"Brave Heart" 6x06

We get a classic episode of House this week that hearkens back to the good ol’ days of seasons 1 & 2 when we deal with matters of the heart, both medical and emotional. And it’s a Shippers Wonderland as we get a bit of Huddy, Hilson, Chameron, Hase, Fameron and Hameron and none of Foreteen. Yay!


"Brave Heart"


“Parkour! Parkour!”

That will mean nothing to people who don’t watch “The Office,” but I had to include it. The image of those guys and their stupidity still makes me giggle. So for everyone else in the world we get an opening scene of a bad guy being chased through the back alleys by a bunch of policemen. There are two that seem to be in charge: plainclothes detectives, one in a suit and one in cool cop gear with a leather coat, tight jeans, dark colors….you know the look. The scene is more “Casino Royale” James Bond-ish instead of “The Office” fortunately as the bad guy hops, skips and jumps over seemingly impossible hopping, skipping and jumping objects. The bad guy even manages to scamper up the sides of the warehouses by using the pipes on the outside of the walls. The two main detectives race back inside to climb the stairs to the roof and the suit detective stumbles, hurting his leg. The cool detective continues on and realizes that the bad guy is on the roof of the building NEXT to the building the cop’s on. And this is where it goes from “Casino Royale” to “The Office” because the cop decides he’s going parkour his butt over to the other rooftop by taking a flying leap over the narrow alleyway. Yeah. It does not end well as he pulls an Evel Knieval Snake River Canyon jump and runs out of momentum about halfway there. He drops and with no red, white and blue parachute to help him he smacks onto the pavement. The bad guy looks over the edge, thinks, “That’s gonna leave a mark.”, and then races away. The other cops come to check out their friend and we watch him bleeding out of his mouth with his limbs all twisted as we go to the opening credits.

We are with Cameron in the ER, which means she’s pulling double duty, having to work with the Diagnostics team AND still run the ER. She sure pulled the short straw. She’s finishing up with our cool cop, Donny. It seems as though he’s as banged up as you can get without it actually being life-threatening. He wants to go home, but Cameron is hearing none of that crazy talk. His partner is there blasting him for his stupidity. We discover that these foolhardy stunts are an everyday thing for Donny because he thinks he’s going to die when he turns 40. His great-grandfather, grandfather and father all died of heart attack at age 40. He went to many doctors and specialists in his early 30s and no one could find anything wrong with his heart, but he knows he’s going to die anyway so he does things that a sane person with a normal lifespan would never think of doing…like jumping across a 20 foot alley. He turns 40 next week and has become even more foolish. Cameron is intrigued and tells Donny that, “If there is something wrong, I know a doctor who will find it.” We all know she’s not talking about Foreman, who couldn’t find a farmhouse in the middle of a field. Unless Foreman got a clue from the doctor she IS talking about, who at this moment is enjoying an early morning tryst with himself on Wilson’s couch. Yuck. I hope he at least buys himself brunch afterwards. Wilson stumbles in and is also not pleased to see the goings on. House denies everything, saying he was just cleaning the lint out of his navel…never heard that euphemism before. Wilson tells him that he’ll get a mattress for him and put it in the study so he won’t have to interrupt anything again. House comments that it took Wilson six weeks, longer than he thought it would, before he finally got House a mattress and let him get the study. Except House calls the study “A Shrine to Amber” as Wilson switched the rooms around after Amber died. Wilson couldn’t be in the room they had slept in and instead filled the room with pictures and momentos of their time together. It’s too early in the morning for Wilson to argue with House’s deductions so he goes along with it and says he’ll have a bed delivered to the tabernacle, but does mention he’ll need the room on Tuesdays for the animal sacrifice. He walks back into his bedroom and leaves House to pick the rest of the lint out of his belly button, which House ultimately admits to not being what he was really doing. Yuck.

Cameron has finished her early AM shift at the ER and has come up to diagnostics just in time for House to arrive. She’s going over the details of Donny with the boys while House is insisting that it’s not a real case. Cameron has found another sick puppy to fix, House surmises, one that goes through life expecting to die and thereby forming no relationships because of it. House tells Cameron she should have just been a vet. Foreman uses his boss power to officially start a differential diagnosis on genetic heart mutations for the team. Chase pipes up with two ideas and House complains that Chase is only agreeing with Cameron because he wants to sleep with her. House pauses, looks at Cameron bent over the table and then tells Cameron, “By the way I agree with you too, especially in those pants.” Cameron turns to House and rolls her eyes, but you know her heart flipped a time or two. Foreman orders tests, overruling House and his lack of a medical license. The team leaves House in the department, stirring his coffee. He’s glad to have Cameron back just to have the good coffee again…

Chase, Cameron and Foreman are walking down the hallway. They are discussing the tests they need as they walk to Donny’s room in the ICU. Chase sees him laying there and has a flashback to Dibala arresting in the same room. He realizes he’s not quite ready to go back in there and quickly takes off his watch and slides it in his pocket. He calls out to the others, saying he must have left his watch in the locker room and tells them to go ahead to the patient’s room. He’ll meet them in the lab. Cameron is confused, as she knows she saw him put his watch on that morning. Foreman looks like he realizes what Chase is doing. Chase walks off.

