- House is injured in a motorcycle accident. While recovering, he finds an accident victim suffering from a brain injury. House tries to prove the brain damage caused the accident, not vice versa, so he can treat the patient.
- While treated for light lesions received in a motorcycle accident in Middletown, House proves ER Dr. Kurtz wrong twice about another ER patient: bike accident victim Lee. He reveals that Lee is neither brain dead nor received his brain injury from the crash but the other way around. Lee anxiously hears everything but loses the ability to communicate with his eyelid movements because of a brain biopsy. Taub hopes to convince House to cancel his ill-considered resignation. Wilson jousts with House about why he was in Middletown, while both fear their secrets may be discovered.—KGF Vissers
- We hear the beep of machines and see, from a patient's POV, blurry images of doctors and nurses. A voice asks what's wrong with his legs, begging for someone to talk to him. A doctor stands over him, saying he has a great heart for transplant. He disagrees. Nearby, House (Hugh Laurie) tells the doctor that live people don't make good donors. But the doc doesn't listen; he's Mr. House today in the hospital in Middletown, N.Y. because he crashed his motorcycle. Just a scrape, nothing a boatload of Vicodin wouldn't fix. House explains why the guy isn't brain dead as the narrator, the not brain-dead guy, agrees, begging the doctor to listen to House. House peers into the camera's eye, saying he knows about locked in syndrome. He tells the man to blink if he can hear him. From our POV, a blink. "Aw, this is going to be fun," House says.
The first doctor examines him, telling him he was in an accident. He flashes back to biking and not being able to stop when he sees a car door open in front of him. House thinks maybe the brain damage called the crash, not vice versa. He doesn't have any scrapes, indicating he didn't try to protect himself.
His wife stands over him, Molly (Faune Chambers Watkins). She's choked up. In the background, House looks at his X-rays. He doesn't want to see his kids.
Kutner (Kal Penn), Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) and Foreman (Omar Epps) arrive. House eats fries in front of the patient, as Thirteen comes up with the suggestion of a brain tumor. House forges a form for an MRI. Thirteen puts video goggles on the patient as he gets the MRI. He sees House on a beach. House and the patient, Lee (Yasiin Bey), chat in beach chairs. He thinks House was sent there to make him better. His kids build sand castles nearby.
He wakes up in the middle of the night, House walks in in a hospital gown and stands over him, telling him the MRI shows a lesion somewhere, which means no way head trauma did this. It's cancer. But his current doctor thinks infection and has him on antibiotics that might almost kill him. But that'll work swell because then the doc will know he's wrong and listen to House. House tells Lee he's fascinating and easy to talk to.
The camera starts shaking. The patient is seizing. Nicely played, House says to Lee as he explains things to his doctor.
He's transferred to Princeton-Plainsboro. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) examines House's boo boo. "If she turns around, she's into him," he thinks, watching Cuddy as he's wheeled away. She glances at House.
Taub (Peter Jacobson) shows up and House informs him he decided to accept his resignation after all. He thinks Taub doesn't care about impressing him, which means he won't try.
Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) shows up, wanting to know why House was in Middletown. Wilson thinks House was going to get more pain pills, which sort of freaks out the patient.
Kutner comes in and tells Taub he should entertain the patient. Kutner sees something on the patient and leaves. House comes in. They think he's an alcoholic or a drug user. House wants to biopsy the lesion on his brain stem. The patient, in his head and on our speakers, shouts at them to stop treating him like a piece of furniture.
Thirteen changes his catheter and his wife brings his kids. After a while, Thirteen suggests to his wife that they leave. He was crying, she tells him.
Chase (Jesse Spencer) leans in, telling him they're knocking him out for surgery, but they'll need him to answer some questions later as they cut.
Back on the dreamy beach with his kids and House, asking why it's taking so long to make him better.
Then back in the OR with Chase, who's holding up a shaded circle. But Lee can't blink to answer the yes or no question.
He fades back out again.
We return, outside Lee. He's lying frozen on the bed. They're trying to determine if he's in there or not.
The team spitballs other possible causes. House is irritated they didn't ask more questions before he lost the ability to answer. Taub suggests there might be a better way.
They strap Lee up to a computer. Taub explains the computer will learn when he thinks "up" and eventually the cursor on the screen will move. He tells him to start thinking "up."
Hours later, Taub wonders if he's still in there, or even trying.
