"Need to Know" 2x11
Happy new year to everyone! Most of the holidays are over, and real life is back in full swing. I hope that whatever and however you celebrated over the past weeks, your time was relaxing, enjoyable, and full of joy.
This post I'll look at "Need to Know," which I count as my anniversary episode; that is, it's the first ep of House that I ever saw. Needless to say, I was hooked immediately, and I've beenobsessed and stalking watching regularly ever since.
We're introduced to the PotW in the first minutes of the episode. She is Margo Dalton, portrayed as the "perfect" mom, wife, employee, and all-around people pleaser. Through the episode, we find that she lives her life very much on a "need to know" basis and that she hides some very important facts about herself from her doctors and her loved ones.
Of course, the diagnostics team has a need to know the root cause of Margo's physical ailments. She has uncontrollable muscle spasms, becomes psychotic, has a stroke, and is discovered to have a vascular tumor in her liver. Diagnoses that are considered along the way include Huntingdon's, drug abuse (Ritalin), and schizophrenia. The answer is her conflicting fertility/birth control meds; she doesn't want her husband to know that she doesn't want another child but is too fearful of what it would do to their relationship so won't tell him. Instead, she chooses to undergo surgery on the liver tumor (even though it would completely clear up on its own if she stopped the birth control pills). As House and Wilson watch the surgery from the observatory, House says he thinks her decision is actually romantic in a way (her willingness to go so far to preserve her relationship to the point of jeopardizing her life). He says he can barely put down the toilet seat for the woman he supposedly loves.
There are no clinic patients this week. House does take a mouth swab from Cameron for an overdue HIV test.
House: Cameron, I love you.
[Cameron's jaw drops. House swabs her mouth.]
House: Get your test result tomorrow.
Hee! I love that. *snap* to you, Greggy! Arrrr to you, Cam!
This episode sees the death of House and Stacy's romance (am I wrong to say "Yay!"?). She had decided to leave Mark for House, but at the end he rejects her, saying that he knows in time she would become resentful of both the decision she'd made and the lack of change House would have made for her. Rather than face the pain of losing her during a realtionship again, he pushes her back to her husband and their life in Short Hills. *whew!* And that should (hear me, writers??) take Stacy Warner out of the picture for good.
The episode ends with an angsty House-Wilson dialog on the roof of the hospital at night. Suffice to say that it's the next step in all the psychoanalyzing that Wilson does in later eps from that season and season 3. Although I do like the end line of the show (Wilson to House, obviously): "You don't like yourself. But you do admire yourself. It's all you've got, so you cling to it. You're so afraid if you change, you'll lose what makes you special. Being miserable doesn't make you better than anybody else, House. It just makes you miserable."
Quote of the episode? House [knocking on Wilson's office door]: I know you're in there! I can hear you caring! That is the exact moment I feel in love with House the show, House the character, and Hugh Laurie the actor.
Overall, I enjoyed this episode; let's give it 3 canes out of 5. On the plus side, it had a really interesting case, one or two fluffy House-interacts-with-a-kid scenes, and House and Wilson gettin' their angst on. On the negative, it had Stacy and no clinic patients. I miss it when there are no clinic patients!
New House on Tuesday, hurrah! According to the previews, "Words and Deeds" gives us House in court (supported by Cuddy and Wilson sitting behind him Yay!) and agreeing to go to rehab. I can't wait; how about you?
PS: Did you see the "My House" Scrubs episode? I'd been hoping for a full episode parody, so I confess I was disappointed. But I did love the parody we did get!
This post I'll look at "Need to Know," which I count as my anniversary episode; that is, it's the first ep of House that I ever saw. Needless to say, I was hooked immediately, and I've been
We're introduced to the PotW in the first minutes of the episode. She is Margo Dalton, portrayed as the "perfect" mom, wife, employee, and all-around people pleaser. Through the episode, we find that she lives her life very much on a "need to know" basis and that she hides some very important facts about herself from her doctors and her loved ones.
Of course, the diagnostics team has a need to know the root cause of Margo's physical ailments. She has uncontrollable muscle spasms, becomes psychotic, has a stroke, and is discovered to have a vascular tumor in her liver. Diagnoses that are considered along the way include Huntingdon's, drug abuse (Ritalin), and schizophrenia. The answer is her conflicting fertility/birth control meds; she doesn't want her husband to know that she doesn't want another child but is too fearful of what it would do to their relationship so won't tell him. Instead, she chooses to undergo surgery on the liver tumor (even though it would completely clear up on its own if she stopped the birth control pills). As House and Wilson watch the surgery from the observatory, House says he thinks her decision is actually romantic in a way (her willingness to go so far to preserve her relationship to the point of jeopardizing her life). He says he can barely put down the toilet seat for the woman he supposedly loves.
There are no clinic patients this week. House does take a mouth swab from Cameron for an overdue HIV test.
House: Cameron, I love you.
[Cameron's jaw drops. House swabs her mouth.]
House: Get your test result tomorrow.
Hee! I love that. *snap* to you, Greggy! Arrrr to you, Cam!
This episode sees the death of House and Stacy's romance (am I wrong to say "Yay!"?). She had decided to leave Mark for House, but at the end he rejects her, saying that he knows in time she would become resentful of both the decision she'd made and the lack of change House would have made for her. Rather than face the pain of losing her during a realtionship again, he pushes her back to her husband and their life in Short Hills. *whew!* And that should (hear me, writers??) take Stacy Warner out of the picture for good.
The episode ends with an angsty House-Wilson dialog on the roof of the hospital at night. Suffice to say that it's the next step in all the psychoanalyzing that Wilson does in later eps from that season and season 3. Although I do like the end line of the show (Wilson to House, obviously): "You don't like yourself. But you do admire yourself. It's all you've got, so you cling to it. You're so afraid if you change, you'll lose what makes you special. Being miserable doesn't make you better than anybody else, House. It just makes you miserable."
Quote of the episode? House [knocking on Wilson's office door]: I know you're in there! I can hear you caring! That is the exact moment I feel in love with House the show, House the character, and Hugh Laurie the actor.
Overall, I enjoyed this episode; let's give it 3 canes out of 5. On the plus side, it had a really interesting case, one or two fluffy House-interacts-with-a-kid scenes, and House and Wilson gettin' their angst on. On the negative, it had Stacy and no clinic patients. I miss it when there are no clinic patients!
New House on Tuesday, hurrah! According to the previews, "Words and Deeds" gives us House in court (supported by Cuddy and Wilson sitting behind him Yay!) and agreeing to go to rehab. I can't wait; how about you?
PS: Did you see the "My House" Scrubs episode? I'd been hoping for a full episode parody, so I confess I was disappointed. But I did love the parody we did get!
Labels: season2
