The Power of the Prefrontal Cortex: 7X16
Mar. 15th, 2011 10:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readingratIt's back to business, House-style, and it's great. If 'Bombshells' left me shell-shocked, 'Out of the Chute' left me elated. Perhaps I should try for a tad more empathy and a sprinkling of gut-wrenching sorrow that our hero is on a bender, but hey, we did that last week so our period of quarantine is over and we are free to rejoice in his misery. There were tons of good things about this episode:
We got the medicine back
Finally, finally a case that felt like real medicine again. We had two medical procedures that qualified as extreme by present standards: frying the patient in the MRI and exploding his heart. Both were visually satisfying, what with the patient literally steaming and then his blood spurting all over the place, so that we got a sense of medical urgency for a change. In addition House seemed more present during the differentials than he has been in weeks past, even though he was bodily absent most of the time. I must admit that House murdering a hooker with a bow and arrow did distract me a trifle from that particular DDX, so that I'm not really sure why they fried the patient, but one can't have 'em all, I guess.
We got the connection between POTW and House
Here's the bull, angry, pissed, breaking out of the chute, ripping up everything in its way - and there is House ... I think one needn't elaborate. Lovely sequence in the teaser, and I really liked the music.
Then the patient, someone who is obsessed to the point that he has broken more or less every bone in his body to be able to follow that obsession. Towards the end of the episode, House himself goes to the man to get his consent for the final procedure, the one that, if it doesn't kill him, will certainly put an end to his career. House, the expert on obsession, expects resistance, which is why he didn't send a member of his team. The patient, however, is absolutely amenable. He'll find something else to love, he notes without a sign of regret. House is flummoxed, and it is not clear whether he can absorb the message. You can always find something to give your heart to, if that's what you need. It doesn't have to be that one person or that one profession (yes, I believe this is also aimed at House's belief that he's nothing if he isn't the best diagnostician around).
We got House on rampage
Masters ...
... is unimportant. She's leaving the show sooner rather than later, and until then she's there to hammer in some message that is being dropped anvil by anvil. In this episode it is the Bad News that we are powerless against the might of our prefrontal cortex. Masters can't help doting on the broken-boned bull rider, no matter what the rational part of her brain tells her. Where's the connection to House?
House has been dumped, badly and unexpectedly. He's devastated, he's numbing himself, and everyone expects him to indulge in a pity party. So does he himself, for House has learnt from the lessons taught by Stacy's first departure: it's no use going into denial about having one's heart broken, because then the agony will last all that much longer. Being a rational being, House has thought it all through. He will really, really go on a bender - the bender of all benders - for a fortnight, that being the time limit he's set himself (is he trying to prove that Wilson is a wuss for taking longer?), but then he'll have exorcised his demons and be able to go back to normal. It's a wonderful plan, so brilliant that for all of ten seconds I thought he might pull it off, but it is, of course, denial with a capital 'D'. For House has reckoned without his prefrontal cortex. That nasty traitor is plunging a dagger into his rearside, because it has decided to slump into a depression. House may rationalise all he likes, plan his recovery from heartache and implement all the necessary measures, but if his prefrontal cortex has determined that it needs 'time out', then there's nothing he can do about it. Lesson to be learnt: we can facilitate our recovery from traumatic situations, but we can't plan it like a military manoeuvre.
The team watches in disgust, Wilson in resignation and we in amusement (okay, let's not generalise, but I for my part was amused) as House's measures to amuse himself go from extreme to extremer to extremest (okay, I stopped grinning then): hookers, booze, vicodin, a hurdy-gurdy, shocking his team, planning a fake murder to mess around with the bell boy. If we hadn't noticed it yet, we'd have Wilson to tell us: House is trying everything that might prove a distraction. In the end, not even solving the case with a dead dangerous procedure provides the necessary kick. House's slump into depression is unstoppable. His final effort is near suicidal.
Some of the footage shown in the promo illustrated House's loneliness well: House lying seemingly alone in a big bed, House balanced on the balcony. In both cases it turns out that he's not alone; in the first case he has a hooker with him, in the second he is poised above a seething mass of humanity. But the truth is that he is alone, although he surrounds himself with all sorts of people.
