“What are you doing?” – Dr. Cofield, as House popped his Vicodin
“Taking my Vicamins.” – House
It’s hard to know where to begin writing about this episode of House. When the screener was released to us, it came with a letter from Greg Yaitanes, who directed this episode (his 30th of House), and it said, “This is an episode that puts the series itself on trial and that has needed every episode before it in order to be relevant.” I agree. You can’t watch this one in a bubble, not accounting for the last seven and a half seasons, and appreciate all the little nuances of the episode, or even the bigger picture. Last week, I wrote that the themes of running away and absolution didn’t quite tie up in a neat bow for me, and I think that’s because they were meant to continue over to this week’s episode.
One thing that I think we need to take a look at is House’s relationship with his team over the years. It was always a concern, especially for the original three (Chase, Cameron and Foreman), that they not become like House. Cameron just had to get out (she ran away), but Chase thought he could handle it and went back to House’s team, and Foreman knew he was like House (even if he still wont really admit it) and now finds himself supervising House. Sometimes they agree with him, sometimes they don’t, but they are all very well aware of his methods … they’ve just made their choices.
So in this episode, House’s team clearly wanted to back him up — Taub and Adams especially — because they know he’s brilliant and saves lives. They couldn’t quite say he was right in his approach, but the statement from both Adams and Taub, “He’s not wrong,” was very telling. To go even farther than that, they truly do “get” him; Chase knew House was concerned about him and also knew that he couldn’t just check in on him without an excuse … but he did check in. For all of the fronts House puts on, his team can see right through most of them.
It was really interesting that I spent nearly the entire episode agreeing with House: it was nobody’s fault; most of the time good things happen but sometimes bad things happen and this was just one of those things. The things that I saw as inappropriate, like the entire team being the ones to operate on Chase — weren’t even addressed. Was this purposeful? Is this a matter of House’s influence versus the free will of the team members? How much could House really be blamed for Chase bringing the scalpel to the possibly-psychotic patient’s room?
“Everybody lies” was brought up again in this episode, but it juxtaposed in an interesting way with such an honest, truthful episode. Or was it? Did the team tell the whole truth when they were testifying that House “was not wrong”? Did Dr. Cofield speak to his truth when he didn’t discipline House for the incident? House may be the only person who was truthful down to the core tonight. Not only did he call out Dr. Cofield’s cowardice, but he also apologized to Chase. Wow. The character growth House has experienced over these seven and a half seasons is remarkable.
Another pattern throughout the series is that, for better or for worse, House is always right. When he went to Chase and said he was sorry, that they were wrong that it was nobody’s fault, was House right in taking the responsibility? Chase didn’t seem to accept his apology, and I’m wondering if that’s because he holds himself responsible, not House. But we can’t discount the atmosphere that House creates in the workplace; as a teacher and a parent, I keep coming back to the concept of modeling, which is essentially teaching through example, with the intention that your students / children will learn from it and start to do what you do. Do you think House modeled his reckless and inappropriate behavior with the intention of making his team imitate him? Do you think the team would behave differently if they had a different boss? Did House create the disobedience and recklessness, or do we have to hold each team member responsible for their own choices, no matter what the influence?
I think the concept of absolution is back, and will be back again in the next several episodes, as Chase and House each struggle to forgive themselves and each other. I don’t think any of the questions I’ve asked can be answered definitively, because it’s not black and white. Neither is life, and House does such a wonderful job of reflecting those nuances. Maybe if House were different, the incident would not have happened, but Chase brought the scalpel into the patient’s room of his own free will.
What do you think? Does House create an atmosphere that promotes recklessness, as Dr. Cofield said? Or should all adults be held accountable for their own behavior, no matter what the circumstances?
This and that:
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Feb 06, 2012 @ 21:00 EST5EDT
I actually thought Chase was dead and being written out of the show.