House: Parents Make Mistakes

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

The theming in this episode was a little forced, I thought. Yes, it was titled "Parents" and all, but they really wove that in a little too heavy. Hearing about Chase and Adams both having strange families, Taub struggling with his new children, and the patient's crazy family life was all a little much. Especially since I don't really care for Adams at all, we already knew Chase was screwed up, and Taub's double-baby issue only slightly amuses me at this point. I think I'd care a lot more about Taub if we had seen any of the pregnancy... that whole "year later" thing really blew that. Anyway, let's just get through it and move on...

House "Parents" (S08E06): [The main patient] There's a children's birthday party with a clown making balloon animals. The clown ends up being the patient, after a child hits him in the groin area. [ouch!] The patient is the son of a clown, and wants to follow in his (absent) father's footsteps. The patient doesn't want to intern at his stepfather's law office... he is only 16 after all. The patient begins bleeding from the nose and mouth, and his mother soon worries about him missing school. He talks of just getting a GED instead, which infuriates his mother. [well, yeah. Even if you want to be a clown, I think a HS diploma is important!] The patient has an allergic reaction to donor platelets. We soon learn that the patient's father didn't actually die... his mother just said that he did. [whoa whoa whoa. hold the phone. what??!?] So, Park and Taub go find the father, who simply says that he doesn't have a son anymore. As per the usual, the patient has gotten the wrong diagnosis a half-dozen times. Eventually, the father shows up, but the mother won't let him in to see the kid... House notices the guy's limp and realizes that he's a syphilis survivor, which he passed on to his kid via sexual molestation years ago. Taub tells him the boy it was syphilis, but doesn't tell him how he got it. [great. now the kid thinks it's possible to get an STI without being sexually active. But, finding out you were sexually abused can't be good for you, either...]

[The clinic patient] In the clinic, House won't give a guy insulin, though the patient is convinced that his blood sugar is off. The guy returns, claiming to have diabetes... and in lieu of actually testing his urine (that the patient has already provided), House drinks some. [ahhh! I know that House knows what he's doing, but ahhhh!!!!] Turns out, the urine was apple juice... the guy was trying to fake a spike in blood sugar. [Gross!] Later, the guy's wife comes to talk to House, wanting a placebo injection prescription, but House won't do it. Finally, they find out that bok choy is what has been making the guy ill... and he's been eating it not to be sick. [haha.] 

[The House drama] Wilson wants to go to Atlantic City to see a ringside fight... though he previously had plans to watch it on television with House. House is convinced he can get around his house/office arrest to go. [not sure how he plans on making that happen...] House called a neurology conference in Atlantic City, pretending to be a speaker who was cancelling. He recommends himself as a replacement, so the conference sends a letter to Foreman wanting House to speak at the conference. House, hating conferences, bargains with Foreman for the old amount of clinic hours and the old amount of petty cash. Foreman says he'll clear it with the parole officer because he really wants House to speak... it's a big conference and it's the premiere slot. Except, Foreman knows it's a fake so he was just messing with House. [I only half-called this scenario correctly.] So, House moves on to another plan, where he has a guy working on faking the ankle monitor into thinking it's on House when it's not. The guy messes up, however, and runs off when the monitor starts beeping. House jumps into a spa so that it looks like he wasn't thinking when the monitor was submerged. [seems a bit suspicious, tho...] Wilson goes to Foreman to ask to get House the permission to go to Atlantic City. He even says they'll stop by the neurology conference. Foreman says that he has to do his job, which is to be a jerk. Foreman also tells Wilson that he can't go to the fight because he needs to do his job - be House's friend, watch the game at home, and b!tch about Foreman. [LoL. but true.] So, Wilson gives the tickets to Foreman, and shows up at House's when the time comes. He lets himself in since House doesn't come to the door... and sees House and Foreman on television... they went to the boxing match! [hahahahaha! I know that some people saw this coming, but I didn't! great idea!]

Cr: Adam Taylor/FOX

[The others...] We find that Taub's daughters are Sophie and Sophia, and the Sophia soon starts being called Sophie. Taub's old girlfriend can't afford day care because it's more than what she made as a nurse... so she's quit her job and moved in with her parents to support the baby. Because she's exhausted, Taub offers to let her spend the night in his guest room, giving him another night with his daughter. Meanwhile, Taub got into a fight with his wife's boyfriend, who wants Rachel and the child to move to Portland, OR with him. Rachel's boyfriend apologizes for confronting Taub the way he did, and Taub considers letting them movie, but eventually decides that he can't let that happen.

Chase's mother couldn't deal with him when she was drunk, so she'd lock him in his father's study, which is why he became interested in medicine - he'd read after he gave up screaming. Adams had five incompletes her junior year of high school... and graduated a semester late because of it... House looks at this while trying to prove that all parents screw up their kids. Adams makes up something about her family making its money from selling slave children. [weird coat on Adams in the end scene in the elevator.] Adams admits that she envied dysfunction, as it made people "deeper," so she ran away from home, hitchhiked to Manhattan, and came running home in two months, which resulted in getting a semester behind in life for a while. [I agree that problems make people seem "deeper," but geez!]