I probably will have more to say later, but I had to mention that I loved all the the House/Wilson snark they were tossing back and forth to each other...especially these exchanges:

I love it!

My favourite quote is:

Cameron: Who was that?
House: Angelina Jolie. I call her mum, who thinks that's sexy?

I have no credibility cause I love this show every week but that was awesome- everyone at the top of their game- very cool choices for guest stars too.

So much subtle awesome - loved Wilson whiteboarding and his chewed up handwriting- I'm a leftie and he did well not to end up with smudge everwhere but the scruffiness was awesome.

Carnell and his dad were just right- shocked that his prgnosis was so stark and the scenes with Foreman/Dad and Wilson, Chase and the bad news were superb.

House's parents - great choices, simply done and it made it much more powerful. The cafeteria scene got me and kudos to the parents, Hugh nails it, but they stepped up perfectly too.

House/Wilson- man, I love them and the parking lot scenes were both awesome. Love that House couldn't call Wilson a 'bastard' with any real conviction.

Cameron didn't piss me off as much as she can - she was sorta cool in a weird way. I'm also looking forward to Stacy being around next week *ducks ballista bolts* - I'm mental I know!

It was a hilarious episode; I laughed so hard the girl next door stuck her head in to make sure everything was OK. The House/Wilson scenes were hysterical--Robert Sean Leonard really does a great job of playing a foil to House.

You know, House's dinner with his parents was a bit different from what I was expecting. I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting--I think maybe I had in my head what either Foreman or Chase said ("He probably torments them, not the other way around"), but he seemed noticeably subdued, even longsuffering, around them. And he seemed genuinely affectionate of his mommy. :)

I thought the theme of this episode (kids and parents lying to each other) was handled in an interesting way...the sick boy and his father lied to each other constantly, which is to be expected according to a cynical House. I don't think I condone the last lie the father told his son, but Wilson was right when he said that the father had done OK. His son was a good kid. And they made a point at the beginning of making it clear that he was proud of his son--that wasn't a lie. But House's father never lies, according to his same cynical son. And Wilson (again) tells Cameron that his father may not be so proud of him--the truthful father's son really didn't turn out as well as the son whose father lied to him "in love." Are they implying that House's motto, "everybody lies," which has always been cynical, may not be such a bad thing? :)

And with regard to the motorcycle--(is incredulous) What, the Corvette he got from the mafia wasn't enough? :blink:

Motorcycle - how did the scrape get there? Something House did? Or did he get it on sale 'cause it's damaged? Think I missed that, if they said.

Parents did good. Dad's trying to want what's best for his son without acknowledging what his son is really like or accepting what House's life has become was very well done also.

We can see why House was a problem with him, especially when House makes a sort of male-bonding appeal by asking if dad saw the motorcycle, and his dad's response was, "Oh, in the HANDICAPPED space?"

That was harsh. Maybe dad doesn't have both legs still? War injury or something? Or maybe its just in dad's eyes a sign of admitting weakness, since as he points out, House does still have both legs? (Though really in appearance only, 'cause we know it hurts still.)

Poor Mrs. House. Get the feeling she's had to do a lot of peacemaking over the years . . . and didja see how her face lit up when she said, "I'll buy you a Reuben!" Have a feeling House and mom may be attached to this particular sandwich for sentimental reasons, maybe as a good memory. Which is kinda cute, when you think about how often he seems to eat them . . .

Cameron's drive to meet the parents clearly proves she's not over him. But I think we prolly knew that. (Also looks like her hair is returning to her original look as she returns to her original feelings.)

Hell, I sure don't think House is entirely over everyone either . . . (but I guess according to the previews that's for next week).

Foreman's hands-off-don't-want-to-know approach was interesting. I think of all of them, he gets the most frustrated with House's houseness sometimes.

House also seemed less hard on Chase. (When House thanked him for deflecting a personal question by making joke, Chase actually smiled back.) Perhaps the reminders of the Dark Volgler saga are finally fading.

I didn't know Wilson was left-handed 'til I saw this ep. <swoon> As if I needed another reason to like RSL. Aren't enough lefties out there. Way cool.

Just after Wilson notes that a two-wheeled object that goes 150 mph might be a bad choice for an irresponsible, drug addicted cripple, House notes that it goes 180 mph and it was worse for the previous owner, an architect who couldn't brake and turn at the same time.

