House - Anatomy of A Relationship "The Fix" 7.21

Anatomy of a Relationship
An Episodic Examination of Huddy in Love
“The Fix” 7.21

I really tried to like this episode. I decided to wait to write this blog hoping that I might be able to change my mind. I even watched it again carefully, hoping to find something to draw me in. All that did was prove to me that Hugh Laurie’s presence in a dirty restroom in a convenience mart at 4 in the morning would elevate that restroom to a higher level where I’d be willing to leave a tip on the dirty hand sink edge. He’s that good. But the episode just wasn’t. I had SUPER high hopes, too, what with The Man, David Shore, being a co-writer with Tommy Moran, a old favorite, on this episode. But yeah. It didn’t happen. The medical story seemed forced (SURPRISE, your boyfriend is poisoning you) and House shooting up Rat Muscle Growth Hormone in the hopes of growing a new thigh kiiiiiiiinda off base (it may work but the side effects of short white coat of hair and a propensity for cheese are tough.) I was sincerely worried that this episode combined with the last two episodes had brought me to levels of cynicism and grumpiness exhibited by 13 in every episode now. But then I thought of a very important fact: that there is only two episodes left and there has to be at least one somewhat lame episode (“Open & Shut,” “Knight Fail,”) whose only purpose is to plant the seeds in House’s life that will sprout and grow into a massive tangle of problems, hanging on a cliff. (You like that? Cliff…hanging? Thanks.) Right? So with my happy and hopeful face back I jumped into this recap, albeit a bit late, finally.

I promised you all the results of my poll from last week. The question was: do you expect House to OD in one of the last episodes of this season? The results were an overwhelming 70% in agreement of the OD. Well, only 10 people actually participating but the numbers remain the same. 70%! Of course, that was with that misleading promo we had. Although I think it’s fair to say that OD’ing on Rat Muscle Growth Hormorne (RMGH) which grew his tumors counts so I’m thinking us members of the 70% are completely correct! We win! I’m still holding the flag for a real OD, however, and all of you who want to stand with me are welcome.

In this episode we dealt A LOT with theories: right , wrong, misguided, forced, impromptu, selfish, hopeful, opinionated, snarky and demeaning. Oh, and idiotic. Can’t forget that one. The patient is Wendy, a bomb builder for a weapons company, who is also apparently “Da Bomb” at her jobsite with all those data nerds. She collapses after a demonstration and begins seizing. House, meanwhile, is preoccupied with finding out the real reason a young boxer lost a fight (making House lose a bet with Wilson as a consequence.) IN ADDITION to all this, House is injecting the previously mentioned RMGH into his arm at every possible moment. Is that a tail in your pants or are you….nevermind. Sorry. Theories abound about all these different storylines. Everyone has a few during the episode, the team especially, as their Alpha Dog is MIA for most of the episode and they spend their time theorizing on the cause of their patient’s symptoms and peeing all over the office trying to mark their territory. Were they all especially grumpy and snarky this episode or what? Sheesh. They all would have received a time out at my house.

In the end we discover that the patient is being poisoned by her boyfriend because she was stepping out with yet another member of the nerd herd at work. House finally figures out that the boxer has a tumor pressing on his spine which caused the “knock out” during the fight and thereby winning the bet with Wilson. And in the “Yes, those huge front teeth you’ve grown recently look completely natural” storyline House actually has muscle improvement in his thigh; to the point where he can plant his weight fully on it in order to throw a punch at a guy in a bar. House promptly goes home after being taken down by the guy to shoot more RMGH into his arm and then stand out on the balcony and sing “Somewhere Out There” to the full moon. Sorry. I’ll stop with the rat jokes. Well, I’ll try. And yes, I know Feifel was a mouse. Don’t fill up my comment area with corrections.

