House: Anatomy of a Relationship "Larger Than Life" - 7x09

Huddy: An Anatomy of a Relationship
An Episodic Examination of Huddy in Love
“Larger Than Life” 7x09


Wow, who woulda thunk it? House actually makes a pretty decent boyfriend. Oh sure, he’ll drug your mother at your birthday dinner. And yeah, he’ll lie to your face about having to go out with his friend, only to then lie to his friend about having to be with you just so he can get a night alone. And he’ll probably give you prescription drugs for a birthday present. But other than that he makes a pretty decent boyfriend.

In a quick recap of the episode a man jumps onto a train platform to save a stranger then collapses. Taub becomes the face of Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in its new advertising campaign. Cuddy’s mother is visiting for her birthday and House is just trying to get a night by himself. Each relationship centers around being Larger Than Life; having to live up to this persona that is expected of you, however incapable you are of actually living up to that persona. This episode dwells on if it’s easier to be a super hero to strangers but nearly impossible to put that same chutzpah into your personal relationships.

We Huddys were sent through the ringer the last few new episodes as Cuddy held a humongous grudge against House’s normal, everyday behavior: remember, that lie that saved his patient. I get that Cuddy’s feelings were hurt and I get that although she told him TO HIS FACE that she didn’t want him to change she still hoped he might. Everyone has an ideal of what a relationship should be and it usually doesn’t take long to figure out that reality ain’t nothing like that ideal. I think that Cuddy is still probably a bit miffed about the whole thing, but also, like the smart woman she is, realized that those methods of patient care is one of House’s attributes. She fell in love with that House; the House that lies and schemes if it’s in the best interest of his patient. Cuddy also realized that changing him will be a much longer process. She’s going for baby steps now. She’s having success.

In this last episode of House we see that House and Cuddy are in a pretty steady place. It seems as though they have slipped back into the roles that are most comfortable for them at work. The difference now is that House gets invited back to his boss’s house after hours quite frequently. We get a quick glimpse of how difficult it is for House now that he’s actually putting forth an effort in his relationships. It seems as though since Sam left Wilson, House has had gone back to being Wilson’s supportive buddy. Which, may not have stressed House out alone, but compounded with having to be Cuddy’s supportive lover, has put a strain on the House of old. He’s still a selfish individual. He just realized that he’d have to make an effort if he wanted to be happy and be in a successful relationship, but that has to be draining. It wasn’t long ago that he was flaunting his prostitute masseuse in order to maintain a level of distance. Now, he’s thrown into being everything to two people and he’s exhausted. He wants a break from having to be the “best friend” and the “caring boyfriend.” He wants a night off. He figures lying is his only way but gets caught. Surprisingly, and tellingly, neither Cuddy or Wilson are really angry, as they accept that’s typical House behavior, but they want to know why. But when House tells them the truth they both tell him he can’t take a night off. He has to pick one of them. Nice. He picks Wilson and again Cuddy isn’t all that angry, just resigned. That too signifies a shift in their relationship. She’s beginning to accept that this is how it will be with House. Unfortunately, for House, his two friends gang up on him and he’s forced to attend Cuddy’s birthday dinner with her mom.

We then learn another juicy piece of info on House’s attempts to make changes for Cuddy. After he is “ambushed” by Cuddy’s mom, Arlene, in the clinic, House reveals to Cuddy that he’s been nice to old Jewish ladies for months in the slight chance one of them could be Cuddy’s mom. Cuddy explains that her mother converted when she married her dad. But what we see is that House was consciously making an effort to create a larger than life image with Arlene. He hoped that he could impress the menacing future mother-in-law by pretending to be a nice caring doctor. Unfortunately, he’s still House and treated everyone else the same way, thus killing all chances of making a good first impression when Arlene didn’t fit House’s image of what Cuddy’s mom would look like. I love the interchange with Cuddy and House when he tells her he obviously can’t come to dinner now because Arlene hates him. Cuddy pulls out her relationship whip and lets House know in no uncertain terms that he is required to be there even though he will be in hell because it will make her feel better. “ That is what you do in a relationship. You average your misery.” The little” eep” by House after her directive made me laugh out loud. We see House’s commitment to the relationship because he doesn’t even fight her even though he will clearly be out of his comfort zone. And Cuddy has a point, there can be plenty of good times in any relationship, but it’s how you act during the tougher times that truly show your love and support. And honestly, I can’t think of any better description of the Huddy relationship than that. At least for right now.

