"The Tyrant" 6x04

House 604: The Tyrant

Everyone’s shoulder angels and shoulder devils get a work out as James Earl Jones tells them all to man up! Click the link below to read more about this episode. I’m proud to say there’s not one Darth Vader reference throughout the entire article… Yay, me!


We first see a rainy diplomatic USA plate. As the camera pulls back we see a fancy diplomatic car, oooh, a Mercedes. It is driving through the rain. Inside this car is the title character of the episode, although right now, this early in the show it looks a lot like James Earl Jones. Horray! I have anticipated this episode and I hope I’m not disappointed. We all know Mr. Laurie can act the absolute heck out of a scene, so it’ll be interesting to see how the others can bring on their mad actin’ skillz when facing an actor of Mr. Jones’ stature. The Tyrant’s assistant, Joseph, reminds him that the Americans will be pretty ticked off by them leaving the protection of the U.N. The Tyrant thanks Joseph for his concern and over-cautiousness, but he is going to visit his son, who is attending one of the finest universities in the world…they’re driving all the way to Arizona State? Wow! Go Devils! He will throw caution to the wind to see his son. Well, some caution, as he’s still driving a fancy Mercedes with diplomatic plates and is with bodyguards with guns. Let’s see him throw all caution to the wind and head out in a ’97 Astro Van with bald tires and a bad alternator and drive with four kids for three days to Idaho to visit in-laws. Now, THAT is throwing caution to the wind, my friend!

The car crosses over a bridge and turns onto the side streets of the Universal lot, which double for New Jersey. As they cross the camera frame we see a big van cut in front of the Mercedes, stopping it. Another van quickly pulls in behind it. The Tyrant shows obvious concern, but also determination. He finally gets down on the seat under the urgent bidding of Joseph. Joseph leaps out of the car and pulls out a gun. He flips from van to van. The door to the van in front of the car opens and a man leaps out. He reaches into his coat and pulls out a…..civil subpoena to serve on the Tyrant. A disgusted Tyrant gets out of the car at this point and stares down the man with the subpoena. Dang, Mr. Jones can be intimidating…. The dude from the van puts the subpoena on the hood of the car. He yells that it’s for crimes against humanity including genocide and some other really bad things. The guy jumps back in the van and both vans race off. The Tyrant picks up the paperwork and looks at it. It’s encased in a handy-dandy Ziploc bag so it remains fresh…oh and protected from the rain. And, as we soon see, protected from the blood that The Tyrant is about to hack up. And we have our POTW!

We are in Cuddy’s office. Chase is understandably appalled and curious when he confirms that Cuddy wants he and Cameron to work FOR Foreman. She assures it’s only temporary as he needs to hire a new staff because both 13 and Taub are gone. Chase asks what happened to them and Cuddy waves that question to Foreman. “He quit and I had to let her go,” says Foreman matter-of-factly. Cameron openly winces and Chase asks, shocked, “You actually fired your girlfriend?” Foreman states that Chase and Cameron are competent doctors and he knows he can work with them. Chase thinks Foreman’s wooing skills stink, but this should not be surprise to him…or anyone. People skills are definitely not in Foreman’s arsenal of talents. Chase does comment to Cameron that he thinks it might be interesting especially considering the patient. Cameron, who has been examining the patient folder this whole time, except for the “What the…” look she gives to Foreman on the firing of his own girlfriend, finally pipes up and says that she wants nothing to do with the patient. Dibala is a horrible man, who is openly killing hundreds of thousands of people in ethnic fighting in his country. She doesn’t want to fix him so he can go kill half a country when he gets better. Cuddy stops the soap boxing by saying that the Tyrant, Dibala, is a guest of the United States government and he will receive the best of care. They can’t worry about politics, they must do their job.

