HOUSE “Recession Proof” Season 7 Episode 14 – The team treats a rash-stricken former real estate manager who now–unbeknownst to his wife–cleans crime scenes for a living in the “Recession Proof” episode of HOUSE. Meanwhile, there’s trouble in paradise for both Taub and Foreman and House and Cuddy while Chase and Masters seem to be inching toward each other.
I’m ambivalent about this episode. On the one hand, in a nice turn of events, medicine is back as more than window dressing. On the other hand, the last two minutes seem to have absolutely nothing to do with the show I’ve watched for seven years and they overshadow everything that came before.
It’s been a long time since a patient of the week died, and while the pregnant wife aspect is blatant emotional manipulation, it completely works. There are a few interesting twists along the way and while the disease (Muckle-Wells Syndrome) is as obscure as they come, it’s nice to get back to some old-school House complete with funky camera angles, low lighting, and the patient hallucinating.
Masters is now Cameron to the nth degree. I’ve liked her more than most, but her sanctimony gets wearing and that she actually needs to be told that hope trumps brutal honesty when a patient is near death is too extreme for me. House treating her like a baby bird is funny, though, and her joy at the Bert and Ernie joke is downright adorable.
Speaking of Masters, the show seems intent on pairing her with Chase. He could use a little brutal honesty in his increasingly empty life, but I’m not sure we need another romance to suck even more of the life force out of House.
Long live Bert and Ernie, AKA Silent and Silenter, AKA Foreman and Taub. I don’t want to see them pooping again anytime soon, but this is a pairing I can get behind. Foreman calls Taub on his “Woe is I” shtick while Taub calls Foreman on being a joyless ass. Plus we get House’s endless one-liners about Taub and his life partner. The one downside is that these scenes make me miss Kutner.
Finally, we have the all-encompassing House and Cuddy. It’s all fun and games with Cuddy hunting House down in the elevator and enlisting Wilson to give House a reason to go to her charity banquet. Oh, wait-that’s more sad than fun. Never mind, but at least it gives us Wilson. I would prefer Wilson with a storyline, but I’ll take what I can get and there are some good House-Wilson moments. The very end, though-at the risk of sounding like an unromantic, heartless bitch-doesn’t do anyone any favors. House thinks he’s a worse doctor because of True Love and he’s okay with that. “I choose you. I will always choose you.” Oh, honey, no. This is House, not Grey’s Anatomy. Both shows have their place, but please God, never the twain shall meet. Cuddy’s look of doom doesn’t help the situation, though it does make me wonder if House’s earlier Vicodin licking is foreshadowing. House has always been an obsessed man: drugs, puzzles, now Cuddy. Will he go back to drugs if he and Cuddy break up?
Favorite lines:
“It’s the holy grail of potential diseases.”
“Obviously he wants you out of the closet for some reason.”
“I’ll send along one of your big brothers to help. Do you want scary, smarmy, or shorty?”
“Why do people believe I’m incapable of doing something nice?”/”Experience.”
“So it’s Obama’s fault you’re lying to your wife?”
“You two can’t think and poop at the same time? There’s a life at stake here.”
“I think if you do this, your evening will end with you in your apartment alone with a sock.”
“My head’s on your vagina.”
“Recession Proof” is a mixed bag. The team interaction and patient of the week mesh and flow well, but the House/Cuddy interaction is beginning to feel like an anchor, dragging the show down. Maybe next week’s big Cuddy episode complete with fantasy and musical numbers will change that. I hope so.
What did you think of the tonight’s House? Any other Foreman/Taub fans out there? Am I too harsh toward the handling of the House/Cuddy relationship? Let me know in the comments.
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