After a death on Fox’s medical drama ‘House,’ will there be another one or two tonight? House and his colleagues have to save the life of two brothers, but can they?
Things start out in the hospital, as a mother warns her son to make sure he doesn’t freak out when he sees “him” sick, the boy’s brother. They’re in a contained area, so they both have to be decontaminated before they enter. The healthy boy walks and sees his brother, completely bald, along with their father. The cancer-ridden brother makes a few jokes before his procedure, and Dr. Wilson takes the healthy brother away to take out some marrow. His bone marrow will cure his bro’s leukemia, but then the healthy brother sneezes. Cue the credits, for the least dramatic beginning. I get the severity, but sneezing isn’t as shocking as fainting, collapsing, bleeding, etc.
House is woken up in his bedroom by a small white dog, the one he inherited from Wilson’s ex last week. The dog is a real terror, having destroyed some books and shoes, and House looks like he’s having as much fun as usual when he picks up his chewed-up cane. He goes to the hospital, to figure out what’s wrong with the brothers. The thought-to-be healthy brother had his immune system shot to hell thanks to radiation (didn’t we just see that?), and he’s only got five days, in the clean room. House stalks out Foreman, who’s in the hospital chapel. He and Foreman debate the issues of the case, and Foreman joins them up in the children’s room. House wants to do (shocker) a risky procedure that may end up in both kids’ deaths, and Wilson doesn’t help much convincing the parents, but they do agree.
Chase and Foreman are out and about, investigating the patients’ house, to see if there are any clues there. They talk about last week’s case, and whether or not Foreman’s going to get in trouble for his negligent behavior. Foreman basically is worried that he’s turning into House. Just now, he’s figured that out. He’s been like that for all three seasons. Anyway, Chase finds some interesting materials near the water pipe in the backyard, and takes some samples from the pump. They come back to the kids’ rooms, and Matty (the healthier kid) says that he used to drink from it once and again. Matty tells the docs that he’s got some down-there problems: his scrotum’s awfully big. House tells Foreman to do some tests to fix it, but Foreman wants to check for another donor for the leukemia-stricken brother, even though it’s obvious he has other reasons.
In the pathology room, Chase and Cameron do some tests (as they always do), and he reminds her that it’s Tuesday, the day he reminds her he lurves her. Really? Sheesh, just ‘cause they’re engaged in real life. He then wonders if Matty has an infection that led to the enlarged scrotum, or if he has cardiac injury due to the radiation. They find a growth in his heart, that would end up taking his brother out. His infected heart makes him a non-donor. House laughs this off, and says that he needs open-heart surgery and then he can be a donor. Everyone else argues this, and it’s off to Cuddy’s; Wilson argues for it and Foreman argues against it. Cuddy tells Wilson to logically explain things out, and then asks House why he let Foreman do his thing. House says that he knows Foreman’s lost his confidence and wants to let him get it back. Well, get it back within four days, or he’s fired. And he compares Foreman to Scott Norwood, the infamous Bills place-kicker. Yes, he screwed up a Super Bowl. Just makes it worse for us Bills fans.
Wilson explains to the parents about the risks of the surgery, but recommends it. Matty says goodbye to his brother as he’s taken into surgery. The parents continue to hem and haw, but Cameron says they did the right thing. Then we get our icky moment of the week, as we see the heart being worked on, right in the open. Yick.
House is at his apartment, asleep in front of the TV, when he gets a call from Wilson, who didn’t do the surgery. They biopsied a piece of the heart and the growth wasn’t infectious tissue. House tells Wilson that Hector, his new dog, is stoned from eating half of House’s Vicodin. Back at the hospital, House wants to know how they missed the fibrous tissue in his heart. Cameron says it may be an autoimmune disease, making Matty still a capable donor. Foreman says it’s an infection (I wonder why…), but House says it’s an autoimmune disease. Cameron’s testing Matty, when his brother gets her attention, because of a strange darkened part of his right arm.
