"Instant Karma" 6x05

Karma tries to leap up and bite a whole bunch of people in the butt making House realize that you may be able to swat Karma away with a rolled-up newspaper.


“Instant Karma” - House 6x05

Our episode begins by showing us a garden, probably adjacent to an equally amazing estate. Sitting all by his lonesome is a handsome man and his dog. He stares out at nothing, a look of complete emptiness and sadness in his eyes. His dog looks even sadder as his buddy won’t even throw the tennis ball for him he put at his feet. His reverie is interrupted by a severely dressed female assistant. “Mr. Randall, they’re here.” He nods and stands then walks to a marbled patio and past more manicured landscaping to a mansion. We cut to a dining-hall-turned-conference-room. Men and women in suits surround a table that costs more than my house. Randall is at his alpha-male place at the head of the table. He is being “advised” that it is too soon to be making the deal he’s about to make. He informs them that he has always done it this way, ahead of everyone else, and that is why he is filthy, stinking rich…and so are they. They nod their agreement and papers are signed. The suits are moving to the next item on the agenda when the Randall gets a text message. He responds to the message by ending the business meeting. The suits say there a lot more items on the agenda and he can’t just leave. Mister I’m-In-Charge-Of-This-World reminds them softly and firmly that he can. And he does. We then see A LOT of toys. A couple of my kids, who aren’t allowed to watch House, were passing through the tv room and saw this tour of the bedroom. They are both girls and they still drooled at all the boy STUFF in the bedroom. I shoo’ed them away as the camera panned around to show a boy in bed that obviously doesn’t get to play with any of the toys we just saw. He has an oxygen tube in his nose and tubes to his chest. He’s pale and thin. The well-dressed man now talking to the Randall is identified by closed-captioning as a doctor. Hey, just because he has a stethoscope around his neck doesn’t automatically qualify him as a doctor in my book, especially around Halloween time, my friend. The doctor is telling Randall that he doesn’t know what’s wrong with his son. All his ideas are not working. He suggests they take him to the hospital. His son is very ill. The boy, Jack, calls for his dad. Randall kneels by the boy’s bedside and strokes his hair. The son doesn’t want to go to the hospital. He doesn’t want to die. The father promises him that he won’t die. Jack knows his father is just saying that, but the dad looks him firmly in the eye and promises the kid he’ll be okay because after all, “I’m always right, aren’t I?” The son smiles peacefully and nods his head. Here’s hoping House is having a good day and won’t make a big fat liar out of the dad!

We are back from opening credits. I like them and all, but wish that Hugh Laurie would take his “Executive Producer” credit to them and spice them up. Did you see those cast promos with the Winnebago and the Circus stuff? Hugh Laurie. Awesome. What Mr. Laurie could do with the opening credits would be cool to see. Randall is in Cuddy’s office with Cuddy. He is asking/demanding that House take his son’s case. Cuddy states that House is unavailable. Randall offers to pick him up from his vacation in a private jet. Cuddy plods on that Foreman is essentially House-lite and will do an amazing job. Randall asks if House is in jail or rehab. Not this time. Cuddy restates that Randall’s son is in good hands. But Randall has had good and now wants the best and he has been told that House is the best. Randall, under the implied threat of pulling funding from the hospital, tells Cuddy that unless House is dead, comatose or insane he wants him treating his son. Again, House in none of those things…at this time. We see Cuddy’s little hamster wheel turn in her head as she figures out how to make this happen.

