Perhaps most upsetting to me was the House premiere, "Now What?" If Glee gutted Paramore, then the first episode of House's seventh season tried to change it's own identity. The medical mystery was simplistic in that installment and had little to do with the plot. The team was largely inconsequential. Wilson did his best Winnie the Pooh impersonation. House and Cuddy? They were bumbling teenagers who spent the entire episode in essentially one room. House was so insecure he couldn't be loved in reality that he wouldn't let Cuddy leave. Cuddy continued her contradictory statement's to our favorite doctor by stating: "I know you're screwed up. I know you are always gonna be screwed up. But you're the most incredible man I've ever known." Yes, it's always good to tell the man you love that he's screwed up. It's also good to continue the riff that has slowly eroded the foundation of this show. The more messed up House believes himself to be, the less entertaining the show becomes. What made this show special was how he shirked social convention to follow the best judgment of his mind and, no matter how many people told him he was messed up (ok, mainly Wilson and Cameron), he never believed them...until he did.
Season six was an exercise in House indulging everyone else. He "admitted" he was crazy. Get it? Because he admitted himself into a nut house. Following his release he spent the entire season attempting to make other people happy, only to realize in the second to last episode "Baggage" that no matter how much he did that, he himself still wasn't happy. In short, the main critique of the good doctor over the first five seasons was refuted. Still, for some reason, the season finale was allowed to close with House proclaiming himself "the most screwed of person in the world" and Cuddy responding: "I know. I love you. I wish I didn't. But I can't help it." And that's where we picked up. Despite everyone being wrong about House needing to be about other people, he still believed them about him being messed up...and Cuddy agreed with him by saying pretty much the worst thing you could ever say to someone you supposedly love.
You see, here's a little secret I've known about Dr. Gregory House since the good old days when I had to fight off people who actually believed that Cameron was a good match for him. There's nothing wrong with him. Actually, let me rephrase that statement. There's nothing wrong with him except that he listens to other people when they tell him there's something wrong with him. What made classic House so good was that all the other characters represented the naysayers that the men of true talent are forced to deal with. Every episode he navigated through all the unnecessary bullshit to save someone's life thus proving he knew what he was doing and they didn't. Except House would inevitably fall victim to the failing of our society. Since he didn't show remorse for being so damn good, he would be made to feel guilty another way. He would be told he was unlikeable over and over again until he finally had to admit to himself (at the end of Season Five) that he believed it. This is where that secret comes back again. House isn't unlikeable. To anyone with a clue, he is a hero, not the anti-hero everyone else believed him to be.
Based on "Now What?" it seemed the series would become about Cuddy coming to terms with the fact that she loves the anti-hero and House coming to terms with the fact that all he is ever going to be is the anti-hero. The name of the second episode scared me even further into this belief. "Selfish" is a word the show has always danced around. There have been many episodes that have played with the idea, but the writers never showed their hand, somehow always deftly managing to appear to be pro and anti selfishness at the same time. Seeing as how their (anti) hero was the definition of selfish, it seemed they were simply putting off the inevitable moment when they would come out against it, as doing so would mean fundamentally changing their protagonist and thus their show...which could only mean the end. So, when an episode titled "Selfish" was set to air, I prepared to lose another great show that had carried me through the last decade. I even delayed watching the episode for an entire day, not wanting to see a favorite character of mine be destroyed. Except, destruction is almost the opposite of what happened.
In a series that has had such amazing episodes as "Three Stories," "Son of Coma Guy," and "Ignorance is Bliss" (among many others) and had writers that enjoy playing with their own successful formula, "Selfish" is the boldest and best episode yet. What makes it such a success is its return to the basics of the show while being self-aware that it is doing so. The last few seasons of House have been marked by their deviation from the methods that made it a ratings smash in the early seasons. Plot devices such as changing the team members were met with criticism from the fans and declining ratings. This episode pretty much went back to formula. It was almost like the writers were intentionally reminding us what made House classic, as if they were saying, "we can do this whenever we want...and here's why we haven't been doing it. We had to take the long circuitous journey we did in order to get to this point, to make this point."
What point were they making? It's one that the series has been implictly begging during its entire run, the one that it has avoided answering, the one that has to be asked when your main character is Dr. Gregory House. It's the one that Taub explicitly attempted to mock his boss with in this episode:
Taub: "You're right, the world would be a better place if everyone were more selfish."House's response is as it should be, snide, sarcastic, and accepting of the philosophy of selfishness--assuring us that our hero hasn't been fundamentally changed by the insane asylum theatrics of last season. Perhaps he is even more entrenched in this belief after his realization that he told his therapist last season:
House: "See, I can skip the idiot part when you're not being an idiot."