We got lots of Wilson
Commiseration is due not to the two main combatants, but to Wilson. He does his Wilson-esque best, and this is what he's good at - picking up the mess. It's amusing as Wilson tries his best to cajole and coerce House into a sensible course of dealing with his problems, only to hit a rubber wall of resistance. He bounces off House, but he never stops trying. We admire Wilson for facingThe Enemy and trying to persuade her to rescind her decision. It can't be easy for Wilson, who needs Cuddy to cooperate, but probably wants to slap her against the wall. Wilson can't know that Cuddy is right - that she is the problem and not the easy fix - so his efforts deserve full credit. And we are oddly comforted by his continuous presence around House, dropping in on him, not allowing House to drive him away and refusing to be baited by House's snide digs. House may not want his advice, but he seems to desire his presence. He complains that Wilson didn't come earlier, incorporates him in his activities and doesn't run away from him until Wilson gets really pushy. I loved the scene in the bar; it combined all that is best in House/Wilson interactions.
I think we are meant to spot the difference between Wilson's conduct and House's in similar circumstances. When Sam dumped Wilson, House threw him out of his apartment because he wanted to spend an evening with his newly reconciled girlfriend. He offered no comfort that we could see, was visibly irritated by Wilson's heartache and even called off their few evenings together. To put it bluntly, in a situation like that House is not a good friend. It's a good thing that Wilson can cope with emotional problems on his own. Wilson once says to House that he prefers talking to Amber's memory than to House because he can't talk to House; there's some truth in that, I'm afraid. House will bail Wilson out of jail and he'll allow him to hang around in his apartment, but he shuts himself off emotionally. (No, in this matter I'm not Team House.)
It was the final scene that got me: Wilson watching as House jumps from the balcony. To paraphrase a line that Theoden says in The Lord of the Rings (film, not book): 'No man should have to watch his best friend jump off the edge.' I have full sympathy for Wilson for walking away from that. There's just so much a friend can take before he breaks.
We got 'normal' Cuddy (and House)
This was the 'real' thing after six months of very odd stuff. Can anyone but Cuddy manage to be selfish, narcissistic and guilty, all in one scene (okay, two scenes)? In her office she acknowledges that this major disaster is her fault (this goes down well with Team House), but says just as clearly that she will look out for herself, not for House. And later, when Wilson comes to her place, she says she is House's problem. She is right to some degree - 'Recession Proof' and 'Bombshells' showed that - but it is narcissistic nonetheless. We can be thankful that Cuddy is selfish, because House needs to deal with his issues and stop relying on the endorphins that his relationship with Cuddy released. He has to crash in a major way to be able to put himself together again. That is painful for Wilson to watch, especially since House may do something so abysmally stupid that he won't survive the crash, but going back to Cuddy is not the solution. It's alleviating the symptoms, not treating the underlying malady.
And then we got one of the very very few House/Cuddy scenes of the season that felt like earlier seasons of House: Cuddy questions a procedure and House coerces her into tolerating it. I loved his, 'And ... she caves!' He hasn't done that in so long, he's been tiptoeing around her for so long, that it felt good to have that ruthlessness in his treatment of her back again. Both seemed more themselves in this scene than in most other scenes this season. One sensed the hurt, the guilt, the embarrassment, but above all the short confrontation showed that they both function better when the bother of keeping their relationship intact does not influence their workplace interactions. I can live with them exuding all sorts of pain if they can find back to their old rhythm.
The only thing that jarred a bit was the writers' blatant rehabilitation of Cuddy. I don't object to a rehabilitation as such; what I object to is the kind of writing that makes it necessary. After the last episode I assumed that the writers hadn't realised or didn't care that Cuddy leaving House to relapse wouldn't really improve her standing in the fan community (see my thoughts on the Liz Friedman interview). It seems neither was the case, because in this episode (written before the other one aired) Cuddy gets to express her belief that the one-off vicodin that House confessed to would stay just that. Until Wilson informs her of House's relapse she assumes that he is fine. Whether we consider this a credible story is not the point; the point is that the writers got themselves into a situation in which they need to resort to convoluted, barely credible explanation for a character's behaviour. Now that pisses me off. When I write serious fanfic I spend a lot of time making sure that what the characters do makes sense. If it doesn't, then I abandon promising scenes. But other than that I found the episode very enjoyable.
