"Ugly"
How does being beautiful - or deformed - make others treat you differently? That was the central theme in tonight's episode, and it brought out some unexpected twists and revealing moments for House, as well as the POTW.
Kenny is on his way to Princeton-Plainsboro for surgery to correct the major congenital facial deformity that keeps him from being "just another face in the crowd." The catch is that the entire experience is being filmed (and bank-rolled) by a documentary crew. Everything's set to go in the OR and Chase is about to perform the surgery when the kid has a heart attack, followed by a host of other symptoms that seem to jeopardize his facial surgery.
Meanwhile, Dr. Terzi (
Michael Michele) has shown up for "class" with the rest of the Wannabes, who immediately start trying to figure out whether she's guaranteed one of their coveted spots. House, who clearly has the hots for her, can't stand the fact that he's sort of hired her, and has a little heart to heart with Wilson about it. "I think she may be an idiot," says House. "She can't be an idiot - she was in the CIA, for god's sake." To which Wilson retorts: "The Bay of Pigs was a daring triumph?" Ha!
A couple of the Wannabes started filling out a bit more as characters this week, especially Plastic Surgeon Guy, aka Taub (
Peter Jacobson) - who spent much of the episode standing up to and going behind the back of House - and, to a lesser extent, 6/9, aka Kutner (
Kal Penn), who revealed the extent of his bumbling, eager-to-please side around the camera.
Plastic Surgeon Guy pisses off House sufficiently that House goes snooping into his past and learns his dirty little secret, the reason he left his successful practice: PSG screwed around with one of his nurses, and was desperate for his wife not to find out. "Some people pop pain pills, I cheat," he said when House confronted him with his indiscretion. "We all have our vices."
The other "ugly" matter of the episode was House's behavior around the beautiful Dr. Terzi. She's... just not as bright as the other Wannabes, it seems, but House is so blinded by his own desire for her that he praises her ideas and needs Foreman to point out her faulty diagnoses. House finally recognizes that she can't be part of the crew and fires her - and then follows it up with an invitation to dinner. I honestly thought she was going to slap him.
Watching House and the crew "perform" for the camera was pretty entertaining - Chase was Mr. Eager; Cameron had a notable slip-of-the-tongue; Wilson cast various aspersions on House's character; and House was primarily just puzzled and irritated (what else is new). When all was said and done, Kenny's mystery ailment was diagnosed, he got his facial surgery, and the documentarians edited House's snarky comments out of context to make him seem like a sweet,
Patch Adams-loving softie.
Perhaps the best thing about the episode was the amount of screen time given to old favorites like (
Robert Sean Leonard) and Cuddy (
Lisa Edelstein). The show's most convincing writing has always been in the scenes when those two spar with House, and I was thrilled to see more of that.
For more on House, visit our
Online Video Guide.
