HOUSE “Perils of Paranoia” Season 8 Episode 8 – House returned this week with it’s mid-season finale, “Perils of Paranoia”. Our patient of the week, a lawyer peculiarly named Tommy, collapses in the courtroom complaining of a heart attack. Upon being admitted to good ol’ Princeton-Plainsboro, it’s quickly discovered that the guy has an arsenal of assault rifles hidden behind his bookcase. His reasoning for which is that he’s afraid that the collapse of society will bring about a massive riot that he will need to defend himself from, which leads Adams to think he’s paranoid. Park, however, disagrees with her, which leads to my biggest complaint with the episode: Doctor Park.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been one of Park’s biggest supporters. I’ve relished her dry wit and deadpan delivery, and think that her independent and self-righteous attitude are two of her redeeming qualities. I’m not sure where the Dr. Park is from the first seven episodes, the one that punched her old boss in the face and insisted on not taking any gifts from anybody. Now she seems so desperate for everybody to like her and respect her as a doctor, but I’m not quite sure why she really cares. It’s not like anybody on this team is particularly nice to each other, and they don’t spend all of their time paying each other compliments and saying “Good idea, Taub” or “I concur, Doctor Chase”. Everybody on the team is snarky, sarcastic, and frankly pretty rude. Just because Chase and Adams wanted to be with Taub for one assignment, it doesn’t mean they hate you. Get over it, Park. You’re an adult.
There was a few more minor character developments going on in “Perils of Paranoia”. The whole Adams and Chase romance is slowly lumbering along. It’s an unwritten law in all American television shows that two attractive actors on a drama should at one point be together, so we’ll see how long it takes for these two to eventually hook up. Park asking Chase out at the end was a completely unexpected speed bump on the way to that goal, so we’ll see what happens there.
Oh and speaking of hooking up, we got one of our very first stories this season that involved getting Foreman out of the hospital. We see the ornery doctor going to the gym and eventually hooking up with a pretty young lady who turned out to be married. I definitely haven’t been a big fan of Foreman over the last few seasons, as I feel his character has gotten less and less likable and more depressing, so at least he’s getting out of the hospital now and trying to live a little. Now if only he wasn’t hooking up with a married woman, he’d be in even better shape!
The final story line of the week involved the return of the fan favorite battle of the pranks between House and Wilson. Being a big fan of these types of episodes in the past, I have to say I feel like this episode really was a let down in that department. The ongoing question of whether or not House had a gun was never interesting, and I never found myself caring if he did or not. So he did have a gun. What does that prove? Why did that matter so much to Wilson? I’m not quite sure. I feel like this whole plot was shoehorned in here so we could get some comedy into this otherwise pretty sour episode, but I’m not sure it was necessary.
Overall this was a fun episode of House, but after getting such a cool case last week, it makes you wonder why we didn’t get last week’s episode as the mid-season finale.
Random Thoughts:
- Hey, did you guys hear about that curve control on the 2012 Ford Edge? It automatically slows you down if you’re taking your turns too fast! Amazing! But seriously, that was one of the most egregious product placements I’ve ever seen.
- Was Wilson even hoping that the net would do anything to House, or was his whole plan all along to get him stuck in the bathroom?
- I think it’s a bit weird that the networks are advertising episodes as their mid-season finales. Do most people even know what that means?
Please make sure to read our comment policy before posting a comment.