“Meet my diagnostic posse… Hot, Dark and Darker.” – House
We have become accustomed to knowing the characters on House through the viewer’s eyes. And why not? It’s what TV does. “Locked In,” though, provided us a couple of new opportunities for getting to know House and his hospital colleagues, while inserting humor in a new way in this show I’ve grown to love for its wise-guy quotes.
Mos Def‘s Lee, the locked-in patient, gives us a new perspective on House’s and Cuddy’s relationship. We know there’s something there and we know they are often over-the-top nasty to each other even through their flirtation. What we don’t get to see as often is the tenderness they have for one another. Lee remarks that he’s the patient, but Cuddy’s more worried about House’s boo-boo than she is about him.
We also got a humorous insight into House’s and Wilson’s relationship. As they are doing their bromance dance that we have so come to love, yet doesn’t necessarily appear outwardly as the deep friendship we know they have, Lee remarks, “These guys are friends?” And really, to a person who doesn’t have the history like the viewer does, you would wonder.
In an episode that seemed to have brought poor Taub down to an equivalency with dog poop, Lee is the only one who appreciates him, the irony being that he can’t say it out loud. Kutner gets all the credit for the diagnosis, but Taub is actually the one who knew the patient wasn’t lying. Lee states, “I’m liking this one more and more… don’t fire him.”
Another layer the locked-in patient provided was allowing the viewers to see the characters “confess” things to him. This gave us a glimpse into them that we never would have known otherwise and at this point in House, any device that helps us get to know the team members better is a welcome one.
Taub thanks Lee, because his situation helped Taub realize that “what we do here terrifies me.” This, plus Taub getting abused by House, could be laying some groundwork for Taub’s possible upcoming suicide. Without his interaction with Lee, we might not have known how Taub feels about his job.
Then, we got to see Foreman in a vulnerable moment, something we don’t usually see. He confessed to the patient that he bought jewelry for Thirteen, the only women he’s bought jewelry for since his first girlfriend, who never wore it. We got to see how much Foreman really does care for Thirteen, but also how hurt he was that she wasn’t wearing the bracelet he got for her.
So the locked-in episode was great as a stand-alone in itself: we got a new type of patient for the team and also some more fodder for the atheist House saga. But I think the strength of the episode was that this device allowed for us to see the characters in a way we wouldn’t have otherwise, and because of this, we gained some insights.
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Apr 04, 2009 @ 13:25 EST5EDT
