House and Crew Take On a Space Case
Number 9? Number 9? The erstwhile Number 6 changed his number - and his fate, with a suggestion of tequila shots. Kal Penn by Isabella Vosmikova/Fox
Episode Recap: The Right Stuff
Oooohhh, trippy. Gotta love an opening sequence that references both
Stanely Kubrick's classic
2001: A Space Odyssey and House's acid trip last season. I'm sure synesthesia (the Patient of the Week's initial diagnosis, a condition in which she "started to hear with [her] eyes") is awfully disconcerting, but it sure looks neat.
To start things off, House assigns his group of hopefuls the task of diagnosing
Buddy Ebsen, the original Tin Man in
The Wizard of Oz, who had to give up the role after he developed a life-threatening allergy to the costume's silver paint. But a far more interesting - and breathing, paying - test case walks in the door, in the form of an Air Force captain and NASA hopeful, who offers House $50,000 in cash to figure out what's wrong with her, on the condition of preserving her anonymity. (Apparently NASA doesn't send biological lemons into orbit.) So House introduces her to the class as Osama bin Laden and sets them all to work.
Meanwhile, House thinks maybe
he's the one who needs to get his eyes checked after he sees first Chase, then Cameron (looking mightily blond) and finally Foreman haunting the halls of Princeton-Plainsboro. Given the earlier visual reference to House's drug trip, you can't help wonder if he's hallucinating. Wilson, continuing to display his delightfully devious side, tries to convince House that Cameron and Chase are in Arizona (and engaged - which, of course, actors
Jennifer Morrison and
Jesse Spencer were, for a while at least). "It's always interesting when repressed guilt starts unrepressing itself," says Wilson of House's "seeing things." Wilson also postulates that House is going to pick his team based on who he doesn't like, because if he
did like them, that would be stressful. If that turns out to be the case, it should lead to some fireworks.
The POTW's eventual diagnosis is Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, finally discovered during surgery (done under the pretext of a boob job, so that the scars can be explained away to NASA). But it's not one of the newbies who correctly names the ailment; it's Chase, who's watching from the gallery as a new member of the surgical staff;
not a figment of House's imagination, after all. The scene offered up one of the few memorable zingers of the night - House, on getting ready to close out of the patient: "Don't forget her chesticles" (those would be the implants).
Cameron, meanwhile, turns out to be a senior attending in the ER, and offers up her typical feel-good explanation for why House didn't call NASA to let them know about the ailing pilot: "You couldn't kill her dream." The moral of the episode, delivered in typical Cameron form? All is right with the world.
As for Foreman, if Wilson is to be believed, he's actually working at New York Mercy. Could House be seeing things after all?
The new intern wannabes seem like an interesting bunch, and there are at least a few in the mix I wouldn't mind seeing stick around. The best of them (who lasted beyond the first episode) were:
Number 13
Olivia Wilde's character is the clear successor to Cameron; a smart, pretty know-it-all.
Number 6/9
Kal Penn's pseudo-slacker gets fired, then shows initiative by turning himself from Number 6 into Number 9, only to get fired again. But he sparks House's interest after he suggests getting Ms. bin Laden drunk as a way to test her liver function.
Number 26 (a.k.a. "Scooter," a.k.a. "Mr. Ethically Unethical")
Carmen Argenziano's old fella apparently never actually went to med school, though he knows plenty. I liked his interaction with House, and how cool would it be if he ended up being House's assistant? Kinda scary that a guy without a medical degree could've ended up one of The 40 to begin with, though.
Number 18
Edi Gathegi's "all life is sacred" Mormon leaves the door open for infinite House jabs, including this one, over a tequila shot: "So tell me about the magic underwear," otherwise known as the temple garment in LDS.
Number 24
Anne Dudek is the devious cutthroat; while downright annoying in this first episode, she may be just what's needed in the mix.
For
House clips, visit our
Online Video Guide.
To go behind the scenes of the new season, and meet the intern hopefuls, tune into TV Guide Network's "Watch This: House
"; October 3, 5:30pm/ET.
