House - Anatomy of a Relationship: Massage Therapy 7x04

An Episodic Examination Of Huddy In Love

“Massage Therapy” 7x04


I caught this show last night. It was super awesome. It had this cool medical mystery that involved all this drama, but you also were privy to the lives of the doctors who were taking care of the patient. There was humor, fighting and snarking. There were misunderstandings and big decisions made. And overall the entire hour was smart and clever and beautifully created. It reminded me of this show I used to watch a couple of years ago. Now what was the name of that show…..

Yes, indeed, House fans, Classic House has returned. For those that left us during the very dark turns of seasons five and six you should come back to us. You won’t be disappointed.

Last night’s episode could have been an episode from the earliest seasons of House, well, aside from the fact that House and Cuddy are seeing each other naked. It had the checklist of attributes needed for awesome House episodes. It was fantastic. It became even better with repeated views. The nuances and interweaving of this episode are especially wonderful and I hope I can do them justice.

Our patient of the week is Margaret, who is at home alone in a storm when she begins to hear noises. She thinks someone or something is trying to break in. She calls her husband, who assures her she is fine and that he is minutes away from walking in the door. This does not comfort her. She runs panic stricken through the house then realizes someone has crashed through the kitchen door. She races downstairs armed with a large trophy only to collide with her husband, who tries to calm her fears. Instead, she projectile vomits on him and collapses to the floor with stomach pain.

We follow the patient through a series of fairly complicated, intense lies only to have House eventually realize that the woman is schizophrenic and has been for a while. She has told her husband (and anyone else she encounters) a long list of half-truths and out-and-out lies in order to keep this secret. The symptoms were side effects of the anti-psychotic drugs and once in the hospital and completely off of them the psychosis returned. Her husband is stunned to find out the person he married is not who he thought she was. “This is not who I married,” he says. “Yes, it is. You just didn’t know it,” House responds.

Now, I know this essay is usually less patient of the week centered, but I feel that this week the patient and her issues are more in line with the Huddy relationship than usual. We know that those clever House writers love to interweave the personal plotlines with the medical plotlines. Yet, this week I kept thinking they were trying to show us more about House’s reasoning more than usual. Let’s see….

Our first shot of House is of him waking up in bed. He is smiling. The camera pulls back to reveal he’s alone in bed, but there is clearly a space on the side of the bed where Cuddy was. House rubs the spot and slides over to lay on it. He is very happy.

A couple scenes later House and Wilson are looking at motorcycles. Wilson asks how things are going with Cuddy. House says it’s perfect. Cuddy comes over to his apartment, they eat dinner, play video games, have sex and she goes home. He loves it. He gets to have Cuddy and a full-night’s sleep, too. Wilson is surprised and assumes they’re just taking things slow, but the look on House’s face says otherwise. He seems perfectly satisfied with the arrangement. He flat out tells Wilson he has no desire to bond with Rachel and things are going as he wants them to. Wilson wears his concerned face. No one can see it, but I’m wearing mine as well. It’s not as perfect as Wilson’s is, but I don’t wear it as often.

Our first real Huddy moment is of Cuddy putting her clothes back on as House lays naked in bed playing a video game, begging her to come back. The supposed love-of-his-life is heading out the door because her nanny is leaving in 30 minutes. House realizes this is fine because he has a massage in 5 minutes. Cuddy is also fine with the fact that House doesn’t stop playing his game to give her a decent kiss. It seems both are indeed fine with the arrangement they have. I actually expected some type of “leave the payment on the dresser” joke during this exchange. And then it dawned on me. The relationship Cuddy and House have fallen into is the only sure relationship House has had in the past 10 years: that of a john with a prostitute. Think about it! House is completely happy and comfortable with prostitutes coming to his door, servicing him and then leaving. That’s the arrangement he now has with Cuddy. The bonus part being: he doesn’t have to pay. Now, I do not want to dis Cuddy and her morals, but it sure doesn’t look like she minds this arrangement. They tease and flirt easily as she leaves. And then the crap hits the fan. House’s masseuse is at the door as Cuddy leaves. And she definitely didn’t graduate from Al Collins School of Massage Therapy. I think it was the thong riding high above the super short skirt that gave it away. But I don’t know, maybe that’s the uniform. Cuddy leaves, but her eyebrows ride the ceiling as she walks out and closes the door behind her; leaving her naked boyfriend with a hot masseuse, if that’s really what she is.

