"Broken" 6x01-02

Okay, just a warning…this recap is long. Let me tell you why. I have read other recaps of other shows and discovered that I prefer the ones that make comments about what’s happening along the way and not just tell you what’s happening. So I’m creating a new word. I’m going to start calling these postings “Recapments” instead of “Recaps” due to the fact that it’s chock full of comments and observations. If you are looking for concise…you should look elsewhere. Now let’s begin.

BROKEN 601

We open on a shot of Hugh Laurie’s beautiful blue eyes, made even bluer by the stark, almost black and white filming of the scene. House is in detox and having a crappy time of it. The opening scene is without words just the soft angsty music of Radiohead’s “No Surprises.” It appears as though it covers 3-4 days, with each day getting worse and worse. It’s beautifully filmed and Mr. Laurie does an amazing job (stupid Emmy people must have been paid off…again!). House is in a tiny room with a metal bed and mattress and vomit basin. At first he’s in early withdrawal where there’s pain and nausea. At one point he’s curled up in the fetal position on a metal framed bed. At the nurses’ station, he gets his first new pain dosage, a tiny little pill, and takes it because there’s nothing else. The second day is tougher. He’s in massive pain. He’s barfed on himself and he’s getting an IV. His second dose of pain killers mocks him from his shaking palm. The next day is hell. He’s struggling for life. He pounds on the door for help. The next scene shows him restrained to the bed. He’s a huge tense ball of muscles. He’s sweating so much that there’s an outline of his body in sweat on his bed. Then, thankfully, his body relaxes. The last of the addiction is gone and he’s free. He sleeps calmly…finally. Wow. Remind me never to get hooked on Vicodin. I’ve only had to detox from carbs and caffeine and that experience was bad enough. Whew. I can’t imagine.
House wakes up to a world now filled with color and limps to window. He looks proud that he has succeeded in his detox. But now he’s done. He packs his bag and heads to the floor nurses’ station to check out. “Dry heaves are gone and so am I,” he says to the floor nurse. She politely tells him that he will need to see Dr. Nolan before he can do that. House refutes that saying he checked in voluntarily, he can leave voluntarily. But no, Dr. Nolan has flagged House’s chart and so House must wait for freedom.
House interrupts Dr. Nolan (an amazing Andre Braugher,) who is talking to a cute, blond lady in a doctor’s coat. House, being House, knows his conversation is more important than whatever conversation they are having and demands to talk to Dr. Nolan. House tells Nolan that he can’t keep him there. Nolan agrees but thinks House’s problems were from something more than Vicodin abuse. He tells House he was always narcissistic and arrogant but, “Your issues run deeper than Vicodin.” “Well, that’s not going to cheer me up now is it?” House retorts. But Nolan pulls out an ace and tells House he won’t give sign the go-ahead for House to get his medical license reinstated unless House sticks around and figures out those deeper issues. Wow…can you stay in a mental institution for 500 years ‘cause that’s just about how long it would take House to figure out his deeper issues, I would think. House has to comply because his ability to practice medicine and fix other people’s problems is about all House values about himself.
House is shown to “Ward SIX.” If he had been committed last season it would have been “Ward Five,” I’m thinking. There is your basic cliché-ridden group of mental hospital misfits. More about them later. He sits down with Mrs…..Dr. Beasley, the pretty blond doctor from Dr. Nolan’s office. I immediately cringe and feel sorry for her. I have a vision of her crying and running from the office as House cackles in the background. And then House tells her to basically expect major chaos and no compliance from him and my vision then includes her tearing her hair out as she cries and runs from the office.
House is unpacking in his room at the end of the hallway. In walks his new roomie, Juan Alveraz, aka JA, aka Alvie, manic depressive. He’s wearing an ironic happy face t-shirt and played by the wonderful Lin Manuel Miranda, who is the big bright broadway star du jour. I haven’t actually seen “In the Heights” but I saw a documentary about its production and opening night and I loved that. Can’t imagine how good the actual musical is… Alvie asks House his name finally after a rambling diatribe on the faults of anti-depression medication. House responds, “Just call me House.” To which Alvie pauses and then bursts into song with, “’Cause he’s a brick House…” He continues to sing as House gives him a wonderful “I can’t believe this is happening to me” look.
