Yes, they need sick people to -*test*-('") the drug's efficacy -- but they also need normal volunteers to -*test*-('") the drug's safety. If a subject isn't healthy to start with, you won't be able to separate the drug's potential side effects from any other problems they might have. I think this episode has an sadder undercurrent than it seemed to on first watch, for two reasons. Last week, I thought people were reading too much into the "keep you on retainer" line. I was pleased that House really did have a non-Wilson, valid reason for hiring the PI in the first place (to help with a multi-patient case that called for more than his fellows' usual snooping skills), and since Lucas proved his worth on that case, I thought it was reasonable that House would want to keep him around. Sure, Wilson's absence made him more likely to want the PI's attention, but I think he might have done the same even if Wilson hadn't dumped him. But this episode proved me wrong. As someone mentioned over in the poll thread, this was the sort of hassling he used to do to CCF -- and he didn't need a PI to help with that. And he hasn't needed anyone's help to wrangle Cuddy in the past either. This week, the "missions" he gave Lucas were nothing more than thinly veiled excuses to have Lucas hanging around. This week, I can believe that he really was trying to buy the semblance of friendship -- and I can even believe that it wasn't just subconsciously. The second reason for my sad-face is that Lucas's semblance of friendship seems so much healthier than Wilson's (or Cuddy's) "real" friendship. I've read a couple of fanfics recently (pre-ep!) that I loved because they had Lucas taking simple pleasure in giving House what he needed (or wanted) -- not what someone thinks he needs or ought to need, but what he really does emotionally need. And Lucas seems to be doing the same thing in this ep, no lectures, no moralizing, no manipulation, just companionship, fun, music, and _understanding_. Cuddy may not be able to see House in a different light, but Lucas _did_ figure out the cheerleader thing. From his first appearance, Lucas has been reading House accurately and easily AND accepting what he reads without judgment. Which is great -- House needs that! But... but... he doesn't get to keep it. Because Lucas is only a guest character, so sooner or later he's going to be going away and taking his understanding and acceptance with him. :-( And --- Lucas is observant and perceptive, yes, but he's not a genius or a mindreader. So Wilson's and Cuddy's lack of understanding and acceptance seems all the sadder. If this non-genius stranger can see House's inner cheerleader, then why can't Wilson and Cuddy? If this non-mindreading stranger can plonk away at the instrument of House's emotional expression and have House happily join in, why are Wilson and Cuddy so convinced that he's incapable of intimacy?

I think that House paying for Lucas's company makes it easier for him to hang around with him, to be "intimate". they had Lucas taking simple pleasure in giving House what he needed (or wanted) -- not what someone thinks he needs or ought to need, but what he really does emotionally need. And Lucas seems to be doing the same thing in this ep, no lectures, no moralizing, no manipulation, just companionship, fun, music, and _understanding_. He was, and that's great, but a) he doesn't WORK with House, he's not required to act as a check on House's behaviour like Cuddy and Wilson are, so it's not a fair comparison; b) House clearly said last episode that he needed Wilson acting as his conscience, as irritating as it can be; c) We know from NMMNG that House and Wilson do go mini-golfing and bowling together and hang out and have fun, we just don't see it; d) Lucas hasn't been hurt by House like Cuddy and Wilson have, I can understand why they'd have a harder time trusting his more vulnerable side than Lucas would; e) House hasn't yet called Lucas to pick him up from a bar or bring him bail money, much less get into trouble with the law for him, and there's no reason to think Lucas would do it if asked; which brings me to f) Wilson (and Cuddy) love House and House knows it. Even if we assume that Lucas has become genuine friends with House, he doesn't love him. I think House needs to be loved, as aggravating as the expression of that love can be, more than he needs another guy to play poker with. Although didn't play back by concocting any outrageous stories of her own. Oh man, how great would that have been? I noticed something that I need an opinion on. In the premiere we saw House drinking from a cup at home (coffee?, tee?) instead of scotch or Burbon. Last week we heard him tell the nurse he wants peppermint tea. (The latter could be interpreted as a joke, just to annoy the nurse, but in the Q&A for the episode on the official website David Shore or Kaplow suggested "Since peppermint tea has no caffeine, we can also assume that perhaps House was cutting back.". In this episode House is coming home and gets himself a beer, which turns out to be a "Bod Light"... Can we assume that House is really watching his alcohol and caffeine intake? You're very observant. I'd wondered about the peppermint tea but didn't notice the other two things. That would be really interesting, especially since he seemed to be popping more pills this episode. Maybe they were Vicodin for psychosomatic pain as someone else said upthread, or maybe he was telling the truth about taking B12... Something else I was wondering about. Did they say earlier in the episode that the PotW was taking antacids? Because that came out of nowhere for me, and I wondered if I'd missed something.

