Throwback Thursday - House, M.D. - One Day, One Room

Throwback Thursday, a weekly article in which we look back at our favourite TV episodes from over the years.

This week, I wanted to delve into the world of one of the best shows ever created - House. This episode features everything one could possibly need in order to have a fantastic episode of a TV show. We have suspense, two simultaneous plot lines happening at once, a whirlwind of emotions, and loads more. There are plenty of episodes of House that I could have chosen that also feature these same things, such as Broken, Painless, or the finale Everybody Dies, but One Day, One Room has stuck with me ever since I first watched it. Now, enough of this preamble; let's get into the amazingness of this episode.

A summary of the episode:

The episode starts off with House walking into the office of Lisa Cuddy. As any big fan of the show can recall, it is unusual for an episode to not begin with the soon-to-be patient that they will be overseeing falling ill. So, this episode is already breaking the boundaries of a standard episode of House. Cuddy asks House if he has any cases, and House lies, much like everybody does, and says he has three. Cuddy then declares that for the next two days, he will be doing nothing but clinic work, and if he told the truth, she was only going to give him one day. Normally, I would feel bad for House, but this time, he asked for it. In the episode preceding this one, House was seriously at risk of going to jail, but Cuddy perjured herself on the stand and saved him. So, she says that he owes her these clinic hours for her doing so.

The theme of the week:

It's a gruesome day for Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Many of the clinic patients believe they have contracted sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs. This man claims he told the nurse he has a "runny nose", but he really thinks he has an STD - syphilis or gonorrhoea to be specific. This is definitely unnerving news, although House often suggests that a patient may have an STD in many of his differential diagnoses (DDXs). House's face isn't seen yet, but we can assume he is not too pleased to be hearing this news.

This next patient just comes right out and says, "I think I have an STD." We do get to see House's reaction to this and it's PRICELESS! He looks so unamused and I think he is finally starting to realize the theme of the patients this week. Upon first watch of this episode, I immediately jumped out of my seat because this actress played a stalker on Criminal Minds before. It was so interesting to see her here, as a clinic patient in House's hospital. Don't you love it when your shows collide?

This next patient was one of the best parts of the episode for sure. Seeing this elderly lady in the clinic, and hearing her say, "I think I have...a...uh..." was pretty hilarious. Sometimes the clinic patients are so dumb and irritating that they end up ruining a majority of the episode for me. This was an exception; most of the clinic patients made this episode more comical and very watchable. The way the camera panned between the patients was a cool effect to see.

The screaming man:

House delivers a sample to the nurse's station and then sends away everyone who just has a cold. He then proclaims that everyone who is left will see another doctor because he's doesn't want to deal with this STD epidemic. Cuddy starts to walk over to him and says, "You're doing this." Then, all of a sudden, a patient that was sitting down starts yelling and grabbing his head in pain. He is running rampant around the clinic. The pharmacist asks if they should sedate him, and House declines and grabs a paralytic instead. The man is finally sedated, after a kerfuffle betwixt House and Cuddy. House gives Cuddy an ultimatum: "So, either I can continue to swab people's privates, or I can figure out if this guy's delirium, pain, and insanely high heart rate are life-threatning, or just another personality quirk. I think the latter choice is better for all three of us." We are then greeted by the opening theme.

Foreman informs us that the man is finally sedated, and now we get to see the DDX. "Pain in his right ear, psychotic behaviour, and dizziness...GO!" Foreman suggests acoustic neuroma that started a hemorrhage. Chase suggests that if he was psychotic first, self-mutilation would damage the ear. Cameron suggests a lingering ear infection. House says that each is a great diagnosis, but they should pour alcohol into his ear and remove the cockroach inside (House took a peek and he guessed the cockroach started to bite). Chase then asked why they would have to do the tests, and House said it's either that or he would have to go back to clinic duty. "Either do the tests, or stay out of Cuddy's sight. I don't really care which", says House. The next shot is of House's hand with a ladybug on it. House then blows it away. Wilson asks why is House here; House says that it's the last place Cuddy will look.

