6108 replies to this topic

[DumbBrunette]

You either love him or hate him, it seems. I am firmly on the "love" side, though.

So, what? Troubled young man who's also devastatingly pretty? Or a fink who should get smacked? Speak your mind here.

[anybodysfool07]

I also fall firmly on the "love" side.

But this could have something to do with the accent. He could be spouting Satanic messages and I wouldn't care. Pretty accent.

[DumbBrunette]

Hee. For me, it's all about the flippy hair. And the eyes. And the pretty, pretty face.

I'll wade into the deep end later, when I'm not so giddy.

[freebie]

Oh, DumbBrunette, you know where I stand. Pretty accent, pretty everything. Gah. Hope his hair is somewhat less floppy next season. And, really, I will attempt to be much more cerebral with later posts. Just have to get the shallow out of my system. ::shimmies:: There. All done.

[manic]

Maybe we should just call him Floppy, the happy duckling that follows after House and Cameron, sexually confused and resorting to Tic-Tacs

scarcasm only works if you can spell

Edited by manic, Jun 9, 2005 @ 9:35 PM.

[CeilingofStars]

What IS his accent, btw? I don't remember.

[scair]

Oh good, fellow Chase apologists! I like him in spite of his slight weasel tendencies because I think his inner rat fink is just a little more obvious than everyone else's. His is of the CYA variety, Cameron's is the self-centered diva and Foreman's is of the Arrogant Bastard ilk(a la House). And oh fine, because of the pretty, too.

[manic]

What IS his accent?

Australian

[freebie]

Do we post actor talk in here, too, or do we need actor-specific threads? If we go the separate route, may I suggest "Jesse Spencer: Won't You Be My Neighbour?" as the title of a Jesse-centric thread?

More on topic: I'm really looking forward to the re-airing of "Damned If You Do" in a couple of weeks. I think people who've only been exposed to latter day-Chase will be in for a surprise. Combining the information we learned about his seminary days and loss of faith with the insight we gained about his mother in "Socratic Method" really made me sit up and take notice of this character early on.

[DumbBrunette]

Not to mention that "Damned If You Do" really explains why Chase did what he did. That whole "faith vs. fear" thing.

[kc2win]

Yeah, pretty, very pretty. But so uptight. Is there an episode where he lets his hair down? Even when his sick dad was visiting, he was so detached... I guess he's all about climbing up the ladder, by hook or by crook.

Edited by kc2win, Jun 9, 2005 @ 10:34 PM.

[scair]

Yeah, pretty, very pretty. But so uptight. Is there an episode where he lets his hair down? Even when his sick dad was visiting, he was so detached...

Which does fit with his background, though. Distant/abandoning dad and alcoholic mom can turn into overcontrolling guy with-ick, I hate this term-intimacy issues. He did relax pretty well with Cameron and Foreman in Sports Medicine, though.

[freebie]

Even when his sick dad was visiting, he was so detached

Chase has no idea his dad is sick, though, as Rowan, Father of the Year, has neglected to share this bit of information with his son. In fact, he almost pawned the job off on Chase's substitute dad, one Gregory House, but House elected to keep the information to himself. Interestingly, House was going to tell Chase the truth, until he found out Chase did love dear old dad despite all his shortcomings. And even after telling House, "I've given him enough hugs," what's the last thing Chase does before putting papa in a cab? That's right, he *hugs* him. ::melts:: So conflicted. So lost. I really do like my pretty with a side of angst.

Edited by freebie, Jun 25, 2005 @ 7:39 PM.

[Tigress35]

Call me crazy, but I think Chase is a fascinating character. And he's hot and Australian. I think Love Hurts was probably one of my favorite episodes just because of Chase.

[labyrinth]

I guess he's all about climbing up the ladder, by hook or by crook.

I didn't get this impression at all from the Vogler arc and I haven't seen any kind of behavior that could be called ambitious. Instead, I think he's all about finding and staying in a 'safe' place, which is understandable after essentially being abandoned by both his parents. If anything, I think his detachment comes from not trusting that anyone is going to stay around long enough for him to risk getting close to them. He can manage being the easy-going chum and colleague, but he'd probably duck out first if he thought anyone was getting too attached or was getting ready to bolt on him.

