Melinda (Michelle Trachtenberg , Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is a rebellious teen whose rebellion is stifled not just by her overprotective mom (Mel Harris, thirtysomething), but by her overreactive body. She suffers from severe allergies that indirectly caused her to need a heart transplant six months ago, so her parents force her to remain in her allergen-free room. Her boyfriend comes to visit, leans in for a kiss, and ... cue pre-credits dramatic anaphylactic reaction.
Post-credits, we see House continuing to play the torture game with new roommate Wilson, by refusing to do the dishes and drinking straight from a container marked with Wilson's prim warning label. As they spar, Wilson tells House about a phone call from Cuddy informing him of the intriguing new case. "You answered?" House sneers. "Turns out, that's how you stop the ringing," Wilson replies.
When Melinda goes into heart failure in the hospital, the team is afraid they are faced with two puzzles, instead of two pieces of one puzzle. Staring at "anaphylaxis" and "congestive heart failure" on the white board of differential diagnosis magic, their overriding puzzle is how to tie the two symptoms together. House looks on the bright side by indicating that one of the symptoms is good news, and Chase takes his familiar role of coasting along the path of least resistance:
House: What's the good news, and what's the bad news?
Chase: Congestive heart failure.
House: Is which?
Chase: Good news.
House: Why?
Chase: I don't know, it just sounded like you.
Chase is also the advocate for not telling Melinda's parents that her allergic reaction was caused by having sex with her boyfriend (he said he'd taken penicillin, which they deduce must have been present in his semen, and which she's of course allergic to). It's not that Chase doesn't think they should know their 16-year-old had sex - "they'll find out when they get the bill" he tells Cameron - but because he doesn't want the discomfort of telling them. Some day, maybe he'll have minions of his own to interact with patients.
It's not just Chase who gets to exercise his character. House's team is fleshed out surprisingly well in this episode. If Matt Witten got my Wilson-Cuddy Memorial Award, then I should bestow the Minions Memorial Award on Peter Blake, who wrote this one and the earlier Chase-centric "The Mistake."
Article comments
1 - JELIEL³
It was another great show last night. Had me laughing so much I think I lost a few jokes.
2 - kristi
i love your comment about sassy cameron!
3 - Bobcat
House gets better with every episode, as the writers hone in on the characters and the actors develop the nuances of their roles. It happened with Frasier, and I wish House the same happy longevity - if Hugh Laurie doesn't get too homesick for Old Blighty!
Love your reviews, too. They illuminate what we've seen the night before.
4 - Amrita
hey Diane,
I thought that Foreman was trying to come up with his equivalent of the Chase moment - "when i was six i went to the hospital and loved it and so i became a doctor" etc. too bad for him nobody seems interested. maybe it'll play into a future episode. I'm finally beginning to like Cameron again. her bleeding heart, goody goody thing was beginning to get on my nerves - does she have to be the clueless sap everytime? apparently not.
great review.
5 - Brent
As far as the conflicting statements - "no more breaks until the season finale!" and "straight through until May!" - no conflict at all. There is no rule, law, obligation that says that the season finale has to be at the end of May. The two are not mutually exclusive and they are in fact both accurate.
6 - Diane Kristine
I was under no impression there was any such rule … read it again. I was wondering if it was a case of the saying the same thing two different ways, but trying to do the math in my head, I thought the end of May was not when all the remaining episodes would be finished. So you've forced me to do the math instead of being a bit more helpful, a bit less snide:
There are 24 episodes this season. Safe is #16. So there's 8 more. There's 3 more weeks in April, 5 weeks in May (not 4, like a normal month, throwing me off). Phew. That wasn't so hard.
Amrita, I thought Foreman was trying to talk about his overprotective mother and how he trained her not to be or something, but maybe we'll never know. Or maybe some day, someone will want to listen to his story.
Thanks Bobcat! And I like to think the show has another 25 years in it. Hugh Laurie might disagree.
7 - Bliffle
Damn! I'm in Europe and forgot to set my DVR. I'll miss 2 more episodes. But I suppose I can BitTorrent them.
8 - Diane Kristine
After all that hard work, scrap my math. I just found out the season finale is May 23, not May 30, so it doesn't matter that there's 5 weeks in the month (does that count as "through May" then? I guess I'll let them have it, but the website wins for clearest soundbite on this one).
Someone just told me a two-parter is being aired May 2 and 3, which explains the episodes-to-weeks-left discrepancy. Anyone else have the source of that info? My brain hurts now.