Episode 7x15

[damigella]

Hearts rejoice, right? The Huddy days are over (not yet convinced of that, sorry)?
If you feel to happy here's my usually grumpy self back to complaining. Here it goes.


Let me start with my main complaint. House is back on vicodin. Surprised? Of course not. It's the way it happened that made me so angry. An ex-addict goes back on drugs in a moment of deep emotional suffering because of the woman he loves (I can't even start imagining what I would be like if my husband was dying). And this woman dumps him for it, and piles up shit on him. Thus ensuring his speedy return to addiction. Well done, Cuddy. Hope you're proud of yourself.

And as we're discussing, can someone politely explain to me how come in seasons 1-5 his pain was terrible even on vicodin, and now with just ibuprofen he can pull stunts like crawling under Cuddy's bed, making it clear that his drug need is not motivated by physical needs but by his wussiness?



0. I didn't believe that Cuddy had cancer. Not for one minute. Sorry folks, you have to try harder than that.
1. The breakup is being shown in the light "House is not good enough for Cuddy." Actually, more in the light "If not even Cuddy would have him, House is not good enough for anyone. He just should be alone." Not in "They just never were a match and they're better apart" (I'm not even going the "she's an evil bitch who wants to castrate him and he's lucky to be rid of her" road). 
2 I know which statement of St Paul Chase was quoting. Paul was a mysoginist, sexphobic asshole, but he could be a poet when he wanted. But the way the show takes it is all wrong. That someone with House's personality wouldn't want to be with Cuddy while she waits to know whether she has cancer or not doesn't seem strange to me. If you love someone, you love them the way they are. Not the way you would like them to be. My husband is scared of death, and extra scared of cancer, a disease that claimed too many lives in his family. If I thought I might have cancer, I wouldn't let him know until I was totally sure. And I wouldn't expect him to support me, but the contrary.
3. I hated all the dreams. Every single one of them. They seemed to be making fun of the ficdom. Sorry, maybe I didn't get it. And the one with House as housewife was too close to what I felt Cuddy's actual dream man to be for comfort.
4. I am not a single parent. And yet, from the moment my first child was born, I have made plans on what to do in case something happens at the same time to my husband and me. It's unlikely (we rarely travel together, even) but I still worry. In my country I can't decide who gets my kids if we both die, but at least I've told everybody what I want to happen (they'll be taken care by friends - of course yes, I hope it doesn't happen). That a single mom wouldn't worry about who gets to be the guardian of her daughter seems crazy. That she could name House without asking him... I'm speechless.
5. Wilson. There was so little of him. And it was All About Cuddy. 
6. The end of the show. Cuddy is with her sister, bonding against The Evil Mother, all cosy and chatting. House is exactly back to where he was at the end of Season 6.
Except he isn't, quite. Cuddy has chewed him up, gulped down some juicy sex, and spit out the (to her) tasteless leftovers. 

Okay, now to the good side of the episode.

Yes, it had some side I liked.

a. More Taub and Masters. I like them both. And House finally acknowledges M3 might have sexual feelings! For a woman! Yay! [I know, it was just a joke. Still.]
b. It takes a depressed to recognize another. Yup. Score one for that.
c. The one thing Cuddy said I really liked "I could sing my version of "Physical".
Please, PLEASE someone make a vid of that! Cuddy all sexy singing "Physical"; House and Wilson scantily dressed exercising and sweating in the gym, and finally walking off hand in hand together. I think that one image will haunt my dream. The original Newton-John video I can still vividly remember from my teenager years. And so can Cuddy (did I mention I'm LE's age?).

Comments

[petitecuriosity.livejournal.com]

And this woman dumps him for it, and piles up shit on him.

How long as Cuddy known House? From season one, up until the beginning of season six, House was on Vicodin. She knew that he was a drug addict. Did she really not expect relapsing as a possibility? I don't know if I'm right on this, but I personally was not entirely convinced that Cuddy was deluding herself about her relationship with House until this episode. I believed it to a large degree, but I also thought that I might just be being a bitter fan. However...

First of all, Cuddy's dream about House being a housewife, I completely agree with what you said, And the one with House as housewife was too close to what I felt Cuddy's actual dream man to be for comfort. It freaked me out because it illustrated the fact that that's what she pictures her life like or at least what it could be; perfect and baggage free, not to mention House literally catering to her every whim.

Second of all, she said to her sister "People change." In 7x01, not only did she make it apparent that she didn't expect House to change, she said that she didn't want him to change.

Third of all, HOUSE WAS A VICODIN ADDICT. Did she really not think that relapse was possible? She's a doctor! This just proves to me that she was deluding herself into thinking that it wouldn't happen.

3. I completely agree. I personally thought that House and Cuddy's break up could have been done without the theatrics and didn't honestly see why they were necessary. (Other than the writers wanting to take the show in a different direction.)

b. I agree.

c. YES. This needs to happen.

Sorry if this comment is coming across as a bit harsh and angry...I've been trying to keep my fandom frustration to a minimum.

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

"Second of all, she said to her sister "People change." In 7x01, not only did she make it apparent that she didn't expect House to change, she said that she didn't want him to change."

Oh yes, that made me so angry, too! I think you're definitely not harsh towards tptb as compared to what they deserve.

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

The one thing I would disagree with here is that at the end, Cuddy is sobbing uncontrollably with her sister, not laughing. I found it quite sad.

Also, she was naming her sister Rachel's guardian, not House. The dream illustrated of what she was afraid would happen if House was the guardian.

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

Ok, my bad about the sobbing (i'm watching all this on a screen some inches wide). But sobbing with your sister still beats being alone with Vicodin (maybe not, I never had vicodin or a sibling).

The guardian I misunderstood, possibly because the ugly dream started soon after. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a way to watch this with subtitles (and I don't want to watch it dubbed!)

Thanks for the help.
Could he have referred to any of the other pills he takes as candy?
Still, not the smartest thing to do with a toddler around with a tendency to swallow anything.

[selkie3.livejournal.com]

I agree with almost everything you've written here. Reading these comments and the general commentary about the episode makes me wish (again!) that they had ended the series ages ago. They had a good thing going, and then broke their own formula I feel (especially for this season). The dream theatrics sound utterly ridiculous! What's the saying? "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." They tried to do this for the character of House and the show, and now it's a mess. I watched the promo, and one thing I don't get... with his leg how the hell is he up there anyway?

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

I think Cuddy is full of it. She obviously wanted House to fit in some little mold she had of her idea of the perfect man and that's not love. if you really love somebody you accept them the way they are instead of trying to make them change. People can change but they have to change because they want to change, not because someone wants them to.

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

"if you really love somebody you accept them the way they are instead of trying to make them change. People can change but they have to change because they want to change, not because someone wants them to."

Why can't I EVER write something so short and so right? Thanks for saying what I think better than I can.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

hell, I just wish i could jump into the TV like in Pleasantville and say that to House last night.

[coconut-ice22.livejournal.com]

I just thought back to episode one of this season when Wilson thought for a moment House had relapsed and his first response was to tell House they could fix this, and basically was offering his support. Cuddy's response was to break up with him... er?

The one kind of frustrating thing about them splitting it here is I doubt we'll ever delve more into why is Cuddy so screwed up in relationships too?

Because it might have been said to the fans that she's just as messed up, but I'm not sure it came across on the screen that clearly and instead just made it look like we were supposed to believe she was making her decisions as a rational person might, when in fact I think this episode showed she had herself definitely never envisioned her relationship with House lasting long enough for anything significant to come out of it.

Mostly I'm glad the amount of screen time dedicated to her will be cut back finally. They're done with their little arc, now onto... well I have no idea, for the first time in a while I can't guess.

Although I must say, I AM surprised he went back on Vicodin, I was actually starting to fully believe the show would never let it happen! There were so many rumours about it all. Gosh, this is kind of exciting. Plus, I happen to rather like House by himself, why do we need to pair up every character in the world just to give them some drama in their life? House managed fine for a long time without a girlfriend.

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

I really feel that Cuddy's decision to dump House in the moment when he is at most fragile because of his addiction relapse, a relapse motivated by his desire to be with her when she needed him, as MORAL FAILURE written on it in big red capital letters.

And the show, as you noticed, gave the story a totally different spin - Cuddy the responsible, mature person.

About House and Vicodin: if he could go back to plain pill-popping without hallucinating and OD-ing I would be more than happy. But I don't know how realistic this is for an addict.

And I certainly think House can manage quite well without a GIRLfriend :-).

[coconut-ice22.livejournal.com]

Many people have always questioned if it was actually addiction or pseudo-addiction, and I'm not going to go into that whole mess, but there was always more to what happened to him than just the pills, as Nolan said and then as somehow dropped out of the series to the point where they were pinning it on the pills after making this statement of "It is more than the pills".

They never really once addressed her response to dating an addict, or made it seem like she was at all supportive, more like they ignored that from his life and went on pretending the pill bottle in the room did not exist.

Yes he was scared, and it is this kind of thing that has made me so addicted to this show because I want them to come out and say WHY, but at the same time they won't, and humans are more complicated than a few events from their lives, but I always feel like we're missing some big piece of the puzzle here.

I think Wilson suspected they were going to break up too, AND AHH to that promo for next week, really can't wait to see how that plays out.

gave the story a totally different spin - Cuddy the responsible, mature person. yeah, like they're saying she's messed up but there's only room in the plot to portray her as this woman who gets it right, who knows how to fix things, on top of her game, because heaven forbid she be fallible in any way.

Just before Cuddy said he'd taken Vicodin, I thought they were moments away from her saying she thought she had a sleeping pill addiction, it just seemed the way the plot was going. And I thought that they were finally going to give her some flaws, more than just us being made to believe she's this "normal" woman in House's crazy world, so that we could see she's a flawed character also, and their relationship wasn't about one flawed man and one perfect woman.

(ahh, sorry, I tend to ramble in these things, it has been a while since there was so much discussion on an episode / I had so much I wanted to say)

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

I'm happy about long discussions, there's a very interesting one going on at blackmare's http://blackmare-9.livejournal.com/518632.html#cutid1
Not only they help me see and hear things I missed (I view the show on a tiny computer and my understanding of American spoken English is shaky at best) but I really like the way people make me change my mind.
I don't think I would be watching the show per se, without this community.

"I think Wilson suspected they were going to break up too"
I thought he was only worried in a generic, Wilsonian way. You may well be right.

[coconut-ice22.livejournal.com]

I think he was always worried they'd break up.

Oh man, I need to stop reading Huddy responses, it is verging on Schadenfreude now.

For the most part I think I'm excited to see where they're going to go with this all now. I have said since the start that how Huddy breaks up is going to be the interesting part of their relationship as it scatters things into directions we've never experienced before as viewers.

Wilson was alone, but now he has House back in a sense. Will he step up as he has before and comfort his friend? Or, perhaps Wilson has been changed by what he's recently experienced?

What we've seen before has shown that Wilson will pretty much always be there for House no matter how cruddy he's feeling himself.

Will House go into a destructive pattern again? Can it be as bad as season 3's? Except, maybe this time with no Cuddy to lie on the stand and protect him from Tritter? Ahhh. So many questions.

And ooos, interesting you had a similar thought about Cuddy's sleeping pills. I definitely think they were trying to trick us with that one for a moment, candy, sleeping pills, etc etc, but yeah, probably not enough evidence for it to have been an accusation of any substance.

Plus! Thirteen's comeback to look forward too. They haven't touched on where she was since the start of the season. I've also been so badly wanting to know: Does House know where 13 is as he hinted, or was he just joking? So much!

