Thoughts on 'Small Sacrifices'
Nov. 23rd, 2010 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readingratAnd then the Titanic hit an iceberg ...
This is the first time I've been in the forums before writing a review, so this is not a 'First Impression' in the true sense, which is what I normally aim at. But it isn't my fault, moooom. Amazon, those *****, apparently leaked the episode two days ahead, so while I was innocently rafting through the forums at the weekend, I read stuff like, 'Saw the episode: they make up and everything's fine.' Okay, thought my inner Huddy, no major distress coming my way before the Christmas break, so there's just a chance that I'll get started on my next major fic. Then I watched the episode ....
I returned to the forums wondering whether we'd been watching the same episode. Yes, we had, but while others saw Huddy being resuscitated I heard a major crunch. The Titanic has finally hit the iceberg and is sinking fast.
The episode was distressing for me in more than one way. It wasn't so much the Huddy disaster - after the last two episodes, that iceberg was definitely looming ahead - as three 'ships' (Huddy, Taubs, Sam/Wilson) hitting their respective icebergs all in one episode (I'm an incurable romantic who believes that relationships can work), not to mention Chase coming apart completely. One may consider a threesome an amusing and suitable pasttime for a bachelor, but this bachelor happens to be an extremely romantic ex-seminarian. I don't think his escapades are meant to indicate that he's embracing an emotionally healthy path after his divorce. Then there was the POTW, with whom and with House's attitude towards whom I had two serious problems in one.
That doesn't make this a bad episode - not at all! I doubt any of us came out of 'A Merry Little Christmas' or 'Wilson's Heart' feeling chirpy, yet they were excellent episodes. I doubt I'll be able to judge this episode until the season is over; I don't think I'll dislike it in the long run, but it certainly ruined my Christmas cheer entirely. What bothered me additionally was a sense of latent misogyny in the series that I can now pin down on something more solid than that all female doctors need to be gorgeous to make it at PPTH.
The POTW
Okay, so he wasn't the brightest candle on the cake, but that made House's religious discussions with him a rather one- sided affair. And that's what bothered me. It seemed to me that House was uncommonly vicious to the guy, whose only fault (other than risking death, but who is House to cavil at that?) was that he didn't possess the intellectual powers to recognize the flaws in his own reasoning. I might have an incorrect remembrance of this, but in the other faith-challenging episodes House showed considerably more respect for his opponents. Of course, the issue tended to be slightly different than refusing some treatment that God might object to, but House was harsh even before the embryonic stem cell treatment hit the table.
I guess the patient's logic was meant to be faulty, so this can't be considered detrimental to the episode. As a devout Christian myself, however, it upsets me when in a widely viewed show religious characters use arguments that wouldn't get them through Logic 101. I quite see that my faith is not logical in itself; nevertheless, it doesn't exactly help when guys like the POTW reduce whatever logic there is to a pile of rubble. Making bargains with God is not a sign of faith, not in a religion like Christianity, it's a sign of lack of faith. It means you don't trust God to do the right thing for you, the best thing for you, unless you do something first to placate him. Now I'm not a Catholic and I have no opinion whatsoever on the embryonic stem cell therapy, but it seems to me that if the guy considered it against God's will because viable embryos were being sacrificed on the altar of his well-being, then that logic holds regardless of whether God screwed him over or not. Either it's murder or it isn't, irrespective of whether the POTW's daughter got cured or not. If the POTW believed that it wasn't murder, then there was no reason for him to fear that God might be against it. If he believed it was, then he shouldn't have accepted the treatment regardless of his current attitude towards God.
What probably miffed everyone watching the episode was that House used the same ruse that he used on the writer in 'Unwritten'. Lie to the patient with a simple strategy and get him to consent to whatever you want. Even the faked evidence was the same, an MRI. What differed a lot was the brutality with which House presented it, as contrasted to the empathy he showed the writer. Was the writer worthier because she showed herself as an intellectual equal who had something House wanted - the ending to the last novel? Or are we to believe that the stress House was suffering due to Cuddy caused his social behaviour to deteriorate? Neither explanation is flattering for House - he berates his fellows when they let their private lives or their prejudices influence their deeds, so he should act accordingly.
