House (Hugh Laurie) and Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard)
discuss the possible methods of treatment for
two gravely ill brothers in the HOUSE episode "Family"
airing Tuesday, May 1 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
©2007 FOX BROADCASTING COMPANY
Credit: Isabella Vosmikova/House |
Broadcast:- May 1, 2007
- Written by
- Liz Friedman
- Directed by
- David Straiton
- Music
- Timeline
- One week after Foreman's mistake kills a patient in the previous episode.
- The patients of the week:
- Two brothers. Nick has leukemia and is about to get a bone marrow transplant from his brother. Wilson has prepared him by giving him radiation which obliterated his immune system and he won't survive long without the transplant. But Matty sneezes and is shown to have an enlarge spleen and a fever. The team must diagnose this infection or his brother will die.
- The mis-diagnoses
- House wants to make the donor brother sicker, Foreman insists on checking their home and then wants to search the database for an alternate donor and later when House comes up with another of his insane ideas, Foreman insists on running it by Cuddy (safe choices). Cameron later decides it could be autoimmune.
- The privacy invasion / ethical breach
- Foreman and Chase go to the home of the two boys and their parents. House by-passes the parents to talking a child into giving his life for his brother. And Foreman effectively "tortures" a child to save his brother's life.
- The final diagnosis
- Foreman's method of testing for one infection after the other turns up the cause of the infection as histoplasmosis.
- The clinic patient(s)
- None.
- Diagnoses:
- Chase discovers the cardiac injury. Foreman figures out a way to get the bone marrow to the leukemia patient. House does not solve this case.
- Other things going on
- At the end, Foreman gives House two weeks notice that he is quitting.
- House has taken in Wilson's dog, Hector, who chews up everything in the apartment. Therefore House leaves open a Vicodin bottle and leaves the door open (someone comes in and steals his stereo). But House and the dog do make a connection even though Hector chews House's cane and it breaks --- so House forces Wilson to buy him a new one.
- References to Sherlock Holmes in this episode?
House (Hugh Laurie) and Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard)
discuss possible methods of treatment with the parents
(Adina Porter, Thomas Mikal Ford) of two gravely ill brothers
in the HOUSE episode "Family" airing Tuesday, May 1
(9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
©2007 FOX BROADCASTING COMPANY
Credit: Isabella Vosmikova/House |
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- Additional information on this episode:
Cast: Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House; Lisa Edelstein as Dr. Lisa Cuddy; Omar Epps as Dr. Eric Foreman; Robert Sean Leonard as Dr. James Wilson; Jennifer Morrison as Dr. Allison Cameron; Jesse Spencer as Dr. Robert Chase.
Guest Cast: Dabier Snell as Matty; Jascha Washington as Nick; Adina Porter as Claudia; Thomas Mikal Ford as Scott; Greg Cipes as Salesman.
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- Quotes, Quotations, Dialogue:
- House has a new patient and he looks around and one of his "helpers" is not in his usual position. He leads the others to the chapel where he finds Foreman. "Nothing like a dead patient to send you back to your choir boy roots. Hey. You're not going to believe what happened. Wilson just killed a kid the same way you did.... He didn't look both ways before he nuked." House has handed the file to Foreman and while Foreman is reading, House rhetorically asks, "You done talking to your imaginary friend? 'Cause I thought maybe you could do your job."
- House and Wilson are talking to the parents and House is pushing them to do approval his suggestion that they make the kid with the infection worse so they can determine what kind of infection it is. Wilson doesn't back him up. Later House objects. "All you had to do is say 'Yes, I do'. God knows it's a phrase you've used often enough in your life."
"It was a mistake every time. Give it a break. They said yes."
"That's not enough for you. You need them to feel good about saying yes.
""I treat patients for months, maybe years, not weeks likes you.... If they don't trust me, I can't do my job."
"The only value of that trust is you can manipulate them."
"You should write greeting cards."
"Giving parents the chance to make a bad choice was a bad choice."
"At least it would have been their choice."
"One they'd regret at their son's funeral."
- Chase and Foreman investigate the patient's home. Chase thinks the home isn't the problem so Foreman asks him, "You obviously think your time could be better spent. Why'd you come along?"
"I feel bad about what happened last week."
"I'm handling it." Chase refers to a lawsuit and how that makes it harder to put it behind you. "You put yours behind you?"