Wilson visits House, wanting to know, again, why he was in New York. Going to a prison, where Foreman's brother is being held, House says.
Taub talks to Lee, saying he's sick of being scared out of his mind to go to work every day. Taub stands up to leave, but the computer beeps. He sits back down and the cursor on the screen moves up.
His wife comes in, asking if he's really in there. The cursor moves up for yes.
The team gathers around him, asking diagnostic questions with yes or no answers. His wife says he was in St. Louis and when House says it's Missouri Malaria, Lee beeps no. They're both lying. He wasn't in St. Louis.
Back from Lee's POV: House narrows down where he really was. Within two miles of his house. We jump outside, House and Lee standing, facing each other as he asks more questions. He was staying with a friend. House calls his wife back in to name friends. Dave's house.
Kutner and Taub check out the basement of his friend's house. Resumes and cover letters. Lee didn't want to worry his wife. Business wasn't going well. He temped a few times at a factory.
Kutner and Taub check it out, finding battery filings. Heavy metal poisoning explains everything.
Back in Lee. Taub explains how chelation works and thanks him for thinking up and letting him find him in there.
Foreman tells Lee a story about buying girls jewelry. Lee begs him to tell the story to someone who can walk away. Then he mentions he's dating Thirteen. Lee thinks he should start all his stories with that. Foreman frets he bought something for her but she's not wearing it.
Taub tells House he wants to keep his job. House tells him to come up with an idea. Taub notes the computer was his idea. Taub says he realized what they do there terrifies him, but overcoming that is the only way he can matter. House says Kutner found the battery factory, maybe Taub doesn't matter.
Thriteen leans in to Lee, who's been complaining about his eyes. She thinks something looks torn. She puts a drop in his eye. Whatever they see means it's not heavy metal poisoning.
Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) comes to change House's dressing from the motorcycle accident as he tries to figure out what's going on with Lee. She suggests he do a lumbar puncture to rule more stuff out.
Wilson plops down. He checked, House wasn't visiting Foreman's brother, either. House gets a call, which he ignores. He says he was up there for the reason Wilson is worried about. He asks how long he's been sleeping with her. Wilson's seeing his brothers caretaker.
Lee listens as Foreman starts to explain to how the lumbar puncture works, but he has a heart attack.
Back on the beach, Lee lies curled in a ball. House tells him he's about to die.
Kutner shocks Lee. From inside Lee thinks about how his family will be OK without him. Lee complains something itches. Then the computer cursor starts bouncing. They guess the pain has moved down. They narrow it to his right foot. Houses guesses it itches, which means liver failure. A failure, just like Taub, House says.
Dying liver would release toxins affecting the nerves which led to locked in syndrome. Now they just need to know what's causing the failure.
When Foreman suggests a cause, House says it's too bad Taub didn't come up with that.
Standing over Lee, Kutner asks about Thirteen's new bracelet. He noticed she was wearing it, but Foreman didn't. She likes it, which is why she left it at home -- so it wouldn't get peed on. Lee leaked on her when she was putting in the catheter. Kutner notices she now has a rash on her wrist.
If there were rats in the basement, it could be an infection, which would spread to her via pee. But it'd need an entry point on him. They find a wound on his finger. Kutner tells Lee he was dying of a paper cut.
Kutner tells Lee they found the infection in the rats in the basement. This means they're right. He tries to get Lee to move his finger. He can't at first, but Kutner tells him not to give up. Lee wiggles a digit.
In the locker room, House asks Kutner and Taub who came up with the rat pee idea. Taub says he did as Kutner, who actually did, gives him a small approving nod.
Taub leaves. House asks if Kutner is OK with Taub taking credit. House appreciates Taub cared enough to lie. That's all he needed.
Wilson joins House, saying if House had actually gone to visit his girlfriend, he wouldn't have lied, he would have thrown it in his face. Wilson borrowed House's phone and dialed the number House has been getting calls from and ignoring. He's seeing a shrink.
They go into Lee's room, where House has hidden a tape recorder to spy on the team. Lee is able to move weakly and speak some. He tells House that God sent him. "Suddenly, you're not so fascinating," House tells him.
Wilson thinks it's great House is talking to someone. But House says he's not going back. It doesn't work.
Switch to House's POV, Lee-style, as Wilson says: "You'll end up alone."
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content