Cuddy approaches House the next day, very casually, and inquires about his masseuse. House, equally casually, confirms her suspicions that she is a hooker, but a great masseuse, too. He says that no, they do not still have sex. “Because of you!” he says reassuringly. Cuddy is shocked he’s not picking up on this obvious breach of protocol. Seriously, Cuddy, how long have you know this guy? Or really guys just in general? So, there becomes a standoff with House refusing to recognize why Cuddy is so upset and with Cuddy refusing to allow House to keep acting so stupidly. Even the magic fingers of Filipe, the gay hooker House buys for Cuddy’s equalizing massage, can’t reverse Cuddy’s feelings. Cuddy confronts House in his office. She demands he give up his hooker masseuse. He can’t understand why she’s having such a problem with this. Cuddy gives him that, but counters it with the fact that if he is so smart and knows Cuddy so well, why would he try to send her her own hooker masseuse when there is no way in heck she’d ever agree to it. They face off as Cuddy accuses House of trying to sabotage the relationship. She says he’s trying to keep it impersonal and “fine” because getting more serious would be “serious” and House doesn’t want that. House’s face grows dark. He then calls Cuddy out on the fact that she won’t let House come to her house or meet her daughter. Cuddy actually admits that she’s trying to protect her daughter (and herself) in case House ever decides to leave. “I’m not the only one holding back,” House says. House confesses to wanting to be together with Rachel and Cuddy. Until that happens they can’t be a real couple.

The next day Cuddy comes to her office and finds House. He asks for the number of the physical therapist she knows. She smiles and invites him to spend the night at her place. They agree to more sex. At her house that night Cuddy, House and Rachel share an awkward dinner. Cuddy is clearly happy to have him there and for the relationship’s progress. Yet, House looks at times uncomfortable and resentful at being there at all. When Rachel starts to chew on House’s cane as Cuddy is in the kitchen it’s all he can do to not grab it out of her mouth and dislodge a few of those teeth she’s trying to cut. He looks unhappy as he says sarcastically to Rachel, “Aren’t you adorable…”

Okay, now I’ll try to bring the two plotlines together and hopefully give more insight to the Huddy Relationship.

Like our patient’s husband, Cuddy is discovering things about her partner that doesn’t mesh with what she already knows. Cuddy still has faith, however, to not freak out, just gather information. At least until House’s lack of consideration pushes her to the edge.

The patient is also withholding from her husband. She’s afraid if she tells him too much he’ll leave. She’s embarrassed by her condition and wants to keep it hidden. Is she making up the abuse claims completely? She’s obviously encountered something like that as evidenced by her broken, scarred body. I kept asking myself how much information is House withholding or even lying about. We know he was physically abused by his father (One Room One Day) but we don’t know the extent. He has a clear history of being a jerk and lacking the ability to connect to people. The new doctor Chase hires tells the patient’s husband that abuse victims act the way they do because their personalities are affected by what they went through. They find coping mechanisms to deal with the abuse. How much of House’s inability to make connections or have relationships is related to the abuse he suffered as a kid? Did he develop his caustic personality to help deal with an unloving, over-demanding father? Cuddy knows House didn’t like his father, but she doesn’t know he wasn’t his biological father. Perhaps House has always had a feeling of being a mistake. He doesn’t lack ego, but he also doesn’t pretend to be a person people like or deserving of love.

