"Mirror, Mirror"

• Oct 31, 2007 04:24 AM ET
• by ninahammerling

This episode of House was kind of an exposition on the season's main players thus far, done in an interesting way.

The POTW was a mugging victim who started having some kind of fit during his attack. Fortunately one of the kids stealing his wallet has a conscience and calls an ambulance for him. But the guy has lost his ID, and as we'll see, that's kind of an issue.

Back at Princeton-Plainsboro, Cuddy interrupts one of House's medical story-telling sessions with the Wannabes to walk Foreman in and tell House that he's back on the team and will be her eyes and ears from here on out. Which leads "Cut Throat Bitch" to ask, "Does this mean there's one less slot for us?" At least she stays true to form!

The POTW, meanwhile, says his name is Martin, and he seems to have a whole host of bizarro symptoms, none of which make sense together. More so than usual. Foreman's diagnosis is Munchausen Syndrome - he thinks the guy is making it up. But House's take is a little more subtle: He thinks "Martin," who seems to have gotten his name from the name of the EMT who treated him on the way to the hospital, has mirror syndrome, reflecting whatever he sees around him. To test his hypothesis, House drags the POTW into a surgery room, where Wilson is about to make an incision. The guy picks up Wilson's mannerisms and tone pretty instantly, proving House correct. Now the issue is, why does he have this syndrome and what's turning his blood into sludge?

In search of more information, House sends "Big Love" to go track down the guy's car, and Number 13 volunteers to join him. Since the POTW imitates whomever he's around, House says, "Big Love" gets the assignment because if he gets near him, he'll "wind up singing Osmond songs and proposing to five nurses at once." So no "mirror, mirror" for him.

But most everyone else gets the personality-revealing treatment. When CTB takes the POTW's blood, he reveals her deep-rooted insecurity, which makes her feel the need to always be right; and apparently plastic surgeon dude has a thing for CTB, despite himself (and despite his wife). "Grumpy," or generic other guy, as I think of him, doesn't really want to be there, but rather wishes he were back treating people in the third world; and 6/9 has a driving need for new experiences (or masochistic tendencies, depending on whom you believe).

Foreman, it seems, is actually happy to be back, according to Mr. Mirror; and House tried to get a read on why Number 13 volunteered to go off car hunting with "Big Love" by saying that she didn't want to "take a look in the mirror." When she did finally have her moment with the POTW, all we learn is that she's very, very afraid. Of something. Which I'm sure we'll hear about later. Oh, and we got confirmation that House has the hots for her (no surprise there).

Finally House saves the day by pretending to be the POTW with the few items that came out of his car. And it works: The guy sells farm equipment and got some infection from pig poo. Case closed, patient saved, and Cuddy and House appear before him to see who's going to give in first, I guess, and somehow House came out victorious, though I'm not honestly all that clear on why.

Funniest/nastiest moment of the night goes to Cuddy, who replaced House's Vicodin with laxatives to get back at him for causing a panic in the cafeteria by announcing that the mayonnaise had gone bad and that everyone should go to the clinic and ask for her. But then House implied that he had replaced Cuddy's birth control pills, and she didn't look nearly as smug after that.

One note on the nicknames: House is a pig (no pun intended) who insults virtually everybody (perhaps with the exception of women he's attracted to) indiscriminately. In repeating his often nasty nicknames for the Wannabes, I'm simply holding my own mirror up to the complex, flawed, fascinating character that is Dr. Gregory House.

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