The three walk down the hallways of PPTH toward the Department of Diagnostics. Chase comments that the whole situation is apprehensible and he’s not referring to having to treat an evil dictator. Why is he always so surprised by what Robot Foreman does? He’s been around him AND House for over five years now…. Foreman says he had to do what he did to save their relationship. He points out that Cameron and Chase were never in the same kind of situation and they shouldn’t have an opinion. Chase suggests Foreman just call 13 and say he was wrong. Foreman emphatically states that he wasn’t, which earns him his second, “What the..” look of the day from Cameron. Foreman ends the debate and walks into the Diagnostics Department to start the differential and they find….HOUSE! Yeah, happy day. He’s back where he belongs. Right now the theme song from “Welcome Back, Kotter” is playing in my brain. And it’s pretty appropriate…if you substitute “dreams” for hallucinations and realize the names are still sorta the same…anyway, I digress. Let’s just say I’m excited to see Dr. House in the diagnosis department. Now let’s hope he’s not as “earnest” as he was in the last episode. I’m all for him staying on the wagon. I just need the wagon ride to pick up a little bit.

House knows what’s going on because he saw 13. Foreman immediately fluffs up his feathers and puffs out his chest. He launches into a “I’m in charge now” speech and then proceeds to mark his territory…again. House taunts him for a bit then launches into the differential for Dibala, because he doesn’t have to prove himself. Chase sits down and dives in, as does Cameron. Foreman is still mad. House is sitting in HIS chair and now Chase and Cameron are all following him again. They rule out a few diagnoses before Foreman decides to start treating for malaria, due to the bug bite on Dibala’s hand. House responds to this by making a rude sound. He calls Foreman on the lame diagnosis because Foreman wants to get away from House and is just picking something. House suggests it may be dioxin poisoning given through an injection on the hand which would look like a bug bite. Foreman and House have a staring contest and House, of course, wins as Foreman decides to go with that idea. Chase and Cameron leave. Foreman asks why he couldn’t just say he thought it could be dioxin poisoning and House softly says he was hoping Foreman would get there on his own. He pauses and then suggests they go talk to Cuddy.

Cameron and Chase are in Dibala’s room. He makes small talk with Chase. He detects that Chase spent some time in England, although Chase says he is Australian. Chase confirms that he attended seminary in England for a year. Dibala tells of the mission that was in the town where he grew up and how he admired the priests…until his sisters were dying from consumption and needed more than priests. Chase does not react, but Cameron rolls her eyes so far up in her head that she saw her own grey matter. By the way…Mr. Jones didn’t even get out of bed and managed to be endearing, menacing and imposing at the same time.

We have returned again to Cuddy’s office who’s listening to Foreman whine about how the starting quarterback has returned and taken his position. Foreman is not at all understanding or sympathetic to House’s need to return. House apologizes to Foreman for the situation and offers to talk to 13 about it. (He’s apologizing and trying to move on. Dr. Nolan will be so proud.) Foreman still thinks he’s getting the shaft. Cuddy bites at the chance to have House back…not only for his medical genius, but it’ll be easier to take those long, meaningful looks at him again. She tells House he can come back in an unofficial capacity until he gets his license back, with Foreman still in charge, which means no actual medical procedures or interaction with the patients. Oh, no, Bre’r Bear, not the briar patch!

Knock. Knock. We are at 13’s apartment. She opens the door to see Foreman standing there with his tail between his legs. She’s obviously not over the jerk thing he did to her and her career in the last episode. He tells her he won’t be in charge for long and he wants her to come back to work with him. She gets all 8th grader on him and says, no, he really fired her because he wanted to break up with her but didn’t have the guts to do it. Foreman just restates the situation as he sees it and dismisses her. So she dismisses him and slams the door closed. Go, girl. He shoulda brought her another donut.

Chase comes into the clinic room and I am happy to finally have clinic patients back, but this is not to be the case. It turns out that the “patient” is actually the husband of a victim of Dibala’s alledged genocide. He is Sibiti, a member of the “guerrilla tribe” in the civil war in Dibala’s country. He tells Chase that his wife, a trade unionist, was kidnapped, raped and tortured and then dumped on his front lawn by a group Dibala started called the Youth Labour League. The word “Cockroach” had been carved in her stomach. The Youth Labour League is a group of young men that Dibala has recruited from the streets to do his dirty work for him. He keeps them happy with alcohol and drugs. The man tells Chase that he cannot save Dibala because if he does two million Sibitis will die. Chase is obviously freaked out by the story and the man’s intensity and exits the room as fast as he can.