Slight digression: House's hairstyle
This sounds odd, but I've kept a bit of an eye on House's outer appearance after the end of Season 5. He looked wilder and wilder as he neared his breakdown. Season 6 was the season of short hair, beard (rather than scruff) and t-shirts to show that House was now 'clean'. Now his appearance is reverting back to scruffy and unkempt. Don't get me wrong - I found the 'prison inmate' look rather intimidating, but this isn't about what I like or dislike, this is about what the writers/directors are trying to tell us via his appearance. Judging by the increasing similarity to 'end of Season 5' I'd say we're heading for a relapse.
That said, I enjoyed all those changes of costume that they put House through in this episode, from downright unkempt via the 'Wilson look' right up to the tux. And House standing crucified on a stool being fitted for the tux was a neat image - the things the man does for Cuddy are nearly as foolish as the father who insists on being crucified.
Short aside: One can lie to HR about one's age? I'd say that's almost impossible. Wouldn't Cuddy have had to hand in high school diplomas, college degrees and other official documents all sporting her date of birth? She'd have been mad to do it, anyway. That's the sort of thing that gets you fired if anyone finds out; it's probably tantamount to outright forgery. And married for six days in 1987 ... I didn't realize we were watching 'The Life of Britney Spears'. I'm not even going to comment that because chances are that Cuddy's marriage will disappear down that mysterious well of plots that has already drowned bunnies such as Wilson's brother, House's biological father and the whole 'leg pain after an infarction' plot line. (Now that was a mammoth of a bunny, but it drowned nonetheless, leaving our hero practically painfree.)
Wilson and Sam, or the misogynist thing
I didn't quite get why Sam suddenly upped and left. I suppose it doesn't really matter - she is, after all, only a secondary character and we didn't even get to meet Wilson's other wives. (Okay, Bonnie, but that was long after the divorce.) What I did get was that Wilson's previous strategy of lying apparently worked, just as House's lie at the end of the episode worked, while telling the truth gets a guy ditched by his girl. You can, however, tell your guy friend the truth or throw anything at his head (that's what House says of Wilson), yet he'll keep coming back. I couldn't care less whether Sam and Wilson break up or not or what catalyses their break-up, but having Sam refuse to discuss this the way Cuddy refused to discuss the whole 'lie' issue made the present female characters look more than a bit bitchy while the guys were the 'good ones'. This was especially blatant since we got to see the contrast in the way House and Wilson were communicating: supportive, understanding, and all the rest of it, even if Wilson's advice still strikes me as downright deluded. House's advice was certainly good and he did his best for his friend, even if he didn't like his friend's girl.
If I were a Hilson-shipper, I'd be dancing on the table. Nice scenes with House lounging behind Wilson's desk (so much more at home than in Cuddy's office) invading Wilson's privacy, but being helpful all the same - 'Your girlfriend's lying, but she's doing the right thing' - and getting Wilson's perpective straight. Then there was Wilson trying to be happy for House at the end even if his own personal life was in shreds. Did I imagine that or was Wilson not really pleased that House had apologized? I might be reading too many Hilson fics at the moment (Hilson shippers write really neat fics; if my heterosexual brain were slightly more accomodating I'd change ships at once), but my thought at the end was: Huddy's days are counted, the writing is on the wall for all who have eyes to read, and Sam is gone; are we headed for Hilson after all?