Then we jump into the Looney Tunes cartoon with the big dog, Spike, and the little dog, Chester, bouncing around him. Remember that one. The little dog is super hyper and bouncing all around and over the big bulldog asking, “What are we gonna do today, Spike? Huh, Spike? Huh?” Well that’s Alvie bouncing around House as the walk down the hallway and into the rec room for Ward Six. The rest of this duo’s interactions remind me of that cartoon. Oh! And then Spike keeps getting beat up by the panther that escaped from the zoo and Chester is always amazed because he thinks Spike is just going up against Sylvester. Wow. That could totally parallel House and Nolan, too. Who knew David Shore was a fan of Looney Tunes?
Alvie continues to bounce around House as he explains all the people on the ward and their particular issues and what goes on in certain areas. House becomes Alvie’s hero when he hears that House refuses to take meds, too. As Alvie shows House around, House doesn’t say a word. He looks around as though he’s casing the joint while at the same time growing more unbelieving of the situation he’s in. Nolan, Beasley and another doctor look on and wonder about House and his intentions. I can tell you right now, from past experience, his intentions are rarely good.
We have our first therapy session. It’s quite amusing as the individuals rattle off concerns and issues and House keeps asking for something to write it all down with so he can use the info later. The other members of Ward Six are: Yeah! It’s Booger, who’s paranoid (the character’s real name is Richter, but he’ll always be Booger to me); Gabby (who’s real name is Annie,) who ironically doesn’t talk; Hal, who’s addicted to Haldol and is an anorexic; Jay, a clausterphobic; Stomp, a guy who pounds on himself and doesn’t talk; Susan, a lady who just tried to commit suicide; and Diane, a girl with big glasses, who I think is just a bit slow. She’s Maybe she was put there by a family who didn’t want to deal with her. Anyway, just about every mental stereotype is present and accounted for. House has to make mental notes about each one but doesn’t say anything until he sees Susan’s wrists and makes a comment. Beasley reminds him of protocol. House fakes embarrassment. “Is suicide taboo,” he says mock horrified. “Gosh, if I’ve broken a rule on the first day I will KILL myself.” “Group’s over,” Beasley says. For his anti-social behavior, Dr. Beasley sends House to the Uncooperative Patient Club’s clubhouse, also know as the padded-wall isolation room. House gets locked in. He thinks he’s well on his way to early parole.
The scene moves to the basketball in the courtyard. House joins his group. Beasley asks if House is ready to play nice. She tries some psychiatry stuff on him and he rejects, deflects, and negates everything….he’s House. Beasley earnestly tells him, “Try to work with people. Try to deal with people.” And then House manages to work an entire episode of patient insults into 45 seconds as he joins his new friends on the baskeball court.
To Alvie: “Shut Up. No one likes you.”
To Jay as he closes in on him: “Oh no it’s closing in.” And he takes the ball!
To Booger about his green sweatshirt: “The CIA satellites aren’t watching me, they’re watching you ‘cause you’re wearing green.”
To Hal: “Yes, those pants make you look fat.”
To Susan: “How upset were you when you woke up in the ER alive and still a failure?”
House then shoots the ball for two points and walks back over to Beasley. “You’re right. It is rewarding to reach out.” House leaves against rules…again.
