House: He's Not an Addict, It's Cool, He Feels Alive

Oh, House. House, House, House. How is it that I love you even when you're lying on the floor in your own vomit, a bottle of pills by your side? God, I'm like freaking Cameron, or something. In last night's excellent episode of House, House hit rock bottom, reached out a little, and got bitch-slapped for his troubles.

You see, Wilson has ratted House out to Detective Tritter. He tries to justify his betrayal by explaining that he got House a plea bargain deal (rehab), but Cameron and Cuddy aren't buying it. Cameron thinks he did it to save his own ass and won't own up to the fact, and Cuddy thinks he had to have known there was no way House would take the deal, and thus Wilson basically sacrificed the hospital's best doctor. Wilson has forced Cuddy's hand, though, since now House HAS to take the deal or go to prison, so they agree to cut House off Vicodin until he's sick and detoxing and forced to take the deal. Unfortunately, that doesn't bode well for this week's patient.

The case of the week is a young dwarf (whose mother is played by Meredith Eaton, of Boston Legal) whose entire body is pretty much shutting down. Wilson and Cameron go back and forth about whether it's cancer or an auto-immune disease, and Cameron and Cuddy both beg a very sick House for help. I loved the scene between Cameron and House, where she's bandaging up self-inflicted cuts on his arm as he grudgingly helps her with the case. And trust me, I'm NOT a Cameron/House person. After essentially stealing a bottle of Oxycontin from a dead man, House is sharp enough to figure out what's really going on--a combination of cancer and an autoimmune disease. Oh, and the girl isn't really a dwarf, by the way, but simply lacking in growth hormone.

The fact that House was able to cure a dying patient when none of the other doctors could figure out what's wrong makes Wilson realize that House is a "positive force in the universe," and will save far more lives at PPH than he will damage with drugs. More lives than Wilson, even, who tells Tritter he's willing to go to jail for interfering with an investigation rather than have House sit in jail while patients die. Wow, this is actually pretty interesting on a philosophical level--Utilitarianism, or something. But I'm no philosopher, so on with the recap.

House goes home to drown his sorrows in alcohol and more pills after leaving his parents a "Merry Christmas" message on their machine. Cut to presumably the next day, as Wilson bangs on the door only to find House semi-conscious on the floor next to a bottle of pills and a puddle of vomit. Wilson leaves.

Upon recovering, House, having realized he's hit rock bottom and possibly needs some help, goes to Tritter to take the deal. Unfortunately, it turns out that Tritter's not interested in helping House get better, and only interested in punishing him. The deal's off the table, since Tritter got new evidence that House stole the Oxycontin pills. Well, nuts. But I'll be damned if this isn't Hugh Laurie's Emmy episode.