House comes home to the missus. Wilson is sitting on the couch, watching tv and eating his dinner. Wilson asks how House’s first day back at school went. House responds with a witticism about not even peeing in the sandbox. Wilson asks how it went with Cuddy, he’s such a match maker. House deflects by saying that’s what he was talking about with the sandbox comment. House then pulls out his pipe and starts Sherlocking the situation. He notices that Wilson didn’t use any garlic in his chicken Florentine, which he always usually does, and the tv sound is way down AND Wilson isn’t wearing any shoes. He suspects something is up and even though Wilson admits to being a vampire, House proceeds to pound loudly on the floor a few times with his cane. His pounding is responded to by loud pounding on the ceiling from the apartment beneath them. Wilson finally admits that the tenant below them, who sits on the condo association board, has complained of smells and noise since House moved in. Wilson is trying to be extra cautious as he wants approval from said board for the garden renovation. House offers to help and Wilson says that the neighbor is a decorated Vietnam War veteran who lost his arm in the war and that anything he does will be considered immediately offensive….by everyone. House “says” he won’t do anything and is saved from choking on his lie by his cell phone ringing. It’s Cameron telling him that Dibala is having a heart attack.

House tries to be helpful as he pops his head into the diagnostic department and blurts out “Lassa Fever.” He explains that this time he did what Foreman wanted and just said the diagnosis outright. Foreman shoots it down as well as House’s old diagnosis of Dioxin poisoning. Foreman starts shooting theories from the hip again as House raises his hand and waits anxiously for teacher to call on him. Foreman bites. House again makes a valid point for Lassa fever. And Foreman again shoots it down. Up comes the hand again and this time House’s point give definite reason for Foreman to treat for Lassa fever. Foreman caves and goes to give treatment. He hangs his head as he leaves the room. House cheerily calls after him, “Great having the ol’ team back together again, huh?” Chase lifts his mug in a toast, Cameron shakes her head and probably thinks, “Oh, why can’t you two boys get along?” and House smiles. He won…again.

Foreman is administering the IV medicine while Joseph, who’s actually Dibala’s second-in-command and not the assistant I called him earlier, is questioning whether the doctors are capable. Dibala defends his doctor then says his girlfriend is waiting out in the hallway. Maybe Dibala is psychic, too. 13 is indeed out there and tells Foreman that she got a call from Douglas at Princeton General for an interview, which is weird ‘cause she just called him and he said nothing was available so she didn’t even send in a resume. Foreman admits to calling in a favor. 13 retorts that most guys just send chocolates. Foreman responds, “I’d stand all night outside your apartment holding up a boom box, but you told me you don’t like 80’s music.” And that line, my friends, killed any hope of me ever liking 13. Who doesn’t like 80’s music?! Okay, maybe Color Me Badd and The Jets were not all that, but look…she obviously got the reference to the movie (Say Anything, so you don’t have to look it up) and ALSO knew that it was “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel playing on Lloyd’s ghetto blaster. And….really. Does anyone not like “In Your Eyes?” You’d have to be a cold-hearted, hard-nosed, too-thin bisexual haunted by the ghosts of your dead mom and your fatal disease to NOT love that song… Oh. Okay. Moving on. That said, 13 is dead to me. 13 caves due to Foreman’s obvious charm and agrees to dinner.

House enters his apartment and runs into the downstairs neighbor. The guy is a one-armed jerk and I am proud of House for keeping his cool. Really, House was actually the level-headed one in the conversation. The man threatens House, points his hook at him and walks away. House is amazed at the guy’s jerkiness. I wonder if he thinks for just a second, “Man, tell me I was not that big of a jerk…” Probably not, but I was proud of House all the same.