The dying man:

Cameron enters a clinic room to do her rounds, when she comes across this man, with yellow papers in his hand. He has a 6-cm mass in his right lung - cancerous, inoperable. He asks if it's okay if he sleeps in the hospital that night because it's cold outside. Cameron is certainly the best doctor to talk to in this situation. Cameron leaves the room looking sad, and then informs Cuddy that House doesn't actually have a case right now. Cuddy then finds House outside lying on a bench, informing him that Cameron got stuck with another dying patient (In the episode Informed Consent (3x03), she was also burdened to take care of a man who was dying). House then takes a Vicodin, much to Cuddy's dismay since she thought after him going to rehab that he was clean. Cuddy then gives House the ultimatum this time: he goes back to the clinic, or he goes to jail. House makes a joke that he would rather go to jail, but when Cuddy turns around and says, "You owe me", House changes his mind and goes back to work. We will see more of 'dying man' later.

The obnoxious man:

House looks in this man's nose, and the man says, "Good grooming is important"; House asks if that was a shot at him. The man says people judge House's appearance: his shirt's unpressed, he hasn't shaved lately, and he isn't concerned with tiny details. House completely ignores all this and asks if he uses toenail clippers on his nose. He says since they're longer, they can reach the hairs that are higher up. House's response is genius: "I'm wearing a rumpled shirt, I forgot to brush my hair this week, and you've got Athlete's Foot in your nose. I'm ready to be judged." Gross, but also an amazing and sassy answer.

The payoff and the game:

House offers patients $50 to those who would leave the clinic right now; Cuddy is not okay with this. She offers him a little game: She will pay him $10 for every patient he can diagnose without touching. For every patient he does touch, he pays her $10. The trick to motivating House is to make it fun. We get a hilarious montage of patients he doesn't touch, and the one attractive female patient he does touch (For that one, House says, "I owe you $10."). We now get the results of the three STD patients from before.

A shocking reveal:

House delivers great news to the 'condom-free man' and the 'elderly lady', however, our teenaged girl, Eve, is not so lucky - she has chlamydia. When House goes to give her the pills she needs, she slaps them out of his hand and says, "Don't touch me!" House then says, "Oh god", very softly. House goes into Cuddy's office and asks if someone else can cover his patient. Cuddy tries to remind him that he committed to the game, but House drops the bombshell: "She was raped", and then a clever, "Think I'm the right doctor for her?" Cuddy then goes and tells Eve that they assigned another doctor to her, but she requests to keep being treated by him. House asks her why she wants him, and she says, "I don't know." This choice of wording becomes really cute and important to the rest of the episode. They go back and fourth with questions about the other, and Eve tells him she wants him to be her doctor. When House asks why, once again she says, "I don't know", and House, in true House-fashion proclaims that she has to have a reason because everything has a reason. She claims she trusts him, and House says that's a bad reason. House strikes a cord by saying in a metaphorical sense that she's raping him by making him treat her, to which she demands that he gets out of the room.

The conclusion of the dying man:

Forgive me for the fact that I'm choosing not to focus on this particular subplot that much. Whenever I watch this episode, I tend to skip over Cameron's focus with the dying patient. It's mainly because I don't like Cameron that much as a character, and the other plot is much more interesting to me. So, here's what happens in short: this man knows he's going to die and refuses to be "made comfortable" with drugs because he has wasted his life away. Cameron, being the person she is, declines his request and demands to make sure he is okay because "every life is sacred". He goes from claiming he's an awful person, to demanding that Cameron remembers him. The man says, "You don't know me, you don't know what I've been through", and is adamant that these painkillers and any other drugs he has been given must be stopped. Cameron obliges, and the man dies in slow, agonizing pain. Cameron once again overcomes having to watch a man die, and she cleans him off before he is sent to the morgue.

