Thoughts on 5-04
On my second viewing, I made notes as I watched (lots of pausing). I'll probably watch yet again tomorrow, it's so good.
One teeny complaint - the House and Wilson trip was so interwoven with the POTW stuff (very well, mind you) that it's not really possible to fast forward through the latter :D
Something that occurred to me after the first viewing was how Ms POTW found out who her birth parents are - the whole point of killing/abandoning your baby girl (in China) is that you're only allowed one child, therefore you don't want there to be any evidence that you've had one, so it would be very stupid to leave your name and address with the orphanage...
Small aside: I was intrigued to hear how much Mr Birth-daddy lost the tonality of his language when he got all shouty /language geek
I wasn't impressed with POTW's wound, speaking as someone with recent experience of being sliced open... My wounds were much neater!
How many producers does this show have? We're nearly six minutes in, and they're STILL listing them!
I don't like Foreman's snowflake tie at all, it doesn't suit him.
Why does Cuddy have a pin-striped labcoat? I'm not complaining that it's tailored, although it is, unlike most labcoats (apart from Wilson's, ho ho) but it seems a little odd to have it made of Special Fabric.
It might be a US/UK difference, but whenever I've had an injection in my rear, I've been asked to stand upright so that the muscle is 'fatter' as it allegedly hurts less. Cuddy seemed to be giving that injection a bit high up the muscle, too. OTOH, we got to see the top of House's butt, so hey, I'm not really being picky.
I liked the transition between House falling over unconscious and House waking up in Wilson's car, but OTOH I'm sorry that we didn't see Taub and Kutner (and possibly also Foreman and Chase) manhandling House into Wilson's car. None of the two teams were at all surprised when House mentioned that he was with Wilson.
Yay, Wilson! I was greatly amused that the team ringtone is MmmBop - I love that song, even though Hanson never did anything for me :D
I am sure that I heard House lowering his zipper - and how was he supposed to pee into that very narrow-necked bottle in a moving car? He should have peed on Wilson's car.
Why the hey would you type a note to put under the door of someone in your home? Wouldn't you just write it by hand? Or did Col. House get his secretary/batman/whatever you call an assistant to a senior rank in the Marines to type them out for him?
I love Kutner - he's got a great sense of humour, and I like finding out more about him. For me, the ideal House team would be Chase, Kutner, Taub and Foreman, with Cameron popping up from the ER at regular intervals to be entertaining and smack House. Thirteen would go away, or shut up about her Huntington's (I'm sorry, but whenever I find myself beginning to warm to her a bit ("Bubbles." "Is that your stripper name?" "Yes.", ho ho) she does something really annoying (next episode, I suspect, although I am hoping to be proved wrong). But I digress.
Presumably Wilson knew that House would probably drop the first flashlight? Why else would he have two? The whole rest-stop section was my favourite bit of the episode - keys down the drain, arguing, the two flashlights - and Wilson passively-aggressively winding the second flashlight was excellent, as was the image of Wilson winding the first one while holding the straightened-out coathanger in his mouth.
How long has Cam known House? Mind you, she did manage to correct herself. Chase is wonderful - a 'giant cookie shaped like a coffin' would definitely convince Blythe, if anything would.
I like the tie-in to Mistakes, with Chase reminding us about his dad dying and him being so discombobulated that he killed a patient.
I loved the whole sherriff section - the cane on the accelerator, House's (clearly really pleased) "uh oh", Wilson's expression at the sherriff making him get out of the car and be cuffed [small interlude while I remember the sight of both House and Wilson being cuffed], House's knowledge of how misdemeanor law works, the sherriff saying "Not if your mother's alive, you don't" (although he said it as if he knew that Blythe was still alive, rather than saying it as if he was suggesting it - but that's me being very picky again).
I enjoyed House trying to prevent their release, by claiming that Wilson had stabbed someone, and then insulting the sherriff's home-town.
I loved Blythe talking to Wilson ("James") as if she knew perfectly well how House had actually got there. Side note - I wonder when Wilson first met the House parents...
Wilson apparently thinks that Sean Connery is good-looking.
I very much enjoyed Wilson's expressions at the funeral - being embarrassed when House started the eulogy in a less-than-complimentary way, then getting very suspicious when House went over to the coffin (and another aside - boo hoo at not seeing R Lee Ermy as John House any more). And were those the nail-clippers from Wilson's ready-for-anything kit?
WHY is it so amazingly hot when House and Wilson start shouting at each other? *fans self* I thought the bottle should have been slowed down a bit - the moment should have been stretched out a little more, IMO.
I wasn't sure at first what I thought of John House not being House's birth-father, but having watched the episode again I actually like it. House clearly realised at the end of the episode that like it or not, John House was his father because he was the man that raised him. I thought it worked really well when House said to Wilson that his dad was dead, and Wilson just said "yes, my condolences" although I think they could have managed at least half a hug, in a manly *cough* way.
I think that's it for now.
And in summary, YAY.
(For anyone who missed the end because of their TiVo not behaving, this is what happened:
Wilson said that you couldn't choose your parents, and he was beginning to think that you couldn't choose your friends, then House asked if he was hungry, which he was, and they went to the office door. House paused and said "Wilson - my dad's dead" in a sad voice, and Wilson said "Yeah. My condolences" and they left the office together.)