(Season 5, Episode 12 – “Painless” 
)
At least people on House are open about their attempts to manipulate each other. And by people, I mean Cameron. She freely admits that she was hoping House would benefit from having a patient who was in worse pain than House is.
However, House isn’t suicidal, and it doesn’t seem to me that he has ever been suicidal. Even when he was in his worst leg pain when he asked to be put into a coma in “Three Stories,” the 21st episode of the first season. Of course, tonight’s episode coincided with House experiencing increasing and worsening leg pain, so who knows what will happen.
House, who can’t stand not knowing what is behind a medical mystery, is content not to understand why the pipes in his home have burst (the pipes have burst in the house…). His house insurance won’t cover the repairs, so House causes more and more damage to his home (by starting a kitchen fire, for example) in order to try to get his insurance to pay. Perhaps this is an allegory for taking Vicodin. It doesn’t solve or prevent the problem, but it will provide a temporary fix. However, what is too high of a price to pay for relief?
House ends up bribing the guy from the insurance company and paying more than the cost of repairs in order to get insurance claims filed. He notes that he isn’t happy, but he is right.
That’s House’s mantra, right?
But what if he could be right and happy? At the end of the episode, he discovers that despite his protests that he didn’t cause the pipe to burst in his ceiling, he actually has been tugging on pipes when he gets into a steaming bath to try to soothe his leg pain. His leg pain is causing his pipes to burst. But maybe there is an underlying answer to this pain that he needs to identify, as well. In the past, House started experiencing increases in leg pain (in “Cane and Able,” the second episode of Season Three) when he thought he had diagnosed a patient incorrectly, (“Meaning,” Season 3, Episode 1).
If House’s pain increase now is psychosomatic again, then could it be because Cuddy is a mother now and has much less time for him? He is still pulling his hi-jinx of pulling her to work in the middle of the night, and she makes it pretty clear that if she is forced to choose between him and her child, he is going to lose. House argues that he wants her to do her job, but I think his needs are more rudimentary: House wants Cuddy to be at his beck and call. House needs to come first.
I was a little pissed at Foreman in this episode. He really is just as manipulative as House (and as Cameron, for that matter). The main difference between Foreman and House is that Foreman actually seems to care whether or not he has a little happiness. Right? Well, then why is Foreman pursuing a romance with a woman who has a terminal diagnosis? Does this make Foreman any better than Cameron, who married a man with brain cancer?
I hope Thirteen didn’t decide that dating Foreman was okay just because she saw Janice was doing better. Especially now that we know that Thirteen is in the control group. Do you think Foreman is going to break the law and try to get her put in the intervention group (the group that receives the real drugs), or will the matter of mind over symptoms be explored with Thirteen, as well as House?
Clacked by Jen Creer
on Jan 20, 2009 @ 10:30 EST5EDT
Yes. The underlying issue is that House is actually an idiot because he didn’t install friggin handrails to assist in his getting in and out of the tub.
I have to say, as a one time great fan of House, I find it less and less enjoyable each week. I can barely watch an ep straight through.
Is Cuddy already questioning whether she should have that baby? She sure ain’t taking to it like a duck to water.