House: Lucky Thirteen

Posted by: Sarah Miller  •  October 24, 2008 @ 11:43pm

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

This week's episode is brought to you by self destructive behavior and the number thirteen. It also marks the return of Wilson to PPTH and Sherlock is back too, albeit briefly. Read on!

The Patient

Thirteen's one night stand turns into the patient when she has a seizure and rolls of the bed post-sex. First, of course we are treated to some girl-on-girl make out scenes for the benefit of House and any teenage male viewers who may be watching. Side note: this is the second time Olivia Wilde has played a bisexual character on the Fox network. Just a little trivia for you.

We discover soon after Thirteen's GF arrives at the hospital that she has actually been trying to get House to take her case for years and when she went after Thirteen in the bar she did it just to get to House. Basically this episode is one big long walk of shame for Thirteen. House takes the case mostly for the chance to torture Thirteen and imagine her... you know.

Thirteen is adamant that the combination of alcohol and ecstasy caused the seizure and there is nothing wrong with GF, but the rest of the team thinks that a retinal bleed from a few years ago might point to some kind of blood clotting problem. House orders Thirteen to do a bone marrow biopsy, and comes along to ask medically relevant questions and watch. The GF doesn't seem to mind and voluntarily tells House that Thirteen was "only a seven." Ouch.

The bone marrow biopsy comes back negative for any and all diseases and Thirteen is ready to discharge GF, but when she goes into her room to yell at her and hand her her clothes, GF starts having breathing problems and has a heart attack. New symptom! The team thinks that the heart attack and seizures could be signs of serious drug use. Which means that they need to search Thirteen's apartment for any drugs GF may have taken while she was there. House volunteers to do the search, and Foreman goes along with him, to keep him in line. Meanwhile, Thirteen does an ultrasound to search for any structural damage to GF's heart.

House and Foreman find a really gross looking spider at Thirteen's apartment and bring it back in a little glass dish for everyone to have a look (Why? Why? Why!?). This particular spider's venom can cause seizures and heart attacks, I guess. The ultrasound of GF's heart was normal, so it appears she is cured. Right? House orders Thirteen to go and check GF for spider bites. She doesn't find any bites, but she does discover that GF has no feeling in her hip.

A blood test shows that GF has low potassium levels that explain the numbness, but it also means that her heart problem was a sign of an underlying kidney problem. Chase removes the kidney calcifications no problem, but as he is getting ready to close up GF crashes again. She has a breathing problem that has nothing to do with her kidneys.

The X-rays of GF's lungs show that there are no masses or problems with them. So her lungs are working, but she still can't breathe. The team decides to put her on the treadmill to stress her airway and see if that is the problem. Meanwhile Thirteen goes over the patient's films again and determines that she has lung cysts, not an airway problem and that the stress test is a very, very bad idea because it's probably going to make her lungs explode. Down the hall, Taub and Kumar are trying to figure out why their patient has collapsed on the treadmill when Thirteen comes in, yelling at them that her lung collapsed. She punches her in the chest with a huge needle and saves the day.

Unfortunately for GF, a biopsy of one of the lung cysts reveals that she has a very rare disease LAM. Lymphangioleiomyomatosis is a smooth muscle disorder that has been causing the cysts, and while they can remove the lung cysts they will keep coming back and eventually kill GF. (Side note: where would we be without Wikipedia?)

But just when it seems like we have wrapped up with GF, and Thirteen is in her room saying goodbye, she finds blood on the bandages and we have a new symptom. House sends the team off to test for everything, but when he notices that Thirteen's lips are dry he has an epiphany. He asks Thirteen if GF cried when she told her she was going to die. She didn't.

So, House brings an onion into GF's room to test his theory. He cuts it right in front of her and she doesn't cry! Cooking would be so much easier with this disease, it seems. In the end GF has Sjogren's Syndrome, which attacks the glands that produce tears and saliva. She is not going to die after all, but she will have to take some drugs and get some artificial tears.

Unlucky Thirteen

This episode is mostly about the character development (or lack thereof) of Thirteen. She has been using drugs and sleeping with strangers on a fairly consistent basis, and re-hydrating herself in the clinic in the mornings before work. She gets angry and defensive over this case because she doesn't want her co-workers or anyone to know anything about her. She even hides the fact that she moved from all of her co-workers, something normal people wouldn't care about.

When Cuddy catches Thirteen giving herself fluids in the clinic, she demands that she take a drug test. House sticks up for her in front of Cuddy, but only so that Thirteen doesn't have to take a drug test and ruin her career. Once they leave Cuddy's office House fires Thirteen, telling her that he can only take responsibility for one doctor with a drug habit (I'm not going to lie, I totally cheered at this particular moment).

Thanks to Foreman, we also learn that Thirteen has even less time to live than she initially thought when she found out about her Huntington's. Normally this would make all of Thirteen's partying and 'having fun' and wanting to be in control a little more understandable, but she refuses any kind of help or compassion from anyone. She also refuses to see that she has done anything wrong, never admitting that she has problems with drugs, or that her lifestyle might be even a little bit self destructive. Even losing her job doesn't seem to wake her up that she is maybe not making the best choices.

