Digging into the heart of the House, M.D. season finale in an exclusive interview with its writer.
The fifth season of House, M.D concludes with Dr. Gregory House (the always extraordinary Hugh Laurie in a heartbreaking performance) watching his world come crashing down around him — his sense of reality shattered, unable to distinguish fantasy from reality. It was a somber way to end the season, the camera pulling back to reveal the lone figure of Wilson, watching sadly from afar as House enters the doors of Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital.…
Article comments
76 - Pedantic
Barbara, as always, I extend kudos for all your fine work, and special thanks for your diligence in bringing this interview to life. It is quite a bonus to hear from the source about such an important and pivotal episode.
Some of Doris Egan's observations really struck a chord with me. One was the description of House's reaction to his purported intimacy with Cuddy as "Christmas morning happiness". Cuddy had said "House doesn't do happy.” That's exactly what it was, though...the concept of the ultimate “happy.” It seems they wanted the contrast between the initial version of events and the final version to be as stark as possible, so that the final version would seem as harsh as they had intended it to be.
Another was House's romantic idea of being "saved" by Cuddy; this involved change, but as Cuddy had said to House, "You don't like change.” It’s interesting that House's subconscious was portraying him as embracing change and happiness.
My sense is that there is confluence of multiple Kübler-Ross cycles (the phases of a person’s reaction to a perceived significant negative event " a death, job loss, or any significant life change: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, and acceptance) going on with House, with each new significant event preventing the resolution of the last, creating an additive effect. The initial version of events with the detox and intimacy with Cuddy seemed like House’s subconscious way of resolving all of the events and tying them up with a nice bow. It demonstrated just how desperate he was.
The final idea of Doris Egan’s that struck me was the idea of the left brain as the narrator or storyteller of our lives, and the fact that House had constructed this story as a way of not having to give up Vicodin, which is his faithful coping mechanism, and is so central to his life and to this show it is really another “character” for the writers to include in their scripts. If you look at it this way, this is really being proposed as another possible “character death”, or at least another potential significant “loss” for House. That being said, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of the Vicodin “character”, because it would be like the character of House dying…it just isn’t plausible. The idea that House’s left brain fabricated a story like this does seem to make sense in consideration of the Kübler-Ross cycle (bargaining, perhaps…)
Serious fans of House (especially “spoiled” ones) have also had to go a Kübler-Ross cycle in a sense, in response to the early spoilers about the finale, and then in response to individual interpretations of the events in the finale. This type of forum is important to the process of “working it out” (so, once again Barbara…thanks! I find both the articles and the comments here to be discerning, insightful, and articulate.)
Regarding the House / Cuddy relationship (I hesitate to characterize it as a “relationship” because that term is so incendiary and divisive, but “employee / employer” is also a relationship): I wholeheartedly agree with Stagestruck’s comments. I’m only human and I can be shallow enough to admit that I would love to have viewed a hot, naked scene of them in bed, but as a fan of the show and its perpetuation, I realize that it wasn’t the proper approach in portraying them. I do believe that we haven’t seen the last of the House / Cuddy “personal” relationship. I guess we just have to trust that the Executive Producers sometimes have to give us what we need instead of what we want in order to produce a provocative and compelling television program, which is ultimately what I really want anyway. It seems that some viewers tend to look to television for instant gratification and get frustrated when their favorite programs don’t deliver. To me, that’s just a fundamental misunderstanding of the intention of serial drama.
As has been proposed by others, I believe that there will be both psychiatric and physical reasons for how the events have unfolded for House, with the physical reasons possibly being related to the deep brain stimulation of last season, the head injury from the motorcycle accident this season, or some other brain issue we have yet to see.
I am certainly looking forward to next season, perhaps more than for any new season.
77 - XJK
#79 - ann UK - I'm also in the UK and keep up by using sidereel.com - the amount I'm on the net, I would get the crucial information before I saw the episodes, and would hate it!!
