House 7x01 'Now What?'
My expectations for this episode were quite low. That being established, I'll just say up front: I didn't hate it. My impression after one viewing is that it was mostly light, fluffy, and amusing, but with just a bit of intriguing foreshadowing.
One of my favorite movies of all times is Annie Hall. Like in that movie, we had a newly united couple attempting to create memorable moments together, with mixed results. Like in that movie, this led to some good comedy ... but it was problematic for me, too. The man whose knowledge of chemistry helped him master cooking a year ago suddenly thought that pouring Listerine in a bath was a good idea? Not to mention thinking he could slice open a champagne bottle with a sword. Amusing, but so out of character that I had to just forget who these people were supposed to be to really enjoy it.
Fortunately, in between the gauzy slo-mo sex and the Allen-esque shenanigans, there were moments when House and Cuddy actually had something to say to each other. In Annie Hall, Diane Keaton's character asks Woody Allen's if he loves her. Woody Allen's character responded by telling her "I luff you. I louve you". In a similar scene, Cuddy complains that House didn't return her declaration of love. House spells out "I lobe you" with the pieces from a board game. Cuddy looks less than amused. But in the end, he manages to choke out the actual words. Touching, but unsettling, too, which is what I expect from this show.
There were some much-needed sprinkles of foreshadowing of conflict to come, and it even ended it on an unbalanced note, with House and Cuddy's good night smiles fading into looks of worry. But for me, the best moment of the episode were when Wilson got it into his head that House was in trouble. This led to some good comedy, but with an undertone of darkness that left me with good food for thought afterward.
Throughout the episode, Cuddy - in a call back to last season's 5-9 - was constantly aware that she has a hospital to run. House resorted to much conniving, trickery, and pouting to try and keep Cuddy's full attention on him instead of her responsibilities. He took her phone away and told her assistant that she was sick, he turned his phone's ringer off (she turned it back on), he snuck quick calls to Chase, ordering him to handle a hospital crisis on his own, and refused to listen to arguments.
In contrast, once he got the whiff of House's possible need, Wilson would not be stopped. He phoned, he left his job to show up and pound on House's door, and finally he broke into House's apartment! Once inside, he was in full-on enabler/caretaker mode. Along with giving House an on-the-spot exam, he swept him with a tidal wave of panic-tinged attention: "Are you okay? Are you sure you're okay? I don't think you're okay. Are you back on drugs? It's okay if you are, I understand if you are. Do you want me to stay? You shouldn't be alone. I can pretend to like monster trucks and we can hang out!" etc, etc. House couldn't get rid of him fast enough.
This contrast between Cuddy and Wilson here really struck me. As I've written before, when it comes to House, to love him is to feed him. If he's hungry, he'll take everything you're holding out to him, and half your arm with it. If he's not, he'll shove you away without a moment's hesitation. In a moment of honesty (reflecting a very similar moment with Stacy, years ago) House told Cuddy that he was a terrible choice, especially for someone with a child. Cuddy wasn't prepared to consider that at this stage, and she managed to convince him (and perhaps herself) that she didn't expect or need him to change. That she just wanted to see if they could find a way of making this work. Oh, my.
All in all, these glances of darkness did a good job of balancing the fluffy lightness of the episode, over all. I would have actually preferred less straight comedy, especially with the medical case back at the hospital, but as a whole, I think it did a good job as a prologue for the season to come.