House is reading a medical journal in his office when the Dean of Medicine walks into his office. Miss Edelstein is looking especially beautiful in this episode, I must say, which is good, because Mr. Laurie is amazing as always, especially in his blue shirt. To be honest, I hadn’t embraced his shaved head look…until this episode and now…wow. Mr. Laurie is hot. Cuddy is there to ask House what his plans are. He proceeds to rehash a set of plans that originally belonged to a guy named Adolf. That’s not what Cuddy was looking for. She needs to know if he’s going to be a real doctor again. Pretend time is over. House, however, has enjoyed playing pretend doctor and thinks he wants it to stay this way. He can diagnose all he wants and not have to do anything else. He likes pretending. Cuddy says that if that’s the case, she’ll start having payroll send him pretend paychecks. Ouch. She tells him he’ll need to complete 120 hours of training to get his license reinstated, which he can do by going with the medical students on their training rounds. House doesn’t like the sound of this. He tells her that although he does have to get the training she doesn’t have to make him hang out with the med students to “complete” them. He insinuates she can solve the problem with one hand tied behind her back, her right hand probably as she’s left handed, and just sign the form. House gets a better idea and tells her he’ll do it her way if she just instead ties his hands behind his back….wink, wink. She smiles softly and hands him the clipboard for rounds he’ll need to be at tomorrow morning. As she walks out, the more mature House doesn’t whine and complain, but merely admires her backside as it sashays away. You know he’ll figure out how to get out of rounds as soon as she’s gone. Loved that scene. Yeah, we’re back to a mature, fun flirtation between the two. Kudos for acting your ages, kiddos.

Chase, Foreman and Cameron are in the lab. All the tests have come up negative. They’ve got all the DNA and genetic material they can from the patient and Chase and Cameron think they’ve run out of things to test. Foreman cryptically states that there is another source to test. Chase and Foreman have moved to the autopsy room. Two incomplete skeletons and one glass bowl of green slime lay on three metal gurneys. It seems they represent the great-granddad, granddad and dad. The dad is being represented by the bowl of green slime due to the sealed casket he was placed in. Remind me to tell the mortuary to not seal my casket please. I look horrible in green. They are ready to start running the tests. Foreman calls Chase out on his watch story and Chase admits that he nearly had a panic attack when he had to go into the room. “I’ve crossed some line, “he says, scared. “And I’m having a hard time finding my way back over it.” Foreman says he’ll move the patient, but Chase says Cameron will ask why. He’s not ready to deal with that. Foreman, who is suddenly full of great relationship advice, tells him to talk to Cameron. Cameron walks in at that moment and is surprised that they were able to get permission so fast. Permission, schpermission. I was just surprised you could exhume three bodies, well, two bodies and a bowl of slime so fast. They must have family plot at a cemetery close by, right? It’s filled up pretty fast, I ‘m thinking. Chase does a loving husband thing and tells Cameron that she gets to run the tests on the dad. Now, I know this is a cute, teasing joke on Chase’s part, but he should have realized that he needs to totally suck up to Cameron right now, especially if his confession of him being a murderer and all is happening in the near future.

House is putting on his leather jacket and turning off the lights in his office when a woman walks in. She’s looking for Dr. House. House tells her he’s already gone for the night, but she’s not buying it. She says that she read in the paper he was taking care of a cop named Donny. Wow, House gets some print-time. Must be a slow news day. She tells House that she had a relationship with Danny ten years ago and has a son by him. He doesn’t know this as he was adamant in not wanting a child. She is worried now, however, that her son with Donny has the same genetic predisposition to die of heart problems at 40. House is immediately intrigued, but not enough to help her himself. He picks up the phone receiver, tells her to dial extension 742 and tell Dr. Foreman she has some cool information. He leaves her standing in his office, holding the phone. Yeah, don’t expect personal care and concern from Dr. House, Ex-Mrs. Donny, especially when he totally doesn’t have to give any.

We go with House to his new bedroom in Wilson’s study. He looks quite comfy in the queen bed and it looks like Wilson has either picked up House’s old sheets from his apartment or he’s bought a duplicate set. He sees the picture of Amber on the nightstand next to his bed (really?) and tries to ignore it. He turns off the light and closes his eyes. The second he does this weird, indistinct whispering sound begins. His eyes fly open and he looks around the room. There are pictures everywhere of Amber and Amber and Wilson and they all get focused on as the whispering continues. House wasn’t kidding about the shrine comment…. House is obviously disconcerted. He turns the light back on and the sound stops. He stands and walks out of his bedroom, pausing to see if he hears the sound in the hallway. He doesn’t. He then goes to Wilson’s room and opens the door. He sees Wilson’s form lying on the bed facing away from the door. Wilson turns over and sleepily asks if he’s okay. House says he’s fine, but his eyes are spooked and we know his mind has to be spinning. He returns to his room and lies down. He hears nothing, but as soon as the light goes off again the whispering continues. House pulls on his sheets and stares into the darkness, fearful that his mind is returning to the crazy side of life. And we go to commercial.