"To hell with this. When I first came to you, I told you that I wanted to be happy. I followed your advice and instead I'm just miserable. How is this working for me...For a year I've done everything you've asked and everybody else is happy. I run on my treadmill. You just sit there and watch. You're a faith healer. You take advantage of people who want to believe. There's nothing in your bag of tricks...Whatever the answer is, you don't have it."Essentially, the answer season six was supposed to provide was false. Through the first five seasons of the show, many people derided House as crazy and said he needed to care more about other people. They are the people House were referring to as "wanting to believe" and that life is about living for other people is what they wanted to believe. But House figured it out. Focusing on other people being happy only makes them happy...and you miserable. So, in the season finale, he did what made logical sense and went after what he wanted...and got it. He finally had Cuddy.
Except, as this season opened, it became apparent that House had internalized the false lessons of the therapist more than we, and perhaps he, had realized. In "Now What," he was completely focused on what Cuddy was thinking or feeling (and other people as well). Their relationship wasn't about how he felt about her, it was about how she felt about him (and how others would feel about how she felt about him). It's why he continued to see himself as a miserable human being. That is how other people define him, the other people who said he was crazy and needed to focus on, well, other people. "Selfish" took this perspective head on, disproving it by weaving it into the old school plot elements.
First there was the clinic case. An elderly man came in with his elderly friend (who turned out to be his son) complaining of pain. The thing is, he didn't actually think he was sick. His ulterior motive was that he wanted a doctor to command him to move into a home so he didn't have to tell his son he wanted to move out of the house. Likewise, the son didn't actually believe his father was sick. He too wanted his father too move out, but didn't want to insult him by asking him to, so he wanted House to make the same command. If you're keeping score, both the father and the son wanted the same thing, but were focused on what they erroneously thought the other thought. The twist here is that the father actually was sick. He was accidentally poisoning himself by using a tube of denture creme a day. How did House figure this out? By exposing that they both wanted the same thing, the conversation changed so he could focus on what was important: real symptoms.
In short, the two men were so worried about each other rather than themselves that they actually endangered the health of the elder. If they had honestly spoken about what they wanted, then they could have identified the actual symptoms the father was having...and maybe lived on their own sooner. Yes, Taub, their lives would have been better if they were more selfish.
Second was the escalation of dangerous treatments on the patient in the main case of the episode. As is the convention, the sicker the patient became, the riskier the treatments House wanted to try in order to gain more information about her condition, and the safer the options Cuddy commanded him to use. Here's where the episode started to excel. House acquiesced to Cuddy and I jeered him. He wasn't acting House-like. I didn't tune in to see a doctor take the safe route, to give in to bureacracy and the culture of liability fear our legal system has created (a subject handled through the Tritter storyline). I was hoping for him to get out of this mindset and do what he always does, what needed to be done. Though I can't speak for everyone else, I can certainly hope they were responding in the same way, because if they weren't then they were missing the point and not enjoying the episode as much as they possibly could.
And what was the debilitating mindset that House was in? As put forth in "Now What," he was focused on what Cuddy was thinking/feeling about him. He was worried about what would happen to their relationship if he didn't agree with her. In other words, he was putting her mind above his own. He knew what the best manner of treatment was, but he didn't pursue it because he thought that if he didn't privilege Cuddy's view of the world, then he would end up alone. The irony is that by attempting to save the relationship he (and she had a part in this too) actually endangered the relationship. Neither of them could do their jobs properly because they were so focused on the other and that would mean their relationship would have to end to save their jobs. Yes, by being so selfless House (and Cuddy) endangered a patient and their own high value (their relationship). The solution to this dileema could only be found in true House-style: through the case-of-the-week.
This case amped up the sympthy as it focused on children. Fourteen year old Della collapsed while pushing her wheelchair bound brother Hugo around a skateboard course. You see, it would seem that Della does a lot of things a teenage boy would...and does them well. But that's not the problem...the physical problem, anyway. What starts as a heart issue quickly turns to failing kidneys and then destroyed lungs. The disease ravishing Della even dispenses with the donor lung she receives, making it nearly impossible for her to receive a second lung off the donor list when House figures out what's wrong with her. And make not mistake about it, House does figure it out. He also figures out a solution to the donor problem. Terminally ill Hugo is a bone marrow match with his sister and can thus donate some of that tissue and half a lung. The only problem is, doing so would shorten his life that is already slated to end by his 20s by another couple of years. Thus, Della and Hugo's parents are left with an impossible choice no one would envy.
The solution to all this is where the episode transitions from excelling to soaring. House solves Della's case by using a technique similar to the clinic case (and one that we have seen many times over in this show). He asks the teenage girl for a better history, when the last time she was sick was. Reluctantly she admits to not feeling well for the last year or so. Why didn't she say anything during this time period? She didn't believe she had the right to complain about such minor pains when her brother is terminally ill and in a wheelchair. Just like she was participating in teenage boy hobbies because of her brother, she had allowed herself to become deathly ill because she was living in line with his weakness. Boiled down to the root fundamentals, being selfless was killing her. And don't think this wasn't intentional on the part of the writers. Earlier in the Taub defends her by calling her selfless when she refuses to take her brother's bone marrow the first time. It's in the breath right before he mocks selfishness. That's right, Della never even had to get as close to dying as she did. She was just being too damned selfless.