The meat of the episode:

After another patient tries to fool House into thinking he has the hiccups solely to get anal digital stimulation, House expresses concern for Eve. She was with Dr. Stone for a whole hour, and before an attempt to take her life, Stone reveals Eve did not say one word. Eve wakes up after having her stomach pumped in an ICU bed, with restraints on. House asks her if she'll try to do that again, and when she says no, he takes them off of her. House gets back on track by reminding her that she tried to kill herself because she couldn't talk to him, so there had to be a reason for this. Eve asks, "Why does there always have to be a reason?" Eve wants to just talk to him, yet House isn't having it. He says that there's a phone right next to her, and she should call a friend or a family member. Eve honestly just wants to talk to House about anything, which is so strange yet so beautiful. Nobody ever really just wants to talk to Gregory House, but that's all this girl wants to do.

Back in the team's workplace, Cameron encourages House to talk to Eve, noting how he's the only person she's talking to about this. Foreman says, "God knows why" in a very sarcastic tone similar to House, who says he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Chase agrees with house by saying he's the last person she should be talking to. At the end of the conversation, he decides that Eve needs to talk about what happened. House, is a surprisingly kind tone, tells her, "It doesn't have to destroy your life. It doesn't mean anything about you. It wasn't your fault. You did nothing wrong. Some jerk hurt you, that's all." Now we're getting somewhere! House is actually being very kind to her, on the other hand, it appears he is hiding something. "If we talk about nothing, nothing will change", says House. Eve claims that it might change. Time will change; time changes everything. Now she's starting to sound like House. They get into an argument about why she trusts him again: "That's not rational!" "Nothing's rational!" "EVERYTHING IS RATIONAL!" "I was raped, explain how that makes sense to you." Oh, things are really heating up. And then, in a shocking turn of events, Eve turns the conversation around and inquires about House. "Has anything terrible ever happened to you?" House says, "What do you wants me to say?" And then Eve replies, "You wanted this conversation. You wanted to talk about something that matters. So, talk."

What should House tell her?

House goes to Wilson's office, and tells him Eve is waiting for her answer. Meanwhile, house sedated her. What a great friend. Wilson asks House, "Why do you care what you say to her?" House answers, "Because I don't know how to answer these questions." Wilson's response? "It's a simple question. Tell her the truth. Tell her you were shot. She's looking to connect with you, and that's what's scaring the hell out of you." Wilson has always known what gets under House's skin. And, once again, he's right. House feeling any sort of human connection with anyone has always freaked him out. And for good reason, too.

And now, we will hear from each member of House's team - they will each give House an idea of what he should tell Eve. Cameron's idea: "Tell her your life has been good. Even though it hasn't been, tell her anyway. She wants to know that what happened to her wasn't the norm. Things can be okay, which means maybe they can be okay for her again." What a lovely notion, Cameron. Foreman's idea, however: "Tell Eve your life sucked. Even though it didn't, tell her anyway. She wants to know she's not alone. She wants to know she's gonna survive this, that other people have been through this, and worse, and have come out the other end. She wants to know she's going to heal. Act like you've healed." Hmmm, is Foreman possibly speaking from experience here? I've never thought about that before. Chase's idea might be the best: "Tell her...keep her asleep." House smiles and thanks him in a very sarcastic tone. Chase adds on, "There's no wrong answer, because there's no right answer." House says he's wrong, and they just don't know what the right answer is.

A lie, or is it?

House wakes Eve up and finally has an answer ready for her. I'm just going to quote the entire thing, because it's way too beautiful and feels-inducing and I can't leave a word of this out. "It's not as bad as what happened to you. Well, I don't know what happened to you. But giving how lousy you're responding, I assume it was worse than...getting abused by your grandmother. My parents travelled a lot. They'd leave me with her. She liked things the way she liked them. She believed in discipline. She was right, I suppose, because I hardly ever screwed up when she was around. Too scared of being forced to sleep in the yard or take a bath in ice...your turn." Wow, I mean he just dropped this out of nowhere. This is a juicy detail of House's life, pretty intense for a third-season episode. Eve asks if his parents ever stopped her, and House says he never told them, for the usual reasons. He was afraid they believe believe him and he was afraid they would think he had done something wrong. House says now that he has opened up to her, it's her turn to open up to him.

