House: Lockdown Mode

A little shake-up from the usual medical mystery format never hurt anyone, and to have this specific episode of House directed by Mr. Hugh Laurie himself resulted in a raw look into life at Princeton Plainsboro.

The episode starts off after the birth of a newborn baby girl. Her parents are thrilled at the new addition, but the kid stepbrother is much more interested in his video game. After leaving the room to grab some food, the mom falls asleep and the boy continues playing while the baby girl is sound asleep in the bassinet.

Upon returning to the room, the dad realizes their newborn is nowhere to be found. We know whoever took her did not leave the hospital otherwise the baby’s monitoring device would have gone off. Lisa Cuddy gets called in and that’s it! Hospital’s on lockdown until that baby is found!

Because the hospital was on lockdown, everyone was forced to stay exactly where they were. Dr. House ends up in a room with a dying patient; Chase and Cameron (yes, she’s back!!) are stuck together after she dropped by the hospital to hand him divorce papers; Taub and Foreman are in the basement records room; and Wilson and Thirteen are in the cafeteria together. Each pair had their own thing going on, so let’s go through them one by one:

House and patient Nash: House was in the hallway when lockdown was initiated, so he picked a room at random to camp out in until the hospital resumed its regular activities. As it turns out, the patient (Nash) had once contacted House to take on his case. A pain in his tooth eventually moved to his heart, and now he only has a few hours left to live. House explains he can’t take on every case that gets brought to him, but he does apologize at the end for not taking Nash’s case.

The two men spend the episode basically getting to know each other; both seem to be very alone people in the world. Nash reveals that he hasn’t seen his now-adult daughter since she was 6. House encourages him to call her and leave a message on the answering machine. Meanwhile, House reveals he’s still thinking about Lydia, the woman he had a brief fling with while in rehab.  Is that a hint she might be coming back?!

Chase and Cameron: Cameron makes a return this episode, but only to try and persuade Chase to finally sign their divorce papers. He refuses, though, until they can have a real conversation about their marriage and wrap up any lose ends. Chase tries to get into her head and demands to know if she ever loved him. She finally blurts out, “I don’t know!” and things get really awkward, really fast. But still, Chase is satisfied to finally have his answer and signs the papers.

Still locked up together and now with their marriage behind them, Chase and Cameron reminisce on their short-lived union and even hook up one last time. It made me sad that they broke things off, if only for a minute, but there’s no denying Cameron definitely has issues she needs to work out.

Taub and Foreman: Boy, did this duo bring the comedy for this episode! The guys are stuck in a records room while looking for information on a patient. They use the opportunity, though, to look up their colleagues’ records. First up, House! Of course, though, House has made sure his records have been tampered with and aren’t true. But Foreman and Taub are still determined to get into House’s head – and conveniently enough, Foreman has a bottle of Vicodin pills. Yes, the Doctors drug themselves! It’s really funny to see two of the most uptight people on the team loosen up.

Thirteen and Wilson: In order to pass the time, Thirteen and Wilson play a little game of truth or dare. Their questions are mostly truth-based and deal with their relationships, but Wilson eventually dares Thirteen to flash Taub and Thirteen dares Wilson to steal cash from the cafeteria’s register. Their talk about relationships leads Wilson to reveal that he’s been having serious thoughts about reconnecting with his (first) ex-wife Sam.

Where’s the baby?! After tirelessly investigating the family and nurses, the baby girl is still nowhere to be found. Upon entering the patient’s bathroom, however, Cuddy notices something odd. There are 8 towels instead of the usual four. Before she can start investigating the housekeeping department, Cuddy realizes one of the nurses is having a seizure and has apparently been running on “autopilot” all day. It turns out the nurse took the baby without even knowing and low and behold, the baby girl is found safe and sound in the towel cart.

Hugh Laurie’s influences were pretty clear throughout this episode, particularly in his soundtrack selection! It’s not something I usually pay attention to, but the songs were sometimes very ironic choices. During Wilson’s grand theft scene, there’s upbeat Spanish-style music playing. When Taub and Foreman are drugged up, there’s gospel music playing in the background. Finally, when Nash eventually passes away at the end of the episode, there is very old-timey music playing. They’re really great, but subtle touches.

For another take on this week’s episode, check out Hell House: Trapped With Dr. Cameron.

Season 6, Episode 16: Lockdown (originally aired April 12, 2010)

For more on House, click here.

Mondays 8/7c on FOX

Photographs courtesy of NBC Universal and IMDbPro.