'House M.D.': Chase and Cameron face the fallout

Well, "House" fans, it seems that the other shoe has officially dropped.

At the beginning of tonight's episode, "Teamwork," Cameron is ready to forgive Chase for his murderous misstep, on the condition that they both resign from Princeton-Plainsboro, effective immediately.  Of course, those of us who have been following news from the "House" set know that Chase won't get off the hook so easily.

Foreman pulls the "I covered up a murder for you" card and drags Chase -- and, with him, Cameron -- back in for one last case: a porn star with a squeaky-clean medical history, essentially going into total system failure. Like the team, I was distracted from the diagnostics case by the personal drama going on within the hospital.

Dr. House spends the entire episode trying to wrangle his team like they are a bunch of kindergarteners gone missing at snack time, instead of adults capable of making their own decisions. His schemes are manipulative and immature in a way we haven't seen this season. It's safe to say that Cuddy's relationship with Lucas has set him back quite a bit on his journey of self-improvement. The compassion we've seen House develop over the last seven weeks all but disintegrates in this episode.

'House M.D.': House and Cuddy return to the '80s

In case you missed the "everybody lies" memo that's been driven home in every "House" episode since the pilot, tonight's episode, "Known Unknowns," offered viewers (and Cameron) a helpful reminder.

House is reluctant to join Wilson at a medical conference in the Adirondacks -- favoring, instead, the nearby State Pillowfighting Contest, until he discovers that Cuddy also will be attending said conference.  His change of heart is fortunate, considering Wilson has appointed himself House's babysitter and refuses to leave him alone for the weekend.  Normally, I'd find Wilson's hovering a little obnoxious -- after all, House has been doing pretty well; maybe he deserves a longer leash -- but for some reason, it's more endearing than overly protective. I wonder if they've exchanged friendship bracelets yet.

With the grown-ups out of town on grown-up business, Chase, Cameron and Foreman are left with Jordan (newcomer Annabelle Attanasio), a comic-book fangirl who finds herself physically unable to tell the truth about her wild night stalking "Stiletto: Warrior Queen of Space" author Jeffrey Keener (Marcus Giamatti).

The web of lies eventually leads Cameron to theorize that Keener roofied Jordan when she brought his misplaced journal up to his hotel room.  When he denies ever seeing Jordan in his room, Cameron becomes particularly upset.  She's so obviously projecting her feelings about Chase's recently shady behavior onto the author.  

'House M.D.': Everybody sees dead people

Doctors whispering to ghosts in the night ... a corpse coming back to life in the morgue ... a bowl of sludgy, green putrefied dead guy. No, you're not watching a Halloween marathon of "Tales from the Crypt"; it's just Monday night's "House" episode.

In one of the coolest cold opens I've seen in a while, an agile criminal demonstrated his parkour skills while scrambling away from a team of New Jersey police officers. As with any good cop chase, the perp ended up on a rooftop, while the police were on another rooftop. Donny (Jon Seda), one of the officers, decided to take a running jump at the criminal and, miscalculating the obviously impossible distance, fell 30 feet to the pavement below.

While Cameron treats him for his injuries at Princeton Plainsboro, Donny's partner reveals that Donny regularly takes reckless risks because he's convinced that he's a ticking time bomb. Donny's father and grandfather both died of heart failure at age 40 -- and Donny is 39 years and 51 weeks old. It raises an interesting question -- if you believed you had an inevitable expiration date, what kind of investment would you make in your own life? What sort of legacy would you want to leave behind? 

The promos for this episode promised "one of the most bizarre twists in 'House' history," and they delivered. After Donny is found dead on his bathroom floor, House and Foreman conduct an autopsy.  They only get as far as the Y-incision before Donny screams and, yes, wakes up.

'House M.D.': The morality of murdering a murderer

For the second week in a row, we got to see House work with his original diagnostics team of Foreman, Cameron and Chase.  The longer these four sit around that table together, the more I sense impending doom.  It's been so nice having the old gang back together -- so I'm sure when they inevitably fall apart, it's going to be explosive.

Monday's episode, "Instant Karma," found Dr. Chase facing the music for his decision to swap out President Dibala's test, intentionally causing a misdiagnosis that killed the genocidal dictator.  As expected, the team can't sweep this one under the rug -- it wasn't Joe the Plumber who died on their table, after all.  Foreman is expected to present President Dibala's case for the morbidity and mortality conference.

Chase seems awfully blasé about the whole thing at first.  He flippantly tells Foreman that they don't have time for "a lively debate about the morality of murdering murderers."  The blood that he swapped out for Dibala's was not only tested for the disease, but it was also given a full work-up, and the numbers didn't match.  Chase is nonchalant.  "So the numbers were off. It's weird. Who cares?"

Foreman cares.  With House still unlicensed after his brief sojourn in a mental institution, Foreman is the one responsible for the team.  Chase attempts to weave a web of lies, saying he's trying to get Foreman off the hook.  Really, though, he's trying to cover his own butt.  If he were trying to help Foreman, he'd confess.

