House Giveth and House Taketh Away

[deelaundry]

In episode 2, House's selfless actions meant Wilson's patient got an organ donation she needed, and she lived. In episode 3, House's selfish actions meant Wilson's patient didn't get an organ donation, and she died. I didn't think we'd get so direct a negation of House's good acts of the last episode. Huh.

I wonder if Wilson ever found out that it was because of House that his patient didn't get the kidney.

On the funny side, my favorite line of the night was Park, to Adams: "What do you want me to do with these? Give them away? Wear them while you masturbate?" LOLOLOL, I didn't expect that out of Park but I'm damn glad she said it. She's awesome.

I like Adams fairly well, but she was being an asshole to Park. You don't force things on people who don't want them.

David Shore said the show's writers don't have a show bible, but I suspect they have a show "parking lot" where they put ideas for subplots they come up with for different characters but didn't use. I also suspect this is why they created Taub to be a married cheater -- so he could take on Wilson ideas they didn't get to before his divorce -- and why they made Adams a trust fund baby -- to give her some Chase rich-kid-slumming themes.

It seems obvious to me that hiring Olivia Wilde was a quid pro quo marketing deal (we put you on TV weekly, you mention us while doing magazine covers and movie premieres) but overall Thirteen wasn't awful. I liked how she went off the show.

Hooray for Thirteen riding off into the sunset with a woman. Hooray for Thirteen kissing her girlfriend in the hospital as warmly and casually as an opposite-sex couple would kiss and embrace.

Comments

[knitty-woman.livejournal.com]

I really liked the ending: the kiss, of course, but also the moment in which House sees that Thirteen has a chance for real happiness and does a Good Thing.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

In a sense, yes, House was responsible for the death of Wilson's patient. But, 1) Wilson knew it was morally gray area since he'd already lectured against taking anything from a patient when it was money for House and 2) the patient really was sick, so he was incapable of the judgment required to make a decision like that.

And I'm digging Park so far. She's so quietly dark and sarcastic. "You do know I hit the last person who pissed me off, right?"

Besides, the way she gladly went along with scamming Adams for House's car repairs was great.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

I agree, and I think Wilson knew that allowing the donation would not have been ethical. I also think he knew what House had done and was resigned to it because of that ethical issue.

House could have taken the million dollars, while the patient was still sick, and he didn't do that, either. Had he taken the money and then prevented the transplant, we'd have to hate him for it, but at least he was consistent.

What he gave last week, he gave without there being any wrongdoing involved in the process. I don't think this week negated that gift at all.

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you here. I think Wilson was a bit ashamed of himself. And I loved his surgical mask puffing visibly when the transplant was called off. That guy can act even with his face covered.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Of course Wilson was ashamed of himself. He's the one who cares about conventional ethics.

House would have done the exact same thing as Wilson (has done, in the sense of taking advantage of other people to save a patient) but he wouldn't have felt ashamed. Because getting what he wants is the most important thing for House. It's a simple ethical code that Wilson's, but I don't necessarily think it's a better one.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

Nope, not going to argue in the slightest that House's moral code is in any way superior to Wilson's; what I thought was interesting in this episode is that we saw Wilson's moral flexibility so clearly, and we also saw that for Wilson, a lot of that willingness to do the wrong thing, comes from the right place. Whereas for House, a lot of his willingness to do the right thing, comes from the wrong place.

I'd be a lot more critical of House's motives, though, had he taken the money when he could have gotten it. He didn't allow either the kidney donation or the financial donation while the patient wasn't competent to make the decision, and that tells me that his motives may not have been purely selfish, either. It's true House stomps all over a patient's right to choose, but he generally does that when he thinks otherwise-competent patients are being morons, and he does it to save them from themselves. To me this read as another instance of saving the patient from himself, with, yes, a hefty side of selfish "I have to find my answer."

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to hate House either way. But my issue wasn't about Wilson's ethics, it was about House's morals. House didn't take the (illegal, sneaky) action he did to promote the patient's right to make clear-headed medical decisions, to choose. He's demonstrated in many, many episodes that he'll trample all over the patient's right to choose. He did it to get what he wanted.

We celebrated, rightly, that House did something last episode not for his own self-interest but to give to Wilson.

I was suprised, and a little dismayed, that the show so quickly and directly, with such a stark parallel, enforced that House is going to continue putting his own interests first.

[(Anonymous)]

He did it to get what he wanted.

Nope. What he wanted was the money, that's why he took the case in the first place. He did what he did because he (rightly) believed that the patient was still sick.

I fail to see how it would have been moral for him to compromise his own patient's health just to do Wilson a favour and let him have a donation that was morally dubious in the first place.

