House – Are any of these characters capable of changing?

One of my favorite things to do for past reviews of House was to write around a theme, usually dictated by the episode title. Tonight’s episode, “Changes,” leaves me stumped. Did anyone change? Chase is still a man-whore, Foreman is still sterile, House and Thirteen are busy playing the “who’s more miserable game” and Cuddy is still in denial. They made Taub seem mentally healthy tonight. Even Donal Logue is still greasy and sweaty, my pet-peeve from the Life days.

Maybe Thirteen is right — we are who we are. Chase can’t be the Super Monk because his miserableness makes it easier to be a man-whore. No matter what, it’s impossible to get Foreman to show any type of feelings whatsoever. Cuddy and House can’t change, they will always want to be together on some level; neither can let go. None of them can change because they are who they are.

Is this a huge commentary on all of the personal growth we’ve seen from House over the past two seasons? I’d like to think we aren’t going back there, that the writers aren’t trying to tell us that it is impossible for House to grow and be happy. I don’t buy it. I watched it for two seasons and I loved every minute of it. They’ve got to be going somewhere with this. Seeing as the next episode is called “The Fix,” I’m hoping that some of tonight’s apparent inability to change gets, well, fixed.

Cuddy’s mother is wiser than anyone’s given her credit for, and it was really cute that she was trying to get House and Cuddy back together. She said it better than anyone else has all season: “Look at you idiots — who else is going to put up with either of you?” Then, she goes on to tell Cuddy that she’s an idiot with impossible standards … just what I’ve been saying all along. Maybe the change will come when Cuddy is finally able to forgive imperfection?

This and that:

• “You know, I was just thinking, how much I wanted a relationship with no sex yet where I still have to deal with your mother.” – House to Cuddy when she tells him her mother may be suing the hospital
• “Medicinal. I’m expecting a shooting pain in my ass.” – House to Cuddy as he popped Vicodin
• It was pretty funny watching Foreman’s reaction when he realized that Chase had rigged the blood pressure machine.
• I couldn’t help but think of How I Met Your Mother‘s “Slap Bet” when the nurse slapped Foreman instead of Chase.
• We’ve seen House steal the rooms of coma patients before, so he could watch their TVs and hide from everyone, but I’m not sure we’ve ever seen him put the patient on the floor and take the bed … so irreverent.

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on May 02, 2011 @ 22:35 EST5EDT