If this episode was 'Denial' and the next one looks set to be 'Anger', do we get a quintet of grieving coming our way?
We got the medicine back
Finally, finally a case that felt like real medicine again. We had two medical procedures that qualified as extreme by present standards: frying the patient in the MRI and exploding his heart. Both were visually satisfying, what with the patient literally steaming and then his blood spurting all over the place, so that we got a sense of medical urgency for a change. In addition House seemed more present during the differentials than he has been in weeks past, even though he was bodily absent most of the time. I must admit that House murdering a hooker with a bow and arrow did distract me a trifle from that particular DDX, so that I'm not really sure why they fried the patient, but one can't have 'em all, I guess.
We got the connection between POTW and House
Here's the bull, angry, pissed, breaking out of the chute, ripping up everything in its way - and there is House ... I think one needn't elaborate. Lovely sequence in the teaser, and I really liked the music.
Then the patient, someone who is obsessed to the point that he has broken more or less every bone in his body to be able to follow that obsession. Towards the end of the episode, House himself goes to the man to get his consent for the final procedure, the one that, if it doesn't kill him, will certainly put an end to his career. House, the expert on obsession, expects resistance, which is why he didn't send a member of his team. The patient, however, is absolutely amenable. He'll find something else to love, he notes without a sign of regret. House is flummoxed, and it is not clear whether he can absorb the message. You can always find something to give your heart to, if that's what you need. It doesn't have to be that one person or that one profession (yes, I believe this is also aimed at House's belief that he's nothing if he isn't the best diagnostician around).
We got House on rampage
Masters ...
... is unimportant. She's leaving the show sooner rather than later, and until then she's there to hammer in some message that is being dropped anvil by anvil. In this episode it is the Bad News that we are powerless against the might of our prefrontal cortex. Masters can't help doting on the broken-boned bull rider, no matter what the rational part of her brain tells her. Where's the connection to House?
House has been dumped, badly and unexpectedly. He's devastated, he's numbing himself, and everyone expects him to indulge in a pity party. So does he himself, for House has learnt from the lessons taught by Stacy's first departure: it's no use going into denial about having one's heart broken, because then the agony will last all that much longer. Being a rational being, House has thought it all through. He will really, really go on a bender - the bender of all benders - for a fortnight, that being the time limit he's set himself (is he trying to prove that Wilson is a wuss for taking longer?), but then he'll have exorcised his demons and be able to go back to normal. It's a wonderful plan, so brilliant that for all of ten seconds I thought he might pull it off, but it is, of course, denial with a capital 'D'. For House has reckoned without his prefrontal cortex. That nasty traitor is plunging a dagger into his rearside, because it has decided to slump into a depression. House may rationalise all he likes, plan his recovery from heartache and implement all the necessary measures, but if his prefrontal cortex has determined that it needs 'time out', then there's nothing he can do about it. Lesson to be learnt: we can facilitate our recovery from traumatic situations, but we can't plan it like a military manoeuvre.
The team watches in disgust, Wilson in resignation and we in amusement (okay, let's not generalise, but I for my part was amused) as House's measures to amuse himself go from extreme to extremer to extremest (okay, I stopped grinning then): hookers, booze, vicodin, a hurdy-gurdy, shocking his team, planning a fake murder to mess around with the bell boy. If we hadn't noticed it yet, we'd have Wilson to tell us: House is trying everything that might prove a distraction. In the end, not even solving the case with a dead dangerous procedure provides the necessary kick. House's slump into depression is unstoppable. His final effort is near suicidal.
Some of the footage shown in the promo illustrated House's loneliness well: House lying seemingly alone in a big bed, House balanced on the balcony. In both cases it turns out that he's not alone; in the first case he has a hooker with him, in the second he is poised above a seething mass of humanity. But the truth is that he is alone, although he surrounds himself with all sorts of people.