Look, I like Chase.  I always have.  And I can't say what I would have done if I were in his position because that's just ... not a normal position for a person to find himself in.  Still,  if he really felt like it was worth "murdering the murderer," then he should be willing to face the consequences.

Jesse Spencer's performance this week was once again fantastic. We're only five episodes into the season and he's already shown us his best work yet.  He's been subtle and sincere; you can really feel Chase start to get desperate as he searches for an exit strategy.

The ever-observant Dr. House may have found Chase a way to save face at the academic conference, but I doubt he'll be able to cover for Chase after Cameron puts the pieces together. I can't wait to see how she reacts when she finds out what Chase did, especially after he chastised her last week (calling her sociopathic!) for her disgusted attitude toward Dibala.

'House M.D.': James Earl Jones' tyrant brings the tension

Like most viewers, I had my doubts as to whether a "healed" House would be as entertaining as the old House. After all, his misery was what made him so fun to watch.  Luckily, House's stint in the mental institution made him more self-aware and less self-destructive... but didn't strip him of his sarcasm -- or of his tendency to delight in making other people squirm.

Actress Jennifer Morrison to exit 'House'

Sorry, "House" fans -- just when you thought Jennifer Morrison's Cameron was about to get more screen time, she's getting cut loose. 

According to EW.com, getting rid of Cameron was a creative decision that came from the producers. Her last episode will air in November and Morrison has already shot her final scene.

Fans can take a little comfort in knowing Cameron will not be killed off (a la the Kutner shocker), and that Jesse, her on-screen husband, is not leaving the show. Producers are also said to be open to the idea of Morrison returning to guest star later in the season. 

Is this a bad move for the show? Let us know in the comments below. 

-- Denise Martin

Photo: Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer on "House." Photo credit: Fox

SPOILER ALERT: Why Kal Penn really left 'House'

SPOILER ALERT!

Stop reading now if you do not want to know what happened on last night's episode of "House." But honestly, if you've been on the Internet at all today, you have probably already heard: Kal Penn's character on "House" -- Dr. Lawrence Kutner -- committed suicide on the show last night. Kutner's sudden death was as shocking to fans as it was to the other characters on the show, which is why Fox has erected this website for mourning fans.

Actor Kal Penn revealed today that he decided to leave the series of his own accord, but not for any of the usual reasons actors abandon hit series. He did not have artistic differences with another actor, and he is not after a career in feature films. Instead, Penn is leaving to pursue a career at the White House.

"I was incredibly honored a couple of months ago to get the opportunity to go work in the White House. I got to know the president and some of the staff during the campaign and had expressed interest in working there, so I'm going to be the associate director in the White House office of public liaison. They do outreach with the American public and with different organizations. They're basically the front door of the White House. They take out all of the red tape that falls between the general public and the White House. It's similar to what I was doing on the campaign," Penn told Michael Ausiello of EW's Ausiello Files.

During his interview with Ausiello, Penn stressed the fact that he had no problems with the show itself, but only a desire to expand his horizons. "I love what I do as an actor. I couldn't love it more," said Penn. "But probably from the time I was a kid, I really enjoyed that balance between the arts and public service."

So after working with the Obama campaign, Penn knew he was ready for a change. One thing Penn didn't know, when he told executive producers David Shore and Katie Jacobs he would be leaving the series, was the way his character would be written off. "One of the things I love about our show is you never know what's going to happen," Penn told Ausiello. "So that news struck me in the same way we hope it strikes the audience: there was a little bit of anger and some depression. You really go through those emotions, especially when somebody dies in that fashion. Ultimately, it was a really interesting choice for them to make ... There's no note. There's no explanation. And as a testament to David and Katie, that's a huge risk. 'Cause it is going to make people upset, and it is going to piss off some of the audience. And, ultimately, in my opinion, that's what art really is -- when you can conjure up those kinds of emotions. And it's rare nowadays to be able to do that on network television, but they managed to."

In his own interview with Ausiello, executive producer David Shore also stressed the importance of not knowing the reasons behind Penn's suicide. "The lack of reason behind [the suicide] -- the lack of answers -- was what I responded to and is what I got excited about. House, the man of answers, doesn't have an answer about this guy who he has worked with for two years...It makes him question the most important aspect of himself, which is the ability to find answers. It's the one thing about himself that he feels good about."

Read the whole riveting interview with Kal Penn, David Shore and Katie Jacobs here, or click here to visit the FOX memorial page.

What did you all think of the way Penn's exit was handled on "House?" Were you shocked and moved by Kutner's suicide?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

Photo credit: FOX

Carl Reiner to guest in 'House' season finale [updated]

"House" season finale news: Carl Reiner (pictured) will guest star in "Both Sides Now," which focuses on a man (Ashton Holmes of "A History of Violence") whose left brain and right brain operate independently, which means he lives with two different personalities and has no control over his actions, according to a Fox source.

This makes diagnosing him doubly challenging, as the two sides of his brain struggle for dominance and it becomes increasingly difficult for House and his team to figure out the problem. As a result, the team comes up with some "alternative methods" to get him to cooperate.

In the meantime, Cuddy also must find an unusual approach to convince House to complete his clinic hours, which is where Reiner's character comes in. He plays a clinic patient who gets House's attention.