Cut to the Diagnostics Department. Cuddy has told Foreman and House her plan, which is for House to be in charge of the diagnosing part, but Foreman is still in charge of the department. Foreman thinks this deal stinks as it leaves Foreman with all the liability by none of the responsibility/authority. House thinks the deal is awesome for the exact same reason. Foreman wants to know when House is getting his license back and they can stop playing “this game,” but House is thinking “this game” is kinda fun. Cuddy freaks Foreman and Chase out by casually bringing up the fact that they need to prepare President Dibala’s case for the Mortality and Morbidity Conference later in the week. Now, that conference HAS to be a rocking party every time! They don’t see why ‘cause they are feelin’ guilty as heck, but Cuddy is oblivious to their stress. It’s just a way to see how things were done and what can be done better, she says. Well, let’s see. Chase could have destroyed the morgue sign-in sheet before Foreman even saw it so he wouldn’t be an accomplice on this whole thing. THAT would have made things better. Cameron plugs on in the differential and throws out some ideas, which are shot down. They realize that the kid has been tested for everything so House thinks it’s a great idea for them to start over to see what others missed. Foreman agrees and off they go.

Cameron is with Jack and Randall in Jack’s hospital room. She’s asking various personal history questions. Randall asks where House is and Cameron easily makes excuses for House’s personality. It’s like riding a bike, eh, Cameron? While she’s examining Jack’s stomach she feels a mass of something. It doesn’t hurt the boy to push the mass around and we cut away after she tells the father she’s not sure what it is.

Chase and Foreman are in the diagnostics department where someone forgot to pay the light bill and it’s pretty dark. Maybe that’s a mood thing. Anyway, Chase is insisting that they just keep the case presentation short and simple. There’s no reason for anyone to suspect anything. Foreman looks tightly strung and extremely grumpy. He’s totally worried about himself and is seriously doubting his helping Chase out by burning the sign-in sheet. He knows that the room will be filled with people there to see why House’s department messed up and to point fingers at its new figure head. Foreman leans forward and emphatically tells Chase, “I want to know you have everything covered.” “Got what covered?” they hear House say behind them. Oh, crap. Chase says it’s about the Dibala case and just blows it off to nerves. But House knows something’s up. Chase retreats as Cameron comes in with xrays. Jack has a compacted colon, which does not feel good. I won’t go into details how I know that. This is a new development. Foreman is then telling Randall that they think Jack has Hirschsprung’s disease, a very rare genetic colon nerve thing and one that doesn’t usually present in such a young kid. Most docs wouldn’t have thought of it. Randall asks if Foreman came up with it, but Foreman has to admit that no, House came up with it. They will give Jack a barium enema and take a biopsy to confirm. Jack doesn’t want to have to swallow anything but also isn’t exactly relieved to find out the reason why he won’t need to “swallow” anything…. Yeah, been there.

We see House making his way through an outside café. He sits down at a table and then leans back and taunts the person at the table behind him. That person turns out to be 13. She’s planning a trip to get away from it all. House asks if her experiment with Foreman is over and she snarks back that it wasn’t an experiment it was a relationship. “You should check out the difference on that.” House doesn’t say a word. He just looks at her. She softens and turns to him to tell him that she’ll miss him. She actually enjoyed working for him, but she’s not coming back. He didn’t even ask, lady. He basically says that. She thinks he’s trying to get Foreman and her back together and he denies it saying he loves the current situation. He gets to do whatever he wants and Foreman has to take the guff for it. He stands up and wishes her a good trip to Cabo. She tells him she’s going to Thailand, which he finds interesting. They say goodbye, sincerely.

Back in Jack’s hospital room, xrays show Jack’s colon is clean and empty. He is in no pain and is actually hungry. Foreman and Cameron are holding back on doing the “He’s cured” Dance because they have (1) worked for House long enough to know it’s never the first diagnosis especially when (2) there’s still 40 minutes left in the show. And it’s a good thing they didn’t put their dancing shoes on because Jack goes into a seizure and his brain starts to swell, threatening to blow apart his skull. I am so glad I didn’t know that was an enema side effect ‘cause I never would have gone through that…oh it appears it has nothing to do with the enema. They can’t explain what is happening but they are asking for consent from Randall to drill a hole in Jack’s skull to relieve the pressure. They take Jack all the way to surgery and get Chase prepped before Randall, who’s wondering what House would do, finally gives consent to the procedure. It’s successful and the trio is left wondering what the problem is now.