Word, Tigress35. On all counts.

[D.C.]

I guess he's all about climbing up the ladder, by hook or by crook.

I've heard people reference Chase's ambition before, and I've got to say, I've never seen it. Reading the recap reminded me that so much of what people think of as ass kissing is actually done well out of House's hearing. The way he defends House to Cameron and Foreman makes me think he really has a hero-thing for House, not that he's trying to suck up just to get ahead.

[mishy]

I vote pretty which I have stated repeatedly. Damned If You Do is my favorite episode and I am constantly re-watching it, I think it shows a side of Chase that we unfortunately haven’t seen since but I hope that that means we will be getting some good background on him come season 2.

[Lauraw]

Well I've got my mother watching House and we've basically decided there's just something about Dr Chase. Don't know why I'm suddenly a Chase fan, though, because I was never really a Billy Kennedy fan when JS was on Neighbours...guess I've now seen the error of my ways...

My mother's mentioned him twice already, and we're only up to "Poison" over here in the UK. When we were watching "Maternity," at the end when Chase takes off his mask to give the good news to the couple whose baby survived, my mum suddenly said "there's really something nice about him." Then in "Poison," without any prompting, she said "you can bring him home if you want..."

High praise indeed...

I'm a self-confessed fan of the Chase/House relationship...personally I think HL and JS seem to work well together. There's a nice dynamic there that I hope gets explored more as the series progresses.

[flakewhite]

Somewhere during the season, I became a Chase fan and I think it is based just on the Pretty. He's so non-threatening compared to House, so transparent compared to Wilson, so laid-back compared to Foreman, and so caught up in troubles that were not of his making, unlike Cameron.

Someone called him Sparky on the orignial House board. At first put off, I am now partial to the name. He's built like a little fireplug, he's bouncy and energetic. Pretty Sparky, heel, boy,heel!

Edited by flakewhite, Mar 25, 2007 @ 1:09 PM.

[Lauraw]

Lauraw, I'll take comfort that your mother's fond of him, too.

Fond of him in a "oooh fictional rich Australian doctor will finally get my daughter off my hands and out of my house...and look good in wedding photos we send to relatives" kind of way, yeah...

Edited by Lauraw, Jun 10, 2005 @ 12:05 PM.

[freebie]

I'm one of those women who is closer in age to Hugh than to Jesse, but that doesn't stop me from watching an unholy amount of WB programming. So I refuse to believe that Chase is meant only to draw in the young girls. I mean, he may look pretty, but there's depth there, too, dammit! I definitely agree with Lauraw about the House/Chase dynamic. It really is fascinating to watch and goes a long way toward explaining the Chase character. House *so* has Chase's number, but I also think that Chase is gratified to know that House has taken the time to figure him out.

I also find it very interesting that House knows considerably more about Chase than Cameron or Foreman seem to know. Chase is awfully closed-mouthed around them (I'm thinking in particular of the "faith" discussion when they're giving the nun the MRI in "Damned If You Do"). Chase is a master at getting away with revealing absolutely nothing about himself. That tendency is also probably what drove him to keep quiet at first about knowing the dominatrix in "Love Hurts." Favorite House/Chase moments?

• In "Damned If You Do," when House posits that Chase knows nuns because he's a good Catholic boy, and Chase, by non-response, says that if the nun has a secret, her boss would know.
• In "Detox," after the masseuse leaves, House, unasked, tells Chase, "I'm fine." Chase's reply? "I know."
• In "Cursed," the big scene when House decides *not* to tell Chase about his dad's illness. So incredibly revealing about both characters.
• In "Kids," when Chase, who's been punished all episode by House, keeps coming back for more. In their last scene together, when House is watching the young patient interact with her parents, Chase tells him she'll be fine. House's reply? "I know."
• In "The Honeymoon," when Chase, for the first time post-Vogler, risks bantering with House, House rewards him with the "minx" comment. Lovely.

[labyrinth]

My Chase fixation has me worried. I know he's there for the girls, but I guess old ladies, too.