Barbara - how do you get all these fantastic interviews?? Thank you once again :) Doris Egan wove a tale that, even on rewatching, stands up to the scrutiny of an audience who know what happened. I really think Wilson wasn't worried because he never picked House up from the bar - I like to think that House went straight from the bar to Cuddy's office, and hallucinated turning to Wilson first - therefore Wilson thought that Amber had gone following the insulin shock. Makes me feel better about the episode anyway!!
I still love what they've done with the series, although I wait with baited breathe in hope that they won't throw it away over the summer and start with a 'cured' House. I'm looking forward to seeing what someone in this forum called the 'triumvirate' deal with this, and also the fallout for the ducklings new and old who didn't see this coming, and how they deal in his absence.
78 - Eckhard
What will "happen" in season 6 is the following:
The Hospital will go down the tube without house. And they will ask him to return.
He doesn't want to -- but he will eventuelly!!!
79 - GMF
Thank you Barbara for the great interview. Doris Egan is one heck of a writer, it must be an amazing feeling to see ones work so well played out on the TV. I would love also to hear David Shores or Katie Jacobs take on the way they ended season 5. But so far they have been very quiet! However, I am both exicted and scared, as to how they are going to deal with the events of the last epiosde. But I know with writers like Doris, they will deal with it very VERY well.
80 - Meena
Barbara, thank you for this interview with Doris Egan, and for providing such a great forum for all of us to etch out this interesting, complex series...I am really going to miss reading what everyone has to say this summer!
I really will try and not repeat what's been said...but I think the final episode is truly brilliant, in every area - the acting, the direction, the music, and the writing, especially. After the end, I was simply shell-shocked; now, with some distance, I am actually glad to have a break to just put the pieces of the past few episodes together (though four months will be a stretch). I have rewatched this episode (and the one previously) a few times (more than I'd like to admit out loud), and there is such brilliant dialogue, beyond the important double conversations, that HAS to be on purpose, and yet it is hidden enough for interpretation...
For instance, when House sees Cuddy for the first time after they had pseudo-sex, and after she says "We need to talk" he says, "Great. I love euphemisms, And by euphemisms I mean when you say something and mean something else." That is just amazingly awesome on so many levels (teenspeak can only capture my delight). Or, when Cameron says (describing Chase) "And Chase has this romantic idea of love that reality can't compete with". You could substitute House's name for Chase easily in that conversation. I can't believe ALL these lines are happy accidents - Doris Egan is just too nuanced a writer for that. Or when Eugene Schwartz (my favorite clinic patient of all time) says that doctors are "distracted". And I could go on...
I find it interesting that House's mental problem was really more a 'mirror' (and how important mirrors were to this story!), or opposite, of the patient's, in that House’s logic side and intuition side were getting all mumbled together instead of existing independently like the POTW, So he couldn't distinguish between the issues of Eugene Schwartz and Alien Hand Guy, and the instincts leading to their own particular predicaments. He was still right, his instincts were correct in both cases - but the way they manifested was not right. I really thought they were going to go with the whole "House has lost his mojo" thing at the end here, where he is just not as good a diagnostician as he used to be, but this is so much more creative...
Regarding the hallucinations, I find it really interesting that (at least with the information the audience is given) Cuddy is really the only hallucination he had which became tangible, something he felt and could in turn feel (unless the sex was in a dream in the middle of his hallucinating her, this is a bit of conjection here on my part). In UMS, Amber patted him on the leg, but that is quite different from kissing someone into a wall (and so forth). And, at the end, when Kutner entered the picture, even though he spoke the truth (much like Amber did in the beginning) more was not merrier, and House must now face the music if he wants to regain his sanity; however, we still don’t know which music (head trauma, Vicodin addiction, etc) is causing all his problems. I hope we get to find out.