House and the old team are in the xray room going over the latest scans from Jack’s body. They’ve got brain problems, abdomen problems and skin problems. House teases them about the enema side effects but they don’t laugh, ‘cause I already used that joke. Foreman then notices that the fluid in the brain is collecting oddly, away from the skull. House sees what Foreman is saying. It could be a prior condition of brain cancer that’s causing all the havoc. House commends Foreman on his call. Foreman takes the praise, but where’s the dad to see it, I tell you! Of course we know House will get the final right call so whatever. They decide to test for brain cancer.

13 is in a cab heading to the airport. She’s on the phone checking to see if she can upgrade her seat on her flight to Bangkok. The cabbie asks her how long she’ll be gone. She absentmindedly responds, “Not sure yet.” Then retracts the obvious invitation to come burglarize her apartment by saying, “So it’s a good thing I have a friend stopping by my apartment to feed my dog, my really big dog.” The cabbie, for good reason, takes offense at her implication and while she’s trying to mend fences with him and his accusations of racism/jobism, 13 discovers that her reservations have been cancelled. She’s obviously ticked off, and will become more so where her pissed off cabbie drops her butt off at the nearest corner, forcing her to walk home to her apartment guarded by the big dog…. 13 apologizes to the cabbie saying she figured he was either dishonest or honest and the safest choice seemed….yeah. That didn’t go over well either. The cabbie tells her that he didn’t know her but trusted her enough to give her a ride. Plus, that is what he does for a living but 13 gets mad at the customer service rep (like that EVER does any good) and says that it has to be their mistake not hers as she just checked her reservations last night. The cabbie chuckles at the fact that the airlines chose not to believe her. What goes around, sister. And there’s the first waft of Instant Karma we smell.

Meanwhile back at PPTH, Jack has been moved to the PICU. Randall is surprised and saddened at Chase’s and Cameron’s diagnosis of brain cancer. Cameron assures him it may not be brain cancer and they won’t be sure until after tests, but if it is they did catch it early. That doesn’t seem to make him feel any better. He signs permission slips for more tests and goes back to his son’s room. Chase gets paged. He needs to go up and finalize the Dibala case presentation with Foreman. Cameron offers to come help when she’s through with the biopsy, but Chase tells her he can handle it. She should go home and sleep ‘cause (wink, wink) he’ll be waking her up when gets home (wink, wink). Yeah, it turned Cameron on about as much as it would me. Nice pillow talk, Chase. He walks off and Cameron has that look of concerned confusion she does so well.

There’s a knock on Wilson’s door and House answers it to find a pissed off 13 on the doormat. She tells House angrily to stay out of her life. House easily agrees and tries to do just that by closing the door on her, but she pushes it back open. Really, 13, this will only confirm what House has thought all along—that no does mean yes. 13 accuses House of cancelling her flight because he knew where she was going. House denies it saying he doesn’t want her back with him or Foreman. Foreman is better than ever with her gone, which would make House happier. House likes the way things are. He tells her to go have fun in the Bahamas…or wherever she was going. She reminds him she told him Thailand. House says he assumed she was lying to avoid this very situation. He confirms that he really doesn’t want her on the team now because she wasn’t smart enough to try to mislead him.

Chase comes into the Diagnostics Department to find “Worst-Case Scenario” Foreman hovering over the Dibala medical records. He breaks the news to Chase that, in a nutshell, even though Chase was good in matching the blood types in the sample he switched, he failed to make sure he got a cadaver who also had high cholesterol, because Dibala’s count is a good 20% than the count from the blood they are trying to pass off as Dibala’s. Chase looks like he’s been hit by a bat…baseball or cricket. He did not anticipate this, but eventually shrugs it off. No one will be looking at the cholesterol count. It’s not part of the picture, even. But Foreman is unconvinced. His butt is now hanging out even more in the wind now because of this. Panic sweeps through the room as they cut to commercials. I love those Sony Reader commercials with Justin Timberlake. Funny.