So yeah. It's used and scraped.

Nice catch. I didn't hear that.

Now I'm gonna have to watch it all over again.

lfeflght

I get the feeling that under the macho navy-man thing, House's father is probably more cynical than his son and resents House's physical disability and seems to want to blame him for it (even though we know it is not House's fault). He obviously is disappointed in his son and is trying to get some kind of emotional retribution, and probably has been for years, if the comments at the lunch table say anything.

I'm not surprised House doesn't want anything to do with him. His father is a classic bully.

This was th episode that we all have been hoping would shed some more light House's private life which we know so little about. I think it's very interesting how his character is evolving from the crabby, shoot-from-the-hip smart ass tht we met in 'Pilot' to this person who is just like the rest of us. We all have inner secrets, skeletons and problems that we have to deal with on a daily basis. We saw House Having to deal with feelings of not living up to the expectations of his parents. Like Wilson asked, "What's harder...seeing your child fail or be miserable.?" He has to live with a debilitating condition that heeps him in constant pain, and he has to manage and medicate in a way that keeps him functioning without screwing up. Let's face it, if House makes a mistake, patients can die. He has to deal with ethics at work. For example: Patient contact. We are seeing House interact a lot more with patients and their families. (We even learned tht he can abla Espanol in a pinch.) Dating co-workers, not to mention the wounds opened up by having to work with Stacy. (Boy, that's going to be interesting next week!) We are also learning that he's not a fragile as we initially thought. In season one, we would have never thought he would be hauling-ass down the Jersey Turn-pike on a crotch rocket. (Love the cane holder!) Heck, we didn't even know he could drive a car until "Mob Rules".

I know I'm going way out, but I just trying to say that the 'dinner with his parents' scene was really cool, but I wasn't expecting it to be extremely revealing...and it wasn't. However, it one looks at everything in prospective we'll see that in the last several episodes, we have learned so much about him. I'm just waiting to see how far he'll go with his obsession with Stacy.

One thing I have noticed, and it may force me to change my name, is that he's not popping vicodine. He hasn't in two episodes. I wonder if Fox was ordered to cut-down on those scenes. Anybody know? RT?

I thought it was strange seeing 'Sargent Hartman' from "Full Metal Jacket" play Daddy House.

Off to drink more coffee!

Pillpopdoc.

First off, I have to rewatch this one. There was just too much going on inside and outside the house tuesday to catch all the dialogue so I haven't made any comments yet. Must rewatch tonight and then I can at least make an attempt at intelligent commentary!! :lol:

PPD -- FOX knows they've got a hit and if they had enough backlash about the pill-popping to demand a cut back we'd have heard about it on the entertainment shows. I think it's just aother on of those subtle things ther writers do with House and his moods.

There were several eppie in the first season where he didn't pop any. And several more that he only popped one or two. One of the few lines I did catch was that Stacy was out of town. He's got a new toy that annoys people, Stacy is gone, Foreman may still be doing his clinic hours. He's a happy man. He doesn't need the vicodin becasue there's nothing he needs to deal with right now.

The only thing that could ruin it are the parents and up until he actually sees them I think he believes he'll get out of it one way or another so it's not an issue. I'm sure if they'd have had the planned dinner you'd have seen him pop one before the encounter but since they just showed up I don't think he wanted to pop one in front of them It would probably bother mom and confirm dad's view of him (so I'm hearing, didn't catch most of the parents/House interaction).

I think your safe PPD, you'll be able to keep that name for years to come! :lol:

I think he actually does pop a vicodin or two early in the episode when they're in the conference room. He's standing by the sink (I think) and pops them then drinks from what looks to be a Poland Spring water bottle.

But I agree that the vicodin use is way down this season, and except for the scene with death row guy, I don't think he's been drinking as much either. There was so much speculation over the summer hiatus that House was going into a drug/booze downward spiral this season that I think many fans haven't caught how little he seems to rely on his chemical crutches so far. He has been (except for this episode) snarkier than he was at the end of last season, and he's also distracted himself with various other forms of risk taking behavior (orchestrating--literally--Andie's surgery, the motorbike, taking on Cuddy in "Humpty") so while he may not be "happy", he's found ways to occupy himself that perhaps take his mind off the pain. I suspect Stacy's presence is a factor too--even though she hasn't been that present for viewers. I don't think he wants her to see him popping pills. His ego is such that he wouldn't want her to know how much her absence hurts him or see him dependent on narcotics. Her presence may be one motivating factor no one could anticipate. He's also working harder than last season. The series began with his elaborate schemes to avoid work of any kind, even refusing to take on the interesting cases. This season he actually seeks out some good cases, and even when he claims he doesn't want to take a case, his resistance seems more for show.