I have to say I love House’s romantic gestures and inclinations, because they equally cheesy, creative, and very proactive. Doris Egan provided such good insight in how she sees House’s emotions more as a woman " never thought of it that way before, so true. Though, interestingly, House is emotionally raw when it comes to love, he still is an alpha male, such as when he went after Stacy in the past, and in the same way he was going after Cuddy now (though he had false intel). Eventually, after she got rightfully PISSED at him for the balcony scene, when he said the line, “So I think we should move in together” and Cuddy laughed and smiled I thought that this was a bit of a predictable outcome, but wonderfully Housian at the same time. To be wooed by House is special indeed " nothing is safe, and he will surprise you just when you think you’ve figured him out and come to some sort of conclusion about him. Oh, how it all turned. After the end reveal, I feel like the adage of the show should change from “You can’t always get what you want” to “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” For a minute.
The last minutes of the show in relative silence, wow " the rest of you have said it better than I could. I will say that the way the ending overlaps was so incredible, with House and Cameron taking opposite steps - her down the aisle to join Chase, getting the rings, and walking away with him, happy - and House, 'walking' with Wilson, getting rid of his belongings, and then walking alone to the institution, despondent. All to my favorite Rolling Stones song, which is both about seeing evidence of what is missing from your life, and yet being woefully detached from what is missing " even the sadness - in your life (at least my interpretation). Interesting to know from this interview that it was a directional decision - how wonderfully collaborative. I must also give praise to those that write music for this show - that background music in the beginning was downright sexy and hopeful, when House was playing with his faux-lipstick orange pill bottle - and the same music was turned so easily sinister at the end. Whoa.
For next season, I wonder how long House will stay in the institution, if we will be privy to anything that happens there, and how life will move on at PPTH. If/When he gets better, will that be measured in him returning to some status quo of who he was the past 5 seasons? Will he view that as progress or success? Or in what other manner will he heal? And, if it takes time for him to heal, how will his team do in his absence? I almost think it would be worse for House if they succeed than if they fail " he might break down again if he became obsolete (never in my book, though:) )
Thanks for letting me ramble (belatedly)...
81 - nc
So I've read, re-read, and re-re-read your interview with Doris Egan, watched "Both Sides Now" more times than I care to admit, and gotten past the fact that there won't be any new episodes till fall.
Oh, wait, scratch that last part.
Just kidding. Nothing as good as House could have the episodic frequency of a soap. I'll just gnash my teeth quietly in the corner till fall.
But I keep thinking about some things, mostly small and perfect choices, which make even more sense now and/or seem more important than they did right after BSN first aired.
For one thing, part of the text of the wedding ceremony as it was when I was a kid/flower girl (moons ago when dinosaurs roamed) floated up into my conscious memory: "With all my worldly goods I thee endow." For me, that's part of the subtext of the scene in which House gives Wilson his watch, etc., because of how it parallels Chase and Cameron's wedding.
The camera angle in House's bathroom when he first spots the "lipstick" is off kilter and wavery, subliminally suggesting there's something very wrong with what we're seeing.
The look on Cuddy's face in the scene in House's bathroom, just before she disappears as he realizes what really happened, almost is cold. It's a deliberate stare, not the fond glance of concern we see her give him in "Under My Skin." It's a good match for how she feels about his behavior thoughout BSN until the point at which she realizes something's very wrong.
I love the way Carl Reiner plays the unconscious comedy of Eugene Schwartz's early incursion into House's life and serves as the token through which House and Cuddy interact. Equally, I love the way he takes the character from almost jolly to dazed and lost. "Dying is easy; comedy is hard": I wish more comedians got credit for the serious acting chops many of them have.
I'm really glad that TPTB decided to keep the camera on House outside the hospital, rather than in. That interior sequence would have been too much like watching Intervention, and it would have been a much smaller moment, IMHO, than the grand canvas of building, sky, road.
What a great gift this show is, what a privilege to watch on every level.