Cameron wakes up to an empty bed. Cheesy seduction lines are made even worse by no follow through, Chase. Chase and Foreman are in the cafeteria still trying to figure out how to save their medical careers. Well, Chase is figuring out how to save “theirs” while Foreman is more concerned with saving “his.” Cameron shows up with test results and an attitude. She tells them Jack doesn’t have brain cancer. At the department conference table they are trying to figure out how there can be so many cancer indicators without it being brain cancer. House brings up that it could still be cancer just not in the brain. Andenocarsinoma of the stomach would have the same symptoms. He directs this to Chase, who is lost in thought. He snaps out of it, confused. Foreman saves him by telling him to go scope the kid and look into his stomach. Chase and Cameron leave. House tells Foreman that he spoke with 13 and asks why Foreman cancelled her travel plans. Foreman is confused. He didn’t do anything like that because he thinks that there is nothing he can do now about the situation. He firmly believes he’s done all he can and he needs to move on now. I think House is going to mock him, but instead he calmly looks at Foreman and sadly says, “I think…I believe you.” House commends him on his rational sanity and tells him he’s going to be a good boss. After all, moving on was one of Nolan’s catch phrases. He walks out, leaving Foreman sad and confused.

Cameron and Chase are walking to Jack’s room. Cameron wants to know what’s going on. Why is Chase acting this way. He says nothing is wrong, but Cameron pulls out the truth lasso she got from Wonder Woman and gets him to admit some things. It appears that Cameron doesn’t have the instructions on the lasso since Chase is able to go around the whole truth by telling her that the cholesterol counts were off, which isn’t a big deal, but Foreman is paranoid about it due his past medical missteps. Cameron believes him…sort of. She is confused about why Foreman is worried since they were the ones with the wrong diagnosis. Chase asks her to keep it quiet. She agrees.

We’re finally back in Jack’s room and Randall is again sporting the confused look. He is trying to figure out that they were possibly right about the cancer but wrong about the location. Did he really think House would nail the right diagnosis on the first try? Has he never watched an episode? Randall states that all this is his fault. Cameron assures him that none of Jack’s problems are genetic, but she’s obviously missing her metaphysical conversation filter because Randall has to explain that he has made a fortune off of a fairly decent inheritance all by the time he was 24. He’s made many more times that much money since. It seems that financially Randall has the Midas touch. He never fails at anything in his business life. When it comes to his personal life, however, if it wasn’t for bad luck he’d have no luck at all. His personal life is stained with misfortune: first the early death of his wife through diabetes and now his son. He restates that it’s his fault. It’s karma. Cameron all but scoffs at him but the fact that his son chooses that exact moment to go into convulsions seems to back Randall’s theory up. Commercial.

We return to the team telling House that the boy is getting worse. They are watching the father hover over the boy’s bed through the glass walls of a totally non-private room at PPTH. Remind me to read the fine print when asking for a “Private room” at that place to make sure it doesn’t just mean you have only one bed in it. House says that every time they try to go find the problem they set off more seizures. Cameron is amazed at his implication. They rehash the symptoms, both new and old. Cameron asks hypothetically about the seizures being a new symptom at all. What if he has abdominal epilepsy which would only manifest as stomach pain. The fever could be from protein imbalance from malnutrition due to the fact the kid doesn’t feel like eating because of stomach seizures. House admits that he’d be more supportive of the idea if it had been his own, but admits it’s the best they’ve got. Foreman assigns Chase and Cameron to go administer the needed medication and perform the needed tests to confirm. The three walk off. Chase diverts from Cameron and walks with Foreman. Chase tells Foreman that he’s come up with a way to throw the scent off the cholesterol count sniffing dogs. I don’t quite understand it, even with closed-captioning, so I’ll let it slide. The basic idea is that Chase is willing to take the blame…for inaccurate record keeping by saying he didn’t mark down giving a certain drug to Dibala that would have affected the blood count. Foreman says he’d have to fake pharmacy records. Chase says he’ll say he just took it off the cart. Foreman states that he’s lying to cover up another lie. Why? To get you off the hook, Chase states gallantly. Well, it’s sort of gallant, seeing as how it’s Chase’s fault there’s a problem at all… Foreman tells him it won’t work and that he’s going to solve the problem by just telling the truth….which means lying to Cuddy in the next scene that he just doesn’t have the time to present the case. Cuddy says nice try and orders him to do it. Foreman walks out and tells a hopeful Chase that he doesn’t have the power House does over Cuddy when it comes to getting out of things. Chase hangs his head in disappointment over Foreman’s lack of mad avoidance skillz and in worry for his future.