The team
I said all there is to be said about Chase already. Okay, so it was funny, but I'm a prude, and I can't believe that sexual promiscuity of that order is the way to go for someone with strong religious convictions. As for Taub, I guess there's supposed to be some parallel between his trust issues and the House/Cuddy trust issues, but that parallel will probably strike me tomorrow morning under the shower at the earliest. Do I feel sorry for Taub? No. Do I think his wife is doing the right thing? No idea. Does Taub have the right to ask her to drop her internet acquaintance? If she doesn't, the marriage will collapse. The question is whether it is still worth saving from her point of view. Do I care? We were spared the sight of the Wilson marriage collapsing in the first season. In those days we saw everything from House's pov. In all honesty, that was rather nice. I found Masters irritating this time round. We've had three episodes around the issue of lying to patients, and it's getting tedious.
House and Cuddy
I still have no idea what all that was about in the first place. There's the group that thinks that it's a trust issue and that House, no matter how right he was to try to save the patient, was wrong not to trust Cuddy and should therefore apologize. Lieueitak (ummm, how do I link to her? Ducky Nicks on fanfic.net) in her insightful fic 'Think About Me' makes a strong point for that view. Her argumentation is brilliant and there's some evidence from this episode to support her: Cuddy didn't seem to care that House forged her signature after her express order to respect patient privacy, so it can't be about respecting her authority per se or not lying to her in general at work.
Then there's the other side that posits that Cuddy's being an idiot. My farsighted beta Brighid, who saw this coming long before the season commenced, said that Cuddy's control issues would make her try to bully House into submission. So far there's been a lot to support that theory. It beats me why someone who let their employee run rampant as he liked would suddenly feel the need to control him when he becomes their boyfriend, but perhaps Cuddy feels the need to have a tight control on her personal life. Her previous dating of 'losers', as House terms them, is a point in favour of that argument, as is her recent behaviour. She certainly spent a lot of time ordering House around in this episode in a tone I'd never use towards my partner, commanding his attendance at the wedding and at the rehearsal dinner (whatever that may be). On the other hand she didn't seem put out when he skipped the latter - she had a 'win some, lose some' attitude to that.
Whichever side is right makes no difference any more (I'd have liked to believe the former because it would give the relationship a chance, but from the overall way the season is going I'd say the writers are aiming at the latter). I don't know why anyone who saw the last scene would think that with House's 'apology' all is well and there is no obstacle left to trip up our hero and heroine as they ride into the sunset. House stated quite clearly to Wilson that his apology was a lie, a lie that is now not a lie from collleague to colleague any more, but from boyfriend to girlfriend. He told this lie to get back into Cuddy's pants, if one wants to put it crudely, or to keep the relationship alive, if one wants to be less crude. Either way, it's clear that since he didn't mean it, this conflict will occur again, that there'll be 'make-up sex' this time, 'maybe sex' the next time and then that'll be it. So House is basically just postponing the end, making hay while the sun shines because he can see the thunderstorm approaching. No long-term perspective there.
This is no victory; not for Cuddy, not for House and certainly not for their relationship. A glimpse of House's face at the end tells us that - he looks like a beaten dog, not knowing any other way to continue seeing the woman he loves, but aware at the same time that this act of hypocrisy is the death knell for their romantic relationship. That was hard to watch - what's the earthly use of being in a relationship if he's more miserable with it than without it?
There were some good moments, some 'Season 1 and 2' moments: Cuddy smiling with pleasure when she manages to get House interested in the case, Cuddy and House bitching together about the inpending marriage and its chances of survival as House zips Cuddy up and carries her bag. Those were the moments in which they seemed to forget that they were anything other than old friends and that made me think, 'hey, you had this before, why can't you just snap out of this romantic relationship stuff that Cuddy isn't up to (sorry, I think this is largely Cuddy's problem, but if you're as good as lieueitak, feel free to differ) and get back to the good thing you had then.'
(PS: Didn't comment on Cuddy withholding sex. Aside from expecting House to apologize that's about the dumbest thing one can do, but I do think it's in character for Cuddy, unfortunately. Interestingly, hardly anyone on the forums seemed to consider it odd or way out, while any partnership counsellor will tell you that it's a really rotten idea. Note: I don't object to not having sex if one is feeling too tensed up about a quarrel to enjoy it, but that wasn't what Cuddy was doing.)
