House Recap: “Son of a Coma Guy”

Title: Son of a Coma Guy
Original Airdate: 11/14/06

The House writers sure seem to have a thing for classic songs from the 20th Century American songbook – what with naming last week’s episode “Que Sera Sera”, and now with the title of this week’s episode, which is an obvious reference to the classic Aretha Franklin song, “Son of a Preacher Man”.  What classic song would I like to see them reference next?  Hm, how about “If You’re Happy and You Know It (clap your hands!)”  That would sure make for one ironic episode of House!  But as usual, I digress.

Anyhoo, on to the recap.  So we begin the episode with Wilson finding House eating his lunch amongst a bunch of coma patients – which, frankly, isn’t really strange behavior for a messed up, anti-social healer like House, despite what Wilson says.  But right now, Wilson is more interested in confronting/yelling at House for forging prescriptions using Wilson’s pad and thus forcing the man to lie to scary cop David Morse.  But as usual, House has no intention of apologizing – his only concern is that Wilson lied successfully, and thus saved House from jail.  Speaking of saving, when the son of a coma guy (tee hee) in the room walks in, House promptly starts flashing the room lights on and off in order to cause this young man to start seizuring – in order to save him, of course.  Turns out House had been watching this kid for a little while and, using his mystical House-powers of observation, had realized that this kid was ill and needed help.  See Wilson, House has premeditated and oddly altruistic reasons for all the strange things he does – except, of course, for the painkiller addiction and forging signatures part.  Right…

Anyway, so now son of a coma guy is in a hospital bed himself, and soon House’s minions learn that not only does this young man have no friends or surviving family members (other than coma dad), but he is also a serious alcoholic.  Great.  Not surprisingly, this kid’s liver soon starts failing, as well as his kidneys, causing the kid himself to fall into a coma.  Nice.  Now House and his minions are really in a bind, because there is now no one available to answer their questions about coma son’s possible genetic illness – no one, except, for coma dad.  And do you really think House is going to let a little thing like a 10-year coma stop him from curing coma dad?  Of course not.  House has seen “Awakenings” – dude knows that it’s possible to wake someone up from a coma.  And so, defying Cuddy’s predictably threatening orders to the contrary, House uses a massive dose of drugs to wake up coma dad – who suddenly turns into none other than John Larroquette!  (insert obvious coma/long absence from television joke).  And what is the first thing JL asks for upon awakening, after lying 10 years in a coma?  A steak.  Hm, do you think that’s what the caterers used to make him on “Night Court”?  (rimshot!)  Sorry, couldn’t resist.

All kidding aside, though, I do love John Larroquette and am very glad to see him back on a quality television program playing a quality role worthy of his talents.  Speaking of said role, formerly coma dad (or FCD for short), after learning that he only has one day of being awake before he falls back into a coma, decides that there’s only one thing he wants to do with this day: go gambling in Atlantic City, baby!  Never mind House’s annoying questions about his family history and the well-being of his now coma son, FCD wants to use his one and only day to par-tay.  Realizing that he’s not going to convince FCD otherwise, House agrees to take the man to Atlantic City on the condition that he answers all of House’s questions.  FCD grudgingly agrees, and soon House pressures Wilson into lending them his car.  Wilson reluctantly agrees – but only if he can come along for the ride and keep an eye on them (and more importantly, his expensive car).  And so, the “merry” road trip begins.

Meanwhile, scary cop David Morse is back, and this time he’s interrogating/berating House’s minions about the good doctor’s probable painkiller addiction.  Morse tries every guilt-inducing tactic he can on House’s minions, but no dice – they are far too loyal and protective of their crabby boss to rat him out, especially to a jerk like Morse’s cop.  They may have a love/hate relationship with House, but in the end they know that his amazing life-saving powers of deduction are ultimately more important then whether or not the man is nice and respectful to people.  Morse’s cop really needs to get over himself, and get back to his job.  Serve and protect, man – not harass and ruin!

And speaking of House’s amazing powers, it may take him until the end of each episode, but House always figures out exactly what is wrong with his patients.  In this case, it is an odd genetic disorder that causes you to spontaneously lose control of your body from time to time.  House figures this out when FCD tells the story of how he got in a coma: his then 12-year old son accidentally set the home on fire while trying to move timber around in the fireplace, and FCD subsequently went into a coma when he was unable to save his wife’s life during the fire.  Ouch.  No wonder coma son is a lonely alcoholic – poor kid thinks that this whole tragic mess is his fault.  Unfortunately, though, coma son’s body is so far gone from all the alcohol that he will die anyway unless he gets a transplant – which he is not eligible for, because of his alcoholism.

It is at this point that FCD, knowing that he will soon fall back into a coma, decides to do something truly noble: give his son his heart – literally.  But predictably, Cuddy won’t allow such a thing.  So House kicks Wilson out of the Atlantic City hotel room – in order to spare him from having to lie more – and informs FCD of the two easiest and least painful ways to commit suicide: a pill overdose or a hanging.  FCD chooses the pill overdose – I know I would, yeesh.  Meanwhile Wilson, having figured out what was going on, goes downstairs to the casino and makes sure both he and House have an alibi by loudly hitting on a very unresponsive married woman, and pointing out his buddy House, i.e. some guy standing nearby that he paid off.  Smart man, that Wilson.  And so, after FCD does the deed, he is rushed back to the hospital where his heart is successfully transplanted into his son, which thus saves the son’s life.  Later, the newly awake coma son asks House if his father had any last words or message to send along before he killed himself.  In fact, FCD had no clue what to say, so House tells the lad the thing that he would want his own father to tell him: “You were right.  You did the right thing.”  Naturally, coma son is confused by this cryptic message, but is ultimately glad and relieved to hear these words.  Maybe the lad will finally find some peace.

And now, as I end this recap, I absolutely must mention the most fascinating reveal of this episode: why House decided to become a doctor.  See, for a long time FCD would only answer House’s probing questions if he got to ask the doctor some probing questions of his own in return.  And so, House grudgingly told him the true story of why he became a doctor: When House was 14 years old, his dad was stationed in Japan.  One day, House’s friend got hurt in a rock-climbing accident and had to be taken to a hospital.  While at the hospital, House’s friend contracted a mysterious infection, which forced the doctors to consult the janitor, who was part of the class of “untouchables” in Japan – but who also happened to be a doctor and was brilliant at solving medical mysteries.  House explains that the man wasn’t accepted and didn’t fit in with the rest of staff – nor did the man try to fit in – but the staff needed him nevertheless.  It didn’t matter what they thought of him – he was right, and they had to listen to him.

Obviously, House strongly identifies with this man, and clearly sees himself as an “untouchable”.  Oh House… there are millions of women out there who beg to differ.

LaLa is GMMR’s resident HOUSEkeeper.  GMMR offered to pay her $3000 a week for her recaps, but she passed.  To her, comments are the only real currency!