Instead she flings herself into this case, trying to solve it to get her job back. She supposedly develops a connection with the patient, but as soon as she finds out that the patient is not going to die she reverts back to her old pattern of taking drugs and sleeping with strangers. Unfortunately for us, she does end up helping House find the diagnosis and he re-hires her at the end of the episode so we'll have to put up with her snotty-ness for a little while longer. We'll see if she learns anything from this whole experience. The episode ends with her making out with a different chick, so I'm thinking not.

Elementary, my dear Wilson

The return of Wilson to PPTH means the return of House trying to test their friendship. When he plays a practical joke on Wilson, and Wilson lies about his whereabouts, House gets Sherlock to keep up his Wilson investigation. He wants to make sure that nothing has changed during their four month break.

Wilson is wise to House's schemes though, and sets up some elaborate (and hilarious) false cues to trick House. He hires a prostitute to come to his door while House and Sherlock are on a stakeout outside. Then he tells House that he is sort of seeing this prostitute, and actually he might be in love with her! The crazy part is that House actually believes him, until Wilson leaves some needles in his trash can and House realizes that Wilson has being playing him.

In the end though, Wilson's secret about his whereabouts turns out to be that Cuddy is adopting a baby, and Wilson was giving her a character reference. Cuddy's gonna be a Mommy!

House-isms

House: "Oh yeeah! Penthouse meets medical mystery. Maybe there is a God."

(House is asking Sherlock to keep investigating Wilson)

Sherlock: "What do you think you'll find out?"

House: "I'm worried that he might be a spy."

Sherlock: "He's been gone four months, you're worried that the friendship has changed."

House: "I'm just not sure if he's working for Hirohito or the New England Patriots."

(House and Sherlock are on a bench discussing Wilson's love life)

Sherlock: "What does that even mean, 'Dating a Hooker'?"

House: "He's an idiot with a messiah complex. Savior to all who need saving, it's why his first wife had a wooden leg. His second wife was Canadian."

(House realizes that Wilson has been leaving false clues for Him & Sherlock to find)

House: "How did you know we were outside?"

Wilson: "Cane prints. I'm actually kind of insulted, there's no way you'll think I'm a drug addict, but you completely buy that I fell in love with a prostitute?"

(House finds Wilson and Cuddy looking at Cribs in a baby stuff store)

House: "You're obviously not pregnant, so either you're buying this as a gift or this is some kind of weird 'If you Build it They Will Come' moment."

Tags: House, Thirteen, Sherlock

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Original Comments Posted (13)

Ariana says...

Agh, the last two episodes have been cut off by my PVR, so I didn't see the end of either, and thus I did not see this making out with some other girl Thirteen did. Can you elaborate?

Oct 25, 2008 1:09am

Ariana says...

I mean... for plot description reasons, not for titillation.

Oct 25, 2008 1:10am

joalberts says...

Hahaha.... Riiiiiiiight......

Oct 25, 2008 1:27pm

metal2000 says...

I'm glad we still have Lucas even though Wilson is back. But I don't know how much longer it will be, and since I've heard they've pretty much scrapped the "spinoff" idea for Michael Weston, that makes me sad.

Oct 25, 2008 5:19pm

sarahm says...

Well...they just showed Thirteen making out with some random other girl at the end of the episode. Another one night stand is the assumption. There wasn't much more to it than that. It was like everything that happened to her in the episode: almost losing her job, getting confronted about drug use, almost having to take a career-ending drug test didn't even phase her. And this is why I can't stand her character.

Oct 25, 2008 6:26pm

sarahm says...

And I'm with you Paul, I'll be sad if/when Sherlock gets the axe.

Oct 25, 2008 6:26pm

metal2000 says...

Olivia Wilde's one of the hottest people in the universe, so for that I can forgive any of Thirteen's shortcomings.

But I have heard where her storyline is headed, and I'm actually okay with how things are going now if they take the turn they're supposedly going to take.

Oct 26, 2008 5:28am

sarahm says...

I really don't mind Olivia Wilde at all, and loved her in the Black Donnellys, it's just...Thirteen is so...SNOTTY and I can't stand her character at all. She doesn't seem like she's even human. It's too bad because I really want to like Thirteen.

You have to share your spoilers now.

Oct 26, 2008 6:40pm

Ariana says...

NO HE DOES NOT unless it is privately in an email because I hate spoilers and I will leave the site FOREVER if he posts them here.

Oct 26, 2008 8:33pm

sarahm says...

Whoa. Simmer down there!

Oct 27, 2008 3:26am

Cameron McLeod says...

Paul I completely agree with you. Olivia Wilde is the hottest of hots. imo.

Oct 27, 2008 11:05pm

Aarold says...

Yes, Olivia Wilde = HOT. and I'm going to vote against spoilers being revealed here myself.

Nov 7, 2008 6:30pm

sarahm says...

Ok ok, don't worry. We emailed them.

Nov 15, 2008 1:58am

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