82 - XJK
Just a quick question- have just read the television without pity recap of the episode, and they mention Wilson's constantly changing tie and the possibility of it signalling if Wilson is real or hallucinatory in any given scene - did anyone notice this? I may have to rewatch to find out (any excuse :)
83 - 60 plus
I believe we see Wilson in three different ties during the episode. Other characters, including House, change clothes, also. This makes me think that the action took place over three days, not one. It explains why House refers to "the other night" at the end in Cuddy's office, rather than "last night." I haven't come up with a reason why they did it this way, however, so I could be mistaken.
84 - Clara
Good morning,
I'm French and it's very difficult for me to read in English.Could anyone translate in French the most important passages of the Doris Egan 's interview ?
Thank you very much for your help !
House MD is my favorite tv-show and i loved
the finale season.I would like to understand better the shocking episode
"Both sides now" thanks to Doris Egan!
When i saw this episode,i cried and
i've been enormously shocked by the sudden
transition from the happiness toward the misfortune!
For the next seasons,i wish House and Cuddy
love and happiness and why not
to move in together !!!
85 - Meena
XJK - hey, I won't disuade you from rewatching, so maybe you should read what I have to say after another viewing or two:)
In my opinion, the scenes with Wilson are real, simply because there is no reason for them not to be. Over this season, House and Wilson seem to have come to an understanding regarding each other - at least as much as they can. Instead, I find it interesting that House chose to hallucinate those people with whom there is something significantly unresolved, be it dead or alive. And, as I said in my previous post a few above, it's even more interesting that Cuddy was really the only hallucination he had that was tangible - i.e, something he could actually touch and could touch him, repeatedly. I'm not sure what this means...
Also, more technically, I noticed Wilson's tie changes but it is consistent with House's changes of clothes (and that of his team), even Cuddy's change of outfits - connoting changes of day. Even in Under My Skin, I noticed Wilson wearing a different tie after House woke up from his insulin coma (I have a thing for the sartorial dialogue on this show); but right after that scene, House's team was also wearing new clothes. Usually, they have one of like four outside-PPTH shots to denote time of day, or new day, etc. - but with this episode I think they purposely let a lot of that slide to create a feeling of confusion and displacement. So we only have the ties! (maybe)
Particularly, I think that Wilson's scenes are real because personal scenes with House are interwoven with scenes where there is someone else present - Eugene Schwartz (who shakes his hand), Taub + POTW, etc. Those scenes on their own don't make sense unless there was some sort of continuation from before.
Of course, unless the whole thing is one big hallucination, what do I know...I totally bought the one-day detox, vomiting foreplay, animal-sexed, lipstick-smeared, I-need-a-cigarette post-coital House as it was originally presented:) But I also feel that every silver lining has its cloud, a point of view which I think I happen to share with the writers and creators of this show, and why I love this show so much.
Yes, I have given this way too much thought...I completely relate to House's Rubik's complex, I've got it bad (you should see me in real life:)).
86 - XJK
Re #83 60 plus - thanks, thats how I saw it too, but wondered if I might have missed something
I still get to rewatch it though, right?? :-D
87 - magz
Meena (#80), I noticed some of the same things you did: that Cuddy was the only still-alive person House hallucinated, and that his hallucinations of her were not just visual and auditory but sensory as well. I think House was able to fool himself into thinking he could still function, do his job and (try to) get on with his life when he hallucinated a dead person, but he realized that his grip on reality was much more fragile when he hallucinated Cuddy. It will be interesting to see how the writers tackle the first House/Cuddy dialogue after this episode, particularly if they intimate that Cuddy finds out about House's sexy hallucinations from Wilson.
Also, when I rewatched the episode, I wondered about the first exchange between House and Cuddy. She says "We need to talk" and he says "Great - I love euphemisms". I wondered why he said that. Was he trying to cover up saying "Great - I love you..." and stretch it to 'euphemisms'? It doesn't seem so, but I am not sure what 'euphemisms' were referenced. I also wondered why Cuddy did not tell House "Are you insane?" a few times in the episode - such as when he talked about locking the barn door or when he asked her if they should move in together. I know the dialogue between them was deliberately set to different contexts to keep the big revelation to the end, but you have to wonder why Cuddy didn't play it straight and ask him "what are you talking about?" or "Why are you shouting about something that happened twenty years ago?" earlier on.