House is sitting at the nurse’s station in the PICU watching Jack and his father. Cuddy walks in and gives him a warm smile, asking him if everything is okay. Every time she asks this I know she’s really inferring if HE’S okay, but House hasn’t caught on yet. Come on, House! You are the most observant guy I know unless it’s about observing your own miserable personal life…sheesh. House, instead of saying how he’s doing pretty well because he’s trying to change undesirable things about himself and trying to be less of a miserable person so she’ll see him as being more desirable and a worthy romantic companion, he says he’s just waiting to see what next bad thing will happen to the kid. I’m just guessing, nay hoping, that’s what House is really wanting to say to her. Cuddy misses the subtext in House’s response and tells House that 13 called to tell her that someone hacked into her hospital email address. Cuddy thinks it was Foreman. House is astonished that Cuddy really thinks it was Foreman and not him that hacked into 13’s email. Cool, he says. See House, she does realize you’re making changes. She’s beginning to think you’re above things like that….hmmmm. Cuddy softly asks if House is okay with Foreman being in charge of the department. House responds equally softly that it’s working out great. Foreman loves power and House loves puzzles. It’s a win-win. Cuddy, who knows House better than anybody proves this by telling House, “You love power and puzzles.” House nods. Instead of deflecting, however, he confesses his still very real fear of what happened recently by telling her, “Yes. But when I had both…” They then look at each other with such open, naked emotion I scream, “Just hug him already and ease his pain!” but they don’t hear me. And then I am convinced that House is really opening up to her and trying to make changes because not ONCE does he look down her blouse or make a comment on her cleavage, which has been almost literally in his face the entire scene. The man, sniff, is trying to change, sniff. House then flat out tells her that it wasn’t Foreman who hacked 13’s email, thereby giving her a chance to accuse him, which she still doesn’t. It must be love. When Cuddy asks how he knows, House tells Cuddy that Foreman has moved on. Or at least believes that he’s moved on. And I can’t determine what House thinks about his. I’d like to think he sees what a loss that is and that he doesn’t want that to happen with Cuddy so he’s going to do whatever it takes…oh never mind. House’s pager goes off as he watches Cameron use the phone in Jack’s room. The son is getting worse. House needs to make his end of episode appearance to the patient and/or family.

House walks into Jack’s room. Randall stands and immediately asks if he is House. House tells him that he knows Randall is a big fan and he’ll get him an autographed glossy. Oooh, I’ll talk one! Cameron tells House that it’s not abdominal epilepsy and shows House a new symptom. Jack has lesions all over his body. House finds this interesting much to Randall’s disgust. He thinks House is treating this too impersonally. “My son is dying and you don’t have the slightest idea,” he yells. House agrees. That’s why it’s so interesting. House is still working on his people skills, obviously. Commercial.

Back in the diagnostics department, the team huddles and tries to come up with another diagnosis. Chase comes up with an idea and while it’s not great at least it’s something. They decide to run with it and Foreman says he and Cameron will do it. Foreman and Chase manage to deflect another “something’s going on here assault” from Cameron, but House is oblivious. See he’s trying to save the patient. He asks Cameron if the rash in also on the boy’s penis. She responds affirmatively and House realizes that it’s not Chase’s idea but Degos Disease, which by the looks of the team’s concerned faces is not something you want to contract. House offers to go tell the father.