No worries, flakewhite! It's the 21st century and we should joyfully follow (if we choose) the lead of women like Barbara Hershey, Susan Sarandon, and yes, even Demi Moore. I like Emma Thompson's comment to people who ask her what her secret is to looking good and happiness, "Find a much younger man who is terribly nice to you. It works wonders!"

Someone called him Sparky on the orignial House board.

Didn't House call him that in Honeymoon, when he told Foreman to check out Stacy's house? I thought he said, "Take Sparky with you."

In "Kids," when Chase, who's been punished all episode by House, keeps coming back for more.

I think this episode is one of my absolute favorites for all the House/Chase moments! But another great individual exchange & reaction was in Love Hurts when House says he wouldn't have tortured Chase if he knew he enjoyed it!

House knows considerably more about Chase than Cameron or Foreman seem to know. Chase is awfully closed-mouthed around them...Chase is a master at getting away with revealing absolutely nothing about himself.

And the writers are conspiring to keep it that way...when Chase starts to explain to them why he was seeing the burn-fetish banker in Love Hurts, saying "it was a weird scene...," he gets interrupted!

edited because economy of space is a virtue!

Edited by labyrinth, Jun 10, 2005 @ 12:44 PM.

[flakewhite]

Chase is a master at getting away with revealing absolutely nothing about himself.

Chase never says anything about himself,we don't know the when and where things occurred, but we do know an awful lot about him. His reactions are written all over his face. He's make a lousy poker player. He just doesn't seem to have the guile that, say, Wilson has. Chase, try as he might to keep his cards close to his chest while dropping them all over the table isn't anything at all like House in this respect. We know as much or more about Chase as we do about Cameron, much more than we know about Foreman.

Thank you,labyrinth, for telling me where the Sparky name first showed up. And I do think it fits him.

[freebie]

We know as much or more about Chase as we do about Cameron, much more than we know about Foreman.

Oh, I agree that *we* know a lot about Chase; it's Cameron and Foreman who don't know very much. And it's not because they're not inquisitive, it's just that he's good at deflection, and then something comes up and he doesn't raise it again. Even when it might make sense for him to defend himself (the girlfriend who was into being burned), if something interrupts his chance to talk about himself, he never goes back to the subject again.

The big reveals we've had came from him talking to patients ("DIYD," "Cursed," and "Socratic Method") or interacting with House. In "Damned If You Do," House surmises that Chase knows nuns because he was raised Catholic, and perhaps was interested in the church, rather than medicine, as a vocation. Chase, alone with the nun, tells her his big secret, that he actually was a seminarian for a time. But when Foreman, a guy he works with every day, asks him whether or not he believes in God, he replies by saying that he believes the nun doesn't have whatver illness it was they were testing her for at that moment.

So, in the same episode, he's found out by House, who hits pretty close to the truth, and he tells a complete stranger a seriously intimate detail about himself. He quotes scripture with her, for crying out loud, but he won't tell Foreman whether or not he believes in God! Granted, a truthful answer would have to be pretty long-winded, but he could have said something fairly generic ("I was raised Catholic, but I'm more agnostic than anything these days") and left it at that. Instead, he tells his closest colleagues nothing. It's weird, I tell you, and makes me wonder why he's like that. In "Cursed," when Chase asks House if knowing about what he went through growing up will make House care about him more, House says it wouldn't change how he feels, but it would change how Cameron feels. Maybe that sort of reaction is what he's protecting himself against?

[Lauraw]

Instead, he tells his closest colleagues nothing. It's weird, I tell you, and makes me wonder why he's like that.

*shrugs* I think I probably would be if I were Chase. Given that the two people who should by rights have been there for him throughout a good portion of his life - his parents - were for one reason and another absent, what could be gained from telling Foreman and Cameron any more about his personal life? All it does is set him up for more disappointments of inviting people in, hoping that they'll remember his birthday or whatever else, and then maybe not getting everything back that he wants. So perhaps he thinks it's better to just stay distant. Because I'm guessing there's a whole can of worms just waiting to explode there, and what happens if he opens himself up to them and they don't react the way he'd like? Could be even more devestating than him not telling them anything and keeping it bottled up inside. And plus, they're not strangers, like his patients. He'd actually have to look them in the face and work with them after he told them about what has happened to him in the past. Seeing so many people who know what his life's been like might be somewhat unbearable - wondering what they're thinking all the time. At least with House, he tells you what he's thinking.

