Episode Post-Mortem: 7x07 "A Pox on our House"

[soophelia.livejournal.com]

This is the after-airing post. Discuss any and all aspects of the House/Wilson relationship or friendship pertaining to the episode here. Have fun, but be respectful of each other. Please contact the mods if there is any inappropriate language or behavior that you cannot resolve amicably amongst yourselves.

If you have meta/reaction posts in your journal that you would like to share with the community, please link to them in the comments and I will compile a list here in the main post so that they are all in the same place and people can find them easily. Thank you, and happy viewing!

Meta/Reaction Posts
http://taiga13.dreamwidth.org/89587.html

Comments

[galadriel1618.livejournal.com]

(This is not completely episode specific, just sort of a general opinion on the House/Cuddy relationship, but since that’s about all the show is focusing on right now I figure it’s valid discussion.)

To me it seems both House and Cuddy are in this relationship for the wrong reasons. First of all, I don’t think Cuddy loves House. I think Cuddy loves an idealized version of House; someone who she wishes he could be, and who she might or might not actively try to change, but always expects that somewhere down the road will make the effort to do exactly that for her. And IMO, if you love an idealized version of someone, you don’t actually love them at all; you love someone who doesn’t exist, that you’ve built up in your head, and it seems we’ve already seen some of that with Cuddy, being disappointed with the reality of who he is but sticking with him in hopes of change. And House? House I think just wants someone to love, and even better, someone to fix him. He might not necessarily want to make any changes, but on some level he thinks being in a serious relationship will make him a happier, better person, and so tells himself things will be different once he is, then gets stuck along the way because it’s too much effort and not honestly what he wants in the first place. I DO think House cares for Cuddy, and possibly even loves her (though not in the traditional romantic sense), but as for being in love with her? I don’t buy it. I think more than anything she is a means to an end for him, and as time goes on and he sees how incompatible they are and how difficult the relationship continues to be, combined with how he’s not getting better, not magically ‘healing’, that will be the end of their relationship.

And as for Wilson and Sam? Yes Wilson, you would be a great father. But don’t let your excitement over that cloud your judgment and make you blind to the fact that this is a very, very bad idea.

I remembered this show was on ten minutes before it started. I’m bored with it now, and mainly watching out of love for what it formally was. That being said, all in all this was probably the best episode this season. ..But to me that doesn’t say much, because nothing in particular jumped out at me and even though it was a solid case, I just felt under-whelmed.

And that might have all been bullshit and I suck at explaining my thoughts, but...whatever, I’m gonna go play New Vegas and forget about this mess.

[writerdot.livejournal.com]

I agree completely with your assessment of House/Cuddy. I was trying to figure out what I felt about it, and your description hit the nail on the head.

[soophelia.livejournal.com]

I agree completely.

[babyjay17.livejournal.com]

I agree wholeheartedly and no, you don't suck at explaining your thoughts about this. I also think that Cuddy is so godamn manipulative that she loves the control she feels she now has over House or had before the "OMG, he lied" butthurt she is feeling now. Especially in the professional sense. That butt slap last week really convinced me of that.

[kirili.livejournal.com]

I don't know how much control the writers actually have over these characters...

For example, Grey's Anatomy... there's a LOT of drama and personal interaction etc. but the writers always seem to be on top of it, directing it, constructing it.

On House, there's a sense that they really don't know where they're driving this thing, who exactly has their hand on what button, and the actors have different chemistry than what's expressed through their characters. The buttslap, for example, could've just been LE being cute. The show isn't on top of character interaction, they're not as careful about it, so it's a little hard to read into this... they seem to dream of settling everybody into a boring suburban life now (Huddy, Wilson/Sam, Taub...) so anything that deviates from that... could just be accidental.

[kirili.livejournal.com]

... pretty much exactly this. thanks :)