House - Anatomy of a Relationship "Carrot or Stick" 7x10

An Episodic Examination Of Huddy In Love

“Carrot Or Stick” 7x10


In this week’s episode we take on the subject of discipline and actions and the consequences of those two as Chase gets his comeuppance for his philandering ways; a drill sergeant at a juvenile detention facility tries to bond with his secret son by running him into the ground and cracking open his skull; and House has unexpected success as he goes all “Toddler Whisperer” on Rachel to help her get into a snooty preschool.

We Huddy fans didn’t get much Huddy action, but the developments in this episode could bode well for our couple…or could send them spiraling into destruction. Let’s discuss.

The Huddy interaction in “Carrot or Stick” centers around the fact that Cuddy is trying to get Rachel into Waldenwood Preschool, a snooty school where the block are made of gold and an official nosepicker is kept on staff. House is funny. Cuddy feels that it’s the best school for Rachel because of its gifted program. This reasoning makes House roll his eyes while Cuddy isn’t looking. See, our boy has changed, the list of insults about Rachel’s lack of intellect and Cuddy’s lack of realistic expectations he had instantly thought of stayed in his brain, caught by his filter of love. Yes, that was too cheezy. My apologies. Instead, House decides to take on this challenge: to help Rachel cheat her way into Waldenwood.

House’s reasoning is simple: if Rachel doesn’t make it into Cuddy’s first choice of school she’ll be upset and House will have to play the sympathetic boyfriend, which he doesn’t do well. Ever. He approaches Wilson for advice. Wilson refuses to help him, but does so just by talking to him. Will Wilson never learn just to keep his mouth shut? Hopefully not for our sake.

House goes to the school under the guise of checking out the preschool testing room because of a horribly sick patient of his and proceeds to take pictures of all the toys Rachel will need to perform with. Then he buys all the toys. Then we have the theme of the episode.

See, the patient of the week, who is trying to “fix broken kids” feels that unrelenting discipline and a tough attitude are the best way to turn kids into quality people. His theory is that not letting the kid make his own decisions and just beating the information into him creates success. Masters, in her best Cameron impression to date, disagrees. She feels that the relationship must be interactive and caring in order for people to learn new behavior. Being a bully is never effective, she insists. Masters tries to berate House on this during a DDX and is met with unrelenting discipline and a tough attitude. House agrees with the patient, obviously.

Chase, in the other story arc of this episode, has women problems; specifically one woman, who has hacked into his Facebook account (well, is it considered hacking when your password is “password?”) This lady posted a nudie shot of a very minimally endowed, obviously photo-shopped insists Chase, photo of Chase in a hotel room where the wedding took place in episode 8. He can’t solve the puzzle because he doesn’t even remember the name of the three (3!) women he slept with that day. Oh, man, it’s a good thing that boy has access to an unlimited supply of antibiotics…. He thinks one of those women is seeking revenge for his randy ways. Highjinks ensue as the mystery woman, who is actually the girl Chase spurned at the wedding because she wouldn’t sleep with him, makes Chase miserable. We instantly see the theme of discipline (or lack thereof), actions and consequences.

House begins his own story of discipline, actions and consequences when he sneaks the first toy into Cuddy’s house and offers to play with Rachel in her bedroom. Cuddy is surprised and I think not exactly sure of what to make of it. House makes it known plainly to us and Wilson and the random clinic patient that he thinks Rachel is about as smart as a paste sandwich, but he doesn’t ever insult her openly to her face like he normally does with everyone else. Yes, he mutters the word ‘moron’ under his breath during their first training session and he tells Wilson she has the fine motor skills of the Hulk with oven mitts on with Rachel in hearing range, but he never directly insults Rachel. Yes, he knocks down her blocks at first in order to bring in the new toy, but the Lesser Cuddy gives him the evil eye with as equal skill as her mother and evens the playing field. And here we have another amazing discovery with House. Last week we discovered that in his own Houseian way, House makes a pretty good boyfriend. This week we discover that in his own Houseian way, House makes a pretty good dad.

House’s own experiences with his over-controlling dad probably have something to do with the way he interacts with Rachel. The bullying and shouting and punishment we know House experienced as a child might have carried over into House’s way of interacting with other adults, but it doesn’t manifest itself in his interactions with Rachel. The name of the episode is “Carrot OR Stick” not “Carrot AND Stick,” which is what the phrase usually is. Those House writers don’t make mistakes like that. The very title of the episode explains the theme. The choice of the main person in each of the three stories: the patient and his son; Chase and his mystery tormentor; and House and his Rachel training could either be to change behavior by gently leading with a carrot OR by whacking them with a stick.

The patient of the week tries to beat his son into a better person by drilling him for hours a day without any compassion. Chase’s tormenter tries to beat him into a better person by hitting him where it really hurts: his ego, his reputation and his pocketbook.

