TV Review: House - "Sex Kills"

(Warning: spoilers for the episode that aired March 7. I prefer to think the episode aired early rather than that I wrote this late.)

Wilson: "It's not all about sex, House."

House: "Really? When did that change?"

"Sex Kills" could be the title of a very unsubtle public service announcement, but instead it is the title of an equally unsubtle House episode, in which it is all about sex, killing patients literally and Wilson's marriage figuratively.

Howard Hesseman (WKRP in Cincinnati) is very un-Johnny Fever-like in this role as Henry, a sweet, bridge-playing divorced father whose sweet, bridge-attempting single daughter is alarmed when he has what they discover is an absent seizure. Combined with his other symptoms, House and his team believe Henry might have a sexually transmitted disease. "A disease that attacks his brain, heart, and testicles. I think Byron wrote about that," our Byronic hero muses.

Though Henry initially claims he hasn't had sex since his divorce, House is skeptical. For validation, he calls to Wilson across a crowded waiting area: "How long can you go without sex?"

"How long can you go without annoying people?" Wilson retorts in a comic, if ill-advised, rejoinder that would seem to indicate he is seriously addicted to sex.

When his daughter is out of the room, Henry decides to fess up. He didn't want Amy to know about his latest dalliance with her mother, his ex-wife, since she would think he was foolish for still loving the woman who cheated on him. Their date at a cheese tasting resulted in a bacterial infection that is destroying his heart.

"Cheese is the devil's plaything," House intones when Henry explains the fateful date. (A bit of trivia for you: Hugh Laurie named that as his favourite line at the Paley Festival Q&A, after first attempting to ingratiate himself with creator David Shore by saying all lines were his favourites.)

"If you're not prepared to look stupid, then nothing great is ever going to happen," Henry says wistfully, which provokes some compassion from the man who stalked a rat in his ex-girlfriend's attic in order to win her back. House lies to Henry's daughter in order to preserve his patient's dignity.

Unfortunately, the bacterial infection was caught too late to save Henry's heart, but the 66-year-old is too old to be considered a good candidate for a heart transplant. House appears before the transplant committee in a futile attempt to try to get a scarce organ for his patient. He gives an impassioned speech that older people should not be less worth saving than younger people, that if longevity is a criteria for transplant candidates, women should be considered over men, and white people over black people.

Article Author: Diane Kristine Wild

Diane writes about boring things by day, pop culture things by night. She also runs the TV, Eh? website, a compilation of news about Canadian television. Follow her on Twitter @deekayw for more random thoughts.

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