Eve asked him what he called his grandmother. He said he called her 'Oma'. Eve asked if he kept calling her that after this, and he said yes. It's Dutch for grandmother. She was still his grandmother, and she was still Dutch. Eve asked if any part of that story was true. House said all of it. She says he wouldn't keep calling her Oma after she did those things to him. She was adamant. House says that she doesn't know him, and she says something would have to change. House dismisses her, and she says stop. She asks him for what the hell she can do that he won't just dismiss her because she was raped. House says nothing. "Your story, is it true?" "True for somebody." "But not for you." "These things happen. Happened to somebody, what do you care if it happened to me?" How heartbreaking. And now, the part of the episode that truly makes me cry. The most powerful conversation between House and Eve. The conversation that made me pause the episode and think about my life.

House: "These things happen. It happened to somebody. Why do you care if it happened to me?"
Eve: "They're not in this room."

House: "No, they're out there! Doctors, lawyers, postal workers. Some of them doing great, some of them are doing lousy. You're gonna base your whole life on who you got stuck in a room with?" 

Eve: "I'm gonna base this moment on who I'm stuck in a room with. That's what life is. It's a series of rooms, and who we get stuck in those rooms with adds up to what our lives are."

Then, with almost no warning, Cuddy enters the room and needs to speak with House. Cuddy complains to him that he only tested Eve for STDs. House said that since he had seven other patients lined up, that he didn't want to waste the lab's time. Cuddy said that she wasted their time, and for a good reason. Eve is pregnant. And the look on House's face when she reveals this is PRICELESS. He actually started opening up to this girl. He started to feel bad for this girl. And now, this.

House delivers the news and asks if she's okay, even though he knows she's not. He starts telling her about the termination procedure, but Eve doesn't want to terminate. Eve believes abortion is murder, and House agrees, although he says it's a life that she should end. She believes every life is sacred. House brings up Hitler and the father of her child, and asks if they are sacred to God or herself. Eve gets angry because she doesn't want to "chat about philosophy". House starts going on about the life of a fetus and where to draw the line. Eve notes that he's probably enjoying the conversation, and we get this cheeky little smirk from House. It's the type of conversation that House does well in. But the other type - the personal stuff? Not so much. He comments on how she's healthy and she shouldn't be here, but she doesn't want to go. House asks her if she wants to go for a walk. How cute!

The truth comes out & the conclusion:

"Life goes on." House is right. House mentions to Eve that he watches the joggers go by and he hopes that they would break a leg, literally. Eve says he doesn't really mean that, but House says he does. He's evil, but Eve notes that evil people don't say they're evil. They have another conversation about God. Eve suggests that maybe this happened because God was challenging her. "If you believe in eternity, then life is irrelevant." House always throws these crazy punches. They continue this argument until Eve says, "I was raped. What's your excuse?" INCREDIBLE. Just incredible. House says he doesn't care about what the man the raped her is feeling, he only cares about what she's feeling. Beautiful, emotional thoughts coming from House. Eve asks if he really means that. The response? "I'm trapped in the room with you, right?" AMAZING! And now for another emotional conversation. "Why did you choose me." "There's something about you. It's like you're hurt too." You have no idea, Eve.