Something about this diagnosis must have resonated with House too as he went behind Cuddy's back and informed the father of the children about the one possible way his daughter could be saved. Later as the parents debated the impossible choice, Cuddy learned of House going behind her back (as he always has in this series) and a more epic version of one of their drag-down knock-out fights ensued. They each angrily explained what the judgment of their mind was in front of the parents. They were being themselves again and it would lead to the resolution as one other person heard it all, Hugo.
Hugo then turned around and offered a plea to his sister as to why, despite everything she believes, she should take his lung:
"I want you to take half my lung...You do so many great things. I just watch. I get to watch and coach and cheer. That's not me out there. It never will be. If you take this piece of me, carry it with you, then I really can share everything you do. This is the great thing I can do with my life. Don't make me live without you."In one of the most moving and perfect speeches I've ever seen or read in a work of fiction, Hugo is acting selfishly in a way that all the other characters in the episode weren't understanding. He was completely honest about what he wanted. More importantly, what he wanted was to support strength and values in the best way he could do. He wanted to do something great with his life. This wasn't a soliloquy about how noble he felt because of the burden of weakness he was forced to bear. This was a statement about how he could be great. And by making it he solved everyone issues. He made the impossible choice for his parents. He taught his sister the most important lesson of all: It's your own life. Live it for yourself. Yes, Taub, everyone's lives improved by Hugo acting selfishly.
Most importantly to the series, that was the lesson House and Cuddy took away from these events. Standing in front of the elevator, they discussed what had happened:
House: "We got lucky. I did give them an impossible choice. That kid took it away from them."Cuddy: "That fight, it was the first honest interaction you and I have had since we came back to work. If we are painfully, brutally honest with each other, maybe we'll get lucky again."
All true, except they're making one important error in judgment. They didn't get lucky at all. By being brutally honest, by explaining the best judgment of their mind, they better equipped everyone else to deal with reality based on the best judgment of their mind. When you mince words and hold back, all you achieve is making it so other people have to guess what you're thinking and feeling. This truth is the lesson Hugo taught them because Hugo, in his disabled state, was forced to face reality more than they ever did. In many ways, his struggle parallels House's in the series...except for one major difference. Hugo was guilt free. Not once did he focus on his disease or how other people saw him as weak. No, instead he turned his attention to what he valued and the ways he could achieve those values. That perspective was the exact opposite of the one Cuddy and House (like the father and son in the clinic case) had/have. They were too focused on how they might lose their relationship, not what earned them it in the first place.
"Huddy" = House + Cuddy. I apologize for the "shipper" lingo and the obvious statement, but it must be made. How did House end up with Cuddy? First she fell in love with him because he used his mind to be the best diagnostician pretty much ever. Then he decided what he wanted (her) was worth pursuing and he attained her. Likewise, Cuddy became attractive to House by acting like Cuddy, by disagreeing with him in a manner no one else ever did, by providing him with a respectable opponent in his games. It was their honest approach to reality that made them attractive to each other. It was their selfishness, living their own lives for themselves, that brought them together. This was the lesson they learned.
It is my hope that they now learn how to apply this lesson properly and take from it what I hope will be the ultimate point of the series. House was only ever miserable because he thought he deserved to be miserable based on everyone else's standards. In fact, in the universe of the show, no one is better equipped to deal with reality than House. He is not screwed up. He is the ideal man. It's why Cuddy believes he's the most amazing man she's ever met. She just needs to learn to trust the judgment of her own mind above everyone else's too. She needs to tell Taub what House already did:
"Huddy" = House + Cuddy. I apologize for the "shipper" lingo and the obvious statement, but it must be made. How did House end up with Cuddy? First she fell in love with him because he used his mind to be the best diagnostician pretty much ever. Then he decided what he wanted (her) was worth pursuing and he attained her. Likewise, Cuddy became attractive to House by acting like Cuddy, by disagreeing with him in a manner no one else ever did, by providing him with a respectable opponent in his games. It was their honest approach to reality that made them attractive to each other. It was their selfishness, living their own lives for themselves, that brought them together. This was the lesson they learned.
It is my hope that they now learn how to apply this lesson properly and take from it what I hope will be the ultimate point of the series. House was only ever miserable because he thought he deserved to be miserable based on everyone else's standards. In fact, in the universe of the show, no one is better equipped to deal with reality than House. He is not screwed up. He is the ideal man. It's why Cuddy believes he's the most amazing man she's ever met. She just needs to learn to trust the judgment of her own mind above everyone else's too. She needs to tell Taub what House already did:
House: "You were right before. If everyone were more selfish, the world would be a better place."
0 comments:
Post a Comment