"No."
"...I killed her a week ago and I can't remember what color top she was wearing."
"I was grateful when I could wake up not thinking about her."
"I'm not like you. You're patient died because you were distracted over the death of your dad. I made a calculated decision. You acted like a human being. I acted like— House."
- After House, Wilson and Foreman take some of the choices to Cuddy and she tells Foreman no, she asks House, "Did he really think I was going to do that?"
"I didn't."
"Then why did you—"
"Tried to cut him some slack."
"Nice of you.
"I think he's got the yips. Steve Blass, Scott Norwood, David Duval all got the yips. Great athletes. Lost their confidence and immediately starting sucking."
"And you're giving him time to work through it?"
"Mm-hmm. Four days. Then he's fired. you don't get better from the yips."
- Again House and Wilson have to present choices to the parents. This time Wilson gives them advice that sides with House. Afterwards House tells him, "That was awesome!"
""Shut up."
"I gotta start pretending to care."
"I did exactly what Cuddy told us not to do."
"No, you didn't. You did exactly what she told me not to do. You're completely in the clear. You've got to be kidding me. You're actually upset. You just said what you believed."
"I also believe in patients making their own choices."
"Because it lessens your built if things go wrong. You're not protecting their choices You're soothing your conscience."
"By that logic a sociopath would make the best patient advocate in the world."
"Am I blushing?"
- Foreman goes to the parents and tells them he has a donor who isn't perfect but who might be able to provide marrow to their son with leukemia. But House is totally opposed to trying a donor that isn't quite good enough. After Foreman tells the parents, House and Wilson try to convince them not to go with the donor, but they are reaching for what they can salvage. Wilson goes along with their decision though he thinks it wrong and he tells House, "Foreman screwed us."
"No! You screwed us. What is the point in being able to control people if you won't actually do it? It's like training a dog and then letting him, go on your rug...."
"Once Foreman got his mitts on them, well there was no way—
"You explain chances and probabilities. You lie to them. You tell them Foreman's a moron --- which isn't even much of a lie right now."
"You've got to talk to him."
"I got no problem with what Foreman did."
"He undercut us and he may have cost that kid his life."
"Foreman did what he thought was right. You on the other hand sucked out. When the decision really mattered, you didn't have the guts to tell them what to do. If that kid dies, it's because Foreman was wrong and because you're a coward."
- Wilson was astonished at that and later when House calls him to meet him in a strange store, Wilson tells him, "You call me a coward, life goes on?"
"Apparently. You showed up." Wilson turns to leave. "Hey. I'm sorry."
Wilson accepts this. "Okay"
When House sees that Wilson has accepted it, he says, "You're pathetic. I didn't actually mean that."
"Yes, you did."
"No I didn't. To infinity"
"Yes, you did. You're pathetic."
- Wilson goes to talk to House at the end and tells him, "The marrow transplant" [that House strongly advised against but that Foreman offered the family] took."
House responds, "Welcome back, Foreman."
"You should talk to him."
"And tell him how proud I am?"
"Hey if you're ashamed of him, you can tell him that."
"Pride and shame only apply to people we have a vested interest in, not employees."
"How many hours a day do you have to spend with someone before they're basically family?"
"Good point. But first I gotta tell Cameron and Chase that they're violating God's will.
"I'm just asking you to have an adult conversation to let him know—"
"He did a good job? He knows it. Adults don't need adult conversations. Just like I don't need this conversation."
Wilson gives up and asks House about his dog, which House has been keeping, "Have you killed Hector yet?"
After more conversation about the dog and whether House might want to keep him, House does go to see Foreman and tells him, "You did good."
"I did what you would have."
"Well, maybe I'm biased but—"
"I tortured the kid," Foreman says referring to taking bone marrow from a young kid (without pain relief) to save his brother's life.
"Because you knew it was right. You knew you were saving his brother."
"I know. I don't like that I know. I hate that I can listen to a kid screaming in pain and not even take a moment to question whether I'm doing the right thing. I hate that in order to be like you as a doctor, I have to be like you as a human being. I don't want to turn into you."
"You're not. You've been like me since you were eight years old."
Foreman sighs and turns and looks directly at House. "You'll save more people that I will. But I'll settle for killing less. Consider this my two weeks' notice."
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