eventual death, and this is the mistake that Stacy is determined to find a mitigating reason for, but Chase and House are determined to leave unexplained.
Instead of a bleeding ulcer, Chase diagnoses Kayla with Behcet's disease, leading to a cascading chain of medical woes when the undetected ulcer perforates. His “little” mistake is in not asking her any questions when she comes to the clinic for her test results, despite her mentioning continuing pain – but as House says, paraphrasing himself in other episodes, “Mistakes are as serious as the results they cause.”
She eventually needs a liver transplant, which she gets thanks to her brother and a blackmailed lab tech who hides the fact that little brother Sam has Hepatitis C, and thanks to House and a blackmailed transplant surgeon, a Dr. Ayersman, whose new convertible does wind up getting keyed (though not by Kayla). Prize for best line reading of the week goes, of course, to Hugh Laurie, for the priceless “Are you free?” after he lays out his plan to ruin the doctor's marriage – and halve his income – if he doesn't perform the risky surgery. Though the surgery goes well, unfortunately, the Hep C had also caused liver cancer, which was treatable in Sam but led to immunocompromised Kayla's death.
We get pieces of the puzzle doled out slowly in flashbacks, then retracted and replayed differently as Stacy realizes her narrators are unreliable. She starts the episode trying to avoid House, whom she hasn't forgiven for stealing her therapy files and manipulating her into nearly revealing her desire to be with him instead of her husband.
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Article comments
1 - Nadav
A few comments on this episode and in general:
House builds heavily on Hugh Laurie, and being a long-time admirer since early Black Adder days, that is more than enough for me. But even this fails to make for an interesting show after a while, and the writers do need to break the formula (or rather re-invent it) in order to keep up dramatic interest. I don't mean small changes such as opening with House-Wilson on ep. 9, but rather breaking the entire basic formula we've been hammered with in most of season 1. They have done so twice, this week being the second time, and the result was superb (up to the unreasonable end; on this later). Not suprisingly, these two episodes are probably the best so far, or at least high up in the list. I feel that in spite of Laurie's charm, the series would flounder if such experiments are not done on a more frequent basis.
Up to the last 3 minutes, this episode was, as said, the best this season. However, the ending screwed it up. This comes on top of a similar ending on the previous episose, when Stacy figures out in lightning speed that House broke into her therapist's office. It comes off as if the writers couldn't come up with a good way of bringing it to heads, so they just hoped that if it's quick enough, the viewers will gulp it down and ignore the bad aftertaste.
I totally agree with Deekay, it's unreasonable to say the least that Forman would be appointed over his Boss, and certainly not for a limited period of time after which the roles reverse; and what does "supervise" mean anyway, checking his medical, inter-personal or management conduct? To be true to his character, House would either blow a fuse, refuse to cooperate, take a 30 days leave of absence, or just quit. Now let's see what happens...
Last week was Cameron's time, this week it's Chase, and now comes up Forman? It's a bit too structured for my taste. Forman has been in the background for most of this season (unlike last year where parallels between him and House were drawn, which made for some nice bits), so now's his turn in the limelight.
Last season we had Vogler as House's nemesis, this time Forman seems up for the job. Anyone see what they have in common? (nudge nudge wink wink).
2 - Bliffle
Gee, I guess I was a little simpleminded because I saw it as a reprise of "Rashomon", with a little Insurance Company counter-gaming thrown in.
3 - DrPat
No need to nudge me, Nadav, I got the parallel right away.
Thing is, Foreman's not the absolute bastard Vogler was, regardless of any other quality they share.
I predict Foreman will step in it and House will rescue him (in return for a non-supervisory supervision...).
4 - Mary K. Williams
Just gotta love 'The House'!
Good write up DeeKay