Cameron enters the Dibala’s hospital room and is told that the woman standing there is a fellow countryman who is now living in the US. She recovered from Lassa fever two years ago and would like to donate her blood to Dibala. Dibala’s medical advisor has said that plasma from a survivor will be better. They even have a signed agreement. The lady, though obviously scared, agrees she wants to do this. Cameron refuses and she ends up in the principal’s office with the woman. Cuddy tells Cameron that she has to use the woman’s blood. Cameron is sure that the dictator is threatening her family and the woman agrees to being Sibiti. Ever practical, Cuddy states that she’d rather have a needle prick on her conscience then the death of the woman’s family. Cameron agrees to draw the blood. Cameron is not happy…

Chase is at the nurse’s station outside Dibala’s room when he sees the clinic patient, the husband of the torture victim, coming down the hallway. He is now wearing scrubs and pushing a medical cart. Everything goes in slow motion as the man pushes his cart to Dibala’s room and Chase drops the charts he’s holding to yell out a warning. Chase runs after the man into the room as gun shots fire. When Chase gets there Dibala’s men are holding the man down and beating the crap out of him. We are shown two bullets lodged harmlessly in the wall and heart monitor. Who’s paying for that, mister? Dibala is fine. Chase stops the men from pounding the assassin any further and again thinks to himself…”What the heck kind of security do we hire here at PPTH?” This is like what…the 3rd guy to make it in with a gun? Dibala is furious and demands to know who the guy is. Chase notices that Dibala’s right eye is bloodshot and checks it out. The UN guys asks if Dibala has been shot and Chase says, “no,” but he’s not sure what’s up the eye.

We return to Chase patching up the would-be assassin, who is now handcuffed. He’s propped up against the wall outside Dibala’s room. I guess assassins don’t get private rooms at PPTH. They do have standards. Chase assures him that although his stunt was stupid the courts should go easy on him once he explains about his wife and what was done to her. The man tells Chase that it wasn’t really his wife that Dibala kidnapped. Chase is confused. The man confesses that he was actually one of the members of the Youth Labour League and he participated in the torture and killing of the woman. He is horrified at what he’s done and what continues to be done and was trying to atone for it all by killing Dibala and stopping the madness. Chase is obviously affected by what he has heard. Later at their apartment, Cameron is angry at Chase for getting in the line of fire. He brushes it off. “He fired a gun in a hospital!” Yeah, normally that’s an anomaly, but at PPTH it happens all the time. Relax, Cameron. He hugs her to comfort her and then gets freaked out again when Cameron tells him to not warn Dibala the next time someone tries to kill him. That’s not very effective pillow talk, girl.

The next day we are in the differential and Foreman tells everyone that the bloody eye was from a blockage on the retina due to a swollen lymph node, which adds a new symptom and points away from the previous diagnosis. Foreman looks at House to throw out some idea but instead, House says he’s not going to say a word (uh-huh). He feels that maybe he’s been undermining Foreman’s authority recently so he’s going to stay out of it (uh-huh.) Then we get a REALLY funny sequence of House not literally saying anything, but managing to disprove any theory Foreman comes up with. Who got the thermometer charade before Foreman? Oooh, I did! I did! Now this is the Mr. Laurie that his British fans are familiar with. He is good with silly faces, that man. Finally, Foreman, in a state, declares that Dibala probably has lymphoma and tells them to start testing for it. House wants to enlist Cameron’s help in forming letters with her body to discredit that theory, but Foreman is adamant and sends Chase and Cameron out to do his bidding. House, who still doesn’t agree, says it’s obvious that he’s not needed and starts to leave. He pauses and turns back to Foreman, telling him that it’s kind of bright in the room and he should close the blinds. House walks out. Foreman knows that House doesn’t think it’s too bright and closes the blinds to see what House is up to. As the blinds come together we see that House has scrawled “Lymphoma. Ta Da!!” in black sharpie marker. That man rocks! He anticipated Foreman’s train of thought to the final station on the line. Man, that must tick off Foreman.

