I'd wondered what would be the outcome of House's skull fracture - apparently it healed just fine. He mentions it, but I don't think otherwise there's any discussion, any fallout, any physical problems. Wilson's comment about no one in the hospital even liking Amber - I remember the camera panning to House at that moment, and my interior thought was that Wilson was mostly right but I wondered about whether House actually had liked her (I think he did, sort of, in his own way) - I couldn't read his face at that moment - it almost seemed blank, but I wonder if "surprised" was what was going on. He chose not to say anything, of course, given that Wilson was walking out the door.

I'd wondered what would be the outcome of House's skull fracture - apparently it healed just fine. He mentions it, but I don't think otherwise there's any discussion, any fallout, any physical problems. Not that I expect this show to be accurate when it comes to medicine, but there's just no way there's no fallout, no problems generated from that skull fracture. My SO had a motorcycle accident in April. He had an undiagnosed concussion. He has since seen a neurologist, who explained to him that basically his brain needs about a year to fully heal all the pathways. Imagine the busiest city near you and close the two major arteries into it, forcing everyone onto the side streets. That's the kind of traffic he's dealing with every time he tries to pay attention to a conversation. It is slowly improving. If this show has even one foot in the reality of our world, they will show House with some kind of problem. There's just no way he's already full recovered.

I haven't yet worked my way through the 8 pages (!) of comments on this episode, but I just have to ask one question - When did Olivia Wilde become the co-star of this show? I've always tried to stay out of the shippiness discussions (arguments, knock-down dragouts), and always kind of liked Cameron and so stayed out of the Cam-hate fests, but this whole 13 bit is starting to annoy me. I swear, I think the mostly-male writing staff just goes bonkers over pretty girls and thinks the rest of us must be nutty over them too. Cripes, it seemed last night that OW had as many lines as Hugh. I don't care that 13 is dying. No, wait, I do. The sooner the better. :evil:

They've shown us in actions plenty of times that it isn't, but the text of the show, the actual dialogue, the critiques that the characters themselves give of their lives, tends to run the other direction. But I do think that's essentially the male outlook. They don't talk about their feelings. That's where Cuddy made the mistake in her "couples counseling" in that she was trying to get two hard headed men to talk out their issues. As most of the people on this board are women (if we go by general Internet usage numbers), of course we'd think and expect them to say how they feel about each other. But men, generally, don't. Especially these two men. Other than a "so, we're good?" question on occasion, they don't confront those issues. That, of course, fed into House being blindsided. He thought they were at the "we're good?" point, when in fact they weren't.

Wilson's comment about no one in the hospital even liking Amber - I remember the camera panning to House at that moment, and my interior thought was that Wilson was mostly right but I wondered about whether House actually had liked her (I think he did, sort of, in his own way) Me too. Or at least I think by the end of "Don't Ever Change" (that's the one where she gives her speech of wanting love and respect together, right?) he had a grudging respect of her. I also think the way his subconscious communicated with her during the finale indicates some sort of gentleness, acceptance. He's been known to brush off his hallucinations very often, or to mock them, be House. He was kinda nice to Amber there, it was Amber who was acting more House-like, providing the realistic side of House's brain who knew full well that things would be difficult. (I am confusing myself.) Anyway, I do think at least he had some kind of respect for Amber, and looking at House's expression there I really expected him for one moment to chase Wilson down the hall and give some speech about how not everyone hated Amber. Do you suppose that Wilson was already going through some of this thought process before Amber's death? I hope so. As Wilson gave his speech last night I kept thinking if I had a friend like Wilson in a similar situation I'd be like, "Get out of there, buddy." Their friendship may play well on TV, but in RL their friendship is NOT A GOOD THING. I'm glad they are addressing it, as painful as it seems now.

So here's something that I've been thinking about. Please pardon the psychobabble, if it turns out that's what it is. :-) Why were these two ever friends (or if not friends, whatever they were). Consider the psychology of the individual. What House never got from his dad was acceptance, and even more, the acknowledgement that his way was right. It was the struggle of his youth, or at least that seems to me to be what we've been told. Wilson is like his dad in that way: he always says House is lucky when he's right, never giving him credit for his genius. By withholding that approval, acceptance, and acknowledgement (which House does get from Cuddy), Wilson becomes the dad figure that House can never please. For Wilson, he might have tried for years to figure out what he could have done to keep his brother from becoming homeless: if he had only done this or that, then the brother would have been ok. So, when he sees House being unhappy and strange, he takes extraordinary measures to get him to change. Since he can't accept that people don't change, he meddles more and more, nearly getting House imprisoned, etc. So that's how the dysfunction has been working: Wilson insisting that he has to change and House insisting that W accept him as he is, even acknowledge that he is right. So with that dynamic, neither one of them can get what they want, and we're back to the philosopher Jagger. I guess now we find out if they can get what they need. ETA: I know I'm simplifying here to make a point. Just talking about the general trend. There have been exceptions on both sides.

Anyone think to look at the sets to see, as Hugh mentioned on Leno the other night, if they were "about two feet wider"? I only thought about it at one point, when the camera panned the hospital's entrance hall - it did look bigger, or that central desk or whatever it is looked smaller. Thoughts?

I loved this episode. I thought everyone was just excellent. But the final scene. OMG!! the final scene was perfecttion. House had to appear sincere and manipulative at the same time and it worked. RSL had to speak his truth and it worked. I have been replaying and replaying the final scene because it's just so amazing. It was all meat. I also liked the scene between Wilson and Cameron. It's like the writers wrote to Cameron's strengths. I hope we get more scenes like that between her and Wilson. I also liked all of 13's scenes, epsecially her interactions with the patient. Foreman was good too in his scenes with the team and with Wilson. And Taub and Kutner both win. The scene between House and Wilson in Cuddy's office revealed the depth of their connection. They pretended to have a conversation (men ae from Mars type conversation) then they get up at the same time. It also felt as if they were giving us a peek into how the Huddy may emerge. I definitely think it will be job-related. Geez!! HL and RSL are just so hot together. The chemistry is just made of awesome. The ending was painful but real.