bironic | House 3.17: "Fetal Position," or, The Pose I Assumed During Most of this Episode

Uh... that was fairly unenjoyable. Minimal Wilson, big character and ethical issues predicted entirely by having watched the preview, characters being dense(r than viewers, which is never good when you're talking about the medicine on a medical drama), long stretches of nothing.

The good:

Emma’s photographs of everyone were lovely. I’m glad she snapped House first on screen so that wasn’t held off as some huge end-of-episode “I captured our hero’s big blue softie eyes” deal. Also liked how Chase didn't tell Cameron that his glowy happy face was for her and not for Emma. Also, can we all have those photographs for our studios/cubicles/dorms/bedrooms?

I liked that she was able to figure out she was having a stroke as she was having a stroke. Hooray for educated patients. Now to figure out why nobody at the shoot moved to help her the whole time she made it clear something was wrong with her, right up until the moment where the pregnant woman collapsed onto the hardwood floor.

Yes, yes, the moment where the fetus-now-baby reached out and clutched at House’s fingers. Totally emotionally manipulative and went on too long, but it was somehow still effective. Not the hand reaching out, which I've heard happens frequently during C-sections, but House's reaction to the reflex-clutching, going still, letting it touch, communicating how it moved him with his eyes and body language behind the surgical garb. I completely agreed with House’s attitude towards the fetus throughout the episode, and didn’t expect to move with him through the shift in perception that we all knew was coming, but that actually did it. It felt right afterwards that House would reconsider--or, no, it wasn’t really a rational decision, it was him feeling what Cuddy and Emma felt the whole time, the sense that there was a person in there, even if the fetus’ arm stretching out and the finger-clutching was a simple reflex.

I’m glad House came out and said “Or because she’s you?” to Cuddy re: the patient. Should have been said ten or fifteen minutes earlier, so we could all have been on the same page instead of us shouting at the TV that this was too convenient a character/patient mirror, again. Although I guess they get a bonus point for acknowledging the Cuddy/Emma mirror by giving Emma a condition with the word “mirror” in it.

Cuddy being an absolute madwoman with wide eyes and crazy theories in her office? I...don’t know what to do with that. She was craaaazy. Crazy like House gets crazy sometimes, but it’s not as interesting on her--even if she ends up saving the patient. Also her metaphors suck, as Wilson tried to point out.

Cuddy thinks Cameron’s the one who’ll get hurt in this “relationship”? Yet more evidence she does not have House’s keen observational and deductive skills.

House telling Cuddy he has a tighter ass than she does. If only he hadn’t made that crack to Emma about not liking gay men’s magazines, a slash joke could have been inserted here.

Yeah. Don’t feel a need to watch this one again, ever, like with “Sleeping Dogs Lie,” which also didn’t bring Wilson onscreen till after the halfway mark and even then made terrible use of him. I wonder if it’s the same writer. *checks* Nope, that was Sara Hess, and this was Russel Friend & Garrett Lerner (an uneven team; “Euphoria Part 2,” “Cane & Able,” “Skin Deep,” “Acceptance”).

Actually, I laughed hardest at a vacuum commercial in the middle. The low-power vacuums made squeaky-toy noises.

ALSO. When I first heard Lucinda Williams’ “Are You Alright”* on the radio weeks and weeks ago, I thought to myself that it would make for a great (if very angsty) fan video or songfic or story epigraph or something for House, particularly if it involved Wilson or Cameron trying to be caring but getting pushed away. I also thought that it was surely too emo to ever accompany one of the musical montages on the show. And then it came on tonight. With a wasted opportunity for someone to do the caring-for-House thing, which would have made sense. But still--I feel so proud.

*And yes, it should be “all right,” but that’s how the title is spelled. It...hurts to look at.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nuts! Gah!

Wilson's medical knowledge is never ever going to save the day. We may as well give up hope now so it's not disappointed later. Lower expectations, as House would say.

I... shouldn't have found the baby fingers moving. I'm a little disappointed in myself for it. And yet... (Although I'm doubting that a fetus that young would have the reaching/grasping capabilities we were shown.)

Hugh Laurie played that scene well enough for me to buy it--I thought I could see House's pure curiosity and fascination, more than any awwww-that's-so-mooshy sentiment. It helped that, a minute later, he was still quite ready to abort the baby.