House has gone to Wilson’s office, where Wilson is trying to figure out how the dictionary in House’s brain works. Wilson’s neighbor has told Wilson that House was a rude jerk to him and House defends himself. Wilson should be in House’s corner for this. Come on, Jimmy. Have a little bit more faith. House tells a lamenting Wilson that he can still get his garden renovation and so much more if Wilson uses the info House has on the obnoxious neighbor as blackmail. House tells Wilson that he saw his mail while they were talking and he’s receiving private medical insurance bills, which wouldn’t happen if he was a true US Veteran. House says that the dude is faking the hero story to get sympathy. Wilson tells him to drop it AND write a letter of apology to him. House is disgusted. He doesn’t want this guy to get away with this. Wilson tells him to be nice, even if the guy’s a jerk because, “It’s easy to be nice to people you like, but being nice to people you hate-that’s a skill.” House doesn’t want to be nice, but he realizes the chance to grow.

Chase is with Dibala getting a biopsy of a lymph node. He flat out asks Dibala why he is killing the Sitibi. Dibala gets angry and tells him that the rebels killed hundreds of thousands in the past to try to rule the country and will do it again. He won’t let that happen. Chase accuses Dibala of genocide and Dibala gets angry, saying that his own son, who goes to school in the States hasn’t talked to him in years because of the incorrect and misinformed reports in American newspapers of what’s actually happening in their country. Chase, who suddenly has the gonads of Apollo, confronts him again on the Youth Labour League. Dibala grows quiet and admits that he started this group with good intentions, but then some of his leaders got out of control. He swears to never let it happen again. Chase’s indignation has to sit down on the side of the road for a bit with this information. He’s very confused. Don’t blow a fuse trying to sort all this out, Dr. Chase…

House has been trying to make good choices and change for the better. We see this trend continue as he walks down the hallway at Wilson’s apartment building holding an envelope with the letter of apology Wilson asked him to write. He is walking to the Jerk’s apartment and is startled when the cleaning lady comes out of the apartment, her hands full of trash bags. She doesn’t close the door all the way and we watch House battle with his shoulder angel and shoulder devil on whether or not he should go into the apartment. The shoulder angel wins and House goes to put the envelope on the front mat, but his cane slips on the freshly mopped floor and he goes down, knocking over the mop bucket in the process. He opens the neighbor’s door to mop up the spilled water and his shoulder companions begin battle again. This time House’s Shoulder devil wins and House hobbles into the apartment…but only to place the envelope on the coffee table. Then the shoulder angel is dragging House back out to the lobby when House sees the huge Canadian flag displayed proudly on the wall. House stares at it as he comes up with his next move, which in NOT to leave a note of apology, I’m bettin’.

Cameron and Chase are running tests in the pathology lab. Chase asks Cameron how she’s doing, since she kinda freaked him out with her “maybe you should have let Dibala get killed” comment. She’s immersed in her work and doesn’t pay much attention as Chase rambles on about how only psychopaths could kill someone without it affecting them. Cameron mentions war and soldiers and Chase assures her those guys have issues with it, too. Cameron admits that she doesn’t want to kill the guy, BUUUUUT if he were to die it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. This comment noticeably creases Chase’s brow. Cameron changes the subject by saying that Dibala does not have lymphoma.

Obnoxious neighbor returns home one evening to discover House razzing him from the stairs. House tells him that he smells not only the faint scent of maple syrup but of victory as he harshly tells the neighbor that he’s a big fat liar because Canada never sent troops to fight in Vietnam. The neighbor is furious House has broken into his apartment and bitterly tells House that Canada sent troops over for the peace talks. While he was there he tried to pull a 12-year-old boy out of a mine field when a mine exploded and to this day his arm is still clenched in pain around that little boy’s hand. House is at a loss for words and even looks a tad chagrin. He has nothing to reply except, “Go Maple Leafs,” and retreats upstairs. Which I’m sure made the neighbor even more angry because everyone knows the Flames are way more loved up north, eh?

We return from the commercials to Dibala’s room where he asks Chase and Cameron repeatedly if the biopsy results show cancer. Chase, Cameron and Joseph exchange concerned, confused glances at the short-term memory loss.