But House chooses the carrot to create the change. Understandably, he is smart enough to realize that tormenting the young daughter of his girlfriend is not a smart idea, but I think that House also realizes that the carrot is the way to go. He puts in the time and patience…and bags of Cheeze Doodles, to try to get Rachel ready for the big test. His scene with the clicker, the Cheeze Doodles and the “who’s a good girl?” had me crying with laughter. It looked like Mr. Laurie and the young actress playing Rachel enjoyed it, too.

But as Wilson states, turning Rachel into a schnauzer actually seems to work. House is ready for the big day and even accompanies Cuddy to the test. He scores extra points by saying he’s trying to be a supportive boyfriend, but we all know he’s checking on his protégé. Has House molded his “little lump of clay” into the perfect Waldenwood candidate? As the teacher brings Rachel out she praises her amazing abilities on their tests and after an awkward pause asks if Rachel had any coaching. Cuddy is oblivious thus far to why House was spending time with Rachel and answers honestly that she didn’t coach Rachel at all, but to prove it she asks Rachel, “Honey, have you ever played Feed The Monkey before?” A look of panic flashed across House’s face. He didn't plan for this contingency. But his look soon turns to awe and pride as Rachel looks up at Cuddy and out-and-out lies, “No, mama.” I think I almost saw House tear up with the bold-faced lie. His barely contained his smile.

At this point of the episode each of the story arcs deal with the ultimate consequences of their actions. Chase discovers who the actual trickster is and is drawn to her. She’s a beautiful woman who can hold her own with him and he asks her out. However, she wants nothing to do with someone like Chase. She’s seen what he’s about and she’s not interested.

The patient reveals his relation to his son, patient #2, but he wants nothing to do with his new-found dad. The man calling himself Dad has tormented this youth for a while now and it’s going to take a lot more work to build the relationship up, if it ever can be built at all.

In House’s story we see how well the carrot approach worked. And House never expected these kind of results. House is incredibly impressed with Rachel’s lying abilities, even boasting to a clinic patient that it took years for him to learn how to lie that well. “You’re pumped that your kid lied?” the clinic patient asks, confused. House sets it straight that Rachel is not his kid, but he continues with his praise of her natural talent. He is not even aware that his attitude on her usefulness has indeed shifted.

That night he comes over to Cuddy’s house to find Rachel and Cuddy in Rachel’s bedroom playing blocks. Cuddy tells House that Waldenwood called and said that although they loved Rachel they don’t have room for her. House actually seems to take the news harder than Cuddy does. Of course, House put a lot of time and effort to get his “lump of clay” in there and he’s bound to feel disappointed that he didn’t succeed, but I think House is bummed Rachel, the little girl he admires for her lying abilities, didn’t get in. House assures Cuddy, though it sounds like he’s telling himself too, that Rachel’s smart, she’ll get in next time. Cuddy is surprised to hear this as House is not one to give empty opinions. Then we get one of the sweetest scenes EVER as Rachel simply stops playing with her blocks and crawls up into House’s lap. Cuddy is astonished, but says nothing. House looks uncomfortable for a moment, but he does nothing to keep Rachel from crawling or cuddling onto his lap. In fact, after barely making eye contact with Cuddy to gage her reaction, he eventually places his hand on Rachel’s back to hold her steady and give her comfort. Wow. And ahhhhh.

This consequence is completely unexpected by House. He was only helping Rachel for selfish reasons: to keep Cuddy happy, which keeps him happy. House is still ultimately thinking of himself, but in this instance his methods created a bond between him and Rachel. House admires the little girl, probably as much for her hard work, as her ability to lie. Rachel has spent fun, quality time with House and trusts him now enough to seek him out for comfort.

I mentioned earlier how this could be good and/or bad for our Huddy relationship. It’s fairly obvious that House was not expecting that to happen and felt somewhat uncomfortable. He didn’t want that connection to the kid. He just wanted her mother and now it’s getting all sorts of complicated. I hope that House has had enough counseling sessions with Nolan to stand still and analyze rather than run away at this new intimacy. Having this connection with Rachel takes their relationship to a whole different level IF House continues on the path. This could be the straw in the camel’s back. This may be too much for our hero. I really hope not. I have the feeling that David Shore and Katie Jacobs are beginning to lay out one of those Chutes & Ladders board games, where you struggle to climb up to the win, but one wrong roll of the dice sends you sliding back down. We know that as soon as House finds happiness the show is over and we’re all but assured of an eight season (Mr. Laurie has already signed on to do season 8 and the others should follow suit once FOX decides who’s going to pay for the season). That leaves us a lot more of that stupid board of Chutes & Ladders left to play and right now we have to wait til February 7 before it’s time to roll the dice again. Dang.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be posting the interview with Lisa Edelstein I had the great honor of sitting in on. Yes, I just sat and listened. There were MANY of us reporters and only 30 minutes of time. The Queue Gods did not smile on me and the interview was over before my turn came, BUT I did get some interesting details into House and Cuddy’s relationship from Ms. Edelstein’s point of view. I will get that posted this weekend.