Image Credit: Richard Foreman/FoxNo Lucas, plenty of Taub, lots of Wilson — last night’s House sounds like a dream come true. Except… what a case of the blahs. A young woman’s illness was caused by sex? You don’t say! House was outrageously, humorlessly crotchety? Oh, that’s fun! Thirteen’s hair looked really pretty? Well, I have to give her that. If only the rest of “Black Hole” were as lustrous as Thirteen’s locks.
Our PotW was Abby, a high school student whose mouth-bleeding symptoms started during a school trip to the planetarium. The second they showed her giggling with her boyfriend, it was pretty clear this was going to be another case of “sex will kill you, possibly through a semen allergy.” House was obsessed with the idea that Abby’s hallucinations were giving clues as to the source of her maladies, which even among the kooky medical theories this show has put forth is still a doozy. Just ask Foreman, who totally agreed with me. Of course, House was right, and through a series of cockamamie “brain imaging” sequences, the team discovered the poor girl’s father was to blame. Wait, not her father — her boyfriend‘s father, whom she totally boned. Ha! Keep it in your pants, kids.
Because the crisis-o’-the-week lacked the narrative impact the show sometimes manages, we were left with two other story lines to do the heavy lifting: House hassling Wilson about buying furniture, and Taub maybe being a total sleezebag adulterer again. At Chez Hilson, our beloved bromantic duo argued over home furnishings; Wilson wanted to just hire a decorator and be done with it, but House was mad (or…something…) that that would just be another example of Wilson substituting a woman’s taste for his own. Back and forth they went, all the while not mentioning that recliner sofa from a few weeks ago (ruined in the sprinkler flood?), or that Chorus Line poster they both seemed to agree on. The only upshot of this bickering was that Wilson spent some time in a home furnishings store, giving Robert Sean Leonard a cute little montage of fussy discomfort.
But I can’t help but wonder what the point of all of House’s nagging was. It makes sense, sort of, when he acts bratty to get what he wants, when there’s a clear self-serving mission at work. What was the House objective here? To get Wilson to buy him a Hammond organ? (That was a Hammond organ… right?) I like “Whiter Shade of Pale” and all, but that’s not enough of a reason.
On the Taub front, he and his passive-aggressive wife argued about trust, because back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, Taub cheated. Remember? I do, because it’s the only thing we’ve ever learned about Taub. He lamely asked Chase for marriage advice — wrong tree, dude — and weakly lied to House about being late, but he seemed genuinely dedicated to renewing his vows and whatnot until the very last scene, when we saw him acting overly familiar with a nurse. It’s not solid proof, duh, but since when does House (or House) need cold hard facts?
Best line
House to Foreman: Anyone ever tell you you’re a real buzzkill?
Everyone: Yes.
I just didn’t get “Black Hole.” Why this week? What stories did it advance or transform? What do we know now that we didn’t before? House is such a fantastic show, and it’s capable of such interesting stories and techniques — I hate watching it tread water with filler episodes like this.
What did you think, PopWatchers? Did “Black Hole” suck you in?
Agree the case o’ the week was blah, but thought the whole Taub subplot was deftly done. Soooo tired of House’s sadistic bullying of his supposed best friend (and everyone else). I liked Cuddy’s common-sense intervention, though.
It was just annoying that the entire episode was one giant Contact ripoff. The stars, the silent shot of the galaxies, the whole face displacement scene with the boyfriend? Contact.
He wasn’t being self serving, he was trying to help Wilson.
I liked the House/Wilson story line. House was trying to get Wilson to choose a furniture that gives a piece of definition of himself and he did–the organ. This show his people pleasing and selfless personality. I quite like this episode and although I do agree that the POTW was a bit week, I don’t think the episode was as terrible as you make it out to be.
Nail on the head, Frodo! I also think the scene at the end where House was watching Taub was meant to demonstrate that House was right about him – that even if Taub wasn’t cheating, he wanted to.
I agree that House was trying to get Wilson to take a step of emotional growth by choosing the furniture – but really, for whom did wilson buy the organ? Did Wilson really want an organ, or is he once again letting someone else define his tastes – this time House instead of a wife? Not sure how to take that scene – what I saw was Wilson enjoying House enjoying the organ, not Wilson enjoying the organ. Wow, that’s alot of organs.
I think Wilson enjoying House enjoying the organ was the point. The point was for Wilson to go and pick something out that would show who he is, and who he is is a person that has friends he loves very much and wants to see happy.
Aww, I like that interpretation. But would House?
I think he would. House may be mean and obnoxious most of the time (ok ALL of the time), but he’s very perceptive, so I think he would see the meaning behind that, especially when you see that little smile he gets on his face when he understands something.
What was the song @ the end of the show?
“A Whiter Shade Of Pale”, Procol Harum, 1967
While the episode wasn’t stellar, it was totally worth it for everyone telling Foreman what a buzzkill he was. And well, the cognitive whatsit was fun- it’s nice to see the team be awed by something once in awhile.
Foreman is such a buzz kill. Seriously, they need to do something with his character-I hate him.
So what, who cares?
I can’t remember the last full ep of House I watched(it might’ve been the one with James Earl Jones); it’s been that underwhelming this year. The weekly “I’m in pain, so I can say/do whatever the hell I want” thing has gotten old and tired for me. So has the will they/won’t they scenario. Just screw each other and get it over with, for Christ sake.
Yeah, after that whole “Chase killed a dictator!” plot twist I kind of got bored. I liked that we got to see more of Chase, but it meant he was married to Cameron for what, a month? And now I hear they’re trying to get him with Thirteen. Huh? I haven’t been watching so I have no idea if they have some sort of great chemistry, but I’m just over Thirteen as a character.
I generally liked this episode. Sort of blah compared to last week’s episode, but overall an improvement for this season. I noticed 13′s hair more than usual too. Weird. I think the more Chase the better, and I’m glad he’s starting to talk about Cameron now, instead of just pretending like she never existed. Of course, that probably has to do with her scenes in an upcoming episode (the next one, maybe?) but it’s only realistic. I like Taub as a character, but his cheating story is kind of boring. Do we even know hid wifes name?
The last few patients have really been a drag. This one was so uninteresting I honestly don’t think I would recognize her picture this morning. The whole time I kept asking “why is the boyfriend’s dad still here?” I’m not saying I guessed the ending, but geez, could you at least try and make up an excuse for him standing vigil at the girl’s bedside? His kid is 18, it’s not like he couldn’t have left him there. BF Dad got more screen time than the girl’s mother. I guess in retrospect I SHOULD have seen the ending coming.
How about we skip the PotWs, just have lots of crazy clinic patients and focus on Huddy, Hilson and/or a team member every week?
Wilson/House story line was great, but the patient was lame…..and disturbing. Chase is hot.
I thought the best line of the night was House to Taub: “Monkey see, monkey do.” House’s Hammond B3 licks were WAY cool.
I really only watch the show for House/Wilson anyway, so I enjoyed the ep. The POTW stuff is always predictable, so it’s just a matter of good lines that occur because of it. And I liked the House/Wilson stuff, though I worry that Wilson’s choice to get what House would like was a bit too doormat-ish. House knows Wilson cares deeply about him, and Wilson knows that, so it just seemed overkill to show it via the organ.
Oh, and I think House was truly sad to see that his cynicism about Taub was perhaps well-founded after all. I think he was happy in that case to have been proved wrong and then sad to see his expectations met in the end.
I am easy, lol!, I liked this episode. House delivers an interesting story week after week. I don’t always need a gourmet show, last night was a Meatloaf dinner show and it was good.