Re: the antacid... I think that's where the hiding-under-the-stairs bit came in -- he was in staggered trials. If I understood correctly, the patient hadn't been in three trials, but in four (at least). He was on three simultaneous trials (bisexadrine, cuckoldisol, and what was it? world-saurus-sneezasil?) at the time of the ep, but the bezoar was the result of an antacid that he'd been -*test*-('")ing previously (so they weren't paying attention to it earlier). The symptoms then weren't the result of the three interacting with each other, but the three interacting with the bezoar that was left over from the antacid trial. At least, that's the way my brain made sense of it. We know from NMMNG that House and Wilson do go mini-golfing and bowling together and hang out and have fun, we just don't see it We used to see it, but we don't any more; the mentions in NMMNG stood out because we haven't really heard about them just hanging out in the last couple of seasons. And I think, given Wilson's comments in "Half-Wit" and House's comments to Chase in the bowling scene, we're supposed to believe that we're not hearing about it because it's not happening very often; the negative aspects of the relationship have driven the fun out of it, which is (a large of part of) why it's not working anymore. I think House needs to be loved <snip> more than he needs another guy to play poker with. I think he needs both. Relationships don't have to all be identical, and they don't have to fit Wilson's idea of emotional support in order to be emotionally supportive. We've talked before about House and Wilson speaking different emotional languages (we being fandom), and House needs someone around who speaks his language (and so does Wilson, but he's got more options). And I think having someone like Lucas around would ultimately help House and Wilson's relationship, by taking some of the pressure off of it and providing them both with a reality check.

I would hope we'd also get Wilson remembering that he enjoys hanging with House and he's a gameplayer himself. And a few less lectures and a bit more making his point and then leaving House to make up his own mind. It not only is working for Lucas, it's worked for Wilson in the past when he tries, too, as in Insensitive. The PI is a paid friend, not an organic one, but just having him on retainer would not in itself make either man enjoy the other one. House's control by paying the bills, the lack of history between the two, the loneliness, all are big reasons why House is opening up to enjoying this guy. But he is still enjoying this guy and it is showing that other people can enjoy him. Wilson's "all you can do is spread misery because all you feel is misery" is just as much on the table for contemplation as House's reasons for liking the PI.

The "all you do is spread misery" comment was harsh, but hard to argue based on what we've seen! Who has he made happy in the four seasons we've watched him? And in the season finale House called himself miserable too. Relationships ... don't have to fit Wilson's idea of emotional support in order to be emotionally supportive. What a nightmarish world it would be if they did (shudder). if Kutner showed up tonight with a six-pack and a movie, House would be down for hanging out with him. Who wouldn't be? Kutner rules.

Both House and Lucas are spending time together for reasons that don't actually include "House and Lucas." Why I said "semblance". :-) As long as he's paying Lucas, he gets the benefits of a friendship without the emotional risk, which I'd imagine is real appealing to him right now. I'm not saying they are friends now, only that it would be a Good Thing if Lucas stuck around long enough for them to become real friends. And in the meantime, even the semblance is a Good Thing in its own way. And, yeah, I do think he'd be cool with Kutner showing up, not because he's "desperate" but because he's still trying to work out what he got from Wilson that he can't get elsewhere. I think the one-week gap between eps was exactly the right time to switch between the angst and this lighter ep, because although House is still going to be feeling the loss of Wilson, I don't see him as the sort to wallow in woe. He's got a problem; last ep he was mining the depths of the problem, defining it, sorting out its boundaries; this ep, he's trying to find a solution. Now, we know that this kind of problem can't be solved so easily, but he's still gonna try, because problem solving is what House does. And I can't say it's a bad coping strategy. The woe is still there, but he's set it aside on the "not really helpful" shelf (in between his feelings for his parents and his wistfulness at the lacrosse game), to be indulged in only once in a while and merely acknowledged the rest of the time. The "all you do is spread misery" comment was harsh, but hard to argue based on what we've seen! Who has he made happy in the four seasons we've watched him? Just off hand, the Cuban guy from "Human Error" didn't seem all that miserable when they were kicking back with cigars and booze. (I think it was cigars and booze.) The patient in next week's ep, or the one in last week's. None of those interactions were required by his medical duty. He seemed pretty happy to make Georgia happy too -- he could just as easily have brushed her off instead of flirting back and taking the time to explain the situation to her. (I know I've certainly had plenty of doctors who couldn't be bothered to tell me what was going on in my body.) How about his choice to take the blame for calling CPS in "Socratic Method"? How can that possibly be worked into "all you do is spread misery"?

Another instance of House not exactly spreading misery occurred during the Survivor arc, in the episode with the astronaut he lied to the candidates about having told NASA about the woman's illness in order to deflect them from calling. He later admitted that to Cuddy and there was a line about him telling the lie so that she could continue to have her dream.

