I, too, really liked this episode (much more than last week's "The Itch", wherein the itch/mosquito notion struck me as obvious and unoriginal). I particularly liked how the title “Emancipation” related to so many things going on in the episode in both obvious and more subtle ways. Obviously, first it references Sophia who claimed to be emancipated from her parents and then, perhaps, in the end, emancipated from her own guilt and her parents’ blame. Secondly, Foreman became emancipated by solving a case and saving a life without House and then TELLING House he was going to do clinical trials instead of asking House for permission. Also, Foreman seemingly became somewhat emancipated from his own negative feelings toward his brother. Taub tried to help Thirteen become emancipated from her death sentence by encouraging her to live with meaning, and maybe even the older brother was emancipated from guilt when his little brother took his hand at the end. BUT…the biggest emancipation, for me, was that House is emancipated from Wilson’s constant advice and judgment, while Wilson is emancipated from being House’s conscience and keeper! This is HUGE! I think it shows that everything that happened after Amber’s death did, ultimately, lead them to a healthier relationship – and I like that. A lot. I liked getting more insight into Kutner, liked seeing Chase, and didn’t mind Cameron as much as I usually do. Was it a little too Thirteen-heavy? Maybe. Would I have liked to see a little more of House? You bet. But the scene near the end between House and Sophia was absolutely excellent, as was the House/Wilson conversation at the end, particularly the parts about Foreman. The scene between House and Sophia echoed the part of “Three Stories” when Stacy told House he didn’t think he deserved to live. House asked Sophia why she didn’t think she deserved to live, and what she did that was so terrible. Does House think that he did something terrible? Or was it just generally not living up to John’s expectations? Or knowing that he was another man’s child? Or being unable to diagnose his own infarction? Or am I just reaching here? I realized that House connecting with the patient in this way was something that I’ve really been missing, as was House-as-teacher, which leads me to the situation with Foreman: House wanted Foreman to see that he was capable on his own so he pushed and pushed until Foreman got it. Sorry for going on for so long! :oops:

On a slightly disturbing note, my family was torn between intended poisoning and sexual abuse between the two brothers. We were glad it was not the case. Jeez, you scared me for a minute there HTR. I thought you were starting to tell us something about your real family situation. Yikes! LOL. Need more Hugh, fewer commercial breaks. Giving Fringe the shorter breaks should be over now. Also, they sure are trying to make the Fringe ads looks like House ads. I have no interest in Fringe. YMMV. Hugh was excellent with the PoTW at the end, very moving. I thought the PoTW was believable as well, liked her a lot. It was a bit too easy for Foreman to get the aha moment just then and I've never been a fan of the theme of Foreman becoming House despite himself, with the leaving right after the aha moment. I wonder if the writers were relaxing a bit on this one, again with the parallels to the PoTW story, even to both stories. I want the parallels to mean something more than just "Oh, that's kinda like House, he wants to be normal too." I think they can do it, but dig deeper, writers! Ah well, rewatch next. I'll always do at least one, but this one wasn't up to the level they are capable of. Good, with some nice bits, but they can do so much more...

I wasn’t really bored with the episode, but I did feel it was a bit flat. More than that, I thought that House was flat. Not much humor, not much fire. House just seemed disconnected and detached most of the time in this episode, at least until the scene between House and the patient, which was nice. I hope it was the material and not a sign that HL is getting bored with this role, but he just didn’t seem ‘on’ to me, and you have no idea how much it pains me to say that. Hopefully someone will shoot me down and convince me I’m wrong. It was the material, right? I wrote the preceding paragraph before I finished reading all the comments. Then I read Verbal_Kint10’s post and I think she figured out what was bothering me about this episode. I think I’ve just gotten so used to crashing buses, dying girl friends, Lesbian make-out scenes, passionate House kisses, etc., that this ep just seemed too quiet to me. I still think that G. House was kind of flat tonight, but maybe I’m wrong. I don't think I'm wrong though about the lack of humor. I think this is the very first House episode that didn't cause me to laugh out loud at least once.

