House battles his inner demons while treating a prima ballerina.
” I’ve been popping pills for years, what changed?” House asks Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) as he tries in this week’s episode of House, M.D. to deal with his intensifying visions of Amber. So much in House’s life has changed over the course of this season, and with Kutner’s death, lack of sleep and medicating himself even further with Vicodin just to try keep the demons at bay, he seems to have only unleashed them — or rather her.…
Article comments
126 - nc
Barbara, I've been thinking over and over again about the song which plays under the last scenes between first Chase and Cameron, then House and Cuddy. The show's always used music as if it were dialogue commentary, but this is incredibly close to the bone.
The artist is Dawn Landes, and the song is titled "Drive." If you go to her MySpace page, you can play the song and listen to the lyrics.
Stunning.
127 - barbara barnett
JL--sometimes things just leave me speechless, and since speechless would never do for a writer, "gaaah" just had suffice! I really think you are so right about the series really finding its balance between the characters, the flow--even the dreadful six-act structure forced on the creative team. Season five has greatly benefited from not having a guest arc (if you don't count Amber). The flow has been seamless between the season's "acts" and all of a continuum.
when I inerviewed Garrett Lerner an Russel Friend at the end of season four (they had written the stunning "House's Head" and "WIlson's Heart" finale eps), they told me a bit about the season to come (at least the first half of it). They could not have been more correct. This whole season is really the continuation of last year's ending, and I cannot wait for what will certainly be another end/beginning segue into next season. The show has gotten stronger, the writing just as good (disagreeing with several television critics here, sorry) as ever.
nc--I will track that down. couldn't find the actual lyrics anywhere, but I'll give it a close listen.
128 - nc
Barbara, the actual lyrics aren't on Dawn Landes's site. I found a blog on which someone had posted an attempt at a transcription, but I don't think it's accurate. If you play the song on the artist's MySpace page, the lyrics seem very clear. If she'd written the song for those moments of that episode, it couldn't have been more poignant and revealing.
129 - KC
Hi Barbara!
I just want to commend you on another fantastic review. I have been reading your reviews religiously ever since season 5 started.
There's not much else I can say that others have not. This episode is definitely my favorite of the season (so far). HL and AD gave absolutely riveting performances, and LE and RSL were fantastic as usual. I felt like a (very satisfied) child on Christmas day as I watched the scenes between House and Cuddy, they really couldn't have been any better.
Also, a wonderful person on livejournal actually matched the lyrics of "Drive" to what was happening during those last two scenes, here it is:
You've had a hard time living with a hard heart. (Chase says "I can't do it")
You hardly feel a thing and you don't know where to start.
It's all that you want and you want, you want, but it won't change a thing. (Cameron: "I don't know")
'Cause it won't be long, it won't be long, it won't be long, long (Chase: "I'll wait until you do")
You can make it safe. ("No one knows." "I do.")
It won't go away. It's coming after you all day, surrounding. (Chase walks away)
When you look at me that way, I don't know the thing to say, (switch to Huddy; House says "thank you")
But it just found me. ("You want to kiss me, don't you?")
(pause for chorus just as House says "I always want to kiss you")
Drive. C'mon, c'mon and drive. Ooh, ooh... (as Cuddy and House lean in to kiss)
C'mon, c'mon and sail away, sail away... (as Cuddy and House begin to kiss more passionately)
130 - barbara barnett
Thanks for bringing the lyrics over. Does fit nicely. I still think the very best ending songs were for Paternity (S1), Cane and Able, One Day One Room and Half-Wit in season three, and the ending song for season four Wilson's Heart.
131 - Sera G
Hello, Barbara and all,
I wanted to comment on savta's remark that Cuddy says she has never lied to House. When I first heard it I thought, but she has, the addison's patient, as savta mentioned, when she challenges House to quick Vicodin and is really covering for Wilson, when Cuddy denies being pregnant, (although since she had miscarried, that may have been true at that point.) When I watched it again I think she is saying, I never lied to you about "us" and I never lied to you that you couldn't tell it was a lie. That was my interpretation at any rate.
Glad to see everyone still thinking and talking about it almost a week later.
We shall see what Monday brings. Thanks.
132 - Kim
Yep! Sera G, I agree with you that she is talking about their personal relationship and not in a boss/employee way.
Talking about parallels. I think that House asking Cuddy for help, she addressing him to ER and finally taking care of him paralels the infarction episode. I mean, he goes to PPTH looking for Cuddy's help, some doctors attend him but in the end is Cuddy the one who takes care of him.