House tells the father that Jack has Degos Disease and that it’s incurable. The father, rightly so, is unconvinced, but House assures him that by using the old biopsies they’ve confirmed it. House gives his sincere sympathy to the father and walks away. The father, crestfallen looks at his comatosed son.

The sun is setting as Chase is sitting at the department’s conference table. He is looking over Dibala’s files and is majorly stressed out. He doesn’t know what to do and is seriously thinking he is screwed. The camera shows House in his office behind Chase. Chase doesn’t know House is there. Chase, covers his face with his hands. House watches him as he shakes his head and stands up, leaving everything sitting on the table. Chase walks into Cuddy’s office. Her desk is covered with paperwork and she is not happy to have the interruption. Chase tells her he needs to talk to her. She doesn’t have time. He says it’s about the Dibala case and sits down. She still doesn’t want to chat right now. Even though she’s not paying much attention Chase is on the edge of confessing his sins to her when a nurse bursts into the office. She tells Cuddy that she’s needed right away in PICU. She doesn’t know what it’s about but she thinks it involves lawyers. Well, nothing gets Cuddy moving faster than a possible lawsuit threat so she tells Chase she has to leave and they’ll talk about whatever it is later. “If you screwed something up just come clean, “ she tells him. “It can’t be that bad.” Uh, yah, it can. She walks out and his career-ruining move will have to wait.

Cuddy enters Jack’s room where the two head suits from the opening scene are talking with Randall. Randall is standing at the end of Jack’s bed and has a stack of papers on the bed table. House is sitting in the room’s chair watching the scene unfold. It seems as though Jack is signing paperwork that will have his company borrow money to buy too much of something and essentially bankrupt his company. His lawyers say he will lose everything, which House says is the point. The billionaire, House says, believes that bad karma is responsible for his son’s illness. Randall acknowledges that he knows he is taking a beating from Karma. He doesn’t understand it, but he now realizes that he can either have great success in business or great success in his personal life, but he can’t have both. By bankrupting his company his good Karma can go to his personal life and heal his son. House essentially tells the man he’s a fool for his belief. We get what we get, he says pessimistically. What we do doesn’t really make a difference. Obviously, Randall doesn’t care because he signs the papers and tells his lawyers to deliver it. There’s apparently a waiting period in good karma, however, because his son immediately flatlines. Go to commercial.

In a confusing scene, 13 enters Wilson’s office and tells him that she knows it was him who hacked into her email account. He denies it, but eventually admits to it. He tells her it was because House needs her, but wouldn’t ask her to come back in time and how she’s a good doctor and it’s a good job and blah, blah, blah. All of us know that House just used Wilson’s computer to hack into 13’s account. We already know it was House. I can’t tell if 13 believes Wilson or not on his confession. She just tells him goodbye and leaves.

Wilson comes to House’s office and sits down at his desk. He tells House that he just confessed to 13 that he was the one who cancelled her plane ticket. House is confused because they both know House did it. Wilson wants to know if House did it because he wants 13 back or Foreman wants 13 back. House asks why he would care what Foreman wants. Wilson replies that House isn’t as big a jerk as people think he is. To which House says he is because he just made a $10,000 short sale on some stock he knew was going to crash because of the confession of a grief-stricken father on his son’s deathbed. Wilson does confirm that House is a jerk. House then plays with Wilson, who tries to figure out why House cancelled the ticket. House manages to spin everything around until Wilson is not sure he didn’t cancel the ticket himself. It’s during this that House has his FINAL EPIPHANY™. Wilson simply nods as House’s eyes glaze over and he walks out in the middle of their conversation.