I hope it was the material and not a sign that HL is getting bored with this role, but he just didn’t seem ‘on’ to me, and you have no idea how much it pains me to say that. Hopefully someone will shoot me down and convince me I’m wrong. It was the material, right? Well, I think I can talk you down from this. I think it was the writing. He pretty much does what's required of him, and not much was required.

I'm unspoiled but I thought last episode that there was a comment about gunshots and PTSD that made it seem like a hint that House has PTSD from being shot. He never processed that consciously (that we've seen) but it may have been wearing on him all along. I'm thinking that Amber's Death brought those feelings to the surface. He was crying when they were giving him the DBS, he nearly cried tonight: so many very stressful things have happened to him, it has to have had some deepeer effect. Maybe there is one giant arc from the time he gets shot to this season resulting in House changing a bit, though, this being House, he'll take a baby step forward for every giant stride back.

Perhaps House is acting low-key in this episode because he is still in a funk over Cuddy. Wilson emancipates House and the PotW is emancipated from her guilt for killing her brother and from the blame her parents place on her. I wonder if House is becoming emancipated from his father's more negative influences. His father punished failure so the authority averse House took destructive pleasure in failing. Has this imperative/expectation of failure been relieved due to his father's death or is it a life sentence regardless of the death of the father?

On Foreman's case, wouldn't any of the diagnostics or preliminary blood work show that the kids iron levels were sky high? Or the mom--wouldn't she realize that if she was only giving her kid one vitamin a day and yet the bottle empty that that would be a problem? The resolution of Foreman's case was medically lame even if the kids were adorable and we got some nice continuity with Foreman's brother as subtext. I wasn't bored by this episode but probably need to see it again without the absurd amount of commercial breaks to distract me. I actually like that this was a quieter episode because I've had it with all the over the top dramatics of the last season. Like others have said, I could use a little more House in these episodes. I think those feelings get intensified when I see too much 13. I really didn't need to see her issues kick Kutner's issues aside so heavy-handedly like that. To Taiga's point: Which leads to Taub's argument with Thirteen. She should have shared her Huntington's story with the patient, he said. Am I a cold-hearted bitch for thinking that dying patients won't care about Thirteen's Huntington's, or Cameron's PDH, or whatever? They have their own problems! Taub's argument that then the patient will know that Thirteen understands her is bull, as the patient herself pointed out. No, you're not a cold-hearted bitch because I was wondering why Taub was bringing all that up. For me, I didn't see it as a powerful moment for him. I saw it as a WTF moment. Maybe he was mentioning it because he wasn't privvy to the season premiere when 13 already spilled all over a patient about her Huntington's. And then again with the hook-up in Lucky Thirteen. So unless 13 plans on informing every patient, I don't see that it would have done a bit of good in this instance; not for the patient, not for 13 and certainly not for the audience. I liked the comparison that they were going with the brother feeling bad that he'd nearly OD'd his younger brother and that he was afraid he'd be hated to the main POTW who also feared she was hated by her parents for accidentally killing her brother to House who was more empathetic than usual--likely recalling his own thoughts that Wilson would hate him re: Amber. (And perhaps House feels the sting a little bit more with Wilson seeming to back off of him lately.) That was all good stuff. But like I said, more House please. More Hugh. I don't even care if he thinks he needs a day off. :-) I'm not sure why Foreman ever thought he needed House's approval for the drug trials since he officially works for Cuddy, but whatever. Maybe the writers forget their own dynamic hierarchy they created.