The new doctor also warns the patient’s husband about confronting his wife with her lies. She says the patient will just become defensive and lash out. The VERY next scene is when Cuddy confronts House with her thoughts that he’s trying to sabatoge their relationship. At first glance, his response that she’s doing the same thing and that he wants to be with her and Rachel seems linear, but when I watched it a second time I had a very different thought. At the first shot of House reacting to Cuddy’s accusation his face darkens and instead of a wounded response it looks like he’s lashing out at Cuddy with his accusation. “What about you?” he demands. He’s on the defensive. He has already told Wilson, who he rarely lies to in matters of the heart, that he has no desire to become a part of Rachel’s life. House probably realized that Cuddy is holding back in the relationship long ago. But he’s fine with that. Until he’s accused of actually trying to wreck it. He has no intention of doing that. He probably would keep the arrangement the same forever and be perfectly happy. It’s the best of all possible worlds for a connection-phobic, demon-battling, egotist. It’s only when he’s accused of doing something worse than that that he reacts and lashes out with something that will surely activate Cuddy’s guilt mechanisms. I think House is really just acting defensively here. I don’t think he actually wants to bond with Rachel. He knows Cuddy has been worrying about it and trying to decide what to do. It was the perfect counterpoint.

Then he discovers the patient’s secret and understands, better than anyone, the reasoning behind her lies. He confronts the husband when he admits to House that he’s not sure if he can stay with his schizophrenic wife. As House slams the husband for his lack of strength and commitment, he realizes he’s doing the same thing to Cuddy. He wants to be with Cuddy and although she’s not the same Cuddy with the same obligations he fell in love with years ago she’s still Cuddy. And he wants to be with her and that will be difficult. It will force him to change or adjust some of his coping mechanisms. I think he knows he’s also going to have to come clean with Cuddy on his own past so that their future has a chance. The husband tells House, “It’s too hard.” “It’s always hard,” House bitterly replies and you know he knows better than anyone.

When House tells Cuddy he’ll stop using the hooker as his masseuse, Cuddy is pleased. House has taken her feelings into consideration and is being honest with her. Still, she hesitated before inviting him to sleep at her house that night. I don’t think this concession by House was enough to convince her he’s in this for the long haul, but she also realizes she needs to take a step forward as well. I don’t want to believe that House has manipulated her again to get what he wants: her and her body. I deeply hope that he’s honestly trying to move this relationship forward to something more serious. But who knows how House defines “serious?”

In the final scene I got different signals each time I watched it. I think (I’d like to think) that House does actually want to be there. He wants to make it work. He recognizes that he’s going to have to deal with things he wants no part of. Like the husband, he knows it’s going to be different than what he expected. But he’s willing to do it. He gently pulls his cane out of Rachel’s mouth and accepts the fact that if he wants to be with Cuddy his cane may get a few bite marks on it. Let’s hope it’s a small price to pay….

One clever trick I saw used by the director/writers/creators was used throughout the episode. In the first shot of the patient we initially see her through a cool glass statue on the coffee table. As the camera pans across her, her body is broken up by the glass into fan-shaped pieces. It looked a lot like the poster from the movie Sybil, which was about a schizophrenic with multiple personalities. Then during the episode as the patient’s symptoms manifested or as the drama increased we would first see the patient through windows, with her reflections floating around her actual body before the camera focuses completely on the actual patient. I didn’t notice this at first viewing, but once I knew the diagnosis and watched it again I saw how the director took those moments to foreshadow and hint at the patient’s final diagnosis. These reflections and refractions of her eventually make up the complete woman. All the lies, lives and all her experiences create different layers, but in the end she’s still one woman coping with all this. After House realizes he needs to man up and take the relationship deeper he goes to Cuddy’s office to wait for her. During the entire scene, the camera only focuses on House as it looks through the glass windows of Cuddy’s office. You can see the reflections of people in the hospital walking by, Cuddy’s reflection and his own reflection move around as you watch House talk with Cuddy. That, my friends, was not done by chance. House’s life is as complicated as his patient’s. He too is made up of many layers of lies, lives and experiences. Is he as embarrassed or frightened of his past as his patient was? Is he as worried that his secrets will destroy any attempts he makes at a normal life. Will it always be hard?

Wow. I know this recap went WAY long, but what a haunting episode. The Powers That Be gave us so much insight into House and Cuddy and their relationship this week. I look forward to next week when House is asked to babysit Rachel. That should be interesting……

Thanks for reading!