At this point I am feeling bummed, because here is House being a jerk again. Now, I know he’s naturally not a nice person, but in the first seasons although he was annoyed and easily perturbed, he was rarely spiteful and mean. As the show progressed he became meaner and meaner (especially in season 3) and at parts during the 5th season I stopped liking the character and wondered why I still watched the show. Okay…I still watched because Mr. Laurie was still playing Dr. House. Mr. Shore is lucky he kept that man around, I tell ya’. So now, I’m sad because I was hoping for more of a return to first season House or even part of second season House. Hmmmmm. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
House hears music coming from rec room and walks in to find Annie’s sister-in-law playing the piano. House is obviously attracted to her, after all, she’s an anomaly, something to figure out. Why would a German sister-in-law who plays piano wonderfully be visiting so regularly? Hmmmmm. And House manages to charm her by immediately stomping on her hope by saying Annie’s not responding to music but to her own pulse. Oh, the charmer. How does he stay single? The orderlies make their appearance to take House away to the clubhouse again and House tells her to leave the piano unlocked when she leaves.
A cool cover of “Love Vigilantes” plays as we see House in the isolation room. Eventually, Dr. Beasley enters asks how much longer House is going to be a jerk…ah forever. She suggests coming up with another strategy. He seems to come up with one pretty much on the spot.
Back in Ward Six, Alvie and Hal are playing ping pong without paddles or a net. They just bat a ball to each other. House comes in and does an Attica routine for paddles and a net. This time his efforts are much more effective. He riles up the entire ward, making Beasley nervous. I think the vision I had earlier of her might happen any moment. House is not using his powers for good. Then it all stops as Nolan comes in and gives them paddles. The ward is happy and move on. House is miffed. He asks Nolan if he’s going to continue to give others what they want but deny House everything. Nolan asks House if he thinks he’s not every bit as stubborn as House. House realizes quite quickly that he has met his match. Just a side note of a personal matter: the makeup people need to lay off the yellow cover-up for Hugh’s dark circles. My new high def television and cable box make him look like he has end-stage liver failure. Nolan walks off and House formulates a new plan.
We go back to Spike’s and Chester’s room. They are lying on their beds, starring up at the ceiling. Alvie can’t help rap incessantly about House’s situation. Fed up House finally speaks. “It’s easier to come up with a plan in silence.” House says almost politely. “Right. Cool,” responds Alvie. Pause. Pause. “Can I hum?” House chucks a book at him. It looked like it was a small paperback so no harm done with Mr. Laurie’s good aim.
We’re back at Mayfield in group therapy and we have a new patient..Steve. Well, Freedom Master, actually. Steve is just his secret identity. Alvie thinks this is cool. “We have more Jesus’ than superheros.” Steve thinks he can fly, much to Alvie’s delight. Steve wonders what is wrong with Annie. He thinks he can help her. House walks away from group and looks out window. He sees Nolan leaving with a younger, very sexy lady. And he formulates a new diabolical plan. Beasley comes over and asks why he doesn’t just conform and play nice.
House tells her she should have given her nice speech two minutes ago because it’s too late now. He’s got a new plan. And he’s committed to it…. Get it….
House finds Alvie on the basketball court and asks him if he has 3rd floor privileges. He does and House asks him to find out who Nolan had scheduled in his calendar for that morning. Alvie is all for this new commando plan but gets distracted and gives a dissertation about sour cream chips and the dwindling away of actually dipping the chips in today’s society. House asks him to focus and Alvie, totally up for the plan, heads off to complete his top secret assignment. Holding his pretend finger gun in front of him. I love this guy.
In Ward Six rec room House sits at the piano waiting for Alvie to return. He notices that Annie’s sister-in-law left the piano unlocked and plucks out da-da-da-dum before the orderly comes and locks it back up. He moves and waits for Alvie, who is soon carried in by the orderlies. Alvie is hollering that he just wanted some Ritz Bitz and didn’t know the machine was moved, but he looks over at House and gives him a big dramatic wink. House smiles. He smells freedom.
Alvie comes back to his room to find House waiting for him. He’s been in isolation and House is anxious for info. Alvie quickly apologizes. There was no name just a big red x through the whole morning. House is at first bummed but recovers. He’s got a license plate and a friend on the outside to look up the name and he’ll soon have enough info to blackmail Nolan into signing the medical board letter. House needs a phone. Alvie says you need level 5 for that one. Hal has level five thanks to Alvie and his love of mashed potatoes, but Alvie says House will need something bigger to barter for Hal’s phone card privileges. House asks Alvie how good he is at cheeking a pill. Alvie says he can’t do it at all. “That’s bad for you. Good for me.”