Was it propaganda? I don't know. A few episodes back we had House trying to talk Eve into having an abortion, which she eventually did, and Cuddy seemed very supportive of that. Was that pro-abortion propaganda? I don't know either. I think this show likes to play advocate for both sides of almost any issue.

This one left me quite unsatisfied and also wondering what the heck was up with that pointless 'vacation' subplot. Particularly since it seemed that the one who'd really gone to Singapore, or wherever, was Wilson. Where, oh where, was Wilson?

Hugh Laurie played that scene well enough for me to buy it

Yes, he was great. I could maybe accept it as scientific curiosity, but the fact that it had a lasting effect on him (the fade-out scene being House rubbing the fingers that the baby touched) shows that the writers meant it to be emotionally manipulative and life-affirming.

A few episodes back we had House trying to talk Eve into having an abortion, which she eventually did, and Cuddy seemed very supportive of that. Was that pro-abortion propaganda?

No, because Eve had a chance to make the counterargument. Both sides were aired in the same episode, unlike in this one.

I thought that House, Wilson and the team all argued the other side--it was just a very clear-cut argument in favor of the mother's life. And I, while I don't personally support abortion, agreed with House on this one. So I suppose propaganda is in the eye of the beholder; and whatever effect the incident with the baby had on House, it wasn't enough to change his mind about the proper course of action. He still would have terminated if it had been his call, as he made perfectly clear to Cuddy at the end.

Overall, though, this episode just left me...eh. Disappointed and a little confused perhaps. The vacation thing annoyed me. Cuddy taking leave of her senses seemed very wrong for her character. I mentioned the lack of Wilson already. And it's all rather a shame, because this was one of the more interesting patients we've seen in a while. She ought to have been at the center of a much more interesting story.

I thought that House, Wilson and the team all argued the other side--it was just a very clear-cut argument in favor of the mother's life.

Yes, but whereas in ODOR the argument between House and Eve was both passionate and logical (i.e., balanced), the logical "argument" in this episode was clearly trumped by the visuals of that scene in the OR (which, as others have pointed out, was not medically accurate). It's the old "picture is worth a thousand words" problem.

I'm not a radical pro-abortion person; I just don't like TV shows that try to manipulate me so blatantly. (Especially when they don't have enough Wilson in them to make up for it!)

Thing is, it really didn't feel like anti-abortion propaganda per se, just a middle-aged woman trying beyond reason to keep her baby because it could be her last chance to have one.

I don't think it was trying to change anyone's mind regarding the issue. Well, it certainly didn't change mine and I don't think the experience has changed the PotW's views on the issue either. I mean, a lady who'd ask a gay guy to become a sperm donor would presumably have a so-called liberal position on the issue anyway.

So I'm pretty okay with it.

I thought I could see House's pure curiosity and fascination, more than any awwww-that's-so-mooshy sentiment. It helped that, a minute later, he was still quite ready to abort the baby.

Yes, I agree, although, as

elynittria countered, House was also moved by the reflexive hand-clutching. I found that to be true to character for him; he's always pushing people away, often because he does care so much and can be hurt so badly when they get close. Here, he kept urging Emma to abort, calling the fetus "it" and "a tumor" and so forth, but when it touched him, he lost his distance -- but not his conviction that terminating the pregnancy was the right thing to do. He stuck by that choice, even after Cuddy's treatment turned out to be miraculously successful, and even when it ended up affecting him so profoundly (for whatever reason; it couldn't have been the idea of the hand reaching out, since it's a common occurence during fetal surgeries/C-sections).

Hm. Long sentence.

I found the pro-/anti-abortion "propaganda" much more tiresome in "One Day, One Room." Partially because I had such trouble following their repetitive and circular conversations, and partially because Eve wasn't strong enough to stand up to House's arguments in the end, unlike Emma, so in ODOR it was more like House steamrolled or brainwashed or emotionally manipulated the patient into doing what he wanted, and while that's nothing new on the show, that troubled me, since Eve had been so adamant in her viewpoint at first. I'd been looking forward to having a patient who stuck by their religious beliefs in the face of House's staunch atheism (even though I happen to agree with him); we got it last night, but didn't get it in ODOR.

House 3.17: "Fetal Position," or, The Pose I Assumed During Most of this Episode

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject