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

[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."