TV Recap: ‘House,’ “Instant Karma”

Image courtesy of the ODI

Though last week’s very solid effort brought the old team back together, it was still a little House-light, so to see the old boss working with his cohorts more closely made this a very nice effort. And due to the focus on Chase and Foreman scrambling to cover their tracks before having to present the Dibala case, “Instant Karma” was simply an old-school feeling episode of House. Except — what the hell is up with the obsession with Thirteen writers? Come on.

And actually, for the second week in a row, we can actually be interested in the case! This week’s patient is the son of a major business man named Roy, who feels like he’s a victim of King Midas syndrome where everything he does professionally works — and everything around him personally does not. Like so many before him, Roy’s brought every freaking doctor around to help his son, but thinks only House can make it right. And even though Cuddy insists that House isn’t exactly on the team, Roy’s persistence makes House a part of another case, thus giving him more time to piss off Foreman.

Speaking of the great boring one, Cuddy informs him that he has to present the Dibala case in front of some medical board, which makes he and Chase obviously nervous. Chase thinks he covered his tracks enough by choosing someone who had the same blood type so the earlier blood panels would match, but Foreman informs him that he forgot to look at the cholesterol levels, which were waaaaaaaay different. Time to worry boys.

Meanwhile House checks up on Thirteen, who is planning a little getaway. They banter about her relationship with Foreman and House insists that he doesn’t want her back on the team (but maybe with Foreman?) and eventually Thirteen finds that someone hacked her account to cancel her flight. She confronts him about it, he denies and then goes after Foreman to see what he thinks of the situation. When Foreman says he had no idea that she was traveling and had nothing to do with it either, House actually believes him.

Thirteen later takes her investigation to Cuddy, who tells her that the other IP address that accessed her account came from Wilson’s office. Wilson tries to take the blame for the hacking, saying that she should stay because she keeps House grounded and doesn’t take his shit, but she Ms. Hadley sees through it all. Wilson and House later discuss Thirteen and Wilson pleads with House in a similar way, but House only admits to wanting to keep her around because she’s hot and bisexual (two valid reasons, right?). Either way, Thirteen goes to Thailand anyway — but she’ll be back. Right?

Back on the case, a bad treatment causes Roy’s son’s head to swell, which can only be made better by Chase drilling a hole in his head. While fluid backs up in his abdomen, House finally reveals himself to Roy and they discuss Roy’s Midas complex — which of course, House does not believe whatsoever. House goes through a number of different cancer diagnosis before landing on Degos disease, meaning Roy’s son only has one day left to live. In hopes of changing the bad karma the members of his family have faced, Roy stupidly bankrupts himself with one signature — only to have his son crash right after. BUT, House then has a House Moment and determines it’s not Degos, but Antiphospholipid syndrome. Roy’s son recovers after the treatment, causing him to tell House that it worked.

Throughout the episode, Foreman and Chase are still scrambling to cover their assess, but are getting more and more stressed about it. Foreman vows to not lie during the explanation, so he just tries to do so to Cuddy by getting out of it — but no dice. Cameron notices that Chase is both worried and distant (he’s coming home late, leaving before she gets up in the a.m.) and he of course lies to her. Chase comes up another idea that would create a whole new batch of lies that Foreman shoots down, but House catches the stress in Chase’s face. Eventually, Chase walks into the deferential room to see a file on the top of the pile that reveals Dibala had been prescribed a cholesterol drug in the past, meaning their absolved from any wrongdoing. Or at least covered. When Foreman says he had no idea, Chase goes to the only man he knows is smart enough to figure it all out — House. He expects to be fired, but House tells him, “better a murder of a genocidal dictator than a misdiagnosis” (or something like that) and lets him off the hook. Relieved, Chase tells House that no matter if he wants to be the boss or not, he’ll always be.

Other thoughts:

• WHERE IS TAUB? This is not cool.
• The writers’ Thirteen obsession is pretty grating at this point. We get it, Olivia Wilde is gorgeous, but she needs to be either A.) written better or B.) in more scenes with only Wilson or House so she looks better. Give her a few episodes off please.
• Jesse Spencer was awesome again this week showing the terror, frustration and confusion of Chase’s situation.
• This is was not as good as last week for me, but still a nice effort. The old team is simply more interesting to watch, I guess I’m in that camp now.