House is a show mostly trapped in the confines of the hospital set. Sure, we get teasers of patients in their natural habitats, and for a special treat, our core cast might actually have lives outside the workplace. But apart from the odd seizure, CGI, or punch, the action of the show is usually either cerebral or emotional, taking place in the minds, hearts, and mouths of the characters.
"Who's Your Daddy?" is a perfect example of how Hugh Laurie and the producers and directors take the inner workings of House - his thoughts and his pain - and make them kinetic. Forget that damn ball, the white board, or the twirling cane, which are the usual stand-ins for his thought process made visible. This episode it's House himself who is the body in motion.
It opens with the doctor pacing furiously, painfully, in his apartment, face contorted, finally clamoring up a step ladder to his previously unknown secret stash of morphine - only to be stopped by his "one thing," the thing the drugs allow him to do: his job. Cuddy leaves him a message with the prospect of a juicy case, and he regretfully puts the syringe down.
The case is a teenager named Leona, raised by a drug-addicted mother and left homeless and motherless by Hurricane Katrina. Her newly discovered father is House's old...let's say friend...Dylan Crandall (D.B. Sweeney, who has the perfect hangdog face for the role), who is the first and, I imagine, last person on the show to call House "G-Man." "I thought I'd met all your friend," Cuddy tells House, hilariously stressing the singular.
The credulous, sad-sack Crandall seems an unlikely companion for House, but he explains it to Wilson: "We were 20 years old. He had a car. If he'd been a woman, I would have married him." He also explains his sense of obligation to the man: House stole his girlfriend. Seems our warped hero not only holds a grudge forever, as with his classmate in "Distractions," but he also honours a debt with equal longevity.
Flying home with Crandall, Leona suffered a hallucination the team believes was caused by a damaged heart muscle, but which wasn't cured when the heart damage was. House, shockingly, thinks his patient is lying to Crandall, who won't let him perform a paternity test to prove her claim. When Wilson expresses surprise that House didn't do it anyway, he replies: "I said I wouldn't." "So either you lied, or he has pictures of you being nice," counters Wilson. He believes House is lying about the paternity test and that the emotional suppression is causing his leg to hurt ... except we know the leg was hurting before the case.
Article comments
1 - gena
I still think when Cuddy admitted she didn't come all the way up to House's office just to thank him for the shots we are to believe she went right next door to Wilson for a "donation". House told her to get someone she "likes" and she likes Wilson (he's also very handsome and Jewish like she is). House as a father (even with Cuddy) is not a good plot. House jealous of a kid stealing his best and only pal's time would be.
2 - Phillip Winn
The "scenes from the next episode" were intriguing, so I'm on pins and needles.
3 - lostdwarf
Thanks for making the episode a little clearer. There were a few things that I had questions about and while I'll still rewatch, it's nice to understand what was going on.
4 - Diane Kristine
Glad " and surprised " to help, lostdwarf. I didn't go into all the diagnoses and treatments because I didn't follow it all that closely myself (and wanted to forget about the stool coming out of her mouth).
Gena, I don't believe that's where they were going, but we'll see, I'm sure. I'll feel cheated if they had Cuddy evaluating and rejecting Wilson in an earlier episode, spent this one establishing how much she trusts and has a connection with House and not mentioning or interacting with Wilson, then expect the ending to be interpreted as her going to Wilson. The storyline is already pretty questionable to me " that would push it over the edge to soapy twists for the sake of twists for me.
5 - adb
any collections of house one-liners available?
6 - Diane Kristine
There's a list on the official Fox site for the show.
7 - Rio
What do you think about the idea that House suffers from pain that at times is a combination of the physical, the leg pain that we see at the beginning and the psychological, the guilty Wilson references re. the paternity test and how he treated his friend in the past?
8 - Diane Kristine
Definitely, Rio. An earlier episode, Skin Deep, established without a doubt that some of his leg pain is psychological. This episode doesn't explicitly say anything about why his leg pain is worse at the beginning " could just be physical, could still be the post-Stacy reaction, could be his suppressed desire for Cuddy (kidding! mostly …), could be any of his other emotional issues.
At the end, I think added to that is the fact that, unusually for him, he's done something that goes against his moral code. He didn't just lie about the paternity test " he's just been talking about how he believes strongly that who you are genetically matters, not to mention he knows the importance of knowing your medical history. So I imagine he's conflicted about having done a nice thing for his friend (giving him a daughter to make up for the girlfriend he stole) and for the girl (giving her a father after the rough life she's had), but it was actually the wrong thing to do from House's normal perspective.
So that was a longwinded way to say "yes."
Oh, there's a clip of Lisa Edelstein talking about Cuddy's desire for a baby, and why she's drawn to House, on the official Fox site too.
9 - BritishxWombat
I'm still a little confused with the teenage girl, Leona. Is it possible that she could be House's daughtor? Also, when I saw the preview for the season finale I couldn't wait...but then on the internet I read that they do some kind of surgery and House doesn;t feel the pain in his leg anymore! wft! That's what makes House...House. I hope he doesn;t end up killing that guy either. I love season finales but I hate them also. They seem to raise more questions than answer them.
10 - Diane Kristine
Grr ... thanks for the spoiler. Though you shouldn't trust everything you read on the Internet either. For one thing, according to Internet rumour, last season was going to end with House getting beat up in a bar fight.