The season finale airs May 11.

— Maria Elena Fernandez

Photo: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times

(Update: This is a revised version of an earlier post that contained erroneous information from Fox about Reiner's character.)

'House': Ice packs, brain zapping and an overdose of drama

    For the second half of their season finale, the writers of "House" pulled out all the stops, and at a certain point I found myself, if not yelling, then thinking very hard, "Put some back, put some back." 

    While Amber (Anne Dudek) lay frozen in induced hypothermia, which Drs. House (Hugh Laurie) and Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) managed to perform in an ambulance using some cold saline and what looked like a couple of reusable ice packs from the driver's lunch box, House desperately tried to remember what had happened on the fateful night leading up to the bus crash that cracked his skull and left Amber such an inexplicable mess. Wilson struggled to accept that his girlfriend might die, Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) took this opportunity to explore the possibility that she carries Hodgkin's disease and everyone else stood around doing what they increasingly do on "House," which is not much.

    OK, that's not technically true. We did learn that Dr. Kutner (Kal Penn) lost his parents in a holdup when he was 6 and that Dr. Chase (Jesse Spencer) is a man of many talents -- in this finale he has performed everything from hypnotism to electroshock. Who knew?

    So Amber died of complications I don't think the writers quite understood. I know I didn't. Something to do with her flu meds and binary proteins. All of which Wilson explained to her, in what has to have been the most technical bit of deathbed exposition ever seen on television, after he roused her from her hypothermia so he could say goodbye. The actual goodbye was fairly touching, proving once again that Leonard is one of the best actors around because anyone else would have simply collapsed under the weight of medical jargon and finale schlock. House missed it all because he was busy lying in a coma -- I don't like to be picky, but isn' t this like his third coma? -- after having electrified his already damaged brain and Risked His Life so he could dislodge the memory of the evening in the hope of saving Amber. Oh, and Thirteen found out she is positive for Hodgkin's.

'House': What goes on inside that good doctor's head?

Now that’s a bit more like it.

After limping through its first two post-writers' strike episodes like its title character deprived of Vicodin, “House” seems to be pulling it together for a two-part season finale, the first half of which aired last night. According to legend, this was supposed to be the post-Super Bowl episode until the writers' strike derailed it. Titled "House's Head," it takes us back to where the show works best -- watching the psycho-brilliant doctor's mind at work. It also starts in a strip club, so you know it's going to be one of those "artsy" episodes.

Too dazed and confused to even enjoy the lap dance in progress, Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) quickly realizes that no, he’s not drunk, he’s concussed. He has, in fact, stumbled into the club after being in a horrendous bus accident, and the only thing he can remember, of course, is that someone on the bus “is going to die.”

Apparently, he noticed some symptomatic tell just before the crash and is now obsessed with figuring out what, and who, it was. Patients are interrogated, theories are debated, extreme measures are taken (House allows himself to be hypnotized, then immerses himself in an isolation tank and finally takes dementia-fighting memory drugs), all of which allows us to poke around in House’s subconscious -- which is a pretty interesting place as we know from previous season finales, like the near-death experience he had after he got shot at the end of Season 2. We see in his mind Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), Dr. Chase (Jesse Spencer) and even Amber (Anne Dudek), which makes Wilson a little suspicious -- does House have feelings for his girlfriend? But it’s the scene in which Dr. Cuddy pole dances in a school girl’s uniform that in three minutes earns back the price of Tivo -- Lisa Edelstein, who knew?

The bus driver seems to be the mysterious Patient X; after much diagnostic huffing and puffing, House saves him from an air bubble in his chest by convincing Thirteen to violate all hospital protocol, including Cuddy’s direct orders, and to stab him in the heart with a big needle. Of course it works. Why do they even protest at this point?

Meanwhile, House continues to experience symptoms of his own, including a recurring hallucination of a sultry young woman, who puts one in mind of Jessica Lange’s death angel in “All That Jazz.” In fact, there’s a whole “All That Jazz” thing going on with the entire episode (though mercifully no musical numbers), with House pulling a Bob Fosse by working himself to death. (Me, I’d pay cash to see Hugh Laurie smoke a cigarette in the shower with as much desperate grace as the late great Roy Scheider). So determined to figure out what he has forgotten, House is willing to almost literally turn out the contents of his mind to figure out who that darn woman is and why she keeps asking him “What is my necklace made of?”

Well, it’s amber of course, and as soon as he realizes this, it all comes rushing back: Amber was on the bus with him, her leg impaled by a metal bar and though he managed to put a tourniquet on her, she is apparently the Jane Doe No. 1, the one at the other hospital with kidney damage, the one who is dying.

Oh poor Wilson, oh poor Amber, oh poor House, who really isn’t looking very well at all. When Ben Vereen shows up, or Foreman (Omar Epps) starts counting down the five stages of death, we’ll start to worry.  Meanwhile, it’s nice to have the old “House” back, though you do have to wonder: How many near-death experiences can one fairly sedentary doctor have? 

-- Mary McNamara

(Photo courtesy Fox)