This episode was fairly easy to dicipher as it was all said directly outloud in monologues by multiple characters. This was another reason I wasn’t a huge fan of this episode. Hey, I’m used to the characters standing up on their soapboxes. Heck, Cameron had one made for each room in the hospital. 13 is more efficient. She bought one of those travel-sized soapboxes that she can even take to the patient’s home. But usually, it takes a bit of figuring to intertwine all the storylines and understand their relationship to each other and most importantly to House. Sometimes it took me multiple viewings to catch ALL the nuances; all the clues. Not in this one. And not so much in this last part of Season Seven either. For example: House monologues to the boxer, “You don’t have to be a loser. Whatever is wrong with you is real. Sick is good. Sick means you can get better. I don’t mean healthier…. I mean you don’t have to suck.” To which the boxer replies, “Figure out what’s wrong with yourself and leave me alone.” Ahhh. No nuance there. None. Team members repeatedly spit out lines about House’s character and his predicament that were so thinly veiled I could have watched this episode through them. Stuff like, “We are treating only the symptoms, not the disease,” followed by an actual discussion of what was wrong with House was everywhere. I really enjoy analyzing each episode and used to get so proud of myself when I solved my own puzzle. Just like House. In this episode, however, I felt like The Powers That Be took away my 500 piece puzzle of intertwined circles and replaced it with a 25 easy piece puzzle of a one color square. Now, I’m hoping that this episode is SO nuanced that I didn’t pick up on any of it and will only be able to see its genius once the last two episodes air.

As far as the Huddy was concerned we were only able to grasp on the one scene where Foreman approaches Cuddy for help with the absent House. She tries to blow him off that it must not be serious enough yet. When it gets bad he’ll show up. Foreman’s original theory is that House is avoiding the hospital to avoid her but after Cuddy’s complete dismissiveness he postulates that Cuddy is trying to avoid House at equally high levels. Has the breakup, consequent guilt and hopefully, longing, ruined the workplace for Cuddy. I think she always assumed that she could fall back on her job if she and House didn’t work. She never once grasped the reality of trying to work with a man you love and really want to be with but can’t. And she herself admitted that she had a hard time separating her personal and professional life. Each encounter with House at work compounds her confusion and confliction over her feelings and probably throws barrels of gasoline on her guilt bonfire. But each encounter, as I’ve said before, must also confirm that she can’t be in a healthy relationship with House and still expect to come out normal. That has got to be rough. Right? And it seems to chaffe too that in Cuddy’s eyes, “House is fine. House is always fine.” She hasn’t spent enough time with him lately to know he’s the opposite of fine: that he’s currently shooting a dangerous experimental drug into his body in the attempt to try to cure some of his unhappiness.

And House is still running under the misconception that if he can just treat the symptoms (leg pain) and not the disease (abuse, abandonment) he’ll be happier. I don’t know if House still pines for Cuddy. I don’t know if House is doing this real life lab rat impersonation with the ultimate goal of getting Cuddy back. I do know, however, that House thinks he can be happy if his stupid leg doesn’t hurt. House isn’t real good at fixing himself as we know. He has the utmost clarity of vision when it comes to others’ problems, but he’s absolutely worthless at analyzing himself.

So Cuddy and House are completely avoiding each other. Arlene was right in suing the hospital in order to bring them together. We the audience hadn’t seen much of how Huddy had dealt with the breakup at work. We had a few snarky comments but no insight. Last week House finally admitted out loud that Huddy wasn’t getting back together. He seemed very saddened by it. And very resigned. Did he mean it? Or did he do that to get Arlene off their backs so he could get another chance? I guess we’ll find out here soon!

I LOVE that it’s Cuddy who finds House even though it will be yet another manifestation of her decision to break up with House (the idiot’s caused his own tumors and is operating on them in his BATHTUB! That’s over the top, my friends, in any relationship.) I love it because it may give them the connection they’ve had before that truly opens their eyes about the other. That connection they experienced during “House’s Head” and “Wilson’s Heart.” That connection they experienced during “Save Me” and “A Pox On Our House.” Experiences where when all things are thrown to the wayside in the face of impending death and heroism, Cuddy sees House for not only who he is, but for who he can be. Of course, in this instance there’s no heroism, just impending death, but I’ll take it. And if Cuddy can connect House’s idiotic behavior to the fact that he’s trying to make himself better so he can be with her? Even Awesomer. As I’ve always said, Cuddy knows the kind of man House is. She fell in love with that man. Now if she can get past those annoying expectations of her’s maybe she can be happy with him. So even though this episode was a bit of a let down, I am still stoked to see the last two episodes. Despite the never-ending doom of this last half of the season I still have hope! You can’t take that away from me, Mr. Shore!

Thanks again for reading. We’ll only be together a couple more weeks, but I am stoked to announce (in case you haven’t heard) that we’re getting a Season Eight! HOORAY! See you next week.