Tonight's Episode

[nightdog_barks]

From the Wikipedia page on Janet Parker:

Ms Parker was admitted to East Birmingham (now Heartlands) Hospital on August 24 and diagnosed (by Professor Alasdair Geddes and Dr. Thomas Henry Flewett) as being infected with Variola major, the most lethal strain of smallpox. The next day, smallpox virus was confirmed by electron microscopy on fluid from her rash.

So. There are no electron microscopes in all of Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital? If they suspected it was smallpox from the very beginning, why not test the fluid?

Okay. Liked the episode overall, but by god I am convinced someone has instructed Hugh Laurie to deliver his lines in a slower, softer voice -- I really do think he sounds different this season.

Was very glad that whoever wrote this script penned in an explanation for Wilson's absence, so no one can say he must have known and should have been there.

I like Cuddy, but I'm sorry, I'm just not that interested in Huddy. There, I said it. *g*

Loved Wilson's smile when Sam convinced the little girl to face the chemo without her security blanket, although I have to say I'm sorry I was spoiled for "Lamby" because I kept picturing that incredibly scatological monologue with the one-eyed Lambchop. Those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, go here. WARNING: NOT WORK SAFE IN THE LEAST, but that's RSL's voice. Heh.

What else? Thought MM (Amber Tamblyn's character) crept close to Mary Sue-dom again.

I'm sure there's more but I have to help make dinner now.

Comments

[warmdarkwoman]

"Crept close" to the barrier? MM barreled over that border the minute she was introduced.

I'm thinking that the child divide will be the thing that breaks up Wilson and Sam.

I actually thought to myself during tonight's episode: If House dies of smallpox in this episode, I think that I will be relieved that it's finally over.

[nightdog_barks]

MM barreled over that border the minute she was introduced.

See, I was worried about that in the last episode, but then she wasn't the one to solve the diagnosis and so I didn't think she had achieved true Mary Sue-dom. But tonight she did, and so I think she moved a whole heck of a lot closer.

Agree completely on the child divide.

[derdriui]

... I thought that too! I thought it would be better if House just leapt off this mortal coil like Sherlock did. Before they screw the character up even more :(.

[pwcorgigirl]

Having Cuddy descend into pouting for almost the entirety of the episode made me want to hold my head in pain. Cuddy's not perfect and she's had her less than shining moments, but she's not 12, for God's sake.

ETA so I won't sound so completely negative and cranky: The opening storyline on the slave ship was so well done that I wanted to read the whole captain's log. And the parallel between the slave boy crying for his Abba and the dying father telling his son goodbye was very nicely done and very touching.

[nightdog_barks]

Yep, I didn't care for Pouting!Cuddy either. Mr. N looked up and said "Hm, she's angry." *g*

I actually didn't catch the slave father/modern father parallel until you mentioned it. :-( I did think the opening sequence with the slave ship was quite good.

[namaste]

I liked it in general, was touched when the Dad died (his poor son. Yeesh).

I still kind of like Masters -- especially because Amber Tamblyn is the complete opposite of the Hollywood starlet type, and her awkwardness of dealing with people in general -- though in general I'm staying away from fandom reaction because 1) I'm up to my ears in other things that need to be done and 2) don't really feel like dealing with the wackiness out there in some corners these days.

[namaste]

And, of course, I'm an idiot, because I just now realized the comparison of the sick slave father telling his son that the other man was now his father, because he knew he was going to die, and the father's words to his new wife and son before he died.

I'd been wondering why they felt it was necessary to have that scene, when the light dawned. I'm not sure if that added to the emotion I felt for the son in the present day or not, but it was a nice touch.

[taiga13]

I just now found out there WAS such a scene, I missed it! When I turned on the TV it was showing the family scuba-diving and I thought that was the beginning of the episode.

[nightdog_barks]

Mr. N was touched when the dad died. I was sitting there thinking "Hm, so this is the first patient to die this season."

I actually kind of like Masters, but at the same time I can't help but feel that we've seen her character (in different incarnations) before -- the genius who is (as Topaz said below) a sort of anti-House, a straw man who's inserted into the show to ... what? Show House that he doesn't have to be such an asshole? I want to like her more, but I think I'm having a hard time accepting her because she came out of nowhere. How did Cuddy find her? She seems like a female Doogie Howser, but she's not even a doctor yet.

Eh, ignore all this. I am ranty tonight. *g*

ETA that I forgot to add --

2) don't really feel like dealing with the wackiness out there in some corners these days.

You and me both. Oy.

[spicyride]

Maybe I'm crabby, but I didn't really care for that episode. I was very angry with Cuddy- Miss I don't want you to change totally disappointed me. I like Cuddy so I hope she will see how immature she's being next episode. I was also irritated with the team for just giving up. I don't know how much I care for Martha yet, aside from feeling the same way as Namaste does about the casting, but that does nothing for how or why she was written.
Things I liked- House going to Cuddy's office to see if she knew, House imitating Obi Wan, Lamby and RSL and the dad dying made me cry (not that I "enjoyed" that- but I enjoy tv that gets me emotional).