House and Alvie are sitting on the couch in the rec room wondering how to start it. Neither know. Start what? Finally, Alvie says, “Just do it. Make it good. Make it real.” House looks at him and then smashes his right fist into Alvie’s nose. Whoa. I’m surprised, not because of the punch but because I totally thought House would have no problem starting a fight and actually would be excited about it. Maybe the transformation is happening. House proceeds to pummel the heck out of poor Alvie, making the fight very convincing. Especially if your name is Alvie. The orderlies drag House off of Alvie and Beasley yells for them to shove haldol in his mouth. They carry a limp House into a room and lay him out on the bed. He looks passed out. Seconds later Alvie bounces into the room. His face is TRASHED. Ouch. He’s holding an ice pack to his cheek and tells House “Dude, that was awesome!” House wakes up and smiles. He opens his mouth and spits out the two pills that were resting on his tongue. He asks Alvie if he thinks Hal will mind if his bribery dose of haldol is a little wet…tee-hee.
House is in a darkened hallway on the phone and he’s talking to WILSON! Yeah! House tries to get him to help blackmail Nolan, but Wilson has been warned. Nolan called him and told Wilson to turn in his enabler’s badge. House is stunned when Wilson not only turns him down, AND agrees with Nolan, BUT ALSO hangs up on House. Man, Wilson. If you only knew what House had to do to get that phone card….
House returns to his only friend, Alvie, and admits to a change in plans…again. House is now going to pretend to cooperate and swallow the pills. Yeah, that’ll work. So much effort just to not conform. Sigh.
We then get a video montage set to James Hunter’s “Smoke Without Fire” of House NOT cooperating by pretending to cooperate. In doing so he jumps up in levels pretty quick. He talks in group, he shoots hoops, he gets to go outside, he makes nice. He fakes taking his meds and Alvie acknowledges his craftiness with the iconic nose rub from “The Sting.”
On another day, House once again visits Lydia while she plays piano for Annie. He tells her that he is humming to Annie and she sways. It could mean something. She calls him on his hypocrisy and reveals that Annie was an accomplished celloist.
House has to visit another doctor, Medina, and doesn’t like how distrustful he is of House’s recovery efforts. Medina tells him to give him a urine sample and he’ll trust him. House hobbles into a stall in the bathroom while the doctor waits. Inside the stall is Hal, who provides the necessary urine sample full of haldol. It’s a funny scene, especially when House has to sing in order for Hal to produce.
We see the patient board and House is being bumped up a level, obviously he passed his urine test. What a clever boy, that Dr. House. Medina comes over and apologizes to House. House and Alvie tag knuckles as Medina walks away. Medina then calls over Freedom Master and asks him to move the piano for him. Medina wants to prove that either (a) Freedom Master does have super strength and get him help physically or (b) prove to Freedom Master that he does NOT have super strength and get him help mentally. Yeah, don’t know what school of psychology Medina went to but I’m pretty sure his diploma is not printed in English. House takes exception to Medina’s theory and tries to break up the experiment. Freedom Master gets distracted by trying to help Annie retrieve her voice box. We learn sadly that Freedom Master’s wife was killed and Freedom Master loses it and is carried off by the orderlies.
House and Alvie are in the yard and discuss what happened. House is appalled that he just let Medina bully Freedom Master and Alvie reminds him that soon House will be gone and back in the real world and won’t have to worry about any of this. House briefly looks like that’s not such a great idea and then they are all called in for a goodbye celebration. Everyone is gathered to say goodbye to Susan. House notices Freedom Master is not there and goes to find him. Freedom Master is drugged into non-responsiveness and House is pissed. The big man, Dr. Nolan, arrives and takes House away. House insists that he’s coping just fine. He reveals that he hasn’t been taking the meds and is still moving up in levels, but Nolan reveals that House has been taking placebos and is merely manipulating the system, which will not get him his medical license back. Yes, some interesting and great dialog revealed it better but we’re already at 6 pages and I’ve got another hour…. House returns to his room and Alvie wants to know the next plan, but House is done. He says there is no plan, lays down and rolls over, ignoring a startled Alvie.