We got lots of Wilson
Commiseration is due not to the two main combatants, but to Wilson. He does his Wilson-esque best, and this is what he's good at - picking up the mess. It's amusing as Wilson tries his best to cajole and coerce House into a sensible course of dealing with his problems, only to hit a rubber wall of resistance. He bounces off House, but he never stops trying. We admire Wilson for facingThe Enemy and trying to persuade her to rescind her decision. It can't be easy for Wilson, who needs Cuddy to cooperate, but probably wants to slap her against the wall. Wilson can't know that Cuddy is right - that she is the problem and not the easy fix - so his efforts deserve full credit. And we are oddly comforted by his continuous presence around House, dropping in on him, not allowing House to drive him away and refusing to be baited by House's snide digs. House may not want his advice, but he seems to desire his presence. He complains that Wilson didn't come earlier, incorporates him in his activities and doesn't run away from him until Wilson gets really pushy. I loved the scene in the bar; it combined all that is best in House/Wilson interactions.
I think we are meant to spot the difference between Wilson's conduct and House's in similar circumstances. When Sam dumped Wilson, House threw him out of his apartment because he wanted to spend an evening with his newly reconciled girlfriend. He offered no comfort that we could see, was visibly irritated by Wilson's heartache and even called off their few evenings together. To put it bluntly, in a situation like that House is not a good friend. It's a good thing that Wilson can cope with emotional problems on his own. Wilson once says to House that he prefers talking to Amber's memory than to House because he can't talk to House; there's some truth in that, I'm afraid. House will bail Wilson out of jail and he'll allow him to hang around in his apartment, but he shuts himself off emotionally. (No, in this matter I'm not Team House.)
It was the final scene that got me: Wilson watching as House jumps from the balcony. To paraphrase a line that Theoden says in The Lord of the Rings (film, not book): 'No man should have to watch his best friend jump off the edge.' I have full sympathy for Wilson for walking away from that. There's just so much a friend can take before he breaks.
We got 'normal' Cuddy (and House)
This was the 'real' thing after six months of very odd stuff. Can anyone but Cuddy manage to be selfish, narcissistic and guilty, all in one scene (okay, two scenes)? In her office she acknowledges that this major disaster is her fault (this goes down well with Team House), but says just as clearly that she will look out for herself, not for House. And later, when Wilson comes to her place, she says she is House's problem. She is right to some degree - 'Recession Proof' and 'Bombshells' showed that - but it is narcissistic nonetheless. We can be thankful that Cuddy is selfish, because House needs to deal with his issues and stop relying on the endorphins that his relationship with Cuddy released. He has to crash in a major way to be able to put himself together again. That is painful for Wilson to watch, especially since House may do something so abysmally stupid that he won't survive the crash, but going back to Cuddy is not the solution. It's alleviating the symptoms, not treating the underlying malady.
And then we got one of the very very few House/Cuddy scenes of the season that felt like earlier seasons of House: Cuddy questions a procedure and House coerces her into tolerating it. I loved his, 'And ... she caves!' He hasn't done that in so long, he's been tiptoeing around her for so long, that it felt good to have that ruthlessness in his treatment of her back again. Both seemed more themselves in this scene than in most other scenes this season. One sensed the hurt, the guilt, the embarrassment, but above all the short confrontation showed that they both function better when the bother of keeping their relationship intact does not influence their workplace interactions. I can live with them exuding all sorts of pain if they can find back to their old rhythm.
The only thing that jarred a bit was the writers' blatant rehabilitation of Cuddy. I don't object to a rehabilitation as such; what I object to is the kind of writing that makes it necessary. After the last episode I assumed that the writers hadn't realised or didn't care that Cuddy leaving House to relapse wouldn't really improve her standing in the fan community (see my thoughts on the Liz Friedman interview). It seems neither was the case, because in this episode (written before the other one aired) Cuddy gets to express her belief that the one-off vicodin that House confessed to would stay just that. Until Wilson informs her of House's relapse she assumes that he is fine. Whether we consider this a credible story is not the point; the point is that the writers got themselves into a situation in which they need to resort to convoluted, barely credible explanation for a character's behaviour. Now that pisses me off. When I write serious fanfic I spend a lot of time making sure that what the characters do makes sense. If it doesn't, then I abandon promising scenes. But other than that I found the episode very enjoyable.
