House: The Wrap-Up Begins...

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Rushing to the finish line? Wilson announcing that he has cancer, Dominika leaving House's life, and Chase and Park are thinking of getting it on... what else is there to wrap up? Get Foreman a wife or fire him, mention Cuddy in passing, and do something with Taub's "two babies from two mothers two weeks apart" shenanigan? With the finale being called "Everybody Dies," you have to wonder what's in store for the rest of the cast. Then again, the preview for next week featuring Wilson wanting to do an experimental treatment and House saying, "let's do it at my place," already has me looking for the end of this show. Yeah, I think that House jumped the shark after last season, but I think we could be in a better place right now if the writers had made different choices. Four episodes to go, and they're pulling out all of the stops... levitation? Exorcism? PARK AND CHASE?? We're slipping into ridiculous, one moment at a time... 

House "Body & Soul" (S08E18): The patient is a young boy who has a bad dream and struggles to breathe when he awakens. Taub and Park go to the home and find a decapitated pig in the kid's bedroom - apparently, the grandfather thinks that the kid has been possessed for weeks. [well, now I know that, if I smell wet dog, it could be a dead pig...] The team thinks that there's a mental problem, but the grandfather talks of how his son also suffered from bad dreams. When the kid starts speaking Hmong, a language he doesn't know, and envisioning his grandfather choking him, both ideas begin to fit. [I believe this is the first time I've ever heard the word "hmong," I've only ever read it... and pronounced the "h" in my head, haha!] The patient levitates, but only Adams and Taub witness is, and the other doctors don't believe it happened. The grandfather wants to perform an exorcism, and Foreman says that it's fine, as long as nothing is ingested or put on the skin without being verified as harmless. [kinda odd, but okay.] The mother now believes that her husband must have been possessed, too. The kid crashes during the ritual, but Adams gives ibuprofen as a last-ditch effort - the family believes the exorcism cured the boy, the doctors believe it was the ibuprofen. [finally! someone calls it! "you're wrong again?" I've often wondered why none of the patients' families ever ask that!] 

Wilson knows that House has been keeping Dominika's green card paperwork from her, but he doesn't really fight it. House and Dominika are beginning a real relationship - being intimate, eating together, and even going shooting. [her accent is a little heavier than normal...] He tells her that it may be another few weeks or a month until they hear a status update, which is upsetting to her, as her aunt is in a nursing home in Poland. When US Citizenship calls and says that they've sent several notices about picking up her naturalization certificate, House is caught. ["good news so we can get back to sex" was AWKWARD!] He apologizes, but she packs her things and hugs him goodbye. [why does it look smoky in his place?] House is surprisingly depressed when he tells Wilson about the situation. 

Cr: Adam Taylor/FOX

Park had a sex dream about Chase and asks him if he's had a similar one about her. He is quick to dismiss the idea, leading her to believe that he finds the idea "abhorrent." [now, there's a word you don't hear everyday!] Park makes up a dream about Taub just to see his reaction - happiness. Later, Chase does have a sex dream about Park, and she asks him about it, gives possible explanations, and then farts in the elevator to "test her theory." [out of character! Park is too shy to do that!] The episode ends with House learning that Wilson has stage 2 thymoma cancer.