Tonight's Episode, Part II

[nightdog_barks]

So I just watched the interview with the writers, Peter Blake and Katherine Lingenfelter.



It wasn't a hallucination. House really did crash his car into Cuddy's dining room. Nobody mentioned Vicodin, brain tumors, or any other possible cause other than pent-up rage.

The interview is here. It's the second one down.

Comments

[blackmare]

I may retreat permanently into fanfic, in that case. If next season proves that this is just something House did out of anger, I don't think I can keep loving him as we see him on the show.

It could be that there are factors they can't talk about without spoiling future plots, and I sure hope that's the case. But it's not much hope at this point.

[taiga13]

Mmm, good interview. I'm glad we got answers, that we're not going to spend the summer arguing about whether it was real or not.
ETA That I'm glad now that this was Cuddy's last episode. That she's not going to forgive him.

[warmdarkwoman]

gigantic fandom shitstorm that's about to take place

Will it really be a shitstorm? Or will people just throw up their hands and fade away?

*digs out lounge chair from storage and makes popcorn, just in case*

[namaste]

Once again, I'm in the minority. I've always seen House as a fucked up individual and his previous lashings out were within that fucked in spectrum that operates within him. This is House when he truly lets go of his emotions. For as much as Cuddy and Wilson kept pushing him to express anger, they didn't expect it to be in this way, but I've seen too many court cases in which reasonable people driven by rage do some pretty damn stupid stuff. For House, it's almost calculated. He'd seen them leave the table, he made Wilson get out of the car so he wouldn't get hurt and then he just let it all go -- in the most fucked up, childish way.

And it's good that from Cuddy's perspective this is a line that cannot be crossed. This will have repurcussions. Good. Wilson is still trying to figure it all out, but he'd already taken a bigger step toward cutting off House's Vicodin supply and he's worn down and uncertain.

As to where to go next, it's interesting that at least some of the other players have shortened contracts for next year. This leaves open the possibility that we will have several episodes of House alone, trying to exist and work things out without not just his support system but also his figurative crutches.

I don't think it's the best, nor do I think it was the worst, but I'm still wondering what happens next, which is what a season finale should do.

[mer_duff]

I have to admit I didn't think ramming his car into the house was out of character - even the seeming lack of remorse in the beach scene only felt slightly off to me. Catharsis, even when destructive in nature, can be euphoric. (And I suspect that scene was as much symbolic as it was a physical reality) And while it bothered me that he walked away from a clearly injured Wilson, that didn't feel about of character either. While House has always had a self-destructive streak, he's turned it on his patients, colleagues and friends before, and he hasn't always been remorseful about it.

I may be in the minority, but I like the PotW parallels - the patients don't really mean anything to me unless they bring up a compelling ethical issue or reveal something about the characters. It might have been a bit heavy-handed this time, but I did like the way the patient/assistant relationship paralleled both House/Cuddy and House/Wilson. To me, House was talking about Wilson when he told the patient that he's left before, he'll leave again, especially since the assistant's statement that he couldn't watch her die unnecessarily was a clear callback to Wilson telling House that he can't watch him continue to self-destruct.

I'm actually much less distressed by this finale than I was last year. Pretty much what I feared about the use of Wilson as a character this season came true to an extent (it seems to me that the only thing we learned about Wilson this season is that he adopts damaged cats when he ends relationships - and that's only an extension of Wilson being attracted to damaged people/animals). Now I actually have hope that they'll be forced to do something new with him next season. And if the first few episodes are House getting his shit back together on his own, then I won't begrudge RSL a well-deserved vacation.

[damigella]

I'm one of the loud majority who thinks this ep is not IC at all. I am very, very impressed that so many people I respect think otherwise. Of course once I'll manage to write up my own view of the season finale I'll be more alone than any of you "This is all IC" group because I'm so much overboard on the opposite side.

But I would like to thank nightdog_barks for giving us this important piece of information, and say that I agree with blackmare for suggesting that they may well have to retcon some hallucination in it.

And I would also like everyone else participating in this discussion to teach asshole newcomer me how to carry out such a delicate discussion in a respectful and friendly way. I may not ever be able to do that, but I can at least try.