House … Season 5 Episode 2 “Not Cancer”

My favorite part of House is the opening.  You just never know what the latest mysterious illness has befallen some unsuspecting schlemiel.

I wasn’t sure what characters were going to be on House this current episode.  In Season 4, House had a new class of House wannabes.  And House was identifying them by a number or sometimes he would come up with one of his clever nicknames that would just grate on their collective nerves.  But he never (to my recollection) called them by their proper names.  But, he is House, after all … no respect for anyone.

It was almost like I was watching “House - The Reality Show ala Survivor Rules” last season.  Yeah, I didn’t find it appealing at all.  And I’m guessing that the reason the show is not following that same format this season is because the viewing public hated it.

In this Episode 2, Wilson (House’s best friend and enabler) continues with his plans to leave House and the hospital.  And this has really gotten under House’s skin.  And it also gets in the way of House giving his undivided attention to the latest patient. This is the first time I’ve seen House actually affected by anyone.  The “I am an island, I need no one” attitude is gone.  He’s genuinely distraught about the prospect that his friend and colleague would no longer be there for him.  But I think more than that, House is feeling that maybe his friend has gone off the deep end.  Well, really.  I mean Wilson’s girlfriend did die last season and House was with her because she was babysitting House by taking his drunk ass (and high) home from a bar.

I think that House feels guilty about this to a depth unknown by anyone, even himself, because he knows that if Wilson had come to the bar to take him home instead of the girlfriend, things might have been different.

The mystery surrounding this patient has to do with an organ transplant she received from a man who had an industrial injury and died.  Several other patients also received organs from the same man and they are all dead.  Unexplicably dead.

I have to say that I truly feel sorry for whatever patient House has during any given episode.  They truly epitomize the definition of “guinea pig.”  House and his team of overachievers do every test, some invasive, some not, to find out what is killing whatever patient is the focus for the week.  I know that if it were me?  And everyone was poking, prodding, cutting things open, trying tests that are experimental or never heard of before … I would so pull the I.V. out and run for the nearest exit.

I do think I see a change in House this episode.  I see him as a doctor who is more in touch with his patients and his own feelings.  I mean really, how many seasons can you have a egotistical, crotchety, Vicodin addicted, physically disabled (and definitely emotionally disabled) doctor continue to be that big of a jerk and so extremely unprofessional and still be successful?

Of course at the end of the show House and his gang successfully cured the patient.  But what struck me as the most important part of the episode this week was that House has hired a Private Investigator named Lucas.  He hired Lucas to investigate Wilson.  He also hired Lucas to investigate the person he wants to hire to replace Wilson.  He struck me almost as a House Mini-Me.  Same personality attributes.

Good show this week.  I wasn’t sure I was going to watch House after last year’s fiasco.  Of course, the writer’s strike did not help last year.  Just when I thought I knew what the heck was going on, the writer’s strike hit and everything was just hanging in mid-air.

Rumor Mill:  I heard somewhere that the PI Lucas that House hired may get his own spin-off show.  Very interesting.  Very interesting indeed.  So we’ll have to keep an eye on his character as it develops to see if it’s something we might be interested in watching.

Until next week, good health and may you never look up from a gurney and see House standing over you.