bironic

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.