[mmorgan317.livejournal.com]

Yay!! I've been waiting for you to post your opinion on this episode. You and I tend to agree very closely that I wanted to see if I should even bother to watch it and now I'm thinking "NO!" I'll wait til it comes out on disc and I can fast forward over all the Cuddy parts.

It's sad; I used to LOVE Cuddy until this season and now I'm just sick of her. I don't hate her, but I don't like her that much anymore either unless it's strictly as House's boss and even then it's tentative.

DO we know if Wilson was there for House when he took the Vic.? Wait, does Wilson KNOW he took the Vicodin?? Did Cuddy seriously dump House because he took Vicodin?!

I saw a promo for this ep that had one of her "dreams" in it and I couldn't watch more than a couple mins before I had to stop; I can't imagine having to watch the entire episode!

OH! And this entire season has been all about H/C and now they've made an entire EPISODE for Cuddy! Oh come on!!!!

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

"I used to LOVE Cuddy"
Me too. Unfortunately neither of us changed. Cuddy did. It's all the fault of tptb.

does Wilson KNOW he took the Vicodin?
Not as far as we know.

Did Cuddy seriously dump House because he took Vicodin?!
It's miles worse than that. She dumps him because he takes vicodin. And he takes vicodin because she wants him to be with her (there's high chances she has a cancer) and he can't face being with her and face the uncertainty. So finally he takes a vicodin and with that he can help her.
And she dumps him because of that!!!
Go read pgrabia's fic, it's soothing :-).

The dreams. Argh.
1. Wilson and House raising Rachel. And being made to look totally ridiculous. You know, two men can't raise a child.
2. House fights zombie doctors. I didn't find it funny. I found it a mockery of many enjoyable fanfics. And BORING.
3. House and Cuddy as Cassidy and billy the kid. boring, except for the Olivia Newton-John refrence.
4. House as fifties housewife. Vomit. Way too near to Cuddy's dreams.
And finally, House singing and dancing in some kind of variety show. Maybe I did miss some cultural reference. All I know is they managed to make HL look ugly. And with this enough said.

"this entire season has been all about H/C and now they've made an entire EPISODE for Cuddy"
I think they should change the title to [C]uddy, D.M. (Dean of Medicine)

[mmorgan317.livejournal.com]

"Go read pgrabia's fic, it's soothing :-)."

There's a fic about it??? Wow!

So basically, she's put a lot of pressure on House knowing that he was never one for things like that and that pushes him to take Vicodin and that's when she dumps him. How does she dump him? Silently, loudly, implying, dramatically?

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

http://pgrabia.livejournal.com/45182.html
It's the post episode fic.

She just goes at his place and tells him she knows he was stoned. And then she tells him that this is it. And he tries to tell her to reconsider, but she doesn't. No, sorry, I can't tell you how it was. It made my blood curdle.

The final scene is her crying and bonding with her sister (I thought she hated her sister?) while House is sitting on the bathroom floor like at the end of Season 6. Except now he's all alone except for two vicodin pills, so he swallows them.

After what she told him, to me it's a miracle he didn't choose to OD instead.

[mmorgan317.livejournal.com]

Ok, so I went to Hulu and watched ONLY the end and I thought the writers ended it well. I mean she wasn't mean, she was honest. Yes, she has been deluding herself throughout the entire relationship but she was just honest with him even though it hurt him.

And is it me or has this season really aged HL?

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

[HL aged]
Well, he's not the freshest anymore. But he's also a very good actor, and I think he manages to look older (or more warn out) when he has to.
I, on the other hand, look like my own grandmother since I turned 40 :-).

[Cuddy honest]
She may not be mean, but House is sick. He has just relapsed, and is at his most vulnerable. What he does not need is get kicked when he's already on the ground. In such case compassion comes before honesty in my book.

[mmorgan317.livejournal.com]

[HL Aged]

You're right, he can make himself look older and more worn (so can make-up) and that was kind of my point. It seems like this entire relationship with Cuddy has aged him considerably.

