"It's never lupus."
Hee!
For the most part, I really enjoyed this episode - mainly because it unequivocally identifies Chase as the mini-House. But we'll start with the bits that irked me first...
I'm vaguely annoyed that the writers have apparently decided to go with deliberately unrepentant brown-noser as Chase's canon characterization. I get some of it, but not to the extent that we really need Foreman griping and sniping about it half a dozen times in every episode. I've always seen Chase more as a peacekeeper than an outright brown-noser, but it seems that mileage may vary. Also, I am biased.
There are so many things with the whole "My dad cut me out of his will" scene. First, it does answer the question of whether or not Cameron and Foreman knew Rowan was dead - which means that we got no reactions from either of them about this news. Knowing them, however, there would have been no reaction anyway. Because obviously they just don't care. Why on earth are both of them (Cameron especially) so deliberately cruel about Chase's relationship with his father if they've known for some time that Rowan is dead? Chase doesn't rag them incessantly about their criminal records or dead husbands. So why do they badger him constantly about how screwed up his family is? Er... was.
Secondly, apparently Rowan was a lot bigger bastard than we'd given him credit for being. After "Cursed", even though Rowan can't be arsed to tell his son he's dying, nothing really seemed to indicate that their relationship was so acrimonious that he would cut the boy completely out of his will. That's remarkably cold and I just didn't see that coming. If anything, I would have expected the will to be Rowan’s last way of trying to make up for being a crappy father.
Thirdly, there is no logic in the whole Chase timeline now. If Rowan was pissed off enough about whatever to cut Robert out of his will, why would he have ever been providing an "allowance" for him previously, as so many people have suspected? Why Chase's sudden financial woes when he was apparently perfectly fine for the first season and a half? I think the writers are being lazy and lame and inconsistent and I've pretty much lost faith in them actually having any big underlying arc for Chase. I think they use the character opportunistically and do have a vague outline they try to keep him somewhat within, but they couldn't care less about long-term consistency.
Next we have the Tritter storyline. I have to voice the unpopular opinion that I sort of see why they're inflicting this on us. I think that one of the reasons Tritter is so grating is that he isn't wrong. He's a jerk and a bully and an ass... but he still isn't exactly wrong. House is dangerous. He's brilliant and lucky, but it's the lucky part that keeps him from being sued every other case. From a legal standpoint - which is technically where Tritter is- House violates practically every law concerning medical practice that there is. If this show was called Tritter instead of House, the spin would go the other way. Because heaven knows all the anvils have pounded it into us that these two men are two sides of the same coin. Tritter would be seen as the clever one, the one out for justice, the one protecting people from this out-of-control megalomaniac.
But it isn't. It's called House and this storyline is essentially unnecessary because we're all willing to (mostly) suspend our disbelief that any sane hospital would allow such an obnoxious, off-the-wall, pill-popping doctor to continue working for them longer than a month. There's no real reason to put us through the Volger arc again. I think that this storyline is better constructed than that one had been, but screwing it up once should have taught them that this is not an aspect of the show most of us are even remotely interested in.
Finally, moving on to the parts of the episode that redeemed the rest of it for me: Chase's two penultimate scenes. I love how the conference room scene was set up and played out. Chase is over on "House's side" of the room, sitting at House's desk (albeit on the wrong side), playing with House's toys. The other two ducklings in their usual places at the table. Chase is being as petty and petulant as House can be when he is bored isn't getting his way, tormenting everyone else around. He's off rambling on his own tangent, picking at someone else because he can't think of what else to do, when the proverbial lightning bolt hits him and he literally stops mid-snark, mid-sentence to dash off without explanation, leaving the other ducklings to gape after him in bafflement because they just don't think that way. The whole thing could have been filmed with House in his place and not changed a bit of it. And it made me very happy.
Then there's the scene with House. I've mentioned before that I think Chase needs two reasons to ever fight for anything. He needs to be certain that he's right and he needs to know that it makes a real difference. When he's lacking in either area, he's okay with deferring to others. But when he has both, he'll stand up to anybody - even House. As he did. And got clocked for it. But what I love most about this scene is that even whilst lying on the floor, nursing a bruised jaw, he's still trying to rationally explain things to House, because personal is not the same thing as important. (Someone please remind where that sentiment comes from. Due South maybe?) He saves the passive-aggressive and wholly justified anger for the next scene.
I'm not thrilled with the Chase/Wilson scene the way I am with the other two, but it was still interesting. What I like best about it is that I think Chase is everybody else's weather gauge. Even knowing how House had treated Cuddy, it wasn't until he saw how Chase's faith in House was gone that Wilson could bring himself to admit just how out-of-control House had gotten. I think Wilson genuinely believes that none of this is going to get any better until Tritter gets what he wants and that if things keep going as they are, it's going to get a lot LOT worse. He can see that House is self-destructing in a spectacular fashion and this might be his attempt at damage control before House well and truly implodes and takes a few patients and colleagues out with him.
Also, I got the general impression -from just the way Chase was carrying his briefcase- that he hadn't necessarily made up his mind to rat out House. He'd made up his mind to just plain leave. His colleagues don't like him. His boss has no respect for him. I don't (want to) believe that he was even thinking about taking House down at this point. I think he just wanted out.
Also, in my version of things, I suspect that it was Chase (or Cuddy) who called to stop the operation, not House. I think House was beyond the bend at that point. He seemed sort of stunned that he had actually hit Chase, not really registering much of anything else at all. I'll have to check later (yay for remembering to tape!) but I'm pretty sure Chase more or less told Wilson that House never backed down.
I want to believe that actual character development for Chase might result from all of this. But somehow, I'm not holding my breath.