This time when Lydia arrives House is waiting for her. He offers to have Freedom Master bring her cello in. House thinks helping someone with a feat of strength will brighten Freedom Master up. In the process, House “steals” Lydia’s car and takes Freedom Master to an amusement park to fly. They both go on that ride with the big fan that floats you up in the air and Freedom Master…and House are ecstatic. Freedom Master is still excited as the two come back to the car garage. House is delighted his theory worked. He has fixed Freedom Master by acknowledging his differences and enforcing them, even if they’re all based in delusions. After all, it worked so well for House. Didn’t it. Well, it works about as well here because Freedom Master decides to take flight for real and launches himself off the parking garage wall. House looks on horrified, unable to stop it.
We jump to House holding Freedom Master’s bloody windbreaker. He’s obviously in shock and it doesn’t help when Nolan comes in and rips him a new one. Nolan is disgusted that House would do all this just to prove Nolan wrong and tells House he’s going to have to find a new place to work things out. House begs him to let him stay at Mayfield. House has hit a low even lower than when he realized he and Cuddy had not had sex. This time someone almost got killed because of his arrogance and obsession with getting the upper hand. House thought a quick “high of happiness” would solve the problem. I guess House didn’t learn anything from season 5. Oh, Dr. House.
This is the turning point for House. Freedom Master got banged up, but it did make House realize he needed to stop driving down his own private road of destruction and figure out how to take another route. Come to think of it House actually needs to attend driving school ‘cause that man does not have the skills he needs to be successful. I’m just saying.
House is in his first therapy session with Nolan. He’s afraid if he takes the meds he won’t be himself, like what happened in “The Softer Side.” Nolan reminds him that he won’t be out being anybody if he doesn’t take meds. He’ll continue to mess things up and self-implode. House sees the wisdom and, trusting Nolan, takes his first dose.
Alvie is very upset when he discovers that House has given in. House grumps at him to find another hero. I think House is upset with himself at this point too. That evening Nolan brings House a suit and tells him he has an assignment for House. They attend a fundraiser at the hospital. Nolan wants House to interact with people and let them know who he is. This proves to be too much for House. He can’t quite open up to people with the truth BUT he at least interacts and chats…even if he’s telling them he’s gay, he’s a porn star or he’s making Lydia, who’s also at the party, pretend to be his wife and bust him with another woman (Hi, Zack & Cody’s mom!) By the way, I really wanted to see the scene where House confesses he’s a porn star. Now that would have been funny. He does open up a bit to Lydia, who in return shares thoughts with him. At the end of the evening, Nolan congratulates him and points out that no one breached his trust with his “secrets.” Lydia gives him the real reward, however, by kissing him when she says goodnight. House is surprised and …smitten. He returns to his room and almost happily tells Alvie that he had fun. Wow. That’s what that feels like.
A session with Nolan the next day revolves around the kiss House shared with Lydia and it’s repercussions. House relapses and begins to deflect. He comments on Nolan’s own lack of personal relationships but Nolan is better at deflecting then House is. Nolan throws out some scenarios with Lydia and House’s relationship record and asks House, “What’s the ending to the story?” “I don’t know,” House answers honestly. Nolan is lucky the scene ends because the last time someone asked him a question that he didn’t know the answer to she got kissed. And kissed well, I might add.