And now - the feature presentation - the part of the episode where, upon first watch, I couldn't even handle what I was watching: House admits the truth of the story he told earlier. "It was true. Wasn't my grandmother, but it was true. It was my dad." OH GOD, WHY? My favourite character ever has become more layered than I ever thought he was going to be. His dad gave him verbal and physical abuse. My heart...it just aches. I just felt so incredibly upset and sorry for a fictional character. Once House admitted this to Eve, she told him that she would like to tell him what happened to her now. I just can't believe House, of all people, was able to connect with this girl. The song Grey Room by Damien Rice starts to play, which is the perfect song for this situation. Lastly, House and Wilson are playing foosball, when Cuddy walks in the room. House tells her that Eve has terminated the pregnancy, and she's being discharged. Cuddy praises House for getting her to talk about what happened, that "he did good". House notes about the madness of this situation, that maybe all he did was make himself feel good and made a girl cry. Wilson asks him why he did any of this. Have you been paying attention? Remember what I told you to remember before, about how Eve kept answering everything with "I don't know"? Well, House's answer to Wilson here was the very same. What a great way to tie up all the lose ends in this episode. Wilson asks one final question: is House going to follow-up with Eve? House's response is one of the most beautiful things ever - "One day, one room." Fade to black, and it's over.

But is it really over? This episode plays an important role for House later on. I don't want to spoil anything, but more of these details about what his father did to him are revealed down the line. So, why is this episode so great? Well, I think the fact that we actually see a human side to Gregory House is something special. This misanthropic drug addict has a lot more that he's concealing from the world. The way he connects with Eve and opens up to her is quite wonderful. It's an episode I never expected to get from this show, but I am SO glad I did. This episode makes me feel every emotion known to humankind. If you have not seen this episode, or this show before in general, you must watch this episode. It does not matter how you see it, the point is that you all just need to see it. The writing is flawless, the acting is masterful, the directing and scenery are lovely. All in all, it is a the perfect episode.

Many of the best quotes of the episode:

House: "Perjurer."
Cuddy: "Felon."

House: "Who is here for a runny nose? It's a cold! You'll get better, go home! Those of you who have stayed obviously do not have colds. You will be assigned a doctor who is not me because I am tired of wiping crotches."

Marco the pharmacist: "Should I get a sedative?"
House: "No, I'm good thanks."

Marco: "I have the sedative."
Cuddy: "A little late."
House: "Just in time."
Cuddy: "What did you give him?"
House: "Paralytic."
Cuddy: "Why would you do that?"
House: "Somebody had to stop the screaming."
Cuddy: "But he's still in pain!"
House: "Yeah, but quietly."

Cameron: "Nothing else wrong with him?"
House: "Isn't that enough? It's pretty gross."

House: "It's a jogging park."
Wilson: "You're not jogging...you can't jog. [...] What do you watch for?"
House: "That guy's running in shorts."
Wilson: "He's not running, he's trolling."
House: "You're good at this!"

Cuddy: "Is that Vicodin?"
House: "Breath mint. I thought you were going to kiss me."
Cuddy: "What happened to rehab?"
House: "I got out."
Cuddy: "...It was a scam?"
House: "Enough foreplay, are you gonna kiss me or not?"

Tongue-depressor man: "Why do I have to do this myself?"
House: "I got a bum leg. Say aah."

House: "Either you suck at math, or you're going to die in two seconds."
*Two seconds go by*
House: "You suck at math."

House: "I don't want to treat you."
Eve: "You're just saying that so I'll see the psychiatrist."
House: "True, except for the word "just". I'm saying I don't want to treat you so you'll see the psychiatrist, and because I don't want to treat you."

House: "Doing things changes things. Not doing things leaves things exactly as they were."

House: "We are selfish, base animals crawling across the earth. Because we've got brains, if we try real hard, we can occasionally aspire to something that is less than pure evil.

House: "If you wanna talk to me, don't quote me bumper stickers."

Eve: "It's murder, I'm against it. You for it?"

House: "I sit, I watch, I imagine."
Eve: "Sounds nice."
House: "I imagine that one of them would break a leg."

House: "Either God doesn't exist, or he's unimaginably cruel."

Eve: "If you don't believe in eternity, then what you do here is irrelevant."
House: "Your actions here are all that matters."
Eve: "Then nothing matters. There's no ultimate consequences. I couldn't live like that."

Thank you for reading!

Do we have any any similar thoughts about this episode? What's YOUR favourite episode of this wonderful show? Feel free to leave a comment down below. I'd love to get a discussion going for the show I love so much.

Read more of my reviews [here].

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