[nightdog_barks]

Nope, I was not real happy with Cuddy either. Maybe she's rethinking the whole in-love-with-House thing? I don't know. And yeah, the team giving up? On the one hand I could kind of see it -- CDC is here, they're giving the orders. On the other hand ... where was the curiosity we've seen from the team in other episodes? Nobody seemed very interested overall in the case except Martha.

[misanthropicobs]

Am sorry to say that I'm in agreement with those who think that Masters is very much into Mary Sue territory. Her little girl "lets all be honest and the world will smile" attitude rather turns my stomach. The RL med students I come in contact with on a daily basis are much more into the "I'll slit your throat, lie, and steal study materials from the library in order for ME to get the grades". As an example of that - the med students have this year alone walked out of the library with almost $5000 in books that we don't have the budget to replace, we restrict the amount of time they can check those materials out in order to try to let all the students have access.

As for the rest of the episode the Huddy still does not impress me and the way it's being written and Cuddy herself has been turned into someone completely uninteresting. The "relationship" seems to be the entire focus of her existence nowadays with not much if anything given to actually doing her job.

The diagnostic puzzle did hold my interest tonight. CDC doctor was the "we're the only ones who know anything" type I rather was expecting.

[taiga13]

Ouch! When I was an undergrad, my biology class labs were set up so that you needed one or two particular references from the library for your paper and other students would HIDE them so that no one else could have them.
I missed the part about the slave father and son, when was that?
Masters really was a Mary Sue this episode. I get that she's a genius and naive, but she was the only one who kept trying to diagnose the patient? Since when do the others act like that? Especially Foreman, who was once in House's exact position and must remember how hard the team fought to save HIM. (As Namaste said, though, I do like that they didn't cast a bombshell for Masters' part.)
So yeah, the most interesting part of the episode for me is the reveal that Wilson wants to have a baby with Sam.

[misanthropicobs]

Yeah we have the hiding textbook thing going on as well. The night staff have found books/journals all sorts of places where the students hid them planning to come back after the staff is gone. The med school library where I work has 24/7 access and the test prep books WERE out where there could be access to them for the people who were there after the staff had gone. Unfortunately some of the students have now spoiled that for everyone else. We've had to move them behind the circ desk which is locked up after the staff leaves at midnight. Our losses this year for those materials has been more than triple what they were last year before one of the RL naive librarians wanted to trust the students to not walk out with the books. Since funding was cut so badly this last year we can't replace the books that have been taken. And mind you this is a grad level school. We don't have undergrads, even the PA program is masters level and the new physical therapy program is doctorate level.

[taiga13]

And they're probably complaining the whole time that it's not all online.

[topaz_eyes]

If they suspected it was smallpox from the very beginning, why not test the fluid?

You'd need a biosafety level 4 lab with an electron microscope available, which I don't believe PPTH has. (Smallpox virus is classed as a biosafety level 4 virus, i.e., has a high aerosol risk, causes severe death/illness, no vaccine available.)

MM is the anti-House. Who else is gleefully waiting for her downfall? *cough*

[nightdog_barks]

Thank you, Topaz. It just really seemed to me that a major East Coast teaching hospital with at least one world-famous doctor on staff would have an electron microscope lying around somewhere. *g* I didn't realize the conditions that would attach for smallpox.

Who else is gleefully waiting for her downfall?

Heh. See, I'm betting she's not going to have a downfall. I'll bet that when she leaves, she'll leave everyone BETTERED BY HER BEING THERE, RESTORING THE FAITH IN THESE CYNICAL, FLAWED PHYSICIANS THAT SOMETIMES UNICORNS CAN NURSE LITTERS OF ORPHANED KITTENS BACK TO HEALTH. Just my two cents. :-D

[topaz_eyes]

PPTH probably would have an electron microscope or two around. PPTH might even have a BSL-3 lab; it certainly appeared they had a BSL-3 quarantine. The regulations for biosafety level 4 though, don't allow for any testing in lower-level labs.

UNICORNS CAN NURSE LITTERS OF ORPHANED KITTENS BACK TO HEALTH

OMG there is such potential for a crack!fic there! Martha the Unicorn, Foreman, Chase and Taub as the kittens, and House as the...?

[nightdog_barks]

HOUSE IS LUKE SKYWALKER'S FATHER.

... oh, wait.

Heh, the Polite Dissent doc has his review up already, and says bluntly that rickettsialpox is an impossible diagnosis. Oops!

[pwcorgigirl]

Did you notice this tidbit of info from Polite Dissent? Civil War era smallpox scabs were discovered in an envelope hidden in a book several years ago. Jeeze, the things people just kept lying around!

[nightdog_barks]

Hee! Yep, that envelope was discovered in 2004 in New Mexico, and I'll bet it was the source for this episode.

:-D