House is waiting for Lydia on the piano bench. She sits by him and he asks her why she kissed him. She smiles and says, “I like you. It felt like a nice way to show you.” Direct question. Direct answer. And that, my friends, is how two adults with adult-level interpersonal skills relate to each other. None of this “Are you messing with me?”or “I need to make her mad” kind of nonsense. Hey, could we get Cuddy to Mayfield for a bit. I think they offer outpatient therapy for their “Adult Communication in Relationships” program.
House is happy with her response and turns around to play piano for her. He plays the same song she was playing when they first met. He is a romantic. He keeps turning and catching her eye while playing. House…is….flirting. Then the anvil falls when a nurse wheels in Freedom Master with his multiple casts and bruises. Happy feeling gone.
During his session with Nolan, House confesses that he was happy for about five minutes and that’s how life is. Nolan chastises him for valuing failures more than successes. House counters that success lasts only until someone screws them up. Failures are forever. (Not the best Bond film, in my opinion.) Nolan tells House to acknowledge failure then move on! House is in perpetual self-demeaning mood thanks to a horrible father who told him he should be. He can’t move on because he doesn’t want to be under the next shoe when it drops. House is instructed to apologize to Freedom Master, make amends and move on.
House tries to do as instructed before the next group therapy session, but backs out, leaving Freedom Master silent again in the wheelchair. Beasley cheerily announces a talent show for the ward. Frustrated by the inane chattering, House tries to again help Freedom Master bounce back by retrieving the “voice box” for Annie. The “voice box” is actually a music box being stored in the nurses’ station. He gives the box to Freedom Master, but receives no response. He’s just as out of it as he was before. House yells at him to talk. Nolan intervenes and tells House to stop trying to fix the problem instead of moving on. House is left alone in the rec room completely beaten. He has no faith in himself to do anything besides what he has done for years, which is withdraw.
The next day Lydia brings him sheet music for four hands. She’s excited to share this experience with him, but he rains on her parade. He wants to know what’s going on. She says she is just enjoying the here and now and doesn’t know. House needs to know, that’s a huge chunk of his persona. He’s too scared to venture out if he doesn’t know what’s out there. So he does what he knows to do. He breaks up the relationship and walks away. Yes, he’s an expert at that. House takes HUGE steps backwards and my hopes for a brighter season are dashed upon the rocks of reality.
Later, during group therapy, House receives a day pass from Nolan. Nolan has also requested that House meet him. House meets Nolan at another hospital. Nolan is beside the hospital bed of an older man hooked up to all sorts of machines. A quick glance at the older man’s wrist tag reveals him to be Nolan’s father. Nolan has been crying. He tells House that the cleaning lady found his dad on the floor. The doctors are telling him to pull the plug, but he wanted a second opinion. House received the day pass for a consult. House looks at the charts and confirms that Nolan’s dad is gone. There’s no hope. House begins to berate Nolan about the true reason Nolan wanted House to come, but Nolan tearfully pleads with him to stop. Surprisingly, House not only stops, but his features soften as he takes off his coat and pulls up a stool. He sits across from Nolan bedside and does a very grown-up thing: he lends empathetic, quiet support. Our Little Greggy is growing up. Sniff.
House returns to the hospital to find Lydia crying in the dark in the Ward 6 rec room. Hey, I know she’s a regular but really? Would she be allowed there so late? Hmmmm. Okay, I’m over it. It’s a bit contrived but it makes for a great scene. So House approaches her hesitantly because he thinks she’s crying over him. The ego never goes away. She laughs and says he is not the cause of her tears. She had had the dream of bringing the cello for Annie and snapping her out of her daze, but it didn’t happen. Lydia calls herself pathetic. House comforts her by saying everyone is pathetic and that makes life interesting. Lydia is sick of life being interesting. Lydia is defeated. And nothing is more desirable to House than a woman defeated. Seriously. Check out his track record. He coaxes Lydia into a slow dance without music which soon evolves into a slow dance without clothes. Uh-huh. Again…Ward Six needs to review its rules and regulations when a patient and a visitor are able to have sex in a locked office in the middle of the night. The scene however is wonderfully shot and beautiful and House finally connects with someone in a way that hasn’t happened since Stacy version 1.0 over a decade ago. There is definitely something healing and cathartic about physical human contact between two people who are more concerned with giving comfort than receiving comfort. True selfless behavior…although they both do get a little something something out of it in the end. Wow. House is so touched by the experience and amazed at the depth of the connection that his eyes glisten with unshed tears as they fade to commercial. If it were up to me, I’d give you every acting award in the world, Mr. Laurie.
