Anatomy of A Relationship "Fall From Grace" 7.17

Anatomy of a Relationship
An Episodic Examination of Huddy in Love
“Fall From Grace” 7.17

First of all I’d like to thank you for waiting patiently for this post this week. If you didn’t read my last post I warned you I’d be on vacation this week. I had a great time. Thanks for asking. Now onto this week’s episode.

Hmmmmmmm. Uhhhhhhhhh. Weeeeeellllll. I’m not sure how to take this episode. You’ll remember in last week’s episode House went all loco in his pain for the loss of his true love. Hookers. Vicodin. Cannonballs. And it appears that he doesn’t quiiiiiiiite have all of that pain out of his system in this episode as his juvenile pranks around the office seem to escalate, rather unbelievably at times, in his attempt to make Cuddy feel guilty or use Cuddy’s guilt or… See, I don’t know. Normally, I don’t go read other people’s posts before writing my own because I don’t want to have any other people molding my impressions of the episode, however, I did some surfing after watching this episode to see if others could help me decipher and clarify what I was thinking. It didn’t help. It seems everyone else was a bit puzzled by this episode as well. Sooooo I will do my best to put down how I interpreted it. Wish me luck.

In this episode, a mystery homeless man is admitted to PPTH with the weird symptom of mixing up nice smells for bad smells and vice versa. He refuses to give his name and has major scars he tells the team comes from the abuse his father heaped on him. The guy seems a tad off. He claims he’s been “born again” and is trying to change his ways. He’s done horrible things and wants absolution. He leaves after being cured and then we discover at the end that the horrible things he’s done is killing 13 people and eating them. Yuck. No wonder he doesn’t want to give his name. He’d never get a dinner invitation ever! Ba-doom-crash. The team is horrified that they cured him to go out and munch again.

The rest of the episode deals with Huddy. We all know breaking up is hard to do, but I think Neil Sedaka would have had a much harsher take on the event if he had seen what House does to Cuddy after their breakup. The whoring and drinking was bad enough. And it made sense. House, an emotionally-stunted, relationship-challenged man, would react to the break up the way he did; by trying to dull the pain with a quick escape into drugs and alcohol. That was his go-to method. House had come a long way since Mayfield, but his natural tendancies and instincts have always been a struggle to overcome. In this episode he returns to work and torments Cuddy. He’s done this before. In fact, their relationship up until their kiss in “Joy” was based on torment. Really. Think back with me. (Insert think back music here.) Huddy’s interactions always involved some form of teasing or banter or prankery. It was how they interacted. Both enjoyed it. I think Cuddy liked the attention from this amazing man and House was simply pulling the pigtails of the cute girl who sat in front of him at school. This relationship was awesomely fun. Their conversations and sexual tension made me pray and hope for the scene we finally got at the end of season six. But after their kiss in “Joy” a new level of intimacy surfaced and we discovered by “Let Them Eat Cake” that feelings could now be hurt. That with this new awareness came a new level of risk. It’s easy to flirt and tease and pester if it all appears to be superficial. I know that I can let many flippant remarks slip off my back if it’s just thrown at me by a stranger or even an acquaintance. But if my husband were to say something flippant to me I take that much harder. After all, he’s supposed to know me and love me and care about me. Right? (He does.) But that’s what happened to Cuddy and House. Once they crossed that flirty friends boundary they could no longer easily ignore those barbs and taunts. Remember when House hired 40 applicants to create the new team. Ha-ha! Funny! Crazy House doing it again! Then a mere season later after the kiss House is smashing Cuddy’s toilet in and Cuddy is pouring nasty smelling stuff on the floor. Not funny. Over the line, mister! Both uncomfortable because by then they had begun to “like-like” each other. Pretty much all of season six with Cuddy dating Lucas was one big uncomfortable situation for Cuddy and House. House trying to change for Cuddy and Cuddy trying to ignore her feelings. Awkward. Also, I gotta say this is when Cuddy lost her mojo. Seriously. Look at her self-confidence and “work-it girl attitude” before The Kiss and there is a whole lot more moxie than after House took her breath away. That kiss changed the entire dynamics of the relationship. It could never be casual again. Fun and flirty and safe became obsolete.

In this episode we see how true that is. The time they were together a level of fun and flirty base on their new intimate knowledge developed. House knew he could trust Cuddy, always had, and he felt safe. House opened up as much as he could to her and they drew closer emotionally and physically. Cuddy, on the other hand, was sort of always waiting for the ax to drop. She didn’t quite get to the same trust level. As she approached it, however, House quickly stomped her trust down with a succession of poor choices and a serious deficiency in the relationship know-how. Although Cuddy isn’t exactly caring around a diploma in that area either. Both of these people desperately need a visit with Dr. Phil. Heck, Wendy Williams could help figure this one out for them. These two had a canyon full of issues to deal with before they even joined forces. But now they have even more of a history then before. Now they have a deeply, still loving relationship and getting back to how it was before just ain’t gonna happen.

