House Review: Read Between the Lines

“Everybody lies,” according to Dr. House. This week’s patient, famous children’s author, Alice Tanner (Amy Irving), is flat out uncooperative and doesn’t quite tell the whole truth presenting Dr. House and his team with quite the challenge. A huge fan of her books, House believes he can help diagnose her illness by reading between the lines in her recently finished manuscript.

After completing the last novel in her popular Jack Cannon boy detective series and talking to Jack, who only she can see, Alice attempts to kill herself but is unsuccessful. She has a seizure before pulling the trigger on her gun. Knowing that if she is released she will try to kill herself again, House has her placed on 72-hour psychiatric hold.

House believes that some clues could be in her hidden completed manuscript. So while on a date with Cuddy, House makes a pit stop to retrieve Alice’s book from her house. They also talk to Alice’s maid who reveals Alice has severe back and hand pain and has eaten two cans of tuna every day for years. Meanwhile, at the hospital Alice is being extremely difficult and refuses to answer questions that Taub and Foreman ask her. She then requests a female doctor.

Instead of putting lipstick on Chase, which is House’s first idea, House convinces Cuddy to treat Alice and test for mercury poisoning from the tuna fish. On a side note, Cuddy tells House to hire Thirteen’s replacement by next week. Cuddy is quickly dismissed by Alice, who has realized that she is dating House, and asks for the return of the male doctors. When talking to Taub and Chase about her ex-husband, her blood pressure spikes dramatically. So mercury poisoning is off the table and next is the theory that she has an adrenaline secreting tumor. In order to locate it, Alice must have an MRI—bad idea because Alice failed to tell the doctors that she had three screws in her leg from a skiing accident. When wheeled into the MRI, the screws heat up causing 3rd degree burns.

Knowing that he needs Alice to cooperate and armed with the knowledge that she wants to kill herself, House offers her a choice—a syringe filled with something that will kill her or allowing them to treat her. Alice agrees to be treated but then stabs herself with the needle. Turns out the syringe was a sedative and since she tried to kill herself, again, her psych hold is extended giving House more time to diagnose her.

The team then tries to find the tumor using an ultrasound. But House is convinced the answer is in Alice’s last book. He brings in Wilson’s girlfriend, Sam (Cynthia Watros), to help him reprogram the MRI to read the ribbon from Tanner’s typewriter. This does not go over well with Cuddy who gives House more clinic hours as punishment and says, “Well, as your girlfriend, I’m impressed. As your boss, you’re a jackass. Don’t do it again.”

Alice’s condition is deteriorating and no tumor could be found. House is not happy with the ending of the new Jack Cannon book but thinks the Aunt Helen character, who also killed herself, has the same symptoms as Alice. New diagnosis: Lupus.

Meanwhile, House has been stressing the entire episode about whether he and Cuddy really have anything in common since he thinks they are drawing close to the end of their “honeymoon phase.” House and Cuddy go on a double date with Sam and Wilson—racing go-karts because Cuddy’s mom, who he called, told House she liked go-karts. Sam is very aggressive and knocks both Wilson and Cuddy out of the race. House ends up winning, to “avenge his lady” but using his cane to turn off Sam’s go-kart. They all end up being banned from the go-kart place and Cuddy is not thrilled with their date night.

Later, House deducts that it was really a car crash that injured Alice’s leg and she has a damaged thyroid gland that caused hypothyroidism. House gloats that now she can finish the novel the right way without the cliffhanger. Alice begins to yell at him but then suddenly becomes paralyzed. Taub suggests that it is a lingering condition from the car accident but they need her old medical records to locate the problem in her spine. Alice then refuses any more treatment.

With Cuddy’s help, House is able to determine Alice’s real name is Helen and that she had a son who died, who was driving the car, in the car crash, which caused her illness. Alice/Helen blames herself for her son’s death because she let him drive with a learner’s permit, and her books were her way of keep him alive. House reveals that her son had a brain aneurysm while he was driving and it wasn’t her fault.

We learn House lied about the aneurysm, only to save the Jack Cannon books but it seems like House surprisingly does care. Wilson told Cuddy about House’s worry that they have nothing in common. Cuddy explains to House, “Who cares about common? Common is boring. I like being with you. You make me better. Hopefully, I make you better. What we have is uncommon. And I’ve never been happier.”

After surgery, Alice tells House that she can finally move on, Jack Cannon’s story is done and she would like to write books for adults. House is furious about the book’s ending and is about to tell her that he lied about the aneurysm when he sees Cuddy in the doorway. Instead he says her “son was lucky to have you as his mother.” Aww, looks like Cuddy does make House a better person.

I really enjoyed this week’s episode. It was well balanced between the case, typical House antics, the new Huddy relationship and their dates. I like Huddy so I hope House will be able to relax a bit and not continue to overanalyze the relationship. I also found it funny and somewhat surprising to see how invested House was in the Jack Cannon novels.

Finally, next week, we will meet the new female doctor Chase hires to replace Thirteen. I can only imagine what House has in store for her…

Season 7, Episode 3: Unwritten (originally aired October 3, 2010)

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Mondays 8/7c on FOX

Photographs courtesy of NBC Universal.