I loved the scene where House walks away from Wilson and toward the creepy-looking psychiatric hospital. He looks so defeated, but keeps moving forward. I think it was important to the narrative to have him take these steps alone, though I did (for a moment) wondery why Wilson did not park closer.
I am looking forward to next season to see how the writers bring House back into the PPTH fold. Might he lose his license? ('Alien-hand' guy can't have been thrilled to have his pancreas painted with venom because his physician subconsciously mixed him up with 'here's my poo' squawker guy, right?) Will they show House suffer through detox and various therapies or will they take a shortcut to a physical cause and bring him back to his job after applying a quick surgical fix? Now that House fully acknowledges his feelings for Cuddy (at least to himself and Wilson), will he act on these or stay stuck where he is? Sigh. The summer will be looong...
Thanks, Barbara, for the Doris Egan interview. It's always interesting to get some insight into the work and talent and magic that brings my favourite show to life.
88 - Flo
Clara, traduire l'interview serait trop long, le mieux c'est que tu expliques les passages qui te posent problème et je verrai ce que je peux faire.
Doris Egan parle de plusieurs choses très intéressantes comme sa fascination de "l'alien hand syndrome", de la relation entre House et Cuddy, de la romance en général sur cet épisode, des hallucinations de House et son était psychique ainsi que de sa manière d'écrire.
je pourrais certainement traduire certains passages si tu le souhaite.
Also, very interesting thing about the fact that Cuddy is the only alive person that House halluccinates. I think for House, Cuddy symbolizes cure, happinness and love. Three things he is looking for. I really believe that if he had his delusion with someone else, the end of the episode would have been so dramatic and poignant.
89 - Clara
-FLO-
Thank you very much for your help!
Could you summarize in French what Doris Egan said about House's left and right brain?I'd like to understand better the
functioning of House's brain!
What is the meaning of his hallucination?
What is the biggest shock of his life?
What did Doris Egan say about the House and Cuddy 's relationship?
Could you translate in French:"Egan confessed to writing a detailed outline for a prequel to House and Cuddy having sex for real"?It concerns this finale season or one
episode of the next season?
Once again thank you for your help!
90 - Flo
First of all I apologize to all the english-speaker here, I'm gonna put this in french to help Clara:
Okay Clara here we go:
le “alien hand syndrome” est quelque chose qui a toujours fasciné Doris Egan. Un des thèmes de l’épisode est, selon elle, "comment on fabrique notre propre histoire ?" c’est un sujet qu’il l’a interpelée quand elle fait des recherches sur le 'cerveau partagé' (split brain). Sa fascination remonte à loin puisqu’elle un fait un papier là-dessus à l’université. Elle a toujours voulu écrire un scénario là-dessus.
Le corpus callosum relie les deux hémisphères du cerveau et quand celui-ci est sectionné (à la suite de crises genre épilepsie, par exemple), les hémisphères ne communiquent plus.
C’est ce qui arrive à Scott, le patient de cet épisode.
Chaque hémisphère à des utilités particulières : selon des chercheurs de ce syndrome, la partie gauche de notre cerveau est le narrateur de notre vie. Le conteur. Celui qui donne un sens à tout. Doris Egan dit : "J’aime beaucoup ça. Nous acceptons toute l’étrangeté et la singularité de ce monde et on fait en sorte que ça ait du sens. Il y a toujours une histoire derrière ce qui donne un sens à la vie".
Pour ce qui est de House elle dit "j’aime l’idée que son hémisphère gauche a inventé une histoire. Une histoire qu’il voudrait qu’elle se révèle vraie".