After commercial the team enters the diagnostic department relating the complete lack of info they received from the remains of Donny’s ancestors. They wonder where House is. There’s a post-in note telling them that since they really don’t have a case anyway he’s gone back to school and will be back in 120 hours. I’m thinking he’ll be done before that. House always has a plan. Foreman and Cameron agree that they should take a bone marrow sample from Donny’s son. Chase doesn’t want to inflict that pain on a 10-year-old who doesn’t even know what’s going on. Foreman seems to think that possibly saving two lives with one painful, yet harmless test is a win-win situation. Foreman gives Cameron the go-ahead-and-stick-the-kid’s-bone nod.

Unfortunately, no one took in the fact that Donny’s son, Micheal, may not want to be spiked with a large needle in the hipbone, which is what happens. He wants to know what’s going on. Cameron pulls the mom out of the room and uses her best puppy dog eyes to convince the mom that she should tell the kid about his dad. The mom, Cheryl, says that, hey, she’s been lying to him all these years why stop now, but she sees Cameron’s wisdom and goes back into the room to tell her son the truth. And that boy playing Micheal is not 10. The kid has a stache!

We are now in a patient room with three med students and their supervisor. House is standing in the back, leaning on the heart monitor machine. One student is rattling off the facts on the case and ends with statement that the patient is now ready to be discharged. At this, said patient’s heart monitor starts to beep loudly and the students panic. One student yells that the patient’s stats are dropping and another goes to check the airway. She exclaims the patient is choking. “Yeah, on your fingers,” states House, who is still casually standing by. The other med student grabs a scalpel and is about to create an airway when the unfazed doctor leading the rounds calming asks House to get his finger off the heart monitor’s test button. “Oh, my!” House mocks and pulls his arm from behind the monitor. The alarm goes off. The student with the scalpel looks shocked as she tells House, “I could have slit her throat.” “Well, we’re all here to learn,” House deadpans. The doctor in charge is not amused. He tells House that Cuddy warned him about the things House may try and he’s not going to be intimidated. House nods and then proceeds to use his cane to snag the patient’s catheter and pull it lose, flooding the floor with urine. As the students look on in shock, House tells the doctor that the great thing about the teacher-student relationship is that the teacher often learns things from the student. “Have you learned anything yet?” House asks as he holds up the form he needs signed. I’m thinking the doctor did. He has a definite look of defeat on his face.

Ex-Mrs. Donny is telling Donny about his son. Donny is mad. He never wanted kids and doesn’t even want to see him now. He’s being a jerk. Cheryl tells him that she never asked for anything and the least he can do is talk to him now. He doesn’t respond quick enough because the mom goes and pulls the kid into the room. Great idea. The son, hoping to build some type of relationship with his new day, asks if they could spend some time together when he gets better. Donny not only flat out refuses he slams Cheryl again and now includes the son by telling them he wants nothing to do with them. The pain Donny felt when his dad died is still with him and he doesn’t want that happening with Micheal. Micheal and his mother are shocked at the outburst and leave the room.

Back in the diagnostics department, House has rejoined his team, just in time to hear that absolutely nothing they’ve tested for points to any abnormalities in the heart. Nothing. House brings up the point that Cameron has put her foot in the personal lives of her patient again and come out with a shoe covered in crap. The son is devastated by his father’s rejection and they learned nothing from the bone marrow they conned him out of. Cameron defends herself and her actions. At least the truth is out. Yeah, but at what price, House wonders. Chase seems unconcerned with the conversation. He is in his own world. House is still convinced that nothing is wrong and he’s about to go prove it. He’s going to give Donny a “diagnosis” and send him on his way. The comforting words of a skilled doctor and a bottle of placebos will take away the psychological medical problem. He tells Chase to join him on his trip to the patient. While riding in the elevator House comments on Chases lack of involvement in the previous scene. Chase says he’s fine to which House, of all people, responds that he shouldn’t be. Then House, who must be reading my recapments(!) tells Chase that his shoulder devil told him to kill someone and now his shoulder angel is telling him he needs to burn in a lake of fire for it. House tells Chase he needs to talk to someone, and lest the conversation gets too serious, House comforts Chase by saying that while it took doctors seven weeks to fix him up, it should only take 10 minutes to help Chase out. Chase thanks him and House replies that he’s glad they had the little talk. He says it lightly like a joke, but I’m proud of House. He is truly making huge steps forward in his recovery and recognizing the success of his therapy is now actually prescribing it to others! Remember when House tried to cover up his visits to the therapist for an entire episode? And now he’s testifying to its goodness. Amazing. It’s a great scene between the two men. I’m glad the writers gave that moment to them. They go into Donny’s room and House tells the patient that he has Ortoli Syndrom. So apparently Donny wants to fight for the Free French Forces against the Nazi’s and be head of the European Commission. See, I gotta do research on this show ‘cause everything means something! Chase knows House is blowing smoke but backs him up and spews out some fake medical mumbo jumbo. Chase needs to work on his delivery, however. House then tells Donny that the treatment is simple: take a week’s work of a drug called Nabasynth and he’ll be cured. And yes, I did look that one up, too, only to be mocked by Google and PoliteDisent.com that it’s a completely made-up medicine. Oh, the shame. Donny is so relieved to finally have an answer that he doesn’t even make a scene of the fact that the pills taste exactly like the altoids House stole from Cameron. He signs the paperwork and House tells him to go home.