If this episode was 'Denial' and the next one looks set to be 'Anger', do we get a quintet of grieving coming our way?
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 02:45 am (UTC)I disagree that Cuddy's been rehabilitated. Now, instead of walking out on an addict on the brink of relapse -- which was heartless, but understandable given her own fragile state -- we are expected to believe that she was ignorant of the realities of both addiction and the man she loves (when has House ever been able to stop at just one of anything?), so she is not only insensitive but also an idiot.
I loved it. It was almost enough to redeem the season from Unplanned Parenthood and Pox on Our House. (Two Stories, however, remains beyond redemption.) If I had to make a list of defining episodes, those episodes that really explain the development of House's character and his journey, this one might be on it, along with "Three Stories," "Broken," "Baggage," and maybe one or two others.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 08:40 am (UTC)I disagree that Cuddy's been rehabilitated.
So do I. This will work for the casual viewer, but not for anyone who has been following the show seriously. I was talking more about the writers' intentions than whether it actually works, my point being that you should never get a character into a situation where you have to bend all the rules of logic afterwards to get them out of it again. That is simply sloppy writing or wrong priorities.
I don't think anything can redeem the season because the medicine has been too weak. I didn't like most of Season 5's background plot either - all that Cuddy baby stuff, House getting on Cuddy's nerves, Cuddy pranking House (if one can call it such) - but some of the medical cases were really good.
If I had to make a list of defining episodes, [...]
I'm more inclined to put 'Bombshells' on the 'Defining Episodes' list, because that episode spells out that House has been 'using' a relationship as a substitute for dealing with his problems. (The writing on the wall starts in 'Two Stories' with House's confession that he 'needs' Cuddy, but its menetekel is only interpreted for the viewer in 'Bombshells'.) IMO, this episode is basically backlash.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 01:16 pm (UTC)I thoroughly enjoyed House's confrontation with Cuddy. You could feel the heat of his deep anger and hurt in every word, with that final dis, "Aaaaaand . . . she caves," being the direct stab to Cuddy's heart in retaliation for all the pain she's put him through (from his pov at least).
Have to admit I'm sick of Masters, though it was fun to watch Taub teasing the heck out of her but pulling his punches to some extent--I sensed a sort of gentleness there under the dry, sarcastic wit. He knows she's an innocent and she's struggling, so he cuts her just enough slack without coddling her. Nicely done, and kudos to Peter Jacobson for the excellent work.
Here's my take on the cannonball baptism--for me easily the most important moment in the entire story of House, as it is (IMO) his greatest epiphany to date, and something people are either dismissing because of the theatrics, or perhaps not understanding correctly, again because of the wretched excess accompanying it:
Setting aside arguments over tropes drawn large and crude, it seems to me that House has been moving toward this moment from the beginning of the series. Particularly in S6, he has been slowly and methodically stripped of all illusions, delusions and denials about his pain; his support systems have been taken away one by one until he was faced with the harsh, basic truth he's tried so hard not to look at: he will be in pain for the rest of his life, and there's no way to escape it.
Anyone who endures chronic pain of any kind-physical, emotional, spiritual-will tell you there comes a time when you have to decide how you're going to deal with it. Either you keep trying to deny the fact that you'll probably be in pain to some degree until you buy the farm, or you finally figure out you can keep on going and live your life anyway, and you accept it and move on.
The dive into the swimming pool was a symbolic rebirth--and I think that isn't too strong a word to use. House won't lose the physical, emotional and spiritual pain that (in large part) makes him who he is. But I think he's decided 'what the hell, might as well go ahead and live my life how I want to'. He said it himself: what do you do when you win? Party. What do you do when you lose? Party. Life goes on.
