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8-21: "Holding On" 2012.05.14


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#1

TWoP Nikita

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Posted May 13, 2012 @ 12:37 PM

From Zap2it:

The team believes a patient's problems are both physical and psychological; Foreman tries an alternative approach with House.


Thread will open at 10:00pm EDT on 5/14.

#2

aquarian1

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Posted May 14, 2012 @ 9:05 PM

I was about to give up on this show, months back, then I heard it was its last season so I have kept watching. I can't believe these last episodes are affecting me so much. I was *not* tearing up here, I tell you. Nope. Not me. (ahem) Even though I felt some anvils it didn't matter in the end. Thirteen didn't even bother me, although she didn't really add anything either.
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#3

Cervisian

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Posted May 14, 2012 @ 9:34 PM

I am far too distracted by the fact that physical season tickets don't get sent out until September and don't have your name on them. And 45ish of them probably wouldn't clog that many toilets. I can't believe that, of everything, that's what's ruining it for me.
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#4

Jeann

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Posted May 14, 2012 @ 9:35 PM

Oh, if only the earlier episodes this season had been as stunning as this one, the show might have been renewed.
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#5

rollingstone

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Posted May 14, 2012 @ 9:52 PM

Okay, let me get this straight. House and Wilson spend, what, thirty-seven of the actual forty-two minutes of air time of the ep debating, snarking, arguing, crying, manipulating and fighting about whether Wilson will do any chemo and extend his life beyond the five months he would have without it. Then, House gets a ridiculous sentence (do people really get their parole revoked for engaging in pranks that would be too lame for the foreign language club at the local high school?) where he'll be "away" for six months, and it's supposed to be this amazing twist and gut-wrenching tragedy? Why can't Wilson do the chemo he had already agreed to do and still be around after House gets out? Duh! Thank goodness the acting in this ep was stellar, Otherwise, I'd have been throwing shoes at my TV screen.

And another thing. Something that's been through miles of plumbing, including the sewage system comes out looking better than something I spilled some coffee on at my desk today, and the fingerprints on it are still intact? Please just stop this.

Edited by rollingstone, May 14, 2012 @ 10:01 PM.

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#6

tobiatoo

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Posted May 14, 2012 @ 9:54 PM

"I need you to tell me you love me."

Finally. After eight years, finally.
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#7

Jeann

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Posted May 14, 2012 @ 9:55 PM

I thought for sure that House was being arrested for the attempted strangling murder of the patient. Surprised that the mother didn't press charges. To be fair, though, the "prank" destroyed a million dollar piece of medical equipment, and endangered several lives.

Edited by Jeann, May 14, 2012 @ 9:56 PM.

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#8

arachne

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Posted May 14, 2012 @ 10:49 PM

Okay, this is not going to end well.

A relatively minor detail that keeps nagging me: How did House round up so many fake "Wilson survivors" in such an apparently short time, and what did it set him back?

Edited by arachne, May 14, 2012 @ 10:49 PM.

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#9

Driad

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Posted May 14, 2012 @ 11:11 PM

I'm satisfied, because what I want most from these last few episodes is for HL and RSL to have plenty of opportunity to show their acting chops (and HL to play the piano). As for medical accuracy, why expect the show to change now?

arachne, maybe House hired these people from the same agency that provided the young actor to play "Wilson's son."

Glad Foreman is the voice of reason (which Cuddy rarely was).
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#10

missy jo

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Posted May 14, 2012 @ 11:35 PM

I was about to give up on this show, months back, then I heard it was its last season so I have kept watching. I can't believe these last episodes are affecting me so much.


I agree with you all that the show is going out the way it should, with the relationship between House and Wilson front and center. They've pulled me back in the past couple episodes.
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#11

MrWhyt

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Posted May 14, 2012 @ 11:40 PM

do people really get their parole revoked for engaging in pranks that would be too lame for the foreign language club at the local high school?

As Foreman said destroying multi-million $ MRI = Felony vandalism.