And I don't think there was any suggestion that the girl could be House's daughter.
11 - Morgenstern
This whole baby discussion reminds me of the "post-Stacey" talk Wilson and House had on the roof. Wilson said "You don't like yourself but you do admire yourself". Which gets me thinking: I assume House would love to have a child. You know, the whole "perpetuating your own genes" thing . . . Maybe he's thinking his child could have his brains minus his grumpiness and misanthropic outlook on life. And he likes Cuddy and he knows she's got good genes because hey -- she runs a hospital but she's no Vogler! And we know he finds her physically attractive.
So he's got this inner battle going on--especially on his day off which gives him far too much time to delve into his thoughts, which eventually leads to his leg hurting more than ever. I am totally convinced his hurting leg is a psychological problem. Especially because the editors chose to cut from him to Cuddy's call. Normally one would expect one of the ducklings to call him, not Cuddy.
His inner battle is of course about his unability to maintain a relationship with a woman. His pro and cons list probably looks something like this: pro -- I get to have a child. Con: I will have to deal with a single mother who is my boss and who is raising my child and won't let me forget how awfully hard it is to raise a child on her own without the father being there to help while she is actually seeing and meeting and talking to the father every day. Which, to make a long story short, would be hell on earth for both of them.
12 - Diane Kristine
It's an interesting theory, M, and I partly agree, but I'm not convinced House is there yet - contemplating a baby or a relationship. He seemed sincere when he said "someone you like" to her, and actually puzzled about why she came to him at the end. I think it's never occurred to him that she does, in fact, like him. Or that he does, in fact, like her.
It mirrors the storyline with Cameron too - he never admitted he has/had feelings for her, though it seems obvious to me that he does/did.
So I think it's not so much his inability to maintain a relationship as his inability to see himself as worthy of one, or letting himself risk being open to one. Stacy was familiar territory, at least, but even then, he denied his feelings until she obviously reciprocated, and even then, he couldn't commit to it in the end - I still believe because he knew she'd get tired of the curry again and he couldn't risk being hurt again.
13 - Morgenstern
I agree with you but not entirely.
He seemed sincere when he said "someone you like" to her, and actually puzzled about why she came to him at the end. I think it's never occurred to him that she does, in fact, like him. Or that he does, in fact, like her.
I don't think he was puzzled. I think he's been "applying for the job" as a sperm donor ever since he found out what she's up to. Remember that he lied to Wilson about Cuddy's motives for the dinner and has so far refrained from discouraging her. I can't remember him making one comment along the lines of "how come you want a child?". There's also the question he poses Crandell: "What makes you think you'd be a good dad?" I think he really wanted to know (because, frankly, Crandell doesn't really look like the ideal dad to me--maybe House thought so, too, and was wondering why somebody who doesn't seem to be a good candidat for paternity might be convinced of the contrary).
And just the way he inclined his head when Cuddy showed up at his office . . . I think he knew what she wanted to say and he wanted her to say it out loud. He didn't make one of his funny comments. He was just trying to encourage her to say what she wanted to say (watch his hand gesture). That's why he insisted by saying "You came all the way up here just to tell me that?"
I think he likes her and he knows he likes her. And he knows she likes him but he's not so sure if she likes him enough for him to be the father of her baby. That's one of the facts he's tormented about. Would it be possible for the both of them to have a relationship? And if not: would the child destroy the good and friendly relationship they had so far? Does she want a relationship? Or does she only want a sperm donor? If she doesn't want a relationship: would he survive seeing her everyday, seeing the child every once in a while without being part of their lives?
I agree with you that he doesn't really think he's worthy of a relationship. It was easy sending Stacy away because she had a choice, she had a husband. But Cuddy doesn't have someone else, someone "better". And I agree with you that he was honest when he said "Someone you like" -- because he just thinks that's the best way to chose a father for your (probably) only child -- even if it's only a sperm donor. But I still think he was secretly hoping he would chose him -- thus proving that she does indeed like him.
14 - Mary K. Williams
Diane - you need to get your next and last : ( House post up!
Seriously, I was going to tape it, then realized that I wasnt going to have to go out, didn't tape it - then I got busy in the first 20 minutes, then my older son needed to talk to me in the last half hour. So, basically I just caught him cutting up the gut of some guy, and the guy died!
So, I'm all clueless like.
15 - Diane Kristine
Ha, it's coming, it's coming! Sorry you missed it, though - there's no way I'll do it justice. But I'll have it up on my blog in a couple of hours, then it's up to the Blogcritics gods when it gets posted here. I'm getting so many emails about this one already ... I never get emails before I even write the thing. Obviously a sign of a Very Important Episode.
16 - Mary K. Williams
Undoubtedly!
Looking forward to it.
17 - Phillip Winn
I think I may bend the rules to jump this one to the head of the queue, since I watched the episode and would love to see your reaction. Me, I loved it, but I called the "twist" pretty early on.
18 - Peter
I am really searching the piano music, to which House is listening. In the show, it was told, that it was composed and performed by the girls grandfather - well I know, this was fiction, but does anybody know, who has composed and/or performed this very cool jazz music?
Please inform me, if you know: writingdarkness [at] gmail [dot] com
19 - Me
Check this link for the music used in the House episodes.