House pulls a series of scams or pranks on Cuddy. It appears as though he uses Cuddy’s bottomless bucket of guilt to snag him some perks at work: a Segway; a flatscreen; a fiancé!!; insurance for the fiance; four handicap spaces for his new monster truck. We know House always looks out for himself so I’m sure that’s an underlying reason for this but it seems like he’s just trying to get Cuddy to react. To either stand up to him and shoot him down or laugh at his antics with him. House has done this kind of stuff before. And although some of the stuff in this episode (marrying a hooker?) seemed over the top it’s not completely uncharted territory. Remember (cue music) when House had the laser pointer and aimed it at Cuddy and her private parts while she was talking to the possible money donors in her office. She came out, got mad at him, engaged in clever banter and he laughed. It was a funny scene. This was before The Kiss. But in this episode House uses a remote control toy helicopter to shoot darts at Cuddy’s heart and boobs and then smashes over a vase all while Cuddy is schmoozing another possible money donor. There is no laughing or clever banter this time. Both Cuddy and House end the scene with looks of regret and sadness. With each encounter between House and Cuddy in this episode House always seems disappointed and sad as he watches Cuddy give in to him and go on her way. So is House behaving this way to try to get back to way they were or to get her pissed at him so they can have another real interaction AKA “Both Sides Now?” Are these pranks House’s go-to method of showing he cares about Cuddy? We know if he had his way they would still be together. No doubt. Is he still going back to square one to woo her again? I’m thinking if that’s the case the hookers and pill-popping are only reinforcing Cuddy’s decision, House. I know Dr. Nolan taught him better than that and I feel it’s a disservice to the character to have him regress so fully.

Near the end of the episode, Cuddy has to leave during House’s wedding ceremony and escapes back to the bedroom she now has a completely different relationship with. (Side note: how hard would it have been to see the man you love marry someone else in the very apartment you had spent such a special first day together? Sniff.) Wilson finds her there and she admits she’s taking this harder then she thought she would. His actions are hurting her. She probably even anticipated House’s behavior because if anyone can anticipate House’s next move it’s Cuddy. She just didn’t expect this to hurt so much. She still loves the man and even though this marriage is a sham it’s still painful. Wilson tells her that he’ll crawl out the window with her and escape this whole fiasco. But Cuddy says no, she doesn’t want to give House the satisfaction of having gotten to her. Wilson is proud that Cuddy is trying to get things back to normal between the two of them. Cuddy hollowly resonds, “Yeah, normal.” We know and she knows that can never happen again; that because of what she and House shared and because of how much they still care for each other the safe, flirty relationship of the past will remain forever in the past. I still haven’t decided if Cuddy thinks that the happiness they shared for six months will be worth the lifetime of awkwardness between the two of them if they can’t get their mojos back.

Wilson is very much the Greek Chorus in this episode as he bounces between our star-crossed lovers with advice and concern. He tells Cuddy that House needs her to be tough and stand up to him. He needs someone to tell him when he’s gone too far. This was always easy for Cuddy before The Kiss. Now, not so much. Wilson tells House that he’s taking unfair advantage of Cuddy; that he’s pummeling an opponent who’s not fighting back. In the past, House could dredge up a sentence or two of encouragement for a downed Cuddy, but that was before The Kiss. Now, he, his trust and his heart have been pummeled by Cuddy and he only feels he’s giving back some. He’s acting like a child, but we know that his level of relationship know-how is about at a six-grade level. Right?

At the very end of the episode, House and his new wifey are sitting in his apartment. Mrs. House softly tells him that although she knows this marriage is a sham she actually has feelings for House. She really likes him. She goes in for the kiss. A real kiss. (HEY! We didn’t get one decent kiss from our Huddy all season and yet you let this green-card grabber mack all over our man?! Sorry. Calming down…) But House pulls away. He brushes it off that he doesn’t sleep with married women and tells her she gets the couch. She’s shocked. But we know why. House does have a soul. When he was sleeping with the hookers it didn’t mean anything. He could distance his emotions from the act. But when a dark-haired beauty that he’s just married is sitting on his couch and confesses that she actually has feelings towards him, it gets to him. He was trying to not let the consequences of his antics get to him, but they do. But unlike Cuddy, he doesn’t have the heart to stick it to his ex by consummating this relationship – or even letting a relationship develop. He does escape “out the window” to his own bedroom. He still loves and pines for Cuddy. He knows he’s acting like an idiot and he’s genuinely hurting the only woman he ever truly loved. Loves. He hates being this way. He hates that he acts this way. He hates that he doesn’t know how to or doesn’t have the courage to do it any other way.

This episode deals with being abused and giving abuse. The patient was horribly abused by his father and says that the abuse made him the person he is today. We find out he’s not a very good person. He’s a monster. What portion of that is his father’s fault? House too was abused, definitely emotionally and likely physically by his father. House is not a very good person. What portion of that is his father’s fault? Both the patient and House abuse other people, although House is more humane. A bit. Okay, not killing and eating people qualifies as much more humane. Still both appear to be messed up by the abuse they received at the hands of their fathers. House too is trying, somewhat unsuccessfully at times, to change behaviors his father might have created in him. Both House and the patient hope for redemption and second chances but don’t expect them.

There have been MANY references to abuse lately and I think David Shore is setting things in motion for a big reveal on House’s motives and personal history. Seasons always end in a big way on House and after their one happy ending offering, Mr. Shore and Ms. Jacobs are totally unlikely to let it happen again. As I said I feel it’s a bum deal that House and Cuddy as characters are getting so demoted in their growth. Especially House. He’s been through a lot and grown, maybe not changed, but grown a great deal in the past two seasons. They want to recharge the franchise maybe by bringing back the old House, but as we just discussed you can’t expect the House and Cuddy relationship to go back to how it was before The Kiss. Even if they are both fundamentally the same people their relationship is COMPLETELY different. Hopefully, TPTB are taking this new intimacy into consideration and planning the rest of the season to include that. I’ve read reviews of episode 7.16 that said that episode rebooted the House character and brought back the cranky, crazy doctor we all know and love, but that’s impossible. House has been too affected by his experiences to ever go back that far. If he does, than he’s not the most incredible man we all thought he was. I’ve got my fingers crossed. Anybody know how to forward this post to Mr. Shore?


Thanks for reading! I’ll see you all in three weeks!