(This is Felis btw, can't log in atm.)

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Wilson knew it was a morally gray area to accept a donation from someone who might have a mental defect. That doesn't change the fact that House generated a specific false symptom to prevent the patient from donating -- not to protect the patient but because House wanted to continue looking for his own answer.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree that House's motives weren't the purest. I'm just saying that Wilson recognized that he wasn't innocent himself, and that's why he didn't blame House.

[yarroway.livejournal.com]

There's another factor too, which is that both House and Wilson seem to advocate for their patients, even when what is best for their patient might not be the best thing from a more objective, general perspective. I don't think there's any blame for either of them there.

[flywoman.livejournal.com]

I was very happy that what I saw of Thirteen's new relationship looked like any normal relationship (as opposed to Hot, Screwed-up Lesbian Sex For Your Viewing Pleasure).

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

This, yes. It had always bothered me the way they seemed to play WHOOOHOO GIRL-ON-GIRL with her, pandering to the straight male viewers instead of making her sexuality just a genuine part of her characterization.

So I was both shocked and pleased that they got it right this time. I thought she had about the best exit of anyone who's left the show. They didn't kill her or have her get involved with and then dump a regular character. They let her leave amicably, to go be happy elsewhere. How refreshing.

[taiga13.livejournal.com]

Exactly what I thought, but much better said!
I liked that her exit was because she chose to be happy. On this show you see people making the same bad choices over and over again. I hope they don't bring her back just to show us her Tragic Death.
So far Park is my favourite fellow aside from Kutner. She's still learning who she is and it's not who she was raised to be. It's genuinely interesting to watch.

[flywoman.livejournal.com]

It definitely makes me wonder how much the producers' relationships with the other actors influenced their treatment of the characters.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

I'm not quite sure I follow you, here? Care to expand that thought a bit?

[flywoman.livejournal.com]

Eh, this is pure speculation. I just recall my best friend remarking that the producers must have been really pissed when Kal Penn decided to leave so abruptly to work for the White House, so they made sure he could never come back by killing his character off. And I've heard (unsubstantiated) speculation that Jennifer Morrison was marginalized and finally dismissed in an ugly way because she wasn't getting on well with other members of the cast and/or production team.

Whereas everyone seems to LOVE Wilde.

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

Makes sense to me. Apparently it is not a happy set.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

Really? That's the first I've ever heard of it supposedly not being a pleasant set; every person I ever read (like, not cast but basically 'little guys' who'd worked there) said it was a good place to be. And there was never any of the kind of stuff you'd hear about off the set of, say, Grey's. Which show I never even watch, and yet I had heard repeatedly of the problems.

Am I just sheltered or something?

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

sorry, but I really dislike her. she can't act her way out of a paper bag and I don't understand why she's so popular. I don't even think she's attractive.

[flywoman.livejournal.com]

When I said "everyone," I was referring to TPTB, not fans.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

fair enough. i still can't comprehend why she's so popular, but then there's a lot of celebrities I don't understand the popularity of (cough cough gaga)

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

LOL

I have been following this and smiling. Thirteen got a LOT better over time, for me, and I ended up liking her. But I'll admit I don't get the appeal of Olivia Wilde as an actress, generally. I think it's because her eyes read as very expressionless to me.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

In startling contrast to Hugh, who has WONDERFULLY expressive eyes.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm a Pollyanna, because all I ever thought was: they needed a way to abruptly write Kutner out, and they'd already killed Amber in a crash, so that wasn't going to work; and they just seized upon something that would work and would also add substantially to House's Giant Mountain of Angst.

What happened with Jennifer Morrison, who knows. Yes, her character got shoved to the sidelines, but then so did Chase's and most everyone else's for a while, when the whole Survivor thing took over the show and then we had New!Fellows and just too many regulars to keep track of. I'm aware of the engagement and breakup with Jesse Spencer, so things must have been a bit weird on set for that reason, but I wasn't there, so. *shrugs*. I do think her departure was, for whatever reasons, handled very poorly.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

she already got involved with and then dumped Foreman, though.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

Yes, but what I meant was, that wrecked relationship wasn't the reason she left, the way it was for Cameron and (so unfortunately) Cuddy.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Totally agree! I got annoyed with the way Olivia Wilde talked about her character's bisexuality (bisexual does not equal "ambiguous"), but enjoyed the way she played it. House was salacious, I think the producers were salacious, but Wilde made Thirteen's sexuality a natural, comfortable part of her.

I'm not bisexual so maybe there's something I missed, but it made me happy to have her portrayal on TV.