And now House is back at the apartment, hesitant to try to go to sleep. He’s totally freaked that he’ll hear the whispering again. And he’s right. He lies down and the whispering starts only to be followed by loud pounding. House is freaked. He sits up. We hear Wilson, muffled through the wall, “Answer the door, House. It’s gotta be for you.” House asks Wilson if he’s watching TV and Wilson again tells him it’s someone at the door. But House is not consoled. We cut to Foreman in the hallway pounding on the front door. House jerks the door open and looks around the hallway. He immediately asks Foreman if he was talking to anyone. Foreman says he’s alone. House is distracted as his eyes dart around the apartment hallway. Foreman asks if he’s okay. House responds by asking why Foreman is there. Foreman tells him that Donny collapsed four hours after being sent home. He’s dead. House is stunned. Commercial. That dad can come visit me all the time too if he takes me to Olive Garden every time.

House and Foreman are sitting in Wilson’s living room. House is stunned and looking very worried. See, the last time he was missing things that lead to people’s deaths he started hallucinating dead girlfriends and sex with his boss and had to be taken away for a while. So combine this new fact with the whisperings and he’s definitely spooked. Foreman explains that Donny was found in the laundry room by the superintendent of the building. They called the EMTs but it was too late. House wonders out loud, “What’s wrong with me?” Foreman, not thinking past the patient, assures him that everyone missed it, whatever it was. House is totally not worried about the patient dying as a result of him missing something part. He’s worried about the why he missed the something part. House asks what the autopsy results were and Foreman said he had the body taken to PPTH so that they could do the biopsy. House nods his approval.

Chase wakes up Cameron. He’s dressed and tells her that he’s driving out to tell Cheryl that Donny is dead. It’s 4:00 am and since he has to drive two hours he’s going to head out now. Cameron is confused. Chase could call her. Chase says she should be told in person and he gets up to leave. Cameron asks if everything’s okay. She knows something is up. She tells him she knows he was stressed about the Dibala case presentation and she gave him his space but he should totally be over it by now. Totally. Chase brushes everything off, assures Cameron that he loves her but tells her that the world does not revolve around her and heads off to talk to Donny’s ex-girlfriend. Okay. That thing about the world didn’t happen. But it should have. Sheesh.

We get a nearly full frontal nudie shot of Donny laid out on the autopsy table. His casts are off, because it’s not necessary or possible to heal dead bone, and a light is being positioned over his chest. Foreman is there in manly pink scrubs with House standing off to the side. Foreman begins the official autopsy report by recording the name and age of the deceased. He’s following this thing by the book, as usual. He’s clipping hair, toenails and taking swabs. This is annoying House. Off-screen we hear the sound of a saw and the camera and Foreman turn to House, who has a bone saw in hands. “Can we cut to the money shot?” he asks Foreman. “It’s his heart, so let’s look at his heart.” He goes to cut the guy open but Foreman stops him, reminding him that he needs a medical license to perform an autopsy. House is pretty sure he can’t mess up anything else with this patient. Foreman simply takes the saw and begins to do the incision. He goes about 4 inches and stops. “That’s odd,” he says as he and House take a closer look at the incision. “It looks like he’s bleeding.” And indeed it does as they give us a nice close-up. House and Foreman are puzzled. Their puzzlement turns instantly into terror, however, as Donny suddenly lurches up on the table screaming in pain. WHOA! That was cool. It would have been better if I hadn’t been spoiled about that scene but it was sure fun to see the two boys leap back in horror and hear that girly scream from Foreman…priceless! What goes around comes around, House! The two men stare at a gasping Donny, obviously not dead. “I think the autopsy’s gonna have to wait a little bit,” says House, who still hasn’t come any closer to the table then where his initial fear hurtled him. I’m thinking Foreman and Donny agree. Oh, man. That must hurt. Commercials. Remind me to not join a gathering of people to observe the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012. It’ll make it easier for the collapsing dome of the Vatican to crush me to death….

