House: Quality of Life

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

The final scene got to me. I started crying when I realized that House was going back to prison. I couldn't stop. I cried for five minutes, so sad that House will likely miss Wilson's final days. My husband suggested that, perhaps, Wilson will now go through the chemo after all, in order to prolong his friendship with House. I'm not so sure. Yes, Wilson did have the realization that he and House have survived so much in the past and that he wants to be there in the future for his buddy, but I don't know if that's what's going to happen. Drama aside, the patient wasn't all that intriguing this episode... though, I can't imagine that the writers are going to beef up the medicine just as a series like this comes to a close. Between the two-hour finale and the hour-long retrospective, I can only imagine the buckets of tears that will roll down my cheeks over a show that I was never all that in love with anyway. But, they sure know how to pull some heartstrings!

Wilson chooses to forgo chemo to maintain a higher quality of life but a shorter lifespan. The patient questions whether hearing voices in his head is a good thing or a bad thing. The decisions each make have such great impacts that it's difficult to make sense of how they reason out their priorities. But that's good television all the same.

House "Holding On" (S08E21): The patient is a 19-year-old cheerleader who, among other things, hears voices in his head. Taub and Adams go to the patient's dorm room, where they find a picture of a young boy, the patient's brother who died ten years earlier. He's also the voice. So, the team suspects viral encephalitis, but there's a blood clot in an artery behind the patient's eye, so they focus on the condition being part neurological. Also, because the patient is an athlete, Adams suspects an injury that the patient kept quiet. [that's a good point.] When the patient's mother arrives, we realize just how much grief he has been repressing. [sad. :(] House sticks a syringe into the patient's ear and removes blood, which diagnoses a problem that will require surgery to fix - though it will likely stop the patient from hearing his brother's voice. House goes to choke the patient, only stopping when Park whacks him with his cane. [very odd scene, see the image below if you don't believe me!] The patient desperately wants to see pictures and hear stories of his brother, and his mother eventually comes around to sharing these details.

Cr: Adam Taylor/FOX

Wilson has decided to stop chemo, knowing he'll be dead in five months. Foreman buys season tickets to give House something to do after Wilson dies. [I don't think that Foreman would ever do that, do you?] House wants to convince Wilson that death is worse than suffering, so he fills the hospital cafeteria with actors who talk about the differences he made in their lives because of the cancer treatments he recommended. [except that, from the moment they sat down, I didn't believe that this could be a true thing. House JUST hired a kid to play Wilson's son, why not hire one to be an old patient?] Wilson meets with Thirteen to ask her about knowing you're terminal, and she tells him it's surreal for a long time. [one can only imagine!] Meanwhile, House has been calling Wilson's mom repeatedly (not reaching her), hoping for some help in convincing Wilson not to "choose death."

After talking to Thirteen, House surrenders to Wilson, saying that he should listen to what he wanted. They go to a nice dinner and have Oreos for dessert, recanting about a camping trip they took years ago. [what? they used to do "normal" things? I never would have guessed!] After a while, Wilson takes House's actions to really be about him instead, and he breaks down over the fact that he has to go through it alone. [sucks.] House is trashing the hospital one toilet at a time and then announces that he's done with Wilson. Foreman steps in and tells Wilson that, for twenty years, he's had three wives, hundreds of colleagues, and thousands of patients, but one best friend. [too cutesy for Foreman, I say.] Foreman tells him that enduring pain for someone you care about is life. [yeah, but you stay alive for a life partner, not for a friend... though if you don't have one, I guess things are different.] Wilson goes to tell House that he'll start chemo because House needs him, and that's not a bad thing, but House tells him that he needs to accept Wilson's decision. The next day, they talk about going hiking when the hospital lawyer comes in - House was caught in his pranks, which have done some severe damage. He will be charged with felony vandalism, despite Foreman's attempt to keep things internal. He has to report to Mercer County jail on Monday to serve out the rest of his sentence - six months. [cue the waterworks!]