How did House round up so many fake "Wilson survivors" in such an apparently short time, and what did it set him back?

Same talent agency he got Wilson's son from?
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#12

bros402

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 1:17 AM

Yes, but it is simply an accusation of felony vandalism

Parole wouldn't be revoked for an accusation. It would be revoked upon conviction (or they would simply place restrictions on him, such as a monitoring anklet, for the duration of the trial)
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#13

mcjen

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 3:46 AM

Something that's been through miles of plumbing, including the sewage system comes out looking better than something I spilled some coffee on at my desk today, and the fingerprints on it are still intact?

Seriously. Made me immediately wonder if Foreman hadn't taken a page from House's playbook, as in, the "hospital's lawyer" is an actor hired to threaten House with parole...so Wilson would go on chemo. But the preview to next week seemed to suggest otherwise.

Can't count how many times this season I've winced at the repeated use of do-this-or-your-parole-will-be-revoked, because I've just found it boring. And lazy. So I'm pretty bummed if this is indeed the device that's being used to set up the series finale.
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#14

rollingstone

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 5:21 AM

Wasn't the first flood in Foreman's office? Isn't that on the first floor? And then there was another toilet, location unknown, and then the toilet ABOVE the MRI machine. Unless that machine is in the basement, or House flushed the tickets in smaller batches (which would make it almost impossible for the clogs to be big enough to back up that way) that means that this evil wad of tickets traveled UP through the plumbing? So, now, this show is trying to convince me that the laws of gravity don't apply?
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#15

cambridgeguy

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 6:07 AM

A relatively minor detail that keeps nagging me: How did House round up so many fake "Wilson survivors" in such an apparently short time, and what did it set him back?


Maybe he went to the clinic and offered everyone fifty bucks and a free meal?

It is kind of odd that he managed to get away with trying to murder his patient but I suppose it doesn't fit the narrative if he misses out on Wilson's last days because of a spontaneous, out of character act driven by extreme emotional distress.
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#16

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 6:51 AM

Not liking it at all. Forced. Phony. Stupid. It beggars belief that House wouldn't be called on the carpet for assaulting a patient. But that scene in the hallway, that was the most convincing yelling I've ever heard from Hugh Laurie on this show.
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#17

090108joanna

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 7:35 AM

I wanted to like this as much as the last two episodes, but several things just didn't ring true, at all. First of all, I don't doubt at all that House could've found and convinced at least several of Wilson's real patients to show up, rather than having to hire fake patients. Wilson's patients adore him. He is beloved by them, and people who've survived cancer really do tend to give great credit to their doctors. It was a heartwarming, lovely scene, and then making it fake just turned my stomach. Second, the season tickets debacle. I could see House being upset that Foreman made this gesture, because, even though Foreman meant well, it's just throwing salt in the wound to do it so soon, while Wilson's still around, so I could also understand House stuffing them down a toilet in anger. But I doubt very much that would cause all the damage that occurred, or that House would be criminally charged for damage that no one can prove he intended.

If House really goes back to jail, and Wilson dies, I don't see how the final episode can be "uplifting," as Hugh called it. So I think something else has to happen in "Everybody Dies."

House's scene with Taub in the hallway was great, though. Of course he wants Wilson to fight -- like he said, he's in pain all the time, and hasn't given up, so he finds it hard to understand why anyone else would give up, especially Wilson.
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#18

Homo_Sapien

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 8:19 AM

Forced. Phony. Stupid.

Wilson's cancer seems so contrived. But apparently he has the type that allows you to keep your hair, look good and act normal right up to your deathbed scene.

Why would Wilson expect House to be a different type of friend when he has accepted House for who he is for the past 20 years? Again, contrived.

If Wilson were a real person, I would feel sorry for him having only House as a friend at the end of his life. If Wilson wanted close, supportive friends, he would have cultivated them over the years. It's the the whole "you've made your bed, now lie in it" thing. It has been established that Wilson is close with his patients - he gets Christmas gifts from them and even donated part of his liver to one.

