House Recap: “One Day, One Room”

Title: One Day, One Room
Original Airdate: 1/30/07
GMMR Recapper: LaLa

After an obligatory American Idol imposed hiatus, we get the return of smartly written and acted television tonight with this fine, thoughtful installment of House. Breaking from the usual formula of focusing the episode on a patient who has some crazy, mysterious disease that takes the House team (or rather, just House himself) until the end of the episode to solve/cure, this episode had no mystery illness. Or rather, no mystery physical illness. Instead, this episode was about the mystery illnesses and secrets of the heart, as well as dealing with grief and pain – for which there is no solid, uniform cure. Some people, like the old man with terminal cancer, choose to deal with it by refusing medication and instead embracing pain and torture, so that at least someone will “remember him” as a result. Others choose to deal with it by just talking and/or listening to other people’s painful personal stories in the hope that their’s won’t seem as bad. Now, some viewers might find this kind of episode trite and cloying, but I actually enjoyed it. I thought it was nice to take a break from solving mysteries, and just focus on the further character development and humanization of House.

Certainly, that was Cuddy’s goal in giving House so much hated clinic duty because he “owed her big time” for getting him out of jail. “You think if I have to deal with enough people, I’ll find some humanity?” House whines to Cuddy. “Yes,” is her matter of fact response. Bummer, dude. Of course, House does everything possible to try and avoid said clinic duty, from pretending that a guy with a bug in his ear actually has a legitimate mystery illness, to paying people $50 to just leave the clinic. My favorite was the series of patients who all thought they had an STD, prompting an irritated House to ask them all, “Haven’t you ever seen an after school special? Or Dawson’s Creek?” But of course, one of these patients actually did turn out to have an STD – a pretty young woman named Eve (played brilliantly by Katheryn Winnick). Not only that, but House soon learns that Eve was raped, and is pregnant from said rape. All of this is a major turn off to House, who only wants to deal with patients who have physical problems, not psychological and emotional problems. But Eve refuses to be treated by any other doctor but House, and even overdoses on meds in order to get his attention and finally guilt him into staying with her.

“Why do you want me??” an exasperated House repeatedly asks her. Eve just wants to talk to him, she repeatedly claims – but not about her rape. She’d rather talk about anything else, like the weather – but most especially, she wants to talk to House about any dark or bad things that happened to him in his past. She sure is nosy, this chick. And very, very persistent, with her “who we get stuck in a room with adds up to what our lives are” preaching. Thus, Eve finally wears House down and gets him to admit a deep dark secret, aka this episode’s big reveal: as a child, House was abused by his discipline and perfection obsessed father. Although, as House himself admitted, punishments like being forced to sleep in the yard and take baths of ice aren’t nearly as bad as being raped and then getting pregnant from said rape. Still, this reveal certainly sheds more light on House’s grouchy, cynical, people-and-emotions-rejecting ways. But most importantly, by getting House to admit this dark secret, Eve has managed to break down some of House’s emotional barriers. By the end of the episode, it is clear that their lengthy theological and psychological debates have melted House, and actually made him feel sympathy for a patient – a huge break-through for misanthropic House. But of course, House dismisses this mini-breakthrough of his in the end, claiming that now that Eve has been discharged from the hospital, he won’t care about her anymore because it’s only “One day, one room.” Cue emotional folksy guitar ballad.

Side note: Major congratulations to Hugh Laurie on his richly deserved Golden Globe and SAG Award wins. Now THAT’S what I’m talking about, award show voters! Well done. Now… about that Emmy…

LaLa is a writer who currently resides in LaLa Land, aka Los Angeles. LaLa also likes to sing. LaLa also knows some lawyers in a law office. LaLa is also prone to making bad jokes, like this one. And of course, LaLa also loves her some quality television shows with quality actors on them, like House… and The Office… and 24… and, well, pretty much any smartly written show that doesn’t include a fat guy with a hot skinny wife or the words “two and a half men” in the title.

Photos courtesy of NBC Universal.