Back from the commercial and House delivers one of the best lines ever: “Differential diagnosis for resurrection. Go.” Tee-hee. Foreman ruins the fun by saying Donny was never dead. His blood pressure and heart rate dropped so low that the EMTs couldn’t detect it. I bet those EMTs tried to get a job with PPTH Security Forces but were turned down. Sheesh. But apparently it happens, because Cameron comes up with another situation where that could happen. House shuts the theory down. House tells them to pretend that they aren’t all idiots and that maybe nothing is wrong…with Donny’s heart. They have spent the past few days examining the heck out of his heart and found nothing. What else could cause Donny’s symptoms but not be caused by a heart? The team begins to discuss it, but House is distracted by that whispering sound again. He spins around trying to pinpoint the source. He sees two people walking by in the hallway, and even though the whispering stops when they pass he’s definitely shifted his focus away from the diagnosis. He does tune in enough to think that an autoimmune disease of some type could be responsible so he orders steroids for Donny.

We see Donny waking up in the hospital room. Cameron asks how he feels. He says that his whole head is killing him. Cameron tells him that he just went through major trauma…Yeah! An attempted autopsy! Donny doesn’t remember anything besides leaning down to take out his laundry. Cameron tells him he was declared dead and made it to autopsy. Donny figures out House was yanking his chain about the previous diagnosis and he just can’t get all that excited about coming back from the dead because he just expects to die soon anyway. Yeah, me too, but I’d be thinking about trying to stay alive a bit more just to enjoy the money you’d get from the lawsuit against the EMT service and the hospital.

House has headphones on and is sitting in a soundproofed room. He is taking a hearing test from the grumpiest Audiologist ever. She comes into the room and tells him his hearing is fine. He asks her why he is hearing whispering. She says, “Probably because someone is whispering.” Oh…she’s funny! What a dry wit. He asks her if old childhood fillings done in the Phillipines (that sounds like a bad song) could be the cause for the sounds. She examines his fillings and says no way. So there’s no reason why he is hearing whispering, House asks. She says she’s only an Audiologist, not a Neurologist. If he’s hearing things it’s in his head and that’s totally not her job. House gets the spooked look again and still the lady just harrumphs and walks off. She must be the only person in the entire hospital to not have known House was taken off to the looney bin over the summer. That’s pretty cold talk for anyone to endure in those circumstances. “Hey, you must be crazy again! See ya!” Then again, maybe no one at the hospital knows anything. If House’s plight was brushed under the rug and put off to his normal jerkiness then I could understand the Audiologists cynicism, I guess. No, she’s still a dork. But that also means that the entire hospital still thinks House slept with Cuddy. Hmmmmm. How did they brush THAT under the rug?

Later that evening House goes to see Cuddy in her office. I’m having flashbacks to the last time House, fearful that he was losing his mind, went to Cuddy’s office. I’m hoping this doesn’t end the same way…unless it ends with a real request for help followed by a real frenzied game of carpet tango. But alas, no. House isn’t a jerk, but he doesn’t confide in her. She is sarcastic in her amazement that he was able to do 120 hours of medical training in one day. House tells her he wasn’t on his best behavior and Cuddy informs him that she is now in charge of making sure he completes the needed hours, but House takes the form, apologizes and tears it up. He tells her sullenly that he made a mistake and he’s not ready to start practicing medicine again. He turns and leaves her office and DANG IT she didn’t say a word. She saw something was wrong. She has experience from moments just like this one and she still lets him walk away. Dang. To her credit, she does look worried. Man.

House is back at Wilson’s and he has that look on his face that he did when he was trying to escape Hallucination Amber (HA) back in the last season. He’s thinking he’s losing it again and after all he’s done to improve everything. He’s feeling defeated again. We hear a door opening and the camera pulls back to reveal that House is again on Wilson’s couch. He doesn’t want to even risk going back in the whispering room. Wilson has just come home and nearly gives himself a heart attack when he sees House laying there. Wilson asks what’s going on. House says he just fell asleep watching TV. “With bedding?” asks an incredulous Wilson. “Maybe!” House snipes back. Wilson sees beyond it all and asks House if he needs more help; if he needs to talk. “I’m right here,” he says, sincerely. “Could you be right here, someplace else?” House responds. Wilson shakes his head and goes back to his bedroom. Oh, House. You’re scared and reverting back to your old ways. Please talk! Remember what happened last time you bundled it all up in side. It festered, festered, festered right into a trip to the asylum. TALK!

Donny is in his bed complaining to the nurse about his tooth. It’s KILLING him! The nurse tells Donny that he’s maxed out on his pain meds and can’t have any more. She tells him to try and sleep. She’s obviously never had a toothache before. She leaves. And then Donny, holding his jaw, gets out of bed, rummages through various carts and drawers in the room, finds a pair of long-handled surgical tongs, sticks them in his mouth and…. Honestly, I covered my eyes. I have this thing about teeth and pulling and no anesthetic, but because I am a dedicated recapper I looked through my fingers just in time to see him yank out his tooth and watch the blood as it cascaded out of his mouth and down his chin. Blech.