Foreman and 13 are out to dinner. She’s all dressed up and he’s….wearing what he had on at work. Sheesh. Just like a guy. He thanks her for understanding and says he had a choice of two crappy solutions. 13 opines that there was the third solution of Foreman stepping down and letting Cameron or Chase take the job. Foreman poo-poos this idea as folly. (Wow… that was a sentence straight from my Gramma’s mouth.) We see 13’s feathers get ruffled even further when she asks what would he do if he could do it all over again and he confirms that he did the right thing in the first place. She walks off and I’m thinking he’s not getting’ any tonight.

Back in the observation room of Dibala’s room, Joseph is asking Cameron for a medical opinion on the short-term memory loss of his leader. Cameron sees an opportunity to undermine Dibala’s power and tells Joseph that anything Dibala says from now on can’t be taken as sound judgement. Us House addicts know that short-term memory losses in a POTW can be resolved through the hard work of the dedicated staff and the miracle of a 3-minute wrap-up, but Cameron pretty much shuts down any “of sane mind and body” talk when it comes to Dibala.
Joseph almost seems to gratefully accept this news and walks away as Chase calls up from the room that Dibala is now spiking a fever.

Back in the diagnostics department, House is done playing games with the team and they are scrambling to find the answer. House spits out scleroderma. Foreman thinks its blastomycosis. They argue with Chase going on Foreman’s team and Cameron backing House, although she doesn’t really care what happens to the patient. House yells at Cameron that she better pick something and go with it. He’s done with all her “I don’t like the guy so I’m not going to help” crap. He tells her to make a decision he’s tired of her whining. She needs to just DO something. Cameron is, like, totally ticked off at House for, like, being so mean, so she, like, backs Foreman, just to show House, like, who’s boss. They all realize that although these two diagnoses are the only options left if they treat for the wrong one it will kill Dibala…. You know, when you hear that line week after week it kiiiiiinda loses its punch. House threatens to go to Cuddy because he’s still sure it’s scleroderma. Foreman shuts him down and says no, they’re going to treat him for blastomycosis. House, who ironically, appears to have about the same opinion as Cameron on this guy, says okay.

In Dibala’s room, Cameron is preparing the syringe to inject Dibala with the antibiotic. As she goes to inject the syringe, Dibala grabs her hand and lectures her about trying to kill him with an air bubble in the syringe. He knows that she talked to Joseph and accuses her of trying to kill him through Joseph. He says almost the same thing as House does to her about her lack of commitment. If she wants him dead, she needs to find the guts to do it herself. He’s clearly a few crayons short of a 24 pack, but I now think he came in that way… When his tirade is over, Cameron juts out her chin and shoots the syringe into the IV. Chase is shocked but nothing happens to Dibala and Cameron admits that she must not want him to die. She walks out. Chase approaches Dibala and threatens him for touching his wife. Dibala says he did her a favor and brought out her true character. Chase interprets this to be that Cameron is a good person, but Dibala only saw weakness and the lack of fortitude to act on her beliefs. He compares her to all his “advisors.” Dibala calls them all weak and unable to do what it takes to stop the rebellion in his country. All they want to do is negotiate. Chase asks him what he wants to do and what he’s willing to do to the Sibiti. Dibala belittles Chase and his lack of manliness due to the fact that Chase has never had to fight and kill for his livelihood. Chase is appalled and says that Dibala is letting drunk young men do all that for him now so what’s the difference? Chase flat out asks Dibala what he’s going to do to the Sibiti and Dibala responds fervently with, “Whatever it takes to protect my country!” We watch Chase realize that this man is evil and Chase decides to commit to something. We cut to commercial. Nice acting, Mr. Jones and Mr. Spencer. Way to hold your own.

We come back to Wilson’s apartment where Wilson is breaking up with House. He has received threats of prosecution and more nastiness from the neighbor. He thinks it’s best if House moves out. Wilson is totally not being a supportive friend right now…it makes me a bit angry. He still has no faith in House and manages to spin that fact into “I know you have better skills now and can handle this situation effectively…. Blah. Blah. Blah.” Oh, Wilson. I think YOU need to pick a side and make a commitment about House. Either plug up the toilet and do testing on him or throw him out on the street but stop yanking his chain in different directions. House looks sad, but doesn’t respond to the request.