House and Wilson are wondering how Hector got into the pills, when House falls down, thanks to his whittled-down cane. House wants to off Hector, since he is 17 years old. Cameron and Chase arrive to say that it’s not autoimmune, and Nicky (the leukemia-riddled brother) has bruising on his arm. Foreman, meanwhile, is selling the parents on a new donor, even though it’s the last thing House wants. It’s only a partial-match transplant, as House and Wilson explain the very big risks of this transplant (including a very small reference to ‘Arrested Development’), but the parents say that the risks of having Nicky bleed into his brain without a transplant are too big, so they want the new transplant. Even with this, House is angrier at Wilson for being a coward and not sticking up for what he believes; Foreman did that much, and we see him perform the transplant.
House walks into his apartment, having left his door open, loudly and hilariously bemoaning the fact that his dog left. The dog is still there, but his stereo’s not. He walks down the hall and slams the door in the dog’s face, leaving a whimpering pup.
Back at the hospital, Cameron is treating Matty, and he wonders why they can’t figure out what’s wrong with him, but can with Nicky. Matty begins to vigorously scratch an itch on his ear. Too bad his ear’s bleeding. Damn.
In a knick-knack store which sells weird sunglasses and pipes, House and Wilson meet up so Wilson can buy House a new cane. House apologizes for what he said, but then turns around and calls him pathetic. Ah, what a cute couple. House gets a call from Cameron about the ear bleeding. Meanwhile, the store vendor shows House some canes, including one made from a bull penis. And, I think we got our most random moment of the week. House buys a cane with flames on the bottom, deeming it “bitchin’.” And, so bitchin’ it is.
House gets back to the hospital, and Cameron, Chase and Foreman tell him about how quickly Matty is getting sick and how Nicky’s ‘Arrested Development’ reference, a Graft-vs.-Host, is making his sickness worse, and how little time he has left. House decides that the best thing to do is give Nicky Matty’s infection. Wilson and House explain what the plan is to the parents, who don’t want to kill one of their sons to save the other. House says that they either lose one or both sons. Wilson confirms, and says they should do it. The mother stands up and turns it down as does the father, as both do a little too much overacting.
House returns to tell the news to his colleagues, wondering how they can get around it. Foreman says that Matty can be saved, if tests are done, and goes off to prove it to House. After some pensive thought, House limps his way into Nicky’s room. Nicky’s having a hard go of things, gasping each breath. House gets Nicky’s dad to get him some painkillers; too bad those parents don’t know that House is a devious bastard. Instead of doing a crazy test, he smoothly convinces Nicky to save his brother.
In the testing room, Foreman and Wilson talk about how House has basically bitch-slapped them something fierce this week, and then Wilson notes how odd it is that the house the kids live in have a water pump. Back in Nicky’s room, he’s trying to convince his parents to let him save Matty. The parents tell him they don’t want him to, and do a much better job of acting this time around. Fast learners. Nicky tells them to let him do it for Matty, and they agree. Just as Cuddy’s about to start some surgery out, Foreman runs in and explains that what Matty has is based on him building his pitcher’s mound in the backyard on some infected farmland. Unfortunately, the infection ate away at his marrow, and he can’t be a donor. Matty, after being treated by Foreman, wants to know how Nicky’s going to be, and Foreman, on a whim, decides to get some bone marrow out anyway, without sedation. OK, so maybe this will be the icky moment of the night. Foreman jabs a massive needle in his side, and Matty screams his lungs out. Very intense stuff.
House is in his office when Wilson walks in, revealing that both kids are alive. House welcomes Foreman back in his mind, but doesn’t want to admit he’s proud, because he doesn’t need to. Wilson wants to know if Hector’s dead yet, but Hector’s in the office, chewing on Wilson’s stethoscope. Wilson tells House that since dogs are allowed in his ex-wife’s complex, Hector can go back unless House wants him. Wilson leashes Hector up and walks him out, until the dog turns around and looks at House. Yeah, right. House joins Foreman in the clean rooms, as they watch Matty and Nicky see each other in the same room for the first time. Foreman’s proud of what he did, but doesn’t want to become like House as a human as well as a doctor. House tells him that they’re not the same, but Foreman’s not having it: he’s giving his two-weeks notice. Well, since none of his colleagues have tried to quit, I’m sure that Omar Epps is leaving very soon. I’m sure we’ll see his farewell next week! Or maybe House will convince him to stay.
