House: If You Haven't Seen it, It's New to You!

Last night's House was sadly a rerun, but Fox chose to air "Three Stories" instead of a House episode from this season. Genius! First of all, it's an amazing hour of television, and probably the best episode of House to date. Secondly, it's a repeat that new viewers from this season (and last season, actually) wouldn't have seen yet, and thus would be more likely to watch. Third, it provides new viewers with a glimpse into the Origins of House (and returning viewers with an important reminder).

House had leg issues, put himself into a voluntary coma to ride out the pain with explicit instructions not to cut into his leg despite the risks of leaving it alone, and his girlfriend/medical proxy (Sela Ward) immediately ordered Dr. Cuddy (who was totally complicit) to cut out all the dead muscle, thus leaving House with a useless leg. Why the pain? Because the lame-ass doctors at PPT didn't diagnose House's blood clot, which caused days of damaging lack of circulation and muscle death.

If that's not enough to make a person a bitter shell of a man (and a drug addict), I don't know what is. I mean god, no wonder he can't trust people! He puts himself into a voluntary coma, making his wishes clear and trusting his girlfriend and Cuddy to carry them out, and as soon as he shuts his eyes they start carving into his leg?! Damn. Also? No wonder Cuddy gave him a job and puts up with so much. She's gotta be carrying around some serious House-related guilt. Ah, joy. Juicy episodes like this one are why I love TV so much.