House comes to Jack’s room. He asks if Jack is still alive. He says that Jack’s cardiac arrest wasn’t just a one-more-thing arrest it was a coronary event. Jacks’ blood vessels are constricted but Degos can’t cause that. House says its “primary antiphospholipid syndrome.” Foreman asks if he’s sure. House says no, but he will be if the kid responds to the medications House tells Foreman to put him on. Foreman goes to the nurses’ station and orders the meds. House calls out that Foreman’s girlfriend’s travel plans were cancelled and she came to him, Cuddy, and Wilson. House has deduced that this means 13 isn’t over Foreman, which Foreman replies with all the passion of a dustbunny, “Or she is.” Man, he has the whole moving on thing down. But that’s not always a good thing, buddy. Somethings are worth sticking around for and working on. Not 13, but just keep that advice in mind.

Chase is back in the department. He’s there to clean things up when he finds a manila envelope. He opens it and is amazed at its contents. He looks around for the “Save-Your-Butt Fairy” but doesn’t see any. He goes to Foreman and asks him where he found it. “Found what?” asks Foreman. It seems as though someone had ordered medical records on Dibala. Dibala’s doctors in Africa had prescribed cholesterol meds for him, which he hadn’t been taking while in the hospital. It would explain perfectly why his cholesterol was different in the second blood test. Foreman insists he didn’t do it and they realize at the same time that the “Save-Your-Butt Fairy’s” name is Greg House.

The morning sunshine rises on House as he wakes up on Wilson’s couch. Wilson has placed the business section of the newspaper on the armrest of the couch. Next to a picture of Randall the headline boldly declares the stupid doings of a wealthy CEO has bankrupted his company. House appears at the door of Jack’s room. Randall and his son are enjoying each other’s company. Happy. “It worked.” Randall tells House, pointing to his son. “The medicine worked,” insists House. Randall shakes his head. “It worked.” House stares at Randall and his son and mutters under his breath as he rolls his eyes and walks out of the room. Randall and his son laugh and continue talking. House goes to his office to find Chase waiting for him. Chase is holding House’s big tennis ball. Chase asks him where he found the medical report. House shrugs it off. Dibala was a fat old black guy. He figured he was being treated for high cholesterol. Chase wonders if he thinks he should be fired now and House reminds him he’s not in charge. But if he was he wouldn’t. The chances of the same circumstances happening again are slim to none. House jokes that he’d rather have a murder than a misdiagnosis and let Foreman get credit. Chase stands up and walks over to House. He looks at him respectfully and says, “Whether you want to be in charge or not, you are and you always will be.” He tosses the ball to House, who puts it back on the desk as Chase walks out. House seems to contemplate Chase’s comment. See, House is in charge because he saw that his TEAM needed help and he helped, not to save his own butt, but to save the TEAM. That’s a leader, everyone. I think House is as surprised as Chase was by Chase’s realization.

The music montage begins. Cameron wakes up alone again. Foreman is beginning the case presentation as Chase and Cuddy look on. 13 boards an airplane to….Malaysia. Everyone seems pensive. We see Randall’s big estate up for sale by foreclosure. The next scene is Randall and his son enjoying pizza together in his hospital room. Then we get a big closeup of the big tennis ball. The camera slowly focuses on House, who’s sitting in the lounge chair. He’s looking at the ball and realizing that he does want the puzzles and the power. He is afraid to have both again but wonders if he can do it this time around. He nervously looks around to see if anyone has caught him in his reverie. Maybe you don’t just get what you get, House. Maybe, just maybe you have some control over karma…. Fade to black.

Good episode. We did deal with consequences like I thought we would but it focused more on how we might be able to change or improve the consequences of the decisions we make. I don’t know if I fully believe that but I will if it helps House decide he can. House is sincerely trying to make life-altering changes, but until now I don’t think he thought anything would be different. He might be a bit happier but nothing in the big picture would change. I think after this episode he might see that either (1) he has more control than he thought over things in his life and/or (2) that the “get-what-you-get” theory might not always be negative. Hmmmm. I could be way off base on all this but I do see House trying to make changes. But knowing how this show works leads me to believe that a big fall is on its way. Man. Thanks for reading!