[Cuddy Honest]

I think you're being a little harsh on Cuddy. I mean she did what she thought was best for her and I can't fault her for that. Yes, House may be vulnerable but that doesn't mean she should act like nothing's wrong and coddle him just to hurt him later; to me it'd seem like she would be leading him on.

Granted I think her timing sucked and he really just needed a friend (thank you pgrabia!) but I don't think he would have seen it as her being a friend (even IF she had been there for him.).

I kind of view their entire relationship as an emotional crutch for House. They began it when he was vulnerable and it could be seen as he used their relationship to (like in his hallucination) replace the drug addiction and if he didn't have her, he has Vicodin. The way I see it is he has to have SOMEONE in his life to replace the drug (after therapy at least) and his first choice was Cuddy, his second Wilson.

[mmorgan317.livejournal.com]

Actually I think his preferences go:

1. Cuddy
2. Vicodin
3. Wilson

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

"I mean she did what she thought was best for her and I can't fault her for that."

I can, if I feel that she put the health of House at risk. But many people have insisted over the years that my moral compass is wrong (my mother the longest).

"The way I see it is he has to have SOMEONE in his life to replace the drug"
I think this is an important insight. One which I keep missing, because I think of the drug more of a pain issue than of... a drug. I'm a bit in denial.

[justjuly4.livejournal.com]

When House kissed Cuddy before the surgery, I suspected that something was wrong. He looked far too fine and calm. I waited this scene to be a dream too, but it happened to be much more worse.

I liked Taub/Martha. I was surprised it wasn't her who informed the police.

As well as you, I didn't believe that Cuddy had cancer. But it's impossible to explain how could Wilson, House, the team and the Oncology staff mistake allergy for metastasized cancer? They'd assumed she had the worst-case scenario illness. I wonder how often they had cancer patients misdiagnosed and frighten them and their families to death???

I liked the musical best. It looked weird and frightening. I had a feeling of a big storm coming from the first seconds when House was whispering the first lines of the song. It felt wrong. Aggressive dancing and a lot of crimson-red color made the scene look like an Introduction to Hell.

When Cuddy sat alone on the hospital bed at the empty stage, I was worried for her. She really did look vulnerable.

House in a costume reminded me Hugh on S7 promos (the one where his face was painted as a clown's) The face of clown, but not funny. He was a joker, a trickster. I think the musical part showed him that way. I was greatly impressed. He was beautiful in some evil way. I was hypnotized by his piercing eyes :)

The break up was the right decision for both. But not because House was selfish or uncaring, but because he was not the man Cuddy wanted him to be. He was stressed out and frightened so he turned to Vicodin for confidence. Cuddy showed that she couldn't accept him for who he was.
Do you get a feeling that the last scene of House alone in his bathroom repeats S6 final? I hoped Wilson would be here this time, sadly he wasn't.

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

"I liked the musical best. It looked weird and frightening."
I almost never like musicals, so maybe that's my problem, and certainly not if they're frightening.
And House looking like a clown... I hate clowns. They frighten me. Yeah, my problem :-).

"Do you get a feeling that the last scene of House alone in his bathroom repeats S6 final?"
Yes. I think this was planned to show us that House has gone full circle. Except it isn't a circle but a spiral: he's more down now, because he has failed with Cuddy after trying so hard.

"I hoped Wilson would be here this time, sadly he wasn't. "
We all did and pgrabia wrote it up
http://pgrabia.livejournal.com/45182.html
I so like that fic that I don't mind linking it twice in the same comment thread. Because we all wanted Wilson to be there. And many of us would have wanted Wilson to be there already at the end of S6, which would have spared us all this painful Huddyness.

[justjuly4.livejournal.com]

"I hate clowns. They frighten me."
I feel the same even about Ronald Macdonald clown. That is why the musical part was very impressive to me. House as an evil clown and Cuddy as his puppet doll.

I agree with your thought about House going down the spiral.