But everything is about House, so Wilson's death has to be about House. Blech.

Edited by Homo_Sapien, May 15, 2012 @ 11:32 AM.

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#19

redbudrose

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 9:27 AM

Couldn't someone have stolen the tickets? It doesn't seem like they can just force House back into jail.

This show really wants my heart on a platter. I missed Chase, but was glad to see 13. I wonder if Wilson and House will go on the run for 5 months and then House will serve whatever he has to, so his BFF gets to live out his life.

My other though to the title Everybody Dies, is that Wilson and 13 die.
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#20

Beth64

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 9:42 AM

Wilson's cancer seems so contrived. But apparently he has the type that allows you to keep your hair, look good and act normal right up to your deathbed scene.



i agree that it's contrived, but it's cancer treatment that makes you look so bad and lose your hair, so that's why he still looks good, no treatment.

When we first heard the diagnosis, it was a very treatable cancer; that he's dying from it so quickly is what bothers me. If they wanted him to die, why not make it stage 3 or some less treatable kind?

It was an okay ep. I can see why they needed someone else to come and kick House in the butt about his behavior. And, given she's terminal, it makes sense that it was 13.
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#21

preeya

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 11:01 AM

Can or will the last episode be any more tedious than this one? Farewell Dr. House et al.

Edited by preeya, May 15, 2012 @ 11:02 AM.

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#22

Unspoiled

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 1:42 PM

Yeah, I feel jerked around. And I don't like it.
Here's one thing that puzzles me. Why not let the radiant Thirteen demonstrate some appearance of her Huntingtons disease, like a little twitch or something? That would make it slightly more interesting to me, when she shows up to offer her sympathy looking as fresh and healthy as any young lady ever has.
House played music! Does anyone remember the last time he did that? Cuz it feels like years.
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#23

daniella1

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 1:44 PM

WTF with almost choking a patient to death? I don't care how emotionally distressed House is, everyone has problems in life, but it's never justification for taking it out on an innocent person, especially a patient. I for one was glad to see him back in jail. In fact, he should never be allowed to practice medicine again.

Throughout this series, I have been sick of House's extreme self-centeredness, and this episode was the icing on top of that cake. Was the show actually trying to make us feel sorry for House because he's not going to be able to spend time with his friend after he tried to murder his patient? Uh, not so much. Most people have had to deal with a loved one dying, and most people do not try to murder someone else in order to cope.

While I have enjoyed this series for the medical plotlines, House has always been repulsive to me. He gets to be a perpetual ass because he has chronic pain? I don't buy that and I never have. Having known people with terminal illnesses such as cystic fibrosis living their lives with courage and optimism, I have little to no sympathy for a well paid doctor who is totally healthy except for a bum leg acting like a perpetual victim and treating everyone else like crap. And if House weren't so vain to begin with as to demand that his leg be kept when they were going to amputate it, he wouldn't have the chronic pain problem at all. Someone who thinks living life with one leg (and a prosthetic) is just too hard has no idea what a hard life is, and certainly doesn't get to lecture patients or anyone else about how "life is pain," or any of the victim bullshit that House says on an hourly basis.
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#24

lz1982

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 1:50 PM

When we first heard the diagnosis, it was a very treatable cancer; that he's dying from it so quickly is what bothers me. If they wanted him to die, why not make it stage 3 or some less treatable kind?


That really bothered me too. It would have been so easy to set things up differently a few episodes back. When Wilson announced he had cancer, I looked up the survival rates for Stage 2 thymoma. It was 85% after five years and 78% after ten. Obviously, Wilson wasn't guaranteed to live, but he wouldn't have gone from those kinds of survival rates to a sure death sentence after a few weeks.
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#25

marceline

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 2:01 PM

I don't see how House couldn't defend himself against the charge of vandalism simply by saying, "I flushed them because I didn't want them. How was I to know that they would bunk up the loo?" Plead ignorance and dare them to make their case.