Pour elle, son cerveau lui joue des tours car en fait c’est un moyen qu’il a trouvé de ne pas abandonner le vicodin. Cette affabulation de cet hémisphère vient en quelques sortes de la peur de devoir se désintoxiquer. "House savait qu’il devait abandonner la vicodin d’une manière ou d’une autre." C’est pourquoi, après s’être préparer à entrer un cure de dtox dans "Under My Skin", il a commencé à s’inventer une histoire.
En clair il hallucine ce qu'il souhaite par-dessus tout.
House s’éloigne de la réalité quand son hémisphère gauche lui propose un scénario idyllique. Cependant son hémisphère droit " qui a la capacité de relever tous les détails que l’hémisphère gauche laisse et qui s'occuppe de faire des connections entre tous ces détails " tente de signaler à House que quelque chose ne va pas.
C’est toute l’utilité du patient de la clinique, le vieil Eugene Schwarz. House est vraiment secoué quand il se rend compte qu’il n’a pas pris en compte tous les indices qui montraient que Schwarz a certainement un cancer du pancréas. Pourtant les indices étaient là, House le savait mais il les a attribués à Scott par erreur.
C’est à partir de ce moment que House se dit que quelque chose cloche. "House réalise que ce qui s’est passé avec Cuddy n’a probablement pas eu lieu. C’est probablement pour lui, le plus grand choc de sa vie ! Il ne peut plus se fier à son intellect." Elle ajoute que bien que House se moque de la valeur de l’hémisphère droit, "Foreman lui rappelle, à juste tire, que c’est à cet hémisphère qu’il doit son don pour le diagnostique. Mais maintenant, ça joue activement contre lui".
Elle explique aussi que, selon elle, House a vraiment peur des problèmes mentaux et que c’est pour ça qu’il rentre dans un hôpital psychiatrique plutôt que dans une cure de désintoxication. Elle dit aussi qu’on verra certainement les raisons de ce choix la saison prochaine.
Pour ce qui est de la relation entre House et Cuddy, elle admet que c’est complexe. Elle avoue que le scénario était difficile à écrire car il fallait que le spectateur ne se rende compte que leur rapprochement de l’épisode précédent n’était qu’un délire qu’à la fin ce cet épisode-là. "D’habitude quand il y a une fin comme ça, on veut donner au public le matin après le fun de la nuit précédente et peut-être aussi le moment après les choses plus sérieuses. On veut un peu entrer dans le domaine de la ‘comédie sentimentale’". En tant que spectatrice, elle aurait peut-être voulu voir le badinage entre les deux, au réveil. Cependant, ça n’a pas eu lieu et ça n’aurait pas été dans l’esprit de l’épisode et de la série même si elle dit qu’elle pourrait faire avec un épisode entier de ce badinage.
Elle a aimé l’idée qu’il balance la nouvelle à tout le monde du balcon du premier étage. Elle pense que même si leur nuit ensemble s’était avérée être vraie, cette scène aurait quand même été bonne "parce que, hey, ils ont attendu si longtemps !!"
Même s’il ne s’est rien passé, au début de l’épisode on peut voir que House est heureux. Doris Egan trouve que la façon dont House perçoit se qui s’est passé est une pensée très sentimentale et romantique : "dans son esprit, Cuddy l’a aidé, guéri et aimé. L’idée que quelqu’un puisse être sauvé par l’amour d’une autre personne est une sorte de trope romantique." Elle trouve que dans la vie personne ne changerait quelqu’un comme ça.
Elle dit aussi que l’état de volupté dans lequel est plongé House, le fait qu’il rayonne et le film qu’il se fait est une pensée quasiment subversive car c’est conventionnellement un notion féminine. En substance elle dit qu’il y a une inversion des rôles homme/femme dans la dynamique de la relation House /Cuddy. "Là c’est le fantasme de House. Il le souhaite tellement! J’aime l’idée d’un homme pensant comme ça. Même si bien sûr, en d’autres circonstances, House se moquerait de n’importe qui ne faisant que suggérer un sentiment pareil".