Which is why I'd kill for TPTB to write a really great relationship for Chase with somebody new. Somebody reasonably balanced, regular, and as un-screwed up a person as they can manage. Just somebody...nice.

And that's also why I think Chase's relationship with House is fascinating. Obviously House himself said knowing more about Chase's personal life wouldn't make him care about him any more. I wonder if that's what Chase likes. That House doesn't pander to him or try to buddy-buddy him and, so far, hasn't walked out on him, even though he obviously knows more about Chase's past than he would perhaps like. I get the feeling that House feels closer to Chase than he actually lets on. That actually he really does feel like it's his place to talk to Chase about his dad, for whatever reason. I wonder if as much as House is a father-type-figure for Chase, Chase means something to House.

Edited by Lauraw, Jun 10, 2005 @ 4:02 PM.

[D.C.]

Obviously House himself said knowing more about Chase's personal life wouldn't make him care about him any more. I wonder if that's what Chase likes. That House doesn't pander to him or try to buddy-buddy him and, so far, hasn't walked out on him, even though he obviously knows more about Chase's past than he would perhaps like.

I lean more towards the idea of Chase wanting to avoid the looks and conversations he'd have to have with Cameron and Foreman as his reason for keeping quiet than his fear of rejection. Look at how Cameron acted when his father popped up. And look at how he reacted to Cameron. If they knew about his past, whether it's his alcoholic mother or his abandoning father or his stint in seminary school (NOT seminary!), he'd become The Guy With Issues instead of The Other Doctor We Work With. I'm betting one big reason he came all the way to Princeton from Australia is so he could kind of reinvent himself. Telling everybody all about that self you're trying to get away from isn't the way to do that.

By the way, do we know where in Australia Chase is from? I think Jesse Spencer is from Melbourne, but what about Chase? And another by the way: What kind of a Czech name is Daddy Chase's "Rowan"? Or, for that matter, "Chase"? (Though I guess that could be a shortened version of a Czech name.)

[Lauraw]

Well I think that's what's so fascinating about Chase. He's a whole bundle of insecurities and complexes...wrapped up in a not-wholly unattractive package. :) Combine a fear of what other people will say with a fear of rejection, a fear of not being as good as your father whose footsteps you've perhaps relucantly followed in, and a fear of losing anything that has ever actually made you feel safe and like part of a family? Makes for a very interesting character.

And another by the way: What kind of a Czech name is Daddy Chase's "Rowan"? Or, for that matter, "Chase"? (Though I guess that could be a shortened version of a Czech name.)

If I'm going to try and justify the writers here, I'll buy the idea that the name was anglicized during the move to Australia. My grandparents on my mother's side were Italian emmigrants to the UK in the 50s and their surname went through a change from as simple a thing as a spelling mistake on a form. Plus all my Grandad's friends used to call him Tony. It was years before I realised that was a shortening of Antonio which was his middle (not even his first) name.

However, my real hunch is that they named the guy before they thought of his background...

Edited by Lauraw, Jun 10, 2005 @ 4:22 PM.

[labyrinth]

If they knew about his past, whether it's his alcoholic mother or his abandoning father or his stint in seminary school (NOT seminary!), he'd become The Guy With Issues instead of The Other Doctor We Work With. I'm betting one big reason he came all the way to Princeton from Australia is so he could kind of reinvent himself.

This makes a lot of sense, D.C. I hadn't considered it. I imagine Chase thinks of himself as being quite self-sufficient, having been forced into an adult/caretaker role very early. It would probably irk the hell out of him that others might think he's a tragic figure or needs people to take care of him or love him...which would make a Cameron/Chase pairing toxic, as illustrated by the scene in Cursed that you cite.

[Meems]

It would probably irk the hell out of him that others might think he's a tragic figure or needs people to take care of him or love him

Hmm... sounds like somebody else we know.

I know people think Foreman is very similar to House, but I say he's much more like Wilson, and that Chase is actually the miniHouse of the bunch.