This is the first time I've been in the forums before writing a review, so this is not a 'First Impression' in the true sense, which is what I normally aim at. But it isn't my fault, moooom. Amazon, those *****, apparently leaked the episode two days ahead, so while I was innocently rafting through the forums at the weekend, I read stuff like, 'Saw the episode: they make up and everything's fine.' Okay, thought my inner Huddy, no major distress coming my way before the Christmas break, so there's just a chance that I'll get started on my next major fic. Then I watched the episode ....
I returned to the forums wondering whether we'd been watching the same episode. Yes, we had, but while others saw Huddy being resuscitated I heard a major crunch. The Titanic has finally hit the iceberg and is sinking fast.
The episode was distressing for me in more than one way. It wasn't so much the Huddy disaster - after the last two episodes, that iceberg was definitely looming ahead - as three 'ships' (Huddy, Taubs, Sam/Wilson) hitting their respective icebergs all in one episode (I'm an incurable romantic who believes that relationships can work), not to mention Chase coming apart completely. One may consider a threesome an amusing and suitable pasttime for a bachelor, but this bachelor happens to be an extremely romantic ex-seminarian. I don't think his escapades are meant to indicate that he's embracing an emotionally healthy path after his divorce. Then there was the POTW, with whom and with House's attitude towards whom I had two serious problems in one.
That doesn't make this a bad episode - not at all! I doubt any of us came out of 'A Merry Little Christmas' or 'Wilson's Heart' feeling chirpy, yet they were excellent episodes. I doubt I'll be able to judge this episode until the season is over; I don't think I'll dislike it in the long run, but it certainly ruined my Christmas cheer entirely. What bothered me additionally was a sense of latent misogyny in the series that I can now pin down on something more solid than that all female doctors need to be gorgeous to make it at PPTH.
The POTW
Okay, so he wasn't the brightest candle on the cake, but that made House's religious discussions with him a rather one- sided affair. And that's what bothered me. It seemed to me that House was uncommonly vicious to the guy, whose only fault (other than risking death, but who is House to cavil at that?) was that he didn't possess the intellectual powers to recognize the flaws in his own reasoning. I might have an incorrect remembrance of this, but in the other faith-challenging episodes House showed considerably more respect for his opponents. Of course, the issue tended to be slightly different than refusing some treatment that God might object to, but House was harsh even before the embryonic stem cell treatment hit the table.
I guess the patient's logic was meant to be faulty, so this can't be considered detrimental to the episode. As a devout Christian myself, however, it upsets me when in a widely viewed show religious characters use arguments that wouldn't get them through Logic 101. I quite see that my faith is not logical in itself; nevertheless, it doesn't exactly help when guys like the POTW reduce whatever logic there is to a pile of rubble. Making bargains with God is not a sign of faith, not in a religion like Christianity, it's a sign of lack of faith. It means you don't trust God to do the right thing for you, the best thing for you, unless you do something first to placate him. Now I'm not a Catholic and I have no opinion whatsoever on the embryonic stem cell therapy, but it seems to me that if the guy considered it against God's will because viable embryos were being sacrificed on the altar of his well-being, then that logic holds regardless of whether God screwed him over or not. Either it's murder or it isn't, irrespective of whether the POTW's daughter got cured or not. If the POTW believed that it wasn't murder, then there was no reason for him to fear that God might be against it. If he believed it was, then he shouldn't have accepted the treatment regardless of his current attitude towards God.
What probably miffed everyone watching the episode was that House used the same ruse that he used on the writer in 'Unwritten'. Lie to the patient with a simple strategy and get him to consent to whatever you want. Even the faked evidence was the same, an MRI. What differed a lot was the brutality with which House presented it, as contrasted to the empathy he showed the writer. Was the writer worthier because she showed herself as an intellectual equal who had something House wanted - the ending to the last novel? Or are we to believe that the stress House was suffering due to Cuddy caused his social behaviour to deteriorate? Neither explanation is flattering for House - he berates his fellows when they let their private lives or their prejudices influence their deeds, so he should act accordingly.