We are finally at the talent show and we see Beasley and Diane dancing to the Macarena. Then Jay, Booger and Hal perform the saddest version of “You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You” I have ever witnessed. It’s then Alvie’s turn to take the stage. House is leaning on the wall in the background. He’s there, but not really involved. Alvie begins to rap but just as he gets to the last line of a verse he can’t come up with the rhyme. He freezes and there is uncomfortably long pause until House saves Alvie by piping up with a rhyming line. Alvie is grateful and continues, but it happens again. And again House finishes the rap. Alvie then just calls a reluctant House on stage where he helps Alvie finish his performance and actually enjoys himself. He finally makes eye contact with Lydia, who smiles approvingly at him from the audience.
House is in another session with Nolan. Kindly, House actually asks Nolan how he is doing following his father’s death. Nolan thanks him for the concern. When asked the same question, House states somewhat unbelievingly, “Things are actually…good.” What passes as a smile creases House’s mouth.
We return to the rec room of Ward 6 and House approaches Freedom Master, who is still clutching the music box. He sits next to him and softly apologizes for everything. Nothing dramatic happens, but House doesn’t expect it to. He is just moving on. He stands to wheel Freedom Master to get his meds. As they pass by Annie, Freedom Master barely lifts his hand in a gesture to give Annie her box. House sees this and backs up, allowing Annie to see the box and accept it. She opens it and listens to it before turning back to Freedom Master and saying, “Thank you.” Freedom Master softly responds, “You’re welcome.” The occupants of the ward stand by in awe watching the scene unfold. Now, I’m as jaded as the next viewer when it comes to prefab-by-the-numbers-make-you-cry moments, but I did get misty-eyed and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I guess my heart grew just a few more sizes that day. House is waiting at the elevator for Lydia and grabs hold of her hand to lead her into the rec room. “I have a surprise,” he says. He opens the door for her and we hear the beautiful notes of a cello being played by Annie. Annie is completely caught up in playing and Lydia immediately begins to cry in happiness. House watches her, happy because she is so happy. Another lesson learned, I think. Everyone watches Annie come back to life as she plays.
We are at another goodbye party and House is shocked to find out it’s for Annie. He storms into Nolan’s office and demands to know why someone who hasn’t spoken for over 10 years is suddenly going home. Nolan gently tells him that Annie is being transferred to another facility…in Arizona. Her family is going with her. All the wind goes out of House’s sails. Nolan tells him he just found out. Rather than go ballistic, House calmly asks for an overnight pass. Nolan tries to talk him out of it, but House is insistent…although not belligerent. In fact, he even throws in a “please” at the end and Nolan gives him a pass.
A taxi pulls up to a house later that night. House steps out of the taxi and approaches the door. His knock is answered by a young boy. House asks if his mom is at home and the boy wants to know who wants to know. Lydia comes to the door and sends her son back into the house. She steps out and closes the door, but not completely. House asks her why she didn’t say anything to him about leaving. He doesn’t want her to go. He doesn’t want things to change. House does not do well with change. Lydia affirms that she doesn’t want to leave either, but she can’t break up her family. They’ve always talked about moving to Arizona, where her husband’s work is based, but couldn’t until now. Poor House, his good deed just ruined his chance with a relationship with Lydia. He can’t win! She apologizes for not saying goodbye, but admits that she thought it ended “kinda perfect.” She caresses his face and then goes back into the house, leaving him standing there on the porch.