Loved this episode. Wasn't overloaded with their personal lives, but they were hinted at, and were balanced well with the entire episode. It felt like a "normal" episode to me. I was interested in the patient, both of them, actually. I really appreciated the time given to Kutner in this episode, as well as all the supporting cast members. A good balance, I thought. The House and Foreman subplot was really great, I thought. Really, really nice to see. It was wonderful to see House doing something good. It's the sort of things he's done every so often throughout the series, so I don't feel it's a "step" for him, or that it's new, because it's not new. House does good things in his way, and it was great to see one of those understated acts of goodness crop up again. My favorite thing, however, about this episode was House's reaction to the patient's reveal that she'd killed her brother. This parallel between the patient and House, unlike last week's, was not "anvil-icious", and it was really well done, and appropriate. Not only does this reiterate why House "chose" life instead of death in his own subconscious while he was in a coma in "Wilson's Heart", but it also shows that House has recognized one of his own mistakes, and seems to show some regret over it. Just as the patient takes responsibility for killing her brother, someone who meant so much to her parents, House takes responsibility for killing Amber, someone who meant so much to Wilson. House was afraid to face Wilson, but he chose to because if he didn't fight for life, and let himself die, he knew that he would be killing the only other person important to Wilson, and he knew that Wilson probably would have hated him more for that than if Wilson only had to lose one person. House wanted someone to tell him "it was just an accident, that it's not that bad, but it is that bad". Despite what he'd like to have people think, he does grasp the consequences of actions, does feel guilt, and regret, and it seems like this has gotten to House on a pretty deep level, which only serves to show how important Wilson is to him, which I just think is wonderful. What a brave move, for House, way back in "Wilson's Heart", and we always knew it was, but House never confirmed the entire reason why he chose to face Wilson until this episode. (God, I love how we're still seeing fallout from this.) He encourages the patient to call her parents and talk to them, so the situation doesn't become worse, because he recognizes the mistake he made now with Wilson in the aftermath of Amber's death. He knows that he shouldn't have avoided it, or deflected when it mattered, but he should have talked to Wilson, and I wonder if this is going to make a difference in making their friendship grow and become even closer. I hope so. Personally, I'd kind of wish we could see more interactions between House and Wilson, because this is still such a big issue for both of them, I think, and I'd love to see it seep out in ways like this. But, man, what a great House and Wilson moment without Wilson even being physically present. Nice writing, too, in my opinion. All in all, good episode. Definitely enjoyed it.

I have to agree with those who enjoyed the ep. It was a good balance between old and new, and gives light as to how they can recover the program to what it was. Of course, I'm an unabashed fan of the first half of S1. It just seemed that everything hinted at new beginnings.

I loved the House/Wilson scenes. Wilson is trying to change his modus operandi with House. House seemed pre-occupied in an understated way. I liked that. RSL and scrubs are love. I'll rewatch the H/W scenes cause I can never get enough of those two :)

Great post Shutterbug, I think you're absolutely right. I feel so stupid, because I felt that I had never seen House as sad as in the scene with the patient. It took me so long to figure out why. I was sorry to sort of lose sight of Kutner during the episode, but liked that he got to bring in the girls parents and we could watch his reaction to the reunion scene. We really need more of him. Was this still one of the episodes we should have had last season? It made me feel that the strike really had a great impact, if we had more of the blending in of the cast the way we had the last few episodes, that would have benefited sea. 4 IMO.

Good spot, Shutterbug! I was wondering why House looked so sad/contemplative after his speech with the patient. The parallel with Amber's death makes perfect sense. (and I agree - It's great that we're still seeing the fallout from her death. I'm glad it hasn't been completely forgotten, and hope to see more of it in future) - - I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed Hugh's/House's subdued personality. It's something that has been bugging me for the last few episodes. He doesn't seem to have the same fire, the same energy, that he used to have ... His voice sounds dull and grainy, as though he doesn't care about anything and just wants to go home. The only time he seemed like his regular self was when he talked to the patient and when he talked to Wilson. A small glimmer of that "energy" returned. I truly hope it is intentional on Hugh's behalf. I can't stand the idea of House being this subdued for the rest of the season I enjoyed Foreman's plot in this episode... dare I say, I preffered it to House's PotW. I was more intrigued with what was wrong with Foreman's patient than what was wrong with Sohpia (I stopped caring about her after the first lie). It was also nice to see Foreman doing something - and working with Chase and Cameron again. Good stuff! Wilson and House's interactions were great, as usual. It's nice seeing Wilson have House off-guard and confused, for once. It's also nice that Wilson is making an attempt at not being House's "enabler" or his scapegoat - He's letting House make his own decision, and supporting him either way. Go Wilson!