The team members are sitting in the hard, dark hallway outside of their perfectly good department that has lovely, soft chairs in it trying to figure out why Donny would pull a perfectly good tooth out of his mouth. They believe the pain is real and Cameron thinks it may be bone cancer. Chase disagrees. He asks where House is and Foreman tells them that he is off the case, having told Cuddy he’s not ready to return yet. Chase throws the news off to yet another battle in the power struggle between House and Cuddy and insists again that it’s not bone cancer, but he’s got nothing else to contribute. Foreman shrugs and tells them to test for tumors to at least disprove Cameron’s theory. He gets up and leaves to begin the tests. Cameron waits to see if Chase, who is sullen and quiet, will follow. Instead he heads in the opposite direction.

Back for another night at Hotel Wilson, House is still on the couch. He listens intently, but hears no whispering. He decides to do a little investigating. He doesn’t want to believe he’s losing it again or at least he’s willing to fight it more this time. He goes back into his bedroom and listens. Within moments the whispering begins. This time House is ready and follows the sound the floor vent half hidden by the rug. He pulls the rug back and the whispering volume increases. He walks down the hallway to Wilson’s room and silently opens the door. He cracks it open just enough to hear Wilson whispering while lying in bed. He’s talking to Amber and telling her about his day. House digests this as being exactly what it is: sad and creepy. His relief that he’s not going crazy is tampered but the fact that his best buddy misses his dead girlfriend so much he still talks to her at night. Poor Wilson, but yeah, kinda strange.

Cameron and Foreman are finding nothing indicating bone cancer on their patient as they watch from the tech booth in the MRI. Cameron also isn’t getting any information from Foreman about what’s bugging Chase. Foreman tells Cameron she needs to talk to her husband and I don’t know which torques Cameron more: the fact that Foreman won’t tell her anything or the fact that Foreman knows what’s wrong with Chase.

House is sitting up on the couch when Wilson stumbles into the kitchen the next morning. Wilson sees him and asks if he wants breakfast. House says not today, he’s hallucinating, which apparently takes away your appetite. Don’t know for sure. Wilson is concerned and asks if that’s why he’s been acting weird; if that’s why House quit. House says that he’s not seeing things he is just hearing things; whispering, and while not on vicodin. You can see Wilson’s expression change from concern to awareness. Before House can see it his facial expression goes blank (watch it) and he says, “Well, I’m sure there’s a rational explanation for it.” He rattles a few off, but House won’t agree. House simply says, “I’m going to check myself back into Mayfield.” It’s very subtle but I swear Wilson rolls his eyes and he simply agrees, “Okay,” and turns around to go start breakfast. House is shocked Wilson is taking all this so lightly. House tries to goad Wilson some more about sources of the whispering and Wilson is ignoring him, even going so far as to offer to drive him to Mayfield. Ouch. House comes clean and tells Wilson he knows perfectly well what or who is the source of the whispering. House is not very supportive as he picks on Wilson for his midnight dead girlfriend pillow talk. And Wilson, who still misses Amber A LOT yells at House. House can’t understand and even after House offers for Wilson to talk to him Wilson shuts him down. “Talking to her makes me feel better,” he says to House. “You don’t.” Harsh. Wilson walks out of the kitchen leaving House standing there wondering what in the heck just happened, but knowing he probably didn’t handle that the best way possible. I’ve read some forums slamming Wilson for his behavior, but I think his actions are misinterpreted. Wilson has been House’s best friend for a long time, but he’s been House’s punching bag for just as long. There’s an honesty between to the two that exists nowhere else and that’s the driving force of the relationship. Wilson knows House knows the source of the whispering the second House mentioned it. He knew House was just jerking him around trying to get Wilson to confess. Wilson was just doing the same to House in offering him a ride to Mayfield. I think Wilson is genuinely hurt that House just didn’t ask him if he’s okay and if he also needs to talk to someone else. You know, just offer support and not play with him. That’s why Wilson comes off so cold. He thought that House was progressing only to have House disappoint him. You gotta wonder how Wilson can put up with SO much crap from House. He’s the eternal optimist, I guess. Unfortunately, he’ll also be eternally disappointed if he continues his friendship with House.

Later that morning at the hospital Dr. Cuddy herself is leading the cute medical student clichés through their rounds. House joins them while one of the students rattles off the patient info. House apologizes for being late. Cuddy is surprised to see him and tells him so. He blips off a quick response. He and the audience are surprised as Cuddy continues to rant about him and his behavior to him in front of everyone. House looks around self-consciously and then does what he does best when attacked-he attacks back, managing to rattle off five gender-related insults in less than 30 seconds. Finally, Cuddy remembers her professionalism or realizes House is only getting warmed up and takes the conversation outside. Through the glass the students watch the two continue to bicker standing a mere 6-8 inches apart. Really. I hope they both had breath mints they were so close. One of the students mentions she understand why Cuddy hates House. The other student shakes off the diagnosis with one of her own. “That’s not hate,” she says, watching her boss take on the diagnostic genius. “That’s foreplay.” Now as obvious and almost over-the-top that line was…I LOVED IT. Yeah! I smell Huddy in our future, kids.