At the actual birthday dinner, House’s inner superhero comes out. His year plus of therapy has prepared him for this moment. Arlene, does all she can to stir up House’s animosity towards her. I really hope that Cuddy didn’t have to endure that much passive-aggressiveness while growing up. I hope that her mom was laying it on thick just to get a rise out of everyone. If that’s Arlene’s standard approach to parenting then Cuddy, as House puts it later, is really lucky she turned out almost normal. I think, too, the fact that Cuddy had an overbearing parent helps House bond more with her. They are members of the same club. Anyway, House does all he can to keep his mouth shut with Arlene. He’s doing exactly as Cuddy asked, but then Arlene pulls out the “slut” reference and House is done. Arlene has found House’s kryptonite: nobody calls his girlfriend a slut. House knows firsthand what a slut is and Cuddy does not fit the bill. I get the feeling that House would have done this even if he hadn’t been in the relationship. I think both Wilson and House began to intervene on that one, but House said he’d take it. Fortunately, House’s super power kicks in: his ability to drug people so that they avoid potentially dangerous situations. Hey, not every super power is glamorous. With just a few milligrams of powder, House manages to eliminate the evil villain…and well, take out his somewhat annoying sidekick, too, leaving him to enjoy his evening with the damsel no longer in distress. Sure, it’s warped, but can House function any other way? And really, look at Cuddy’s smile when they are washing dishes. She ends the scene with a grin that says, “Yeah, this really is nice.” I bet Cuddy has wished many times to send her mother off to sleepy land, but never had the nerve to do it. She still may not have the nerve, but now she’s sleeping with someone who does. Win-win.

And it all turns out quite well for House. Arlene can’t remember anything about the evening, blaming it on too much alcohol. She does admit to being a handful, which I think she kicked it up a notch just to annoy House and see what he did. House gets a huge surprise when Arlene apologizes for her behavior and tells him that she knows he loves Cuddy because he reined in his normal shmedrick (Yiddish for jerk-but more than that) tendencies and was civil to her. She threatens his life, but says she’s glad her daughter has him in her life. Then Arlene says kids are awful. I think Cuddy may be dating her mother.

Our final scene with our couple has them cuddling on the couch in Cuddy’s office. They seem very comfortable and ….dare I say it, happy. They have come through an ordeal together and while it’s not exactly cutting a girl’s leg off while being buried in a collapsed building, it has made them a stronger couple. House compliments her in his Housian way and then offers her a birthday present, a bottle of sedatives for the next time mommy visits. Oh, he is a charmer. And Cuddy loves him. She invites him over but in the end he says he has to go hang out with Wilson. We then see him telling Wilson something’s come up. House has reached his limit of being all things to everyone and wants to just be by himself in his own apartment. He needs to hang up the super cape for a night. The final scene of the show is House happily enjoying the fighting housewives of New Jersey.

The patient eventually decides by the end of the episode that he doesn’t want to make the efforts he needs to in his personal life to be a superhero. Like House says, it’s easy to impulsively jump onto a train track to save a stranger, but it takes real courage to jump in and do what needs to be done to make a personal relationship work. The patient is already making plans to go on the road, leaving his family again. Even Taub musters up the courage to throw away the false superhero image his wife has of him and tell her straight out that they should divorce because neither is happy and both expect him to fail and disappoint her again. Sometimes it takes more courage to end something then to continue with blinders on. But House has spent the past year building up the courage to do what has to be done to make a personal relationship work. He can be that super hero that Cuddy needs, as long as it’s in small doses. He made the decision “to be the man who is with Cuddy” long ago, but it took him all of last season to achieve that. And quite honestly, we’re still watching him grow. Cuddy tried to help him grow earlier in the season to awful results. Now, Cuddy has finally realized that House is not like other plants. He’s not some rose or high-maintenance shrub that needs a lot of attention and outside assistance to grow. No, our House is a weed. Just let him be and he’ll find what he needs to grow; and it’ll happen even faster.