Of course being House, living his life as he sees fit will most likely entail a lot of excess and journeys down some very strange side roads--just as it always has. He'll be angry; he'll be depressed; he'll be bored; he'll be intrigued. But now he understands he'll be doing it in pain--just like the rest of us--and it's simply how things are. As a teacher of mine once said, "It's truly annoying but liberating as hell to realize your suffering is ordinary."
So he's gonna live his life the way HE wants to live it and more power to him, frankly. House tried doing 'normal' and realized it wasn't for him; now he's free to be House, whether the people around him (including his fans) approve or not. I've never thought House would make old bones, to be honest; he's pushing liver failure/cancer now, if not another infarction (I think it was Juliabohemian who speculated in a fic that he might have a genetic disease predisposing him to clots).
But I think Robert Sean Leonard got it right in the Official Guide, when he said (and I'm paraphrasing) House travels every mile, as opposed to someone like Wilson, who wouldn't even consider doing that. That much travel cranks up the mileage and shortens the life of the vehicle, an unavoidable side effect; but it's House's choice. He's decided to just be himself, good, bad or indifferent. That's a huge step for him. While I'll wince at the choices he makes to celebrate that step, I'll still cheer his decision and be glad for him. (Yes, I'm Team House--why do you ask? *g*)
Anyway--thanks for another excellent review, RR. It's good to find at least one other person who actually liked this episode.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 04:36 pm (UTC)The dive into the swimming pool was a symbolic rebirth-
As a bible-thumpin' Christian I couldn't miss the symbolism of that, but I don't agree on its dimensions. IMO it can't be the ultimate revelation that House has been moving towards since Season 1 because on a meta level the writers would be morons to hide a major epiphany in a 'normal' midseason episode in a whole lot of bs.
For another, although I do see the 'acceptance of pain' thing on a certain level, I also see that House is still hell-bent not to live with it, but to dull it. I think this is one of House's short-term "life-changing" decisions, just like his decision to become a conventional boyfriend to Cuddy. After living as a recluse for years (he went to work and that was it) and then trying for more conventional routes to happiness (living with his friend, girlfriend) he is now opting for a hedonistic lifestyle. Bury the old House, bring in the new. Maximum risk, maximum pleasure, maximum diversion. But whatever else it may be, it is not an acceptance of his pain and his disability. If anything, it is a rejection. The water is the one place where he can mask it, where no one can see that he can't walk unaided because he doesn't have to. The people in the pool with him don't see him as a 'cripple', because they can only see the part that is above the water. He's masking his state, not dealing with it, and that's basically a continuation of his 'recluse' policy.
I don't approve or disapprove as such. House is under no obligation to mope romantically, OD dramatically or react with detachment in a situation like that. Whatever he does is bound to be somewhat more flamboyant than your average jilted lover.
I thoroughly enjoyed House's confrontation with Cuddy.
I did too. All things considered, under the hurt I sensed relief on House's part that their interactions are back to the pre-relationship norm: House feels free to bully and guilt Cuddy once more into granting him all those procedures that he felt obliged to ask for politely the past six months. (What he said to Cuddy was only marginally harsher, if at all, than what he normally says when he wants her to cave.)
It's good to find at least one other person who actually liked this episode.
As far as I can make out, quite a few fans liked it. In HHoW, which is reasonably neutral, the overall tone was positive, and there are a lot of Huddy fans who liked it, too. I think that after all this shipper crap there are a lot of people who are only too relieved that things might be going back to normal. There's just so much angst that one can take ...
no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 04:53 pm (UTC)I doubt the hedonism is going to last very long. It's too exhausting for a true introvert like House. But I do hope the playfulness returns.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 06:21 pm (UTC)I just wanted to say that I appreciated your insights, especially on House's depression.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 10:53 pm (UTC)I did not like the episode, visually brilliant and spectacular, but fake-vintage House at first start. I am not bothered by his ways of coping ;I just found them all guilty after last week's mess.
Reading your review helps and clears House's motivations. And the flatness I felt could be voluntary to reflect House's.
Not happy about his probable down spiral, but still curious of how he will climb back. If TPTB lets him do that.
Thanks for your insights.