Cameron and Chase are staring at Donnie’s body scans. Their faces look like mine when I’m trying to figure out my taxes…huh? House comes whistling into the room and stands between them. He asks if they have any ideas. They don’t. He asks if they know where Chase is. They, especially Cameron, don’t. House is intrigued by both mysteries. He says he must have come in too soon so he’ll take another lap around and when he returns he wants three ideas with at least one that makes sense. As he walks out to take his lap his eyes open in realization. Where there’s pain there are nerves. House spits out, “Hereditary Sensory Autonomic Neuropathy Type One” and it must be right because both Foreman’s and Cameron’s faces light up with realization. Cameron says she’ll start him on the right meds, but House says that Chase asked to do it. He leaves to find Chase.

He finds him sleeping on the couch in the doctor’s lounge. House wakes him up with the smacking of his cane against the cushion Chase is using for a pillow. Chase, startled, wakes up, but settles down on the couch when he sees who it is. He sits back and asks if the patient has bone cancer. House tells him no. Chase tells House he should thank him for not wasting time performing the test, but House has shifted the conversation direction. House flat out tells Chase that the reason he hasn’t talked to anyone yet is because he thinks Chase wants to feel guilty. As long as Chase feels guilty he can’t be termed a homicidal maniac. He can feel like he’s paying penance. House has no time in his life for paying penance. House tells Chase to get his butt into the patient’s room and administer the medicine. Now. Jump back on the horse, cowboy.

Chase does just that as we see him hanging the IV bag with the medicine. He looks at Donny only to see Dibala bleeding out of the mouth. He can’t shake the image and can barely breathe. Donny asks him how long until they know if this is right and Chase responds as he’s walking out. But Chase stops and asks the patient if he’s ever had to shoot anyone; ever kill anyone. Donny says he’s shot two guys but not killed anyone. He knows people who have though. Chase asks about their reactions. Donny, clueless as to the reason for the questions, nonchalantly replies that one captain he knows compares it to taking out the trash. The other, his old partner, nearly drank himself to death. Chase asks if his partner got help. Donny doesn’t help by saying, “Yeah, the help didn’t help.” Thanks for not helping, Donald. In retaliation for not helping, Donnie’s bowels lose control and make a mess of the bed.

So, the loss of bowel control rules out the long-named diagnosis House mentioned earlier and they are back to having no idea what’s wrong with the guy, except they’re pretty sure he’s dying. House jokes about the misfortune of the “duty” nurse on the patient’s floor. Get it…doody. Fine, go back to that doctoring thing, House tells them. Foreman comes up with an idea, which they’re all pretty sure isn’t it, but they run off to test and treat anyway. House tells them to hurry back when this theory blows up so that they can have time to try one more thing before Donny dies.

It’s only Chase and Foreman testing the patient because we now see Chase entering an old school confessional booth. I’ve heard that these aren’t used much any more, but obviously Chase doesn’t want anyone to know about the murderer thing and associate his face with the confession. Smart guy. Plus, he figures he can “confess,” get absolution and move on. Done deal. Unfortunately, he gets the toughest priest there is, who says it’s not that easy. After all, Chase did kill someone. Chase shows his true flip-flopping character by telling the priest that yeah, he killed someone, but that it was the right thing to do so case closed. Again, the priest tells Chase that he’s going to have to turn himself in to the police in order to even get on the “To Be Forgiven List” at that parish. The priest even cuts Chase down on his reasoning and mocks him. Harsh. Chase demands, then begs for forgiveness, but it’s not to be. The scene ends without Chase receiving resolution and Jesse Spencer and his acting skills just got pushed up a few notches on the “How-Does-He-Compare-To-Mr.-Laurie School of Acting Chart.” Well done, Mr. Spencer.