House's remark to Taub that he's often thought of ending it all gives me hope that he will decide to off himself. Let Wilson die suddenly and House kills himself on Wilson's grave. The ghosts of Amber and Kutner can come back to usher them to the after life on a bus and just as that bus is about to fade into the light, it stops and Thirteen gets on.

Done.
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#26

Lollia Pollina

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 2:31 PM

Thirteen added absolutely nothing to the episode, and there was no explanation why she was in Princeton instead of in her Sapphic love nest on a Greek island. Just another incidence of DS's annoying Thirteen adoration. She came to counsel lesser mortals with her superior wisdom. She was damned near wearing a halo.

But everything is about House, so Wilson's death has to be about House. Blech.


Yeah, but the name of the show is House, so yes, everything including Wilson's death is about House. Foreman and House's team seemed much more concerned about House's ability to cope with Wilson's loss than with Wilson, and as unfair as that is to Wilson, it's perfectly consistent. House has always acted as if normal rules don't apply to him, and his colleagues and patients enable that, until suddenly they can't anymore and he ends up in jail or a rehab centre. (Like the Lindsay Lohan story except Lindsay's been recast as a diagnostician with a limp.)

Not surprised that House gets charged on damage to property rather than assault. The courts tend to take hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to property rather more seriously than they do common assualt.

I didn't get into the cheerleader's story at all, and he looked too old for the part.

I think the ending punished Wilson much more than it did House.

It has been established that Wilson is close with his patients - he gets Christmas gifts from them and even donated part of his liver to one.


It's doubtful that Wilson and liver donation guy are still friends. Wilson was rather disillustioned with him after liver guy dumped his family for the second time, and he struck me as a fairweather friend in any case.

I think that spending time with people who like you for yourself is different and perhaps more valuable to Wilson than spending time with former patients who are grateful to you for doing your job. Emotional intimacy seems to be what Wilson needs and that seems to be something he can only get from House, not from grateful patients, or disappointed but forgiving ex-wives and girlfriends, or even from his (detached, distant) family.

Edited by Lollia Pollina, May 15, 2012 @ 2:52 PM.

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#27

Helena Dax

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 3:42 PM

I didn't like it, maybe because it was too dark and depressing. In a TV show like this, I don't want to spend my last hours with it worrying and dealing with jails and death. And I hate when writers think that killing a loved character is an awesome way to get people to remember a show. Besides, House goes back to prision without a trial?

When we knew about Wilson's cancer I thought that he was going to die and that House's ex -I don't remember her name, Domenika?- was going to come back and give House another chance. I still think that it's going to happen that way. I love them as a couple, but I don't want them together like a consolation prize because they've killed Wilson.

I didn't like House attacking the patient, either.
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#28

Javert

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 5:33 PM

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode up until the very last scene when the flushed tickets are what cause House's parole to be revoked. It just made zero sense especially since House strangling his patient would be sufficient and a more iron-clad reason for him to go back to jail. I was expecting the hospital lawyer to be informing House that PotW was pressing charges and suing the hospital.

But still, the show has really rebounded from in the last three episodes and I look forward to the finale.
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#29

misterbfd

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Posted May 15, 2012 @ 10:59 PM

Lawyer: "Your fingerprints are on the tickets".
Me: "Of course. They're MY tickets. MY tickets, that were stolen from my office."
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#30

lulu42

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Posted May 16, 2012 @ 1:14 AM

House's remark to Taub that he's often thought of ending it all gives me hope that he will decide to off himself. Let Wilson die suddenly and House kills himself on Wilson's grave. The ghosts of Amber and Kutner can come back to usher them to the after life on a bus and just as that bus is about to fade into the light, it stops and Thirteen gets on.

Done.


I wish you'd been one of the writers for the last two seasons. This is a brilliant ending.


edited because I can't "quote."

Edited by lulu42, May 16, 2012 @ 1:15 AM.

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