Nolan walks into the parking lot back at Mayfield and finds House sitting on the retaining wall by his car. Nolan doesn’t admire House’s use of an overnight pass. House has nothing to say except, “She’s gone. And…I’m lost.” He is trying not to cry and I just want to hug my television set in the hopes it will somehow make him feel better. Nolan sits down next to House. “I’m gonna write your letter,” he states. “I’m going to recommend that you get your medical license back.” House says he doesn’t want a lollipop to make him feel better. Nolan shakes his head. He tells House that he’s ready. House connected enough with someone that it hurts him to lose that connection. House also experienced pain and failure but didn’t escape the problem through vicodin AND House came back to Mayfield to TALK with a man whom he trusts. House has just pulled a hat trick in the game of his recovery. The realization dawns on House as well. He has succeeded and he will enjoy it and not look for a way to ruin it.
We see the Ward Six gang gathered in the rec room for another goodbye party and this time it’s for House. Even Dr. Nolan has arrived and indeed is leading the celebration. House seems happy and genuine smiles cross his face frequently. They say the mantra and he blows out the candle of the big Re-Birthday cake. He gives Beasley a hug and I’m glad my vision of House ruining her never materialized. After initially rejecting a hug from Alvie, “Back off. Everyone here already thinks we’re gay,” House does give his roomie a big bear hug and pinches Alvie’s butt in the process. So much for squashing that rumor. Everyone claps for House and his accomplishment and House feels and accepts their support. Then, in an act that I totally think was unscripted, House faceplants into the center of the cake. The room erupts in laughter and in replaying the scene many extras are completely caught off-guard and begin to laugh hysterically. It’s funny. House takes a bow and we cut away to the outside of Mayfield. Now cake-free, House is packed up and ready to leave. He looks out at the road that Wilson drove him on to bring him to Mayfield three longs months ago and smiles. An honest-to-goodness smile. Yup. I hum the Rocky music to myself as he walks down the steps and to the bus station. Hey, how come Wilson can’t pick him up, too? Maybe the writers were extending the “He’s-doing-this-alone” metaphor some more. Whatever. I would have liked to see Wilson see the happy, drug-free House on his triumphant walk out of the mental hospital.
Alvie is watching from the rec room and makes his own decision. He walks over to the nurses’ station and asks for his meds. So he can get better. Dr. Beasley smiles and gets him his meds.
Back out in front the bus arrives. As it pulls in front of House a big sign that reads “Prepare to Succeed” on the side of the bus fills the screen. Those writers are very clever or beating a dead horse, you decide for yourself which one it is… House boards the bus and goes to the back. It reminds me of the final bus scene in Wilson’s Heart. A-ha! Maybe they’re using the bus to make the connection that when House got off that bus in his dream and back into life he didn’t REALLY get back into life, but NOW he will soon be getting off the bus to start a new life with the skills he needs to be successful. Or then again….it’s just a bus. See. This is why it’s taking me so long to finish this recap. I keep over-cleverfying the writers. Whew. The camera pulls back to reveal House is now wearing Alvie’s smiley-face tshirt from the beginning of the episode and House smiles serenely, yet with a gleam of mischief in his eyes, into the camera. Fade to black.
Hooray! House is happy. And although I know it won’t be constant it’s not supposed to be. See, House has learned that being happy is good and although happiness is fleeting the attempts at happiness shouldn’t be. I don’t expect a kinder, gentler House. That would be boring, but I do expect a more 1st season, less-bitter House. The one I fell in love with long ago. Some will argue that much of the episode was OOC, BUT that’s the point. House needed to get out of character because his character wasn’t working. It’ll also be interesting to see how all the other broken people around House now interact and deal with someone not broken. House, as a rule, surrounded himself with damaged people so he wouldn’t feel so alone. Now, he has the skills and knowledge to defeat that behavior. Hmmmm. Should be interesting. I am looking forward to it. Yes, indeed. Thanks to everyone who made it all the way to the end. I hope you liked it. Talk to you next week when another new episode of House airs. That sounds so good it almost makes me cry….