NOT FEELING THE H/W LOVE

[raietta.livejournal.com]

Well, watched "Top Secret" a couple of times, feeling bummed.

WARNING! Long rambling dissertation under the LJ cut! Possibly TL;DR! Also, spoilers inside!



It’s undeniable now. House and Wilson got divorced.

They were happily, wonderfully married throughout all of Season One (even during the Vogler mess!!). They were totally married throughout Season Two (balcony scenes anyone? House deleting the apartment message from his answering machine anyone? Still the gold standard of H/W love!).

Then along came the "Euphoria" two-parter, and then Season Three, and all my happy slashy dreams were shattered. SHATTERED.

"Euphoria" had open hostility between House and Wilson (or, more likely, hostility from House toward Wilson—here I’m thinking specifically of the scene where House snarls at Wilson, "I’ll bet you you can even have unprotected sex with your patients without even catching a damn thing. Boy I wish I had your job." YEOWCH!), and here we see House considering packing up his things and asking for his magic decoder ring back. Sad. Really, really sad. I started getting a queasy feeling in my stomach right then.

Then, somewhere after House got the ketamine treatment and Wilson started manipulating him (withholding information from House about his paralyzed patient, refusing to prescribe Vicodin, etc), House got a separation from Wilson.

The lovely sexy sparkly chemistry onscreen between House and Wilson just shuddered to a halt. Sad, sad, sad!

Then somewhere after Tritter finally got booted off the show, House filed for divorce from Wilson. Looks like the trial separation didn’t go too well.

Where’d the chemistry go? Where’d all the jump cuts focusing on Wilson and House giving one another sexy, significant looks go?

What the hell is going on, here?

In "Half-Wit," I felt more depressed. Here House is DYING OF BRAIN CANCER, and what do we get from House and Wilson? One half-assed scene with the upright piano in the patient’s room and one sneering, hostile scene in House’s office at the end. Gah!

House actually looks simmeringly angry with Wilson in that last scene. Man. It almost felt to me, on watching that scene, that House has filed for divorce in a fit of betrayed fury—and Wilson didn’t even know they were married in the first place. Bizarre! That scene actually reads to me like House is still furious with Wilson, and Wilson has no freaking clue that House is even mad. Wilson gets House flowers. House throws them out the window. Wilson cluelessly gets House chocolates. House throws them at his head. Wilson’s all like, "Pizza and a movie?" House is all like, "Choke on that pizza and DIE!!!"

Am I the only one who saw that? Just how crazy am I?

Is anyone else not seeing the chemistry?

It’s like the actors are no longer comfortable playing scenes together. It’s awful. I don’t see House and Wilson interacting on the screen any more; I see Hugh Laurie and Robert Sean Leonard pretending to be House and Wilson on a set. Awful.

And so now we come to the latest episode, "Top Secret."

I would have enjoyed this episode much, much more if there had been ANY chemistry between House and Wilson AT ALL. And I’m not even being greedy and asking for sexual chemistry. Just plain old "House and Wilson are bestest buds and Platonically LUV each other!" chemistry would have made my day.

But no. Nothing.

The banter in the bathroom? Not feeling it. Feels forced and half-assed.

The fights about House’s drug use and House’s patient? Feels like the bickering of a divorced couple, sad to say. Seriously. This is how my mom and dad used to fight/argue/bicker with each other, after they got divorced. I know firsthand how post-divorce arguments sound and look, and House and Wilson in "Top Secret" fit the bill.

But maybe it’s not just House and Wilson, HL and RSL.

The scenes between House and Cuddy weren’t all that sparkly with chemistry, either. Or, at least not the sexual kind. The scene in House’s office where Cuddy gives House the patient file for Riley (or whatever his name in the show is), I see ZERO sexual chemistry between Cuddy and House. House looks tired and distracted. He doesn’t even leer at Cuddy’s cleavage. In return, Cuddy looks tired and concerned. More maternal than anything. Odd. It’s that way in the end scene, too, where we finally get confirmation that Cuddy and House had been up to sexy shenanigans years ago, in what appears to be a one-night stand.

