 House (Hugh Laurie) and Stacey (Sela Ward) are forced to stay overnight together in the HOUSE episode "Failure to Communicate" airing Tuesday, Jan. 10 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
©2005 FOX BROADCASTING COMPANY
Credit: Isabella Vosmikova/FOX |
- Broadcast:
- January 10, 2006
- Writer / Director
- Doris Egan / Jace Alexander
- The patient
- A journalist named Fletcher Stone (who wrote 12 books and exposed three administrations) who collapses (hitting his head) while giving a speech and when he gets up, his sentences don't make sense to anyone except himself.
- How House gets involved
- As Cuddy says, "House is in Baltimore lying to Medicaid about his billings." But she calls him (Wilson and House discuss then when they talk) and later House discusses the case with Wilson and then calls to talk Foreman, Chase and Cameron via speaker phone.
- The mis-diagnoses
- Foreman, Chase and Cameron think the aphasia is caused by the blow to Fletcher's head. And later they are all over the map: "meningitis or encephalitis; or maybe auto-immune". Due to not knowing what is going on, three of the patient's organ systems fail.
- The privacy invasion / ethical breach
- Foreman and Chase break into Fletcher's office and home.
- The final diagnosis
- Cerebral malaria ("If a human being had actually looked at his blood, anywhere along the way, instead of just running tests through the computer, parasites would have jumped right out at them."
- The clinic patient(s)
- None, although House does diagnose people in the airport.
- Notable incidents
- House has brought a book to read while he waits at the airport and the title of the book is Classic Lesbian Prison Stories.
- Additional information on this episode:
- Quotes from the episode:
- Foreman [when House asks about the patient's medical history]: "The man can't talk. His medical records are sketchy. And wife's only known him a couple of years."
House: "MRI show anything?"
Foreman: "CT scan was negative."
House: "CT? That's like, short for MRI, right? Excellent. That'll saves us a lot of time."
Chase: "We've got an MRI scheduled in 20 minutes. Earliest Foreman could get the machine."
House: "I teach you to lie, and cheat, and steal, and as soon as my back is turned you wait in line? Get an MRI, and get a better medical history."
Foreman: "The man can't talk!"
House: "Who cares? He's probably going to lie anyway."
- House: "When people give themselves away, it's by little things. That woman over there, she's not sneering at her coffee, she's recovering from Bell's Palsy. And the cashier at the coffee place, she doesn't want anybody to know she's dying of ALS. There's a particular sort of twitchy stiff arm that's characteristic. And then there's you. Why aren't you wearing your cross?"
Stacy: "Oh, I told you I left it—"
House: "You keep jewelry cleaner under the sink so you won't have to go a day without it. True, you forgot it that morning that our pipes burst, but then you went back and waded through the flood to retrieve it. So— why no wading today?" [this conversation continues - see the House-Stacy page for later additions]
- Chase: "What happened to the Foreman who always has an answer? The guy who practically wears a sign saying 'I'm as good as House, but I'm nicer'."
Foreman: "I never said that."
Chase: "I guess it's safe to be confident when House is there to overrule you. Now that it's all on you—"
Foreman: " It's different. Yeah."
- House: I'm counting on you to get me off the no-fly list.
Stacy: Is your patient going to be alright?
House: Physically, his chances are good.
Stacy: Physically?
House: Two people who weren't meant to be together. Maybe theyll get a happy ending just because they both want it so much.
Stacy: Yeah, that's usually the way it works.
House: He loved her enough to convince himself he could change.
Stacy: But he couldn't, could he? [She gets the stub of her ticket back from the person at the desk and is about to walk through when she turns around to see House again] You know what Woody Allen said about relationships? "Irrational and crazy, but we go through it all because--
House: --we need the curry." [the reference to curry is related to a conversation on the House-Stacy page]
- For more quotes see:
- House, House Rules, House and Stacy
- About Doris Egan, the writer of the episode
- Doris Egan (Tightrope Walker) talks about details in writing this episode, including in creating the book House was reading in the airport.
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