One more thing, Remember that we don't had a clue of what was doing Cuddy in House's office in JTTW. Now, I think maybe she was auditing his differential diagnosis as she did with the endocrinology class.
2 days left.
133 - Chris
Hi all! I just wanted to say thanks to Barbara for the great reviews and to everyone for the very insightful comments. It's a treat to read the review and comments after each episode!
One thing that is interesting but I don't think anyone's touched on yet was the fact that House told Cuddy he quit. I was wondering why he would do that right before asking for her help? Was it because he wanted her reaction to be personal and not out of professional obligation? Amber's taunting about Cuddy having no obligation to be his keeper hints at that. Also, I found it interesting that later, during their conversation in the morning, he tells her that's why she's there - professional obligation.
I don't know if it really means anything but I found that whole exchange very interesting and seemed to really move
their relationship along, emotionally.
134 - barbara barnett
Sera G--I took the remark the way House did. Yes, she's lied and she knows House knows. It's the 20 year-thing that hits him. and leads him to what she wanted to tell him. He knew she was leading him to that question. Its part of their courtship game.
Chris, I've thought about that too. House walks in, very, very unsure of himself. He knows rehab won't work; ect every six hours is his only option. Neither of these bode well for his future. He heaves a great sigh, and his eyes are hugely emotional when he says it: "I quit." He's not being his usual defiant or playing games. I think he sees no other alternative. For him, this is a moment of pure hell (she doesn't know that, however), and she treats it like his usual mind games, brushing it off.
Then he makes that hurtful remark, which I think is significant because he knows that Rachel takes precedence of him. And he's being petulant about that. Wrong thing to say, but that's House, even at his worst. And a lot of that was feeling sorry for himself, rather than mad at Cuddy.
He decides to tell her about the hallucination then and only then. His heartfelt plea and sincerity--and his confession that he NEEDS her, strikes at her heart deeply. If nothing else he is a close friend in crisis. I think she finally, really looks at him for the first time and sees where he is emotionally at that moment. It's as heartbreaking for her as it is for us.
I do think this is a tremendously signficicant exchange between them. House believes that he has no right to involve her (as his subconscious tells him). She's not his keeper. He doesn't know or believe that she cares so deeply for him, and that her obligation to him runs only as deep as her needs as Dean.
Just rambling here...
135 - Jackie
Regarding the House and his emotional state in Cuddy's office, I just wanted to mention one thing. At the conclusion of the scene when Cuddy said that she will call her babysitter, House (facing the doorway in full view of the audience), slightly moves his eyes, but he lowers his head/chin. The man has hit bottom.
The other moment (although there were a few that made me just want to reach out through the tv screen), was in the bathroom when House is by the toilet and Amber is taunting him again. Twice he looks up at her with such a distraught expression that reminded me of his fine acting in "All or Nothing at All" (the scene after his secretary Marion coaxes him down from the roof). The "AONAL" analogy pales by comparison, but I am so totally taken with last Monday night's performance that each time I watch it (six times already), I am uncovering a new factor in brilliance. It makes it difficult to believe that this comic genius was not a dramatic actor from day one. I've seen actors on the silver screen through the years who could not touch his performance in this episode or throughout the "House" series.
136 - nc
Barbara, have you noticed the subtle changes in Cuddy's expression after House says "We're alone" and again after he tells her Amber's gone? Not to mention the galaxy of nuanced expressions which flit across her face when she says "We've been alone all night."
I fundamentally believe the two of them are right for each other in so many ways that it makes an act of outright betrayal out of House's all-but-inevitable inability to tolerate anyone being that close to him.
I'm awaiting Monday's episode with equal measures of eager anticipation and dread.
137 - Donna
Jackie-
I was struck by that Cuddy office scene as well. Bookended in wide shots of House's tall figure with the camera/us viewing him from behind at the scene's beginning and then House facing the camera/us at it's end as he awaits Cuddy to begin detox. Laurie made us feel his character's desperation and neediness to go through with House's final hope to come out of this sane and intellectually intact. And you're right about the brilliance of Hugh Laurie's acting here in UMS (and in other eps too). A very layered, heartbreaking and intimate portrayal that reached many of us beyond the 'wall' of our television screens. A slam dunk performance by an actor at the top of his game!
138 - GLR
Just wanted to ask, who sings that song? "drive", i guess? :)