Season 5 General Discussion
I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place for this, so please let me know if I should delete and place it elsewhere. The fox message board has a thread called Episode 5.1: Writers' Q&A. People posted their questions over the past few days, and now writer Eli Attie has posted answers to seven of them. Although some of his answers are somewhat vague, this is a really nice feature. I hope they continue this for all future episodes. Edit Note: There are some spoilers in his answers. Read at your own risk. Poeia

And may I add that the answer to Question 7 makes me want to slit my throat. ETA: Actually, I think it's time to start the S5 General Discussion thread. I'll move these 2 posts there.

It'd be great if the first part of question 2 was canon (Wilson spending time with his family and Amber's family during his leave) so I wouldn't have to embarrass myself and post long rants...sigh!

And Question 5 was perplexing. I'd never considered that Cuddy was "trusting her instincts" again (although that is something I hope she does this season). I just assumed that she freaked out over losing her best oncologist and the best friend of the person who is, for all intents and purposes, her best friend on the show (that's right, I said it). Or, as Attie said, the one she relies on for House. I've run into a lot of Cuddy fans who completely excuse her in all of her and Wilson's manipulation schemes because she was "trusting Wilson's instincts when she should have trusted her own because she gets House better." :roll: Never mind the fact that she's come up with plans to teach House lessons all by herself, like a big girl and everything. They're essentially saying she has no backbone or self-confidence so they can fanwank that she knows House better than anyone else, which leads me to believe they care more about her getting with House than remaining a good and respectable character. Personally, I don't think it's fair to excuse either her or Wilson for something they both did, Wilson's idea or not, he didn't hold a gun to her head, she has a mind of her own, and she is his boss. (or was, I suppose :cry: )

Is this really a Season Five general discussion? Because it seems like discussions about the article go into the spoiler thread, or into the media discussion thread. Shouldn't the Season Five thread be about what we've actually seen on the show, rather than articles or spoilers? In which case, we've got one episode to discuss, rather than a season's themes. We could at least wait until there are two episodes before we get into the season as a whole, couldn't we?

Because it seems like discussions about the article go into the spoiler thread, or into the media discussion thread. Thank you for your concert Namaste, but the beauty of HHoW is that, aside from a few rare arguments, those who post here know how to get the topic back on track. It's a gray area, I know, and it can be difficult, but it will get back on track. Especially since we're only one episode in, we don't have much to discuss yet. So, give it some time, trust your patience, and it will be fine. It'd be great if the first part of question 2 was canon (Wilson spending time with his family and Amber's family during his leave) so I wouldn't have to embarrass myself and post long rants...sigh! See, as the show is more about House (and PLEASE not about bloody Thirteen!!!!!) I think TPTB will probably end up focusing more on what House did. As much as I'd love to see them go into what Wilson did during his leave, I don't think they will in part because it's about House and in part because the show hasn't gone too much in depth when someone's personal tragedy comes up. They're good with the exposition, but not the development. And now with talk of the spinoff, DS and KJ will really not be there 100% of the time to assure that these points are developed more. So, unfortunately, I think that TPTB will make Wilson's leave of absence almost into his long-lost brother or Cameron's poor dead husband. It may come up again, but they'll be focusing on House and Thirteen blech.

arizonamyrie I totally understand that the show is first and foremost about House (I am trying to keep my LanaLang size fears under control). My wish list for S5 was simple, out of 45 mins. give 3/2 mins. to insight into the lives of the other charactes. About Wilson's leave I don't need a scene with his family or Amber's family, but a 30 second comment here or there. With that is canon that Wilson actually has a support system outside of House and PPTH. And the same can happen with the other characters. I don't need a special episode for each of them.

We really do get a lot out of those comments. It's nice to think that Wilson doesn't live in the bubble of PPTH and he has a life and family and friends outside the hospital. I hope we'll see a lot more of that in Season 5. I want to hear about Cameron's obnoxious friend and Chase's grandpa, ya'know. It's good to see that there's more to their lives and their personal relationships than what we see at the hospital. We don't have to see them to hear about them and it fleshes out the characters to even hear about their outside relationships.

I think some of the answers are episode specific, some are spoilers and some are general. Here's how I would break it down: Spoilers - if you want to discuss these, take it to Spoiler Speculation. His answers do talk about some of TPTB's plans for the season. Question 1: Will Wilson stay on the show? (The way he answers is a little spoilerish.) Question 3:House was definitely going into emotional turmoil last night as his feelings were concealed until the very end when he allowed his vulnerability to be thrown onto the table. Will we see House throw his vulnerability on the table to more characters? Question 7: How much character development can we expect to see from 13? I was pleased to see her evolving from the mysterious girl into a more distinct personality in this episode. Episode Specific - discussion of these should probably go in the episode thread. (Although I can't imagine Question 6 generating much discussion.) Question 5: Was Cuddy's line to Wilson "go to heck (you know what I mean)" meant to show her growing independence from Wilson's influence as he always helped her in dealing with House? Is Cuddy finally trusting her instincts? Answer: Cuddy was making it clear that she thought Wilson was being just as unreasonable as House in their "counseling session." Plus she doesn't want to see Wilson leave PPH (or House, for that matter) any more than House does. She relies on Wilson, which is exactly why she wants to continue relying on him. Question 6: Why the reference to Pewaukee, WI? Answer: It's entirely possible that a member of the writing staff hails from Pewaukee. It's also possible that it's just a fun-sounding name. Or both. Non-Spoiler, General Topics - these should probably be discussed here (which is why I started this thread so soon in the season.) Question 2: I would like to know where Wilson has spent the last 8 weeks? Did he go home to his family or did he stay locked up in Amber's apartment? Answer: While Wilson would certainly have spent some time in Amber's apartment to wind up her affairs, and would have spent some time with his own family as well as hers, the point of his leave of absence from Princeton-Plainsboro was to spend some time alone, in his own head, if you will -- thinking about his friendship with House, about the loss of Amber, about how to reconcile his existing life and career with a need to move on. Question 4: Does House have any lingering side affects from the cracked skull/concussion/deep brain stimulation? Answer: Our assumption is that most of the healing took place during the eight weeks we didn't show on the series, and we don't expect to deal with this in any detail. (Though I hasten to add that brain injuries can take a long time to manifest, and can do so in unexpected ways.)

I think even without the writer saying so it was a reasonable assumptiion that Wilson dealt with Amber's final affairs and saw her and his family during a funeral and perhaps a week of mourning (shiva). While it's interesting without really seeing or hearing about it I don't find it very important just sort of a throw away comment. If it was really germaine they would have given it some mention or a look. Same as with House recover, it happened it's over, that's the end of that. What's significant to me is what he says that was then reflected in the actual episode. That Wilson spent a lot of alone time thinking about House, Amber's death and what he does now. All of that showed up, from the "It's not a reaction it's a decision", to trying to blame House but not being able to, to the sad, final evalutation of what H/W's relationship has become and how Wilson has to get away from that.

I don't know where to put this, but thought I'd put it here as a warning in case anyone sees it: My TiFaux lists "Not Cancer" as running a minute long this week -- so if you're recording make space so you don't end up losing the final scenes like folks did last week.

This is an issue i would love to have covered on House! The Doctors Who Are Redefining Life and Death