Sexual chemistry? Zip.

Cuddy’s still looking and acting motherly towards House, not sexual at ALL, and House acts like Cuddy is a sister or something.

This is so weird.

So maybe it’s not just House and Wilson that’s lost its zing. Maybe it’s ALL the grownups of the show.

Cameron and Chase were kinda hot in the supply closet together. Foreman was fun and engaging in the ep. Has the end of the world come about? Am I actually enjoying the scenes with the kids more than the scenes with H, Cuddy, and W?

Please counter my arguments ramblings if you can. Please let me know if you DID see any chemistry between House and Wilson in the last few eps. Really. I’d like to know if anyone agrees with my view, that the chemistry is alarmingly absent from H & W these days. I’d also like to know if anyone disagrees, if they DO see chemistry. That would make me feel a lot better.

So. Anyone else with problems with the show and the H/W relationship? Anyone else thinking the thrill is gone? Or do I need to start going to therapy to resolve my issues with over-analyzing a stupid show? (I mean, seriously. It's just a show! This much obsession can't be healthy.)

........send help!



ETA: Removed a few refs to "Top Secret" outside the LJ cut just in case.

Comments

[jp5412.livejournal.com]

I actually agree with most of what you're saying and here's my personal theroy.

House began to get bitchy with Wilson around the end of season 2 because he realizes Wilson knows him too well, he's scared of commitment and being close to someone again (espically after hanging around with she-who-is-an-evil-bitch all season) after All In it all goes down hill.

And then this season, Wilson was afraid House wouldn't need him anymore. The way I see it, and I read a really good ff about this somewhere but I can't find it now, it's that Wilson does need people to need him, but unlike Cameron, still likes them after they no longer need him but they stop liking him as much and everything just fades away (see: third marriage). So when House asked for the succesful Ketamine treatment Wilson was afraid House wouldn't need him anymore and tryed to hold him too tight. And House couldn't deal with that and things just began to fall apart.

Although the newer episodes, like Half Wit and Top Seceret, show a glimmer of hope I think, Wilson's trying to apoligise and House is just a bit hesitant to accept him again. The sceane at the end of Half Wit, where Wilson exageratedly points to himself while telling House to connect with someone again is very much one of hope for the future. Add that to all the syncronised peeing in the last episode and I am hopeful the amount of subtext will once again reach pre-All In points.

*jumps into the fray*

[earlwyn.livejournal.com]

I like your theory but I have questions and a theory of my own.

Why is Wilson afraid of House no longer needing him? He knows the ketamine is 50/50 at best and discounting House's immobility issues, House has a range of other issues (like trust and alienating people) that could be used to feed Wilson's need for need for years to come. My theory hypostulates that Wilson feels guilty about the shooting - because he didn't stop it from happening by keeping House from reaching the hight of misanthropic bastard that he is, which might have motivated the gunman - and so is trying to compensate for this fact by attempting to control House's behavior.

(Which is completely irrelevant to the HoYay factor but I like to debate.)

But I agree with the hope for the future, as Wilson is trying to reconnect and currently they are tiptoeing around each other before moving back to old ways.

Re: *jumps into the fray*

[jp5412.livejournal.com]

Well, we didn't actually see Wilson do anything that odd (ie. the lying about the patient)until it was clear that House was in full use of his leg once again. We didn't get to see that interaction between the point that House got out of surgery and the while after when he was running six miles to work. Maybe House had been so wrapped up in his 'recovery' that he forgot to call Wilson one day, (or show up to thier syncronized bathroom breaks ;D), anything like that could have sent Wilson into panic mode after the horrible faliure of his last marriage, right? What's the phrase thrice bitten fourth shy? :D

I also think your idea has some merit, that Wilson feels gulity for not being there for House during the shooting, but conversly he's never shown any guilt over not being there for the infarction when he was close enough to HOuse at the time to be able to 'pick up the peices' when the evil bitch left the first time.