Slight digression: House's hairstyle
This sounds odd, but I've kept a bit of an eye on House's outer appearance after the end of Season 5. He looked wilder and wilder as he neared his breakdown. Season 6 was the season of short hair, beard (rather than scruff) and t-shirts to show that House was now 'clean'. Now his appearance is reverting back to scruffy and unkempt. Don't get me wrong - I found the 'prison inmate' look rather intimidating, but this isn't about what I like or dislike, this is about what the writers/directors are trying to tell us via his appearance. Judging by the increasing similarity to 'end of Season 5' I'd say we're heading for a relapse.
That said, I enjoyed all those changes of costume that they put House through in this episode, from downright unkempt via the 'Wilson look' right up to the tux. And House standing crucified on a stool being fitted for the tux was a neat image - the things the man does for Cuddy are nearly as foolish as the father who insists on being crucified.
Short aside: One can lie to HR about one's age? I'd say that's almost impossible. Wouldn't Cuddy have had to hand in high school diplomas, college degrees and other official documents all sporting her date of birth? She'd have been mad to do it, anyway. That's the sort of thing that gets you fired if anyone finds out; it's probably tantamount to outright forgery. And married for six days in 1987 ... I didn't realize we were watching 'The Life of Britney Spears'. I'm not even going to comment that because chances are that Cuddy's marriage will disappear down that mysterious well of plots that has already drowned bunnies such as Wilson's brother, House's biological father and the whole 'leg pain after an infarction' plot line. (Now that was a mammoth of a bunny, but it drowned nonetheless, leaving our hero practically painfree.)
Wilson and Sam, or the misogynist thing
I didn't quite get why Sam suddenly upped and left. I suppose it doesn't really matter - she is, after all, only a secondary character and we didn't even get to meet Wilson's other wives. (Okay, Bonnie, but that was long after the divorce.) What I did get was that Wilson's previous strategy of lying apparently worked, just as House's lie at the end of the episode worked, while telling the truth gets a guy ditched by his girl. You can, however, tell your guy friend the truth or throw anything at his head (that's what House says of Wilson), yet he'll keep coming back. I couldn't care less whether Sam and Wilson break up or not or what catalyses their break-up, but having Sam refuse to discuss this the way Cuddy refused to discuss the whole 'lie' issue made the present female characters look more than a bit bitchy while the guys were the 'good ones'. This was especially blatant since we got to see the contrast in the way House and Wilson were communicating: supportive, understanding, and all the rest of it, even if Wilson's advice still strikes me as downright deluded. House's advice was certainly good and he did his best for his friend, even if he didn't like his friend's girl.
If I were a Hilson-shipper, I'd be dancing on the table. Nice scenes with House lounging behind Wilson's desk (so much more at home than in Cuddy's office) invading Wilson's privacy, but being helpful all the same - 'Your girlfriend's lying, but she's doing the right thing' - and getting Wilson's perpective straight. Then there was Wilson trying to be happy for House at the end even if his own personal life was in shreds. Did I imagine that or was Wilson not really pleased that House had apologized? I might be reading too many Hilson fics at the moment (Hilson shippers write really neat fics; if my heterosexual brain were slightly more accomodating I'd change ships at once), but my thought at the end was: Huddy's days are counted, the writing is on the wall for all who have eyes to read, and Sam is gone; are we headed for Hilson after all?
The team
I said all there is to be said about Chase already. Okay, so it was funny, but I'm a prude, and I can't believe that sexual promiscuity of that order is the way to go for someone with strong religious convictions. As for Taub, I guess there's supposed to be some parallel between his trust issues and the House/Cuddy trust issues, but that parallel will probably strike me tomorrow morning under the shower at the earliest. Do I feel sorry for Taub? No. Do I think his wife is doing the right thing? No idea. Does Taub have the right to ask her to drop her internet acquaintance? If she doesn't, the marriage will collapse. The question is whether it is still worth saving from her point of view. Do I care? We were spared the sight of the Wilson marriage collapsing in the first season. In those days we saw everything from House's pov. In all honesty, that was rather nice. I found Masters irritating this time round. We've had three episodes around the issue of lying to patients, and it's getting tedious.