Back at the hospital, Cameron is asking Chase to get another blood sample. She’s decided to pick the side of angels and find out what’s wrong with Dibala. With another blood sample they can prove if it’s scleroderma or blastomycosis. Chase says he’ll get her the blood.

Foreman is sitting in House’s chair in House’s office AGAIN when Cameron and Chase brings in the latest bloodwork, which indicates it’s scleroderma. They tell Foreman they need to get Dibala on steroids right away. Stubborn Foreman says the tests “only point” to scleroderma and they shouldn’t change treatment. Excuse me? Remind me to never have Foreman as my doctor. Ever. “Well, I understand that you’re 10 centimeters dialated and 100% effaced and in great pain but that ‘only points’ to imminent childbirth. Let’s just casually hang back and see if that sling I put on your arm for tendonitis does anything first.” Chase thinks that’s stupid, too. Foreman says that blasto fits best and he’s made his decision. He hands the EVIDENCE that he’s wrong back to Cameron. Cameron pauses and flips on her gentle, guiding advice switch. She reminds Foreman how well she knows him and that he’s usually willing to admit when he’s wrong (like when, ever?) but when things REALLY matter to him (like firing a girlfriend) he gets all insecure and refuses to back down on things, even if he is wrong. Foreman, swayed by the caring voice of Cameron’s reason, bends and says to switch Dibala to steroids and treat him for scleroderma. Oh, that Cameron. They should just send her to Dibala’s country. She’d have them all holding hands and singing Kumbaya in no time.

The obnoxious neighbor has unlocked his front door and steps in. As he shuts and locks the door behind him House steps out from the shadows and injects him with a knock-out drug. The neighbor collapses in House’s arms. Oh, House. I thought we were pass these retaliation tactics. Dang. I must point out here that whenever the writers/producers/etc have a character that is supposed to represent House they always get an actor that resembles Mr. Laurie a bit. Think about it – the similarities usually involve scruffy beards, baldness or thinning hair and tall and lanky. Go back and check this theory out. I would hope they’d know they didn’t need to be so obvious in their symbolism but hey… Anyways….The neighbor awakes, terrified and duct taped to a chair. His mouth is duct taped shut and House is calmly explaining why he’s there. House apologizes for everything as he’s going through some things right now. But he’s actually there to help. He brings out a file box that has been taped and cut so it has two holes on the side and a mirror down the middle. House pushes the neighbor up to the table and tells him to put his arms through the holes. Once they’re both in, House closes the lid over the half of the box that has the amputated limb in it and tells the neighbor to look at his magic reappearing arm in the mirror. House then says that he hopes this mental trickery will eliminate the pain that the neighbor’s been having for 34 years. He tells the man to pray this will work and commands him to clench his “fists” as tight as possible. The neighbor grimaces in pain as he does so. Then House softly says, “Now, let go.” Advice House has been taking recently himself. As he does so, the neighbor immediately feels the muscles in his amputated arm relax and he is pain free. He cries tears of happiness and gratitude. He thanks House sincerely. House ducks his head in shyness at the depth of emotion. Yeah, House. I’m proud of you and I’m sorry for ever doubting you. I’m as bad as Wilson sometimes and I am ashamed. I am pro-House from now on, sir!

We jump back to Dibala’s room where blood is pouring out of his mouth. Chase is desperately trying to cauterize the bleed in his throat, but just when he gets it another one happens. As they look they see a dozen more and the realize there is nothing they can do. They try to shock his heart when it finally flatlines and are unsuccessful. Chase calls the time of death.

