Now that I've had a chance to sleep on it...

[dramaturgy]

1. Normally, I absolutely hate what my mother and I call the "And Then I Woke Up" ending, which the show utilized here, but unlike other places it's been used (*cough*Dallas*cough* [... my mother actually said, "And when House woke up Bobby Ewing was in the shower," now that I think of it]), it made sense. In Dallas they did it so that the actor could come back, and that was three seasons retconned in one fell swoop. Here, it was for storytelling and character development reasons, I believe.

I started thinking it was all a hallucination about partway through. One big tip off? House with the team at the taco place in his hospital gown and then with the shooter. I couldn't see if he was wearing, say, trousers or not (and you know I've been in Harry Potter games for too long when I call them trousers before I call them pants), but it definitely seemed weird, even for a House hungry for food. (I'm still getting used to making House a proper noun.) And having both of them there sold me on it. IT WAS THE TACOS.

2. Moriarty. Okay. The fact that we never find out the shooter's name in the episode if good, because with the Holmes/House parallels that would have been a huge tip off way too early. I think I'm pretty okay in my head with his role in the mass hallucination - House's subconscious that he's been pushing down.

But. Was he actually a former patient (or, as he said in the mass hallucination, the widower of a former patient)? The plotline sounds vaguely familiar to an episode I once watched while I was only half-paying attention but like I said... only half of my attention isn't a whole lot. XD If he was neither, and doesn't really exist how did House get shot? There, that's me taking my first observation about ten steps further than is probably strictly necessary. I think it can be assumed that that version of the shooting actually happened since it was the credits tag and the ducklings were going with the stretcher at the end of the episode, but I'm not really prepared to count anything out just yet. XD

3. I'm operating on two assumptions (which I first wrote as hallucinations), by the way:

1. That everything in the mass hallucination means something.
2. That everything in the mass hallucination is generally truthful to House and his personality or mentality in some way.

Again this probably contributes to me reading way too much into everything, but I'm honestly not sure how much is too much. A lot's been said in house_md that I agree with, but on the other hand, there's a lot that's been said that I think deserves elaboration and that I don't agree with.

4. For instance, the House/Cameron of it all. Though I am slowly working my way through the first season thanks to USA (and I would have it if my laptop weren't dead as a doornail) and plan to watch what I haven't seen of season 2 when Fox starts replaying it, but I'm fairly well-informed of what's been going on. So. Squeeing slightly when she was there when he "woke up"? Slightly, I admit. But those of you who know me knows that it doesn't really take much. *g*

(His subconscious SO wanted her there when he woke up - OR, he simply knows Cameron well enough to know that she would stick around. Either way. I like the former theory better.)

The scene in the hallway was - it was a thing of magic between two actors. That much I know. </commerical spoof> The intensity was - er. To say that the intensity is intense is redundant but it was wonderful. And I love it. It only got better with the robot foreplay. Guh. My cell phone rang during that scene. It went something like this:

Phone: *rings*
House: *jabbers*
Liz: *flailanswer* This better be good.
Mom: ... OH, I called you during House.
Liz: Yesyesyoudidwhatisit?
House: *jabbers more*
Robot: *foreplay*
Cameron: *sekritly loves*
Cameron's shirt: *loses a button*
Mom: *blahblahblah McDonaldscakes want anything?*
Liz: O_O NoI'mokayseeyouwhenyougethome *hang up*

That scene was so overtly sexual, completely shameless, and I'm amazed at what makes it on basic cable these days. On the other hand, there was a reason! Yes! A storytelling tool! These scenes were two sides of a romantic relationship - emotional and sexual.