House and Cuddy
I still have no idea what all that was about in the first place. There's the group that thinks that it's a trust issue and that House, no matter how right he was to try to save the patient, was wrong not to trust Cuddy and should therefore apologize. Lieueitak (ummm, how do I link to her? Ducky Nicks on fanfic.net) in her insightful fic 'Think About Me' makes a strong point for that view. Her argumentation is brilliant and there's some evidence from this episode to support her: Cuddy didn't seem to care that House forged her signature after her express order to respect patient privacy, so it can't be about respecting her authority per se or not lying to her in general at work.
Then there's the other side that posits that Cuddy's being an idiot. My farsighted beta Brighid, who saw this coming long before the season commenced, said that Cuddy's control issues would make her try to bully House into submission. So far there's been a lot to support that theory. It beats me why someone who let their employee run rampant as he liked would suddenly feel the need to control him when he becomes their boyfriend, but perhaps Cuddy feels the need to have a tight control on her personal life. Her previous dating of 'losers', as House terms them, is a point in favour of that argument, as is her recent behaviour. She certainly spent a lot of time ordering House around in this episode in a tone I'd never use towards my partner, commanding his attendance at the wedding and at the rehearsal dinner (whatever that may be). On the other hand she didn't seem put out when he skipped the latter - she had a 'win some, lose some' attitude to that.
Whichever side is right makes no difference any more (I'd have liked to believe the former because it would give the relationship a chance, but from the overall way the season is going I'd say the writers are aiming at the latter). I don't know why anyone who saw the last scene would think that with House's 'apology' all is well and there is no obstacle left to trip up our hero and heroine as they ride into the sunset. House stated quite clearly to Wilson that his apology was a lie, a lie that is now not a lie from collleague to colleague any more, but from boyfriend to girlfriend. He told this lie to get back into Cuddy's pants, if one wants to put it crudely, or to keep the relationship alive, if one wants to be less crude. Either way, it's clear that since he didn't mean it, this conflict will occur again, that there'll be 'make-up sex' this time, 'maybe sex' the next time and then that'll be it. So House is basically just postponing the end, making hay while the sun shines because he can see the thunderstorm approaching. No long-term perspective there.
This is no victory; not for Cuddy, not for House and certainly not for their relationship. A glimpse of House's face at the end tells us that - he looks like a beaten dog, not knowing any other way to continue seeing the woman he loves, but aware at the same time that this act of hypocrisy is the death knell for their romantic relationship. That was hard to watch - what's the earthly use of being in a relationship if he's more miserable with it than without it?
There were some good moments, some 'Season 1 and 2' moments: Cuddy smiling with pleasure when she manages to get House interested in the case, Cuddy and House bitching together about the inpending marriage and its chances of survival as House zips Cuddy up and carries her bag. Those were the moments in which they seemed to forget that they were anything other than old friends and that made me think, 'hey, you had this before, why can't you just snap out of this romantic relationship stuff that Cuddy isn't up to (sorry, I think this is largely Cuddy's problem, but if you're as good as lieueitak, feel free to differ) and get back to the good thing you had then.'
(PS: Didn't comment on Cuddy withholding sex. Aside from expecting House to apologize that's about the dumbest thing one can do, but I do think it's in character for Cuddy, unfortunately. Interestingly, hardly anyone on the forums seemed to consider it odd or way out, while any partnership counsellor will tell you that it's a really rotten idea. Note: I don't object to not having sex if one is feeling too tensed up about a quarrel to enjoy it, but that wasn't what Cuddy was doing.)