For the most part, I really enjoyed this episode - mainly because it unequivocally identifies Chase as the mini-House. But we'll start with the bits that irked me first...
I'm vaguely annoyed that the writers have apparently decided to go with deliberately unrepentant brown-noser as Chase's canon characterization. I get some of it, but not to the extent that we really need Foreman griping and sniping about it half a dozen times in every episode. I've always seen Chase more as a peacekeeper than an outright brown-noser, but it seems that mileage may vary. Also, I am biased.
There are so many things with the whole "My dad cut me out of his will" scene. First, it does answer the question of whether or not Cameron and Foreman knew Rowan was dead - which means that we got no reactions from either of them about this news. Knowing them, however, there would have been no reaction anyway. Because obviously they just don't care. Why on earth are both of them (Cameron especially) so deliberately cruel about Chase's relationship with his father if they've known for some time that Rowan is dead? Chase doesn't rag them incessantly about their criminal records or dead husbands. So why do they badger him constantly about how screwed up his family is? Er... was.
Secondly, apparently Rowan was a lot bigger bastard than we'd given him credit for being. After "Cursed", even though Rowan can't be arsed to tell his son he's dying, nothing really seemed to indicate that their relationship was so acrimonious that he would cut the boy completely out of his will. That's remarkably cold and I just didn't see that coming. If anything, I would have expected the will to be Rowan’s last way of trying to make up for being a crappy father.
Thirdly, there is no logic in the whole Chase timeline now. If Rowan was pissed off enough about whatever to cut Robert out of his will, why would he have ever been providing an "allowance" for him previously, as so many people have suspected? Why Chase's sudden financial woes when he was apparently perfectly fine for the first season and a half? I think the writers are being lazy and lame and inconsistent and I've pretty much lost faith in them actually having any big underlying arc for Chase. I think they use the character opportunistically and do have a vague outline they try to keep him somewhat within, but they couldn't care less about long-term consistency.
Next we have the Tritter storyline. I have to voice the unpopular opinion that I sort of see why they're inflicting this on us. I think that one of the reasons Tritter is so grating is that he isn't wrong. He's a jerk and a bully and an ass... but he still isn't exactly wrong. House is dangerous. He's brilliant and lucky, but it's the lucky part that keeps him from being sued every other case. From a legal standpoint - which is technically where Tritter is- House violates practically every law concerning medical practice that there is. If this show was called Tritter instead of House, the spin would go the other way. Because heaven knows all the anvils have pounded it into us that these two men are two sides of the same coin. Tritter would be seen as the clever one, the one out for justice, the one protecting people from this out-of-control megalomaniac.
But it isn't. It's called House and this storyline is essentially unnecessary because we're all willing to (mostly) suspend our disbelief that any sane hospital would allow such an obnoxious, off-the-wall, pill-popping doctor to continue working for them longer than a month. There's no real reason to put us through the Volger arc again. I think that this storyline is better constructed than that one had been, but screwing it up once should have taught them that this is not an aspect of the show most of us are even remotely interested in.
Finally, moving on to the parts of the episode that redeemed the rest of it for me: Chase's two penultimate scenes. I love how the conference room scene was set up and played out. Chase is over on "House's side" of the room, sitting at House's desk (albeit on the wrong side), playing with House's toys. The other two ducklings in their usual places at the table. Chase is being as petty and petulant as House can be when he is bored isn't getting his way, tormenting everyone else around. He's off rambling on his own tangent, picking at someone else because he can't think of what else to do, when the proverbial lightning bolt hits him and he literally stops mid-snark, mid-sentence to dash off without explanation, leaving the other ducklings to gape after him in bafflement because they just don't think that way. The whole thing could have been filmed with House in his place and not changed a bit of it. And it made me very happy.
Then there's the scene with House. I've mentioned before that I think Chase needs two reasons to ever fight for anything. He needs to be certain that he's right and he needs to know that it makes a real difference. When he's lacking in either area, he's okay with deferring to others. But when he has both, he'll stand up to anybody - even House. As he did. And got clocked for it. But what I love most about this scene is that even whilst lying on the floor, nursing a bruised jaw, he's still trying to rationally explain things to House, because personal is not the same thing as important. (Someone please remind where that sentiment comes from. Due South maybe?) He saves the passive-aggressive and wholly justified anger for the next scene.
I'm not thrilled with the Chase/Wilson scene the way I am with the other two, but it was still interesting. What I like best about it is that I think Chase is everybody else's weather gauge. Even knowing how House had treated Cuddy, it wasn't until he saw how Chase's faith in House was gone that Wilson could bring himself to admit just how out-of-control House had gotten. I think Wilson genuinely believes that none of this is going to get any better until Tritter gets what he wants and that if things keep going as they are, it's going to get a lot LOT worse. He can see that House is self-destructing in a spectacular fashion and this might be his attempt at damage control before House well and truly implodes and takes a few patients and colleagues out with him.
Also, I got the general impression -from just the way Chase was carrying his briefcase- that he hadn't necessarily made up his mind to rat out House. He'd made up his mind to just plain leave. His colleagues don't like him. His boss has no respect for him. I don't (want to) believe that he was even thinking about taking House down at this point. I think he just wanted out.
Also, in my version of things, I suspect that it was Chase (or Cuddy) who called to stop the operation, not House. I think House was beyond the bend at that point. He seemed sort of stunned that he had actually hit Chase, not really registering much of anything else at all. I'll have to check later (yay for remembering to tape!) but I'm pretty sure Chase more or less told Wilson that House never backed down.
I want to believe that actual character development for Chase might result from all of this. But somehow, I'm not holding my breath.