Foreman is sitting at House’s desk when House walks in. He advises that the lounge chair is better for second guessing one’s decisions. Foreman says he switched Dibala’s meds and now doesn’t know if that’s what killed him ‘cause he was right with the Blastomycosis diagnosis or if he didn’t switch the meds in time because House was right with the scleroderma diagnosis. House tells him that because Foreman’s like him he won’t be satisfied until he finds out. Foreman says Dibala’s body is under lock and key because they don’t want anyone else to do the biopsy beside the country’s medical advisor. House looks at Foreman and reminds him that he didn’t only hire him for his medical skills. Foreman used to know what to do with a locked door….

We cut to Chase sitting in a darkened locker room. His head is hung low and he’s obviously contemplating something. Foreman walks in holding a piece of paper. He tells Chase that he went down to the morgue to re-run the tests, but he couldn’t get in. There was a guard as well as a locked door. Foreman did, however, look at the morgue sign-in sheet from that morning. Chase was there just before they ran the first blood test which pointed to scleroderma. It seems that there was a lady in the morgue who had died the day before from scleroderma. Foreman used his super sleuth skills and deduced that Chase drew blood from that lady for the tests for Dibala. He switched the results so they would treat for the wrong disease. Foreman is genuinely shocked and ticked off. Chase stands up to him and says that if Dibala had lived he would have gone home and killed off every last Sitibi and then all the lives that Chase and Foreman have every saved would be for nothing. Chase tells Foreman that the news is already good from the country. Peace talks have started. Conflicts are being resolved. Chase tells Foreman that if he lets people know that Chase killed him Dibala becomes a martyr and the massacre begins again. Foreman does what Foreman does best and thinks about how this whole thing will affect his own life. Chase doesn’t expect him to cover for him, but he softly requests that if the police do come to arrest him, that Foreman will call him so he can tell Cameron. Chase gives the morgue log back to Foreman and returns to his earlier pose. Foreman is appalled. “Do you really think you can kill another human being without any consequences to yourself?” he asks, stunned. Chase shakes his head. “No,” he softly replies.

We have returned to Wilson’s apartment where it’s a replay of the first scene we saw take place there in this episode. House has returned home after work to Wilson sitting on the couch watching television. Wilson tells House that his neighbor called and sounded…happy. The neighbor has approved the garden expansion as well AND he’s not going to press charges even if House doesn’t move out. Doubting Wilson asks, “What did you do to him?” “I was nice,” responds House simply. Wilson looks at him and decides that he doesn’t want to know the details and that’s he’ll accept that at face value. Looks like Wilson has returned to the Pro-House team as well! Hooray! They watch the show in which an alligator lunges out of the water and snaps up a frog sitting innocently on a lily pad. Both Wilson and I try not to read anything into that.

We are back at the hospital where we see Dibala’s son being lead into the morgue to see his father. He breaks down in tears and embraces his dead father’s body. Then we see Chase lay down fully dressed on the bed next to Cameron. He features haunted by his actions of the day . Next we watch as Foreman burns the morgue log and tosses it into the trash can. Foreman’s face is void of any emotion. Nothing new there. Fade to black.

I’d have to say this episode was pretty good. The common theme seemed to be “Choices and Sticking With Them.” Every main character either stayed true to character or made different choices. Foreman, Cameron and Wilson followed the same path as usual, but we got to see Chase and House try to make more far-reaching choices than they usually do. The POTW character, as usual, brings up the big thought of the week: Do any of us have the gumption to make a decision and stand behind it even if it is contrary to what we would normally do? I guess next week’s POTW will have something to do with consequences. Just a guess. We had some good comic moments from Mr. Laurie, but overall the episode was pretty heavy. Some great character development on Chase’s part, but everyone else seemed to move along as usual. James Earl Jones lived up to expectations and did so even though he was laying down in 99% of his scenes. It’ll be interesting to see where this storyline leads. I’m trying to stay away from spoilers, but seeing as how these recapments are posted on SpoilerTV it’s gonna be hard. I am excited at what I’ve read so far. Thanks again for reading and leaving comments. It’s good to know someone out there besides my mom and husband are reading them! Sorry, this one is being posted so late on Friday. It’s been a week…. Next week’s recapment will hopefully be out on Wednesday as I am leaving town for the weekend. Wish me luck!