In the next scene we see House in his office. He’s playing with the Tennis Ball of InspirationTM. Then we see him manipulating the Paper Clip Chain of Insight TM . Finally, he’s sitting on the floor against the wall and tossing sharpened pencils into the Trashcan of Revelation TM . This is where Cuddy finds him. She walks in and we get a great shot of her legs and House’s rapture with them and the rest of her form. We also can see Mr. Laurie’s fine biceps. Yum. He finally looks up at her face. She hands him the form he needed for the 120 hours of training, signed and ready to send to the medical board. “Why?” House asks softly. “Because it’s easier this way,” she responds. “You’re uncomfortable with me,” House states, worried. “No, going by the book was pointless. You were going to learn nothing.” She just looks at him. No emotion. “Good. I thought it was because of the sexual tension.” This time Cuddy does smile. “There is no sexual tension,” she replies, as her nose grows and grows because of her flat out lie. We see House looking up at her. “Well, there was tension. (Beat) And it made me feel funny, so…” She gives him a bigger smile and I see friendship and warmth, but it’s all still very professional and calm. She hands him the form and he takes it. She smiles again and begins to leave only for House to call quietly and quite seductively after her, “It’s too bad.” She stops and turns. “I was getting into the whole hot-for-teacher thing.” Oh, man. He said that awesomely. His tone is so sexy, yet his eyes are serious, searching for a response. He is stepping out of his comfort zone. He’s flirting without being blatant and sexist…sort of. Baby steps. Cuddy asks him, “Are you sure you’re okay?” and she completely means it. No subtext. No motive. Just straight out concern. “Yeah,” says House, ducking his head. “False alarm.” He looks back at her and makes eye contact, “What about us?” he asks and I nearly squeal. “We’re good. Just like this. I push your buttons and you push mine.” I am about to burst to find out what House says next about the button-pushing euphemism when dang-it-all he gets the FINAL EPIPHANYTM. He stands up to walk out and I’m screaming at the TV, but then he stops, steps up to Cuddy, totally invades her personal space with his awesome bod and says to her, “You do make me feel funny.” She stares at him after taking a quick look at his lips (did you see it?) and he strides off. And OH MY GOODNESS! She looks slightly gobsmacked, like she doesn’t know what just happened and turns to look after him, a tiny faint smile glossing her open lips. Hooray! I feel like I did whenever Remington Steele used to smile at Laura Holt. Dang, I’m stupid.

House strides confidently all the way to Donny’s room where he declares to Donny that he’s not going to die. He tells Donny that he inherited a self-destruct button also known as an aneurysm thats growing at the base of his brain. As he gets older it become so big it presses on too many nerves and blood cells and shuts everything down. Donny thinks House is yanking his chain which House agrees might be the case. Way to build confidence. But House says he won’t give him sugar pills this time. This time his fake test will include slicing open Donny’s brain and if that test is positive he’ll slice open his son’s brain, too. Donny is relieved to know that his son will be okay. I’m thinking at this point that relief is based more on the guilt of passing on a death sentence and not on love, seeing as how he’s never even talked with his son. House says his son will be fine, but can’t guarantee random bus accidents. House gets up to leave, but stops. He turns to Donny and asks if he wants to call his son. House’s patients don’t have to follow the visiting hour rules. Of course they don’t. Donny says maybe later and House says, yeah, that’s what he thought. He tells Donny that he really knows Donny wasn’t worried about leaving a son behind distraught at the death of his dad. Donny’s reason for not getting involved in anything made it possible for Donny to still do whatever he wanted to do without consequence. It’s much harder to live when others depend on you, confirms House, who leaves, tossing a sharpened pencil in the trash can in Donny’s room. This House is the House of seasons 1 & 2, who although he didn’t appear to be, was in fact, very much invested in his patients. I am glad to see him return.

Our ending musical montage begins with Micheal waking up from surgery just fine and then Donny wheeling himself in and making a connection. Then we slide to Cameron’s and Chase’s apartment. She’s on the phone with the police giving Chase’s personal information. She hangs up when he stumbles drunk through the door. It’s 2 am. Chase apologizes for not calling but he needed to get wasted. He did and now things are okay. Yeah, until you sober up. Cameron asks Chase what he’s keeping from her. When he responds with “Nothing” she walks off. The music ends and we see House in his bed. He can hear the soft whispering of Wilson in the next room and he simply puts in a set of ear plugs and closes his eyes. After a few seconds his eyes open and he smiles. “Hey, dad,” he whispers. “I think I’ve been focusing on the wrong thing. There were some good times.” He pauses for a moment and the smile leaves his face followed by one of mild annoyance. He yells out to Wilson in the next room, “Wilson! This is stupid!” We see Wilson lying in his own bed. Wilson smiles and whispers, “See, he is getting better.” And cut to black.

This episode dealt with matters of the heart of just about every character on the show. The patient had both medical and emotional matters of the heart that were successfully solved in our 42 minutes. House also successfully worked on his matters of the heart with Wilson, Cuddy and Chase. Cuddy had an unexpected matter of the heart resurface I think in her interactions with House and if spoilers are true you can better understand her conflictions. On the flip side, Chase tried to ignore his heart’s connection with anyone especially with Cameron. And fortunately, we didn’t have to dwell at all on Foreteen’s matters of the heart. A poll on SpoilerTV.com said over 81% thought this episode of House was amazing and I have to agree. This solidly-written, well-acted, and nicely-directed episode ranks up high on my all-time favorites list. It was vintage House and as everyone should know…vintage never goes out of style.

Thanks to everyone for reading. Let me know what you thought about the show and your feelings on upcoming episodes. November is going to be a great month!