Re: *jumps into the fray*

[earlwyn.livejournal.com]

It's possible, yes, but I still think (hope? I could just be grasping) that Wilson would understand House needs him in a greater scope than to tend after his mobility issues. Those two are riddled with complications. I wouldn't see Wilson jump the gun quite that quickly.

But no, you raised firm points. I am intrigued.

Hasn't he shown guilt over the infarction? He certainly seems eager to prove to House that his leg is not the end-all-be-all of his definition as a person. I posit that Wilson could feel guilt over it. Also, though, and almost contradictory to that point (heh) I add that Wilson would have more reason to feel guilty over House getting shot for being a jerk (which Wilson endeavors to prevent to some extent) than he would feel over House having some random medical issue. Wilson could feel a failure from keeping House safe (by not corraling House's pension for being an ass to people) and therefore feel guilt over the issue.

Re: *jumps into the fray*

[jp5412.livejournal.com]

I personally beleive that Wilson enjoys House's sarcastic assiness and protests only for forms sake most of the time, I mean you don't file through a man's cane if you're not a little sadistic and Wilson kind of releases his sadisim through House (does that make scence?). SO maybe that's why he's guilty, because he enjoys House's brand of sarcasim and that led to House being shot.

On the other hand, if Wilson felt guilty about all that why would he go all Judus on House during the Shitter arc? It seems to me that if Wilson were guilty about it he'd try to protect his friend instead of turning him in. I mean the argument that he was just trying to get House to get help for the Vicodin kind of falls falt when you remember that he's known about House's additiction for more then two years now, why try to get him better now and in such a brutally betraying way? It seems far more likly to me that Wilson is suddenly afriad of losing House and trying to do everything he can to make House better, even if he ends up hateing him for his efforts. Kind of a pattern in House's life no?

Anyway, those are my thoughts, I'm going to bed now.

Re: *jumps into the fray*

[earlwyn.livejournal.com]

I wrote about my beliefs about how Wilson interacts and relates to House here (http://earlwyn.livejournal.com/40736.html#cutid1) if you're interested. I don't feel like rephrasing everything again. *g*

He made the deal with Tritter to help House. He made the deal with Tritter to help himself. He made the deal with Tritter so that Chase wouldn't make a worse one. There's many theories, and most of them viable, but whatever reason it was it doesn't necessarily correllate to Wilson's feelings of guilt over House's shooting. They're two seperate events.

Also, I didn't say I thought Wilson acted rationally. It is just a theory I have that explains how Wilson does act.

Sleep well!

Re: *jumps into the fray*

[idonmatrix.livejournal.com]

I think House and Wilson are also competitive. I think that was played out so well in the TS diagnostic scene. Wilson relies on the scientific method and House relies on intuition. Even though always says that there has to be a reason, he doesn't always use reason to make his connections. I think Wilson is the vertical thinker - notice how he went about diagnosing the patient and House is horizontal making weird that ultimately work.
They fight and then without skipping a beat Wilson throws him his car keys. I wonder how Wilson got home or if someone dropped him off at House's place. I hope the writers don't leave that chad hanging.

[idonmatrix.livejournal.com]

the syncronised peeing

I was wondering when someone would come up an appropriate name for the pee meets synchronized peeing is just perfect.

I think we hoyayers should be very hopeful. Of course I'd bee even more hopeful if the show was on at 10pm instead of nine.