The "all you do is spread misery" comment was harsh, but hard to argue based on what we've seen! Who has he made happy in the four seasons we've watched him? And in the season finale House called himself miserable too. He didn't say all he feels is misery and he didn't say he could only spread misery, though. I think we've seen lots of little snapshots of House spreading other things than misery. With Rebecca Adler, Andie, JHG, the husband in Human Error, the astronaut--and Wilson seemed to know this, too, when he told House Foreman needed to see the real House, not the asshole. House has cared about Cuddy's baby daddy and kept her secrets, even from Wilson, and he's poked Chase into making the right decision before the inquiry into Kayla. Not to mention that he didn't fire him after Vogler, as Wilson thought he should have. He also didn't let Cameron go when she had all her bad news issues, as Wilson suggested would be a plan. He cared about Wilson during his stay with him, even if he didn't give Wilson his little heart to heart. He let him crash at his place and tried to make him face facts about the divorce. And we know Wilson loves playing games with House--he had a ball during the Guitar Caper and that was totally his idea; he loved trying to outdeke House during the Cuddy Flowers Caper. There's been lots of crap in this relationship, not all of it flowing from House, though certainly lots, but there's been lots of good stuff, too.

A lot of the good House does and kindnesses he offers are just between him and the patient (and us). Wilson doesn't always see nor does Cuddy nor the team. So they have a harsher view of him than we do. In the "not spreading misery dept.": Lines in the Sand, that was a ten. And how about all the people whose lives he has saved? Those folks aren't miserable because of him. He's taught the fellows to think more critically, making them better doctors: how is that spreading misery? He's more complex than that. Wilson exaggerates, acts out and blames House for things that are not House's fault: it takes two to be co-dependent. He's as deeply flawed as House, but he pretends to be the nice, normal guy, even to himself. Why be friends with House when all he does is berate him? (Because it's not all he does, but it sure is annoying and never works the teensiest bit.) I'd assume he's asked himself those questions and rather than deal with the answers, accept and enjoy House for his good qualities, he'd rather abandon the friendship. All Wilson does is make House miserable for being himself. (And yes, that's an exaggeration too, but it's not altogether wrong.)

From the spoiler speculation thread (NO SPOILERS!) Chippers wrote: the person who pointed it out in Distractions was in fact Wilson. Everyone else was too caught up in the insanity of the situation to even begin to ponder the reasons behind why he was doing this. The same was true in this case -- everyone else was too focused on themselves or on Taub to even begin to think about why House was doing this, other than just to screw with them. House's "Jiminy Cricket" was conveniently missing, as well as being the reason. Yes. And yet this was not a problem in DCE and NC when pretty much everyone (Chase was the notable exception) found a way 'to inform' the audience Wilson's reasons and House's fears - even if some of them were false clues. And let's forget about Distractions: in Skin Deep, Foreman was also pointing out the reason to House's increased pain. You don't need House's best friend to point out why his behaviour is peculiar or outrageous. You don't even need words to make the point to your audience, visual clues are acceptable, as long as they are clear enough that you don't need a rationalization. You just need to know how to tell a story that makes sense into the context of the arc.

But there's also the question of what's necessary to spell out specifically and what can be read into the scene. In the first two eps, we were in thte middle of finding out how House and Wilson felt about each other--that was a necessary plot point that had to be established. Now we know and AE was dealing with the adverse event House had just been dealt. Being five years into the series, we already know how House dealt with Stacy leaving--in the beginning of the second season, we didn't know him that well, so that was a plot point that had to be established. Now, we can recognise when themes recurr without it having to be specifically spoken in dialogue. The PI pointed out that House's game with Taub was not about "the" truth; it was about driving people away, and was formed from House's truth, not some universal truth about what to reveal, when. I don't think reading House's behaviour as a reaction to losing Wilson, and having House not talking about Wilson, is any more a rationalisation than reading Cameron's behaviour in the sexcapades as a reaction to her kiss with House when he responded. There was no specific dialogue to nail it down, but lots of clues from previous eps to inform the arc. Some people see it, some don't, but it makes the most sense to me, both during that arc and the aftermath. I don't think this series has ever taken an arc and told it in a straightforward linear way with all the points filled in. We've always had to connect the dots and fill things in with what we know. House missing Wilson makes the most sense to me with why he's suddenly ratcheted up his very public invasion into his team's personal lives, his pulling back from poking Taub when he realised that this "truth telling" would very likely result in Taub losing his relationship and House in turn losing Taub, and the lingering melancholy shot of House that was highlighted as a character moment, not a throwaway. I think the PI is playing into all this very well, as he's able to give little shots to House that make him think, but doesn't try the more in your face lecturing Cuddy tried. She has the personal connection with House to do that, but it didn't work because she didn't read Wilson right. Wilson has taken control of his part of this relationship and he's shutting House out. So at this point, there is nothing Cuddy can do but back away until things shift a bit. The PI can precisely because he's not commenting on the relationship specifically but rather on the behaviour he's seeing--and he can also highlight for the audience that House is more than misery. Wilson doesn't have a monopoly on reading House and he's not always right. Wilson knew that House was more than just the surface asshole during the Foreman resignation arc, and we the audience have been privileged to see House in his caring moments as well. We need the reminder that Wilson's very bleak assessment of the friendship doesn't sum it up. Just as the PI is having fun with House, Wilson had fun with House. I don't think there was any suggestion that the PI is a better or closer friend--he's a result of circumstances, not the least of which is that House is paying him and thus in control. But they do enjoy each other. Wilson and House love each other. There's no real comparison. This is just a step on the way to these two reconnecting again. I really love what's happening so far. And I like the PI.