Elle parle aussi de l’écriture de scénario et du fait qu’elle fait évidemment plusieurs versions. Elle parle aussi des ‘outline’ qu’on pourrait traduire par sketch ou ‘brouillon’. Ce sont des détails, scènes à part mais qui ont un rapport avec le sujet, ou la série en l’occurrence ce sont des grandes lignes d’une histoire. On appelle ça un scénario indicatif.
Là elle dit qu’elle a écrit un scénario indicatif d’un 'prequel' (c'est-à-dire qui se passe avant l’histoire) détaillé d’une scène où House et Cuddy avait une relation intime pour de vrai. Cela dit ce n’était quelque chose qu’elle à écrit en rapport à cet épisode. Elle explique simplement que "c’était hot. C’est tout ce que je dirai. C’était juste un scénario indicatif mais je suis toujours très détaillée quand j’écris mes scénarii indicatifs".
De toute façon Doris Egan est plus spécialiste de la relation House/Wilson que de la relation House/Cuddy elle a écrit les épisodes « Birthmarks » et « The Social Contract » de cette saison ainsi que l’épisode de la saison 3 « Son of a Coma Guy » mais aussi « House VS God » de la saison 2).
Cela dit elle avoue qu’elle aime bien tous les personnages. Elle aime écrire sur Cuddy mais pense ne pas avoir eu de véritable occasion de le faire jusqu’à présent.
Voilà pour les passages qui t’intéressaient en premier lieu. C’est un peu le gros de l’interview. Après elle parle du fait qu’un épisode mélange toujours plusieurs thèmes, de la façon d’écrire et comment ça se matérialise par la réalisation et comment celle-ci transforme certaines scènes, et de la relation entre Chase et Cameron.
Okay guys that’s a wrap, sorry for this long post in french !
91 - Clara
-FLO-
Je te remercie mille fois pour ton résumé et tes traductions en français concernant l'interview de Doris Egan.Merci pour ta patience,le temps que cela t'as pris ,les efforts fournis et ton travail parfaitement expliqué et parfaitement traduit en français.
Grace à Doris Egan et à toi, je peux mieux comprendre l'excellent et choquant épisode
"Both sides now"qui m'a troublé autant du côté émotionnel que intellectuel.Je pense que ce qui marque fortement notre esprit dans cet épisode c'est la complexité géniale du scénario mêlée à la complexité de sujets divers (le fonctionnement du cerveau, le bonheur,l'amour,la dépendance à la drogue,les troubles mentaux,les désillusions,le malheur,la solitude...)mêlée à l'excellente interprétation d'acteurs extraordinaires(Hugh Laurie et Lisa Edelstein y sont bouleversants!).
Encore sous le choc de cette saison finale,j'attends avec impatience la prochaine saison de House MD qui est ma série préférée!J'en suis devenue "accro"!
Je souhaite que la série House MD soit
couverte de récompenses très rapidement pour le prodigieux travail accompli!Les talents géniaux de Hugh Laurie et Lisa Edelstein doivent être primés et reconnus en tant qu'acteurs exceptionnels!
Encore et encore merci beaucoup Flo pour ton aide précieuse et pour ton parfait travail fourni en français!
92 - Eve K
Hello again. This is from TV-guide:
"Q:After House’s detox and the Huddy sex turned out to be his fantasies, what was real in the episode? The Chase/Cameron wedding? The conversations with Wilson?
A:There has been some speculation about this, but we weren’t trying to pull any fast ones on the viewers. Every scene that House wasn’t in was real. But even the stuff that House was in was real"it was just his perception of the lipstick/pills that was distorted. And there was no detox or sex. "
My question is:
About the detoxscene in "Under my skin". The detox-part was real right?
That was so well and real played by HL, that when I watch it again I am almost embarrassed if it wasn't meant to be real.
He could have been trying to detox alone, like he always want to manage things alone, and hallucinated Cuddy, but then gave up at the bathroom scene and then started popping the pills that gave him euphoria so he saw the sexscene with Cuddy?