[psychedk.livejournal.com]

Too lazy to read through all the comments, so I appologized if I'm repeating others :)

First of all you mention the open war between H and W in Euphoria. I don't quite remember it, and we definitely have different takes on H's sneering comment about Wilson's affair with the cancer patient. House mentions it again sometimes during season 3, and to me both mentions are totally slashy, because it obviously meant that House felt it as a betrayal. He clearly felt W did something that really hurt him. Why would he be so upset about that affair if it wasn't because it mattered to him if W was with someone else than him? Just like he constantly obsesses whenever W talks to another female. Just look at him in Fools for Love, one of the slashiest eps of all time. House being completely possesive about W :D

About recent events - H and W definitely broke up during the Tritter arc. More specifically their fight in Whac-a-mole which had me crying :( When H apologized in Words and Deeds I thought "yays, now they can go back to normal" but in fact that didn't happen for the next three eps. House was still distracted and coming down form his solo ride, and Wilson still looked helluva depressed around H. I realized that the writers were slowly (agonizinglt so) easing them back into a friendship that had broken and been replaced with lack of trust, accusations and misunderstandings. That's not something two people just overcome in a couple of days. Very true to real life, it takes weeks to build up trust again and to be comfortable around each other.

In Insensitive we had H saying "God Wilson is annoying," because he knew Wilson was right about his motives for taking that sample from the spine from the girl. And he listened, and didn't do it. Then by the end W says to H he can ask the girl now about the sample. "Guilt can be your friend," he says, to which H looks over at him with a half smile and says "Yeah." Obviously a reference to how W or maybe even H might feel guilty about recent events. Then W asks "Breakfast?" and House agrees.

In Half Wit we had Wilson being more sad that House didn't confide in him, than he was blaming House. That's an improvement on W. And H did listen to W's advice, he did take a step towards socializing (I do believe he went into the bar to the ducklings). I would have far preferred that he had that pizza with W, but still, it's a step. And we know how much House hates to change.

In Top Secret I, unlike you, was flailing at all the yummy slashiness the writers gave us. Once again in the bathroom together, chatting. When Cameron asked "Were we walking you to the bathroom?" House replies "I wish. Wilson was just in there. Those guys know what I'm talking about," leaving the three ducklings to stare in puzzlement at H. Haha!!

And THEN we have Foreman saying "House would do Wilson before you do Chase." Another nod to the fact that it's not unlikely others have thought of them like that, just like we do. More yays!

And then there's House's "Give me your car keys," and Wilson gives them to him. Just like old times, W gives H whatever he asks for, which I have to admit I have to like, since I don't want H to stop demanding stuff from W :)

I definitely did feel they were back to normal in Top Secret, and to me that ep was season 1 worthy. It was lighthearted and angstfree, and by ford I needed that! I do hope to see them socializing outside of work sometime soon, but I have hope it will happen.

[bell]

I'll be hitting on some of the points other posters have made, but hopefully I'll bring a bit of new too. :)

There is a heavy load remaining from the first half of the season (Cortisol lie, Tritter), not to mention a lot of trauma the two have experienced recently (House: shooting, failure of Ketamine; Wilson: divorce, possible death of Grace). It would make *sense* for these two to be at odds because of these things. It's the logical consequence.

However, it's hard to tell if the show is purposefully giving them a loveless marriage (one commenter put it that way, and I think it's more accurate than saying that they're divorced. Er) because they refuse to openly refer to the recent events in the series. So maybe the writers have it all together and meant to put House and Wilson through an awkward phase. Maybe. Or, just as likely, they're simply putting out bad writing. Until either: a) there's a scene where we see them REALLY make up for the past events or b) the characters say "You're still pissed at me over the forged signature, aren't you," we'll have to keep guessing as to what they're up to.

I could deal with the recent badness of relationship between them, if only I knew that the writers made it so intentionally. To be honest, I'm losing my patience with them.

[(Anonymous)]

House still helps Wilson and relies on him to help him, advise him, check him. Wilson still loves House too, but he realizes that House needs to help himself now. Wilson is just frustrated that House can't do this, and House is upset because he knows that Wilson is right.

[lilapaddy.livejournal.com]

" TL;DR! "

What's that mean?

[iliveforsports.livejournal.com]

I actually kind of agree. The whole Tritter deal threw out all the H/W slashy goodness. Thank God that bastard's gone. I'm starting to feel H & W are getting back to normal, though.