House: Psychos R’ Us

House takes on a patient this week unlike any he has ever treated: a charmingly psychopathic executive named Valerie suffering from some kind of screaming ear pain (that leads to all kinds of hell) who feels no emotion and makes snakes seem cuddly and inviting. She drugged her recovering boozer co-worker (who she was also having an affair with) with Valium so that he would appear drunk and get fired. She married her husband for his money, and she’s in touch with her inner-Darwin. She knows that the human conscience is merely a biological imperative and thus feels that she doesn’t have to listen to it. The fact that she can turn it on and off (and leaves it in the off mode) makes her disturbingly similar to House. It also makes her fascinating to him. Even I have to say I loved watching her. She doesn’t eat people, but otherwise she could give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money.

If Cameron were still here, Valerie would be the ultimate target of her holier-than-thou moralizing, but thankfully she isn’t. Thirteen, however, sort of takes her place. Thirteen was the only one who didn’t initially fall for Valerie’s innocent act and saw her for who she truly was. Like any good predator who senses a threat, Valerie zeroes in on Thirteen and they proceed to have a pretty intense verbal catfight for the rest of the episode. That’s the highlight, actually. When Thirteen tries to subtly cue Valerie’s husband into the fact that Valerie is a loony adulteress, Valerie smiles her evil smile and starts pulling strings to get Thirteen fired and her license revoked. I know it was wrong, but I was rooting for Valerie almost the whole time. Sometimes pure evil can be nothing short of delicious.

The medical stuff is all fairly standard, and House is typical House: irreverent, blasé, base and delightfully inappropriate. Chase is barely in the episode and he wasn’t missed, and Wilson is back in My-Sole-Purpose-Is-To-Chide-House-And-Be-His-Conscience mode. Didn’t really bother me though.

Initially I thought it a major cop out to reveal that Valerie’s psychopathy was actually a medical symptom, thereby alleviating her of any responsibility…and all fun. But the writers ended up using that notion to jumpstart an intriguing debate about free will and biological ethics—the two constant philosophical cornerstones of House.

The B storyline involves House trying to make amends with a guy he screwed over in medical school as part of his therapy. House switched papers with the guy to prove a point to a professor and apparently the guy flunked out of the class, never graduated medical school and works as a bagboy at a grocery chain. And he’s losing his house.

The storyline seemed a little forced and unnatural to me while it was occurring, but again, the writers provide a little twist at the end that made it interesting and justified it. There’s a little of the Thirteen/Foreman relationship fallout crap and the House/Cuddy/Lucas love triangle pining thing—neither of which I’m a big fan of—but they’re minimal. The writers are still doing a solid job of working within the procedural formula and yet coming up with original patients and twists to counteract the homogenized medical hokum bla bla bla—a significant achievement being that the show is six seasons in.

For another take on this week’s episode, check out Little Miss Evil by Stephanie Jaar.

Season 6, Episode 11: Remorse (originally aired January 25, 2010)

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Tuesdays 8/7c on FOX

Photographs courtesy of NBC Universal and IMDbPro