It a bit unclear, because we only saw the bathroom scene in Both Sides Now, and there he seemed fine all the time, no sweat, nothing.(We may have seen him desperatly streching for the pill and that he took the pill/not took the pill as Cuddy faded away)
Since he was in the bathroom, I asume it was because thats were he caved from detox. I hope, I hope, that the detoxscene was real. That he was alone, and that he caved after some time and THEN ate the pills.
Hope this tread isnt "dead" yet, but if it is, so be it and have a nice week.
E
93 - Eve K
Yikes! I didn't check my sources (The article was copied from another site), it was mr. Shore who answered the question in TV-guide. That means that the detox wasn't real.
And that means that I may think that HL - dare I say it - overplayed that scene...as I have just thought of one time before, and that was when he was confronted with an STD in season four "No more mr Nice guy". Enough said, have a nice week.
94 - Eve K
This answer from Shore is a relief though!
Q:Will House be back at work when the season begins?
A:No. We want to deal with this in as realistic way as possible. We are going to be with House, but it’s not going to be at Princeton-Plainsboro. We want to take it through the process that House is going through.
95 - Eve K
Im so so sorry If that last comment was spoilery to some. Barbara, you can delete it if you want to.
96 - barbara barnett
Hi Eve,
Not to worry. That article's been out in the media and doesn't tell that much. I don't think he really overplayed the detox scene, because it was real in his mind. Enough so he believed it. Maybe (as you said) he started to try it on his own and when he really got in a bad way, gave in. the scene in the bathroom (which sees unfold as it really did at the end) has him quite disgustedly taking a pill and tossing the bottle on the floor...
97 - MaryJess16
I am soooo thankful for this interview. It was great! Thank you!
Though I don't agree with some of your opinions Maya, I definitely agree with your opinion about Hugh Laurie playing House. He definitely looks better than all of the hottest thirty year olds combined. I think he is perfect for the part, and I think the writers write him perfectly!
98 - KC
I miss your post so much when are you going to start revisted episode posts.
99 - Megan
What a great interview.Because everyone seems to be telling there opinions on the finale and such I thought I would. I am among the view who actually Like Huddy.I actually loved the detox scene.I admit i was actually disappoited it wasn't realt and soon after I began to realize this but never the less I still loved it. Go Huddy!
100 - Barbara S Barnett
Sorry I've been so absent these last two weeks. Real life has been a bit overwhelming. New article coming this weekend wrapping up season five. I needed to re-watch the entire season in order to do it. So it's taken me a bit of time. But hopefully by the end of the weekend, KC, I'll have a new piece up to share and discuss.
And...some very exciting things to announce as the summer goes on as well. (At least I think they're exciting!)
101 - savta
Hi Barbara - as long as you just reviewed the episodes maybe you can clear something up for me. I haven't been able to discern what Cuddy is saying when she is yelling at House in fury after the railing incident in Both Sides Now. She says " This is beyond _________." I can't understand what word comes after beyond and before she says "You have the luxury etc." Can you clear it up for me? Thanks.
On another note - I saw with excitement that tickets were available for the special event at the Paley Center and would have loved to be in LA for the panel discussion with DS, KJ, HL and the others but the tickets were gone even before it was publicized. I guess they must have been snapped up by members of the Center??
102 - putitupmike
This is freaking Kafka on TV. Unusual to say the least, and although TV has morphed over the past few years and the silliness of the wondrous humor of the 50's has been replaced with more powerful dramas, House stands alone. It took a discussion about the show with my daughter for me to see that it is more about this madman, than it is about medicine. I now understand that is about the journey of a madman. How it ends is up to the writers. I thank you for the suspense, the pure joy of the Actors ability and direction, the incredible writing and the mental assistance this show has given me personally. The writing and plot line are pure brilliance. I try to take something of House away, and to learn about his trials from each episode, and feel that I understand the writers intent at his growth. I still cannot glean the intent of having House on the bus with Amber. Where is the growth for him at having his relationship with Wilson die?