If we go with the House = the patient parallel that was established at the end of the episode, Cameron could possibly fit another role in the mass hallucination: the non-existent wife. I think it was somebody on house_cameron that brought this to my attention first, but it makes sense. I really wish I had a transcript of this episode, but the talk about the points system and House comments that she looks like she's a few points above her husband, and he continues that she didn't seem to marry him for his looks, she says something and (here I'm paraphrasing) he says, "It's not an insult to you." Goes with House rebuffing Cameron with the dinner speech in Love Hurts (a painfully awkward episode to watch, by the by, but in the good way. The wife also comments, "I would never be unfaithful." Cameron, god bless her, from what I've seen and read has a pretty unwavering faith in House, especially in earlier episodes.

On the other hand, when House comments to the ducklings that he spoke to the patient's wife and then they say that the patient's wife was dead, I later took that to mean that perhaps the patient's wife could then be seen as Stacy - she's not physically dead, but her relationship to House is deader than Hatshepsut. I don't really have a problem with seeing the wife as both Cameron and Stacy, since it's all symbolic and symbols can be different things at once.

Also, House = the patient makes the patient's comment about not seeing enough during robot foreplay all the more hilarious. XD

5. The Ketamine. Now, if he did have it for real and it did get rid of the pain in his leg what would that actually do? It wouldn't regrow the muscle. The Ketamine is a puzzle piece that doesn't quite fit anywhere for me, yet. I think I'm going to sit on this one and see where it goes in the fall.

6. Handcuffing House to his bed was not only hilarious but telling of some things. House is chained to things, most notably the addiction to Vicodin. I hope they revisit his addiction in the next season, especially if Ketamine works like it did in the mass hallucination, because even though he won't have the pain anymore he'd still have the want for Vicodin. (I took Vicodin for a week after I had my wisdom teeth out and even though I wasn't having any pain from my teeth, I wanted to finish my Vicodin. Luckily, my mom was looking out for me, heh.)

7. The shooter's ending monologue, and House writing on the wall? Okay, the writing on the wall was a tad heavy handed, but the camera angles and the shift to him being in the car with the shooter's wife was pretty cool, so I'll get over it. That was a fabulous piece of... well, I was entranced. And after (going with number three above), House's "I'm sorry" was nothing less than completely sincere and... it was so telling. I don't even think I can write it down. If you read this far you probably saw it, and probably know what I'm talking about.

8. Now, after all this, call me dumb but I haven't really reconciled the ducklings' roles in this mass hallucination (outside of Cameron's, as listed above). I mean, Chase was on the ball (and had a testicle explode on him, the poor guy - haha on the ball... nevermind), but outside of that I'm a little stuck in my thought process. With Cuddy and Wilson too. I mean, their scenes were cool and I will admit that a little part of me died when House punched Wilson, even in the hallucination, but it's just a lot to think about. Like with The Matrix, I think I'm going to have to see this episode a few times to wrap my brain totally around it.

9. Since nine is my lucky number I think I can end it here with next season's thoughts. I hope they concentrate on character a lot. I don't think House will have a huge personality change - I mean, he will always be acerbic and unorthodox, and really smart. Unless the Ketamine takes his brain. Uhh. I hope it doesn't do that. Because if he's not acerbic, unorthodox, and really smart... well. Maybe a little bit of change because I don't think House won't be affected by this mass hallucination in some way. It'd be hard not to, I think. But he's not going to suddenly be, like... befriending kittens. That'd put Steve McQueen in too much danger.

Is it September yet?

Comments

[nostrademons.livejournal.com]

5. Remember in Three Stories when they explained House's infarction? They didn't remove the muscle entirely - the option they chose was to remove as much of the dead muscle as they could, limiting the amount of pain while still retaining some muscle function. Kind of a middle ground.

I think that implicit in this is that House's limp is mostly due to pain, not due to lack of muscle. It's like the muscle can't relax fully because it's so painful. Ketamine is an analgesic - it may reduce the pain enough to give him use of the leg again.

See this article for similar situations.

[dramaturgy.livejournal.com]

Ah. One season one episode that I haven't seen and only read summaries of. This is what happens when you're a Johnny-Come-Lately.