House: The Tyrant

Everyone seemed to be really excited for this week’s episode of House for two reasons: 1) The original team of Chase, Cameron, and Foreman would be working together and 2) James Earl Jones is the patient of the week. Both of which are completely legitimate reasons!

James Earl Jones plays the part of Dibala, an African dictator who is accused of genocide. He is transported to Princeton Plainsboro after being served with a civil subpoena and vomiting blood. The subpoena and illness aren’t directly related (at first it was believed the subpoena was ‘poisoned’), but the subpoena does introduce this episode’s moral dilemma. Will the doctors want to treat a dictator known for killing his own people?

House has since decided to return to the hospital, but is still waiting for his medical license to be reinstated. Cuddy agrees to let House sit in on the discussions, but he is not allowed to personally treat any patients or come into contact with them. Therefore, Foreman is still in charge and Cuddy asks Chase and Cameron to lend him a hand since Taub and Thirteen are now gone.

And as House oh-so brilliantly sums it up: “Oh my god, it’s three years ago. Does that mean I’m still crazy?”

A majority of the episode focuses on Dibala and his treatment. While Chase, Cameron, and Foreman would rather not treat him (Cameron especially), they grudgingly do. A citizen of Dibala’s country enters the hospital and confronts Chase directly. He begs Chase not to treat Dibala and recounts the horrors his family has gone through under his rule. He also warns him that Dibala is preparing a huge massacre in the country.

Dibala admits to being at fault for some of the crimes against his people, but that he’s trying to impose order. Some things, he even regrets.  Is this a man going through remorse? It’s tricky to figure out. Jones portrays Dibala as an intelligent man, but there’s also something mysterious and sinister about him. Alas, the perfect dictator.

Meanwhile, the writers just don’t want to let the Foreman/Thirteen relationship die. Now that House is coming back, Foreman wants to offer Thirteen her old job back. Not surprisingly, she turns him down, but then agrees to have dinner with him. Their mini-reunion STILL doesn’t work out when Foreman reasserts his arrogance in ways only he could.

Since House cannot personally treat Dibala, he finds himself another dilemma back at Wilson’s apartment. The cranky war veteran with an amputated arm who lives downstairs has a problem with the “ruckus” House causes with his cane. We can now see just how much House has changed. When he’s confronted directly by the neighbor, House actually tries to work things out with him instead of being cold and mean-spirited. Although he first accuses the neighbor of falsely declaring himself to be a war veteran, House manages to cure the pain in the amputee’s arm with some medical illusion technique. Pretty interesting stuff, and at least House got to cure someone. It also draws a parallel to House’s ordeal: the pain in his leg caused him to be unpleasant to others, just like the neighbor.

Back at the hospital, Dibala shows no signs of improving and dies during a procedure on the table. Fate that he shouldn’t return to his country or is Foreman’s bad diagnosis to blame?

Determined to know where he went wrong, Foreman goes to the morgue to perform an autopsy. He’s not allowed in because of high security, but he does come across something interesting in the sign-in sheet: Chase had visited the morgue just before Dibala died. Chase admits to Foreman that he drew blood from a deceased patient and switched the results – giving Dibala a disease he didn’t really have. Chase claims his reasoning is that every life he’s saved would mean nothing if he let Dibala return to his country and kill more people. Foreman doesn’t like being caught in the middle of this, but in the end he does burn the sign-in sheet, destroying evidence that Chase was at morgue.

Clearly, this dilemma isn’t going to be wrapped up in one episode and the repercussions may be felt through the rest of the season. So basically, everyone’s excitement proved to be for good reason: this was intense!

For another take on this episode, read A House Finally in Order by Cameron Cubbison.

Season 6, Episode 3: The Tyrant (originally aired October 5, 2009)

For more on House, click here.

Tuesdays 8/7c on FOX

Photographs courtesy of IMdbpro