But I think the decreased use of pills may be setting us up for his response to the end of the Stacy arc. He may hit the skids at some point, and his relatively conservative use of vicodin so far may allow the writers to show his increased use in a way that's realistic, i.e. the increase woildn't be in doses great enough to kill him. I also worry about the motorbike...

Intersting stuff cutterdog- think you're on to something with the other distractions and the pills less in evidence. I reckon they are still being consumed in similar quantities as we'd have some level of reveal to make it a point but they need to keep things veguley balanced as House is upping his risks. The drinking in Acceptance was dodgy and the sniffing hayfever meds wasn't too smart in additon. I do think House is heading for some kind of spiral but I also figure this has always been part of him. I think he's attracted to risk and coupled with low esteem it won't have been the first time he's crashed out so to speak. But he is tough in a lot of ways and I don't think it will be too severe as he can't change or die - ultimate progression of this scenario. Be interesting to see where it goes.

As for his dad, big respect to the actor, because I did think he got some complicatecd emotion into a short space. I don't think he is a total bastard or a bully. I think he was trying to engage House, in his own way, with asking him about his life outside work. House also tried but they just don't get each other and it went wrong. The line about 'you don't realise how lucky you are' seemed to have some resonance from a guy who nearly lost his son. Whether they were around during the infarction (I think probably not) he has probably had to contemplate losing his son and I doubt House appreciates that fact. That said he should have laid off pushing the 'handicapped' issue because he is lucky to have his son, miserable as he may be, and it didn't serve any purpose. Depression doesn't get sorted through seeing the bright side because from where you're standing, rightly or wrongly, there isn't one. Daddy House was the one who came up with the cafeteria suggestion too, which if he really disliked his son so much he surely wouldn't have done. This is what made it really sad because it isn't a big fight or issue in the way, it's just being two completely different personalties that can't get on for more than half an hour. House knows it and his detached appraisel to Cameron of his parents summed that up for me. He's just not them and finds it hard, as he does with most people, to find a connection.

Sorry that's way too much thinking but the parents did a great job in not being cartoon characters and intrigued me.

ITA. The remark about the handicapped spot was tactless, at best.

In the grander scheme of things, Dad is kind of right -- House could have lost his leg or even his life, he's alive and he's got two legs, he doesn't need a wheelchair, he can even ride a motorcycle, yay, etc.

But it illustrates just how disconnected Dad is from what House is experiencing right now. Sure, it's great that House isn't dead, it's true there are people worse off than he is -- but does make House's own pain and disability just magically go away? Does acknowledging that there are people worse off than he is make him less tired at the end of the day, make it any easier to trek across the parking lot?

Kind of the flip side of Dad's remark about your patient's sick, so you can't eat? (Which sounds a lot like Foreman's line in the Pilot when they were breaking into Rebecca's place)

Interesting comments, Benj. I've posted elsewhere at far too great length my impression of House's relationship with his parents, but I do agree that fundementally they are just completely different people and don't understand each other. I do feel that having a Marine fighter pilot for a dad would be challenging--in all respects of the word--for a son, especially an only child upon whom (probably) a great many expectations were placed. In American culture fighter pilot + Marine=just about as tough as you can get. I imagine young House as a science whiz who probably spent a lot of time in his room reading crazy books his parents didn't understand. He probably blew up things for fun and got into scrapes as well, but couldn't live up to his father's exploits (although I bet he tried--he obviously has ridden a motorbike before, and his risk-taking behavior isn't new, just magnified) and the friction between them has existed forever. You raise a good point about dad suggesting the cafeteria, so he does reach out a bit, but this comes right after he dismisses House's job as being "out of control".

I think the Marine Corps dad sees a son with two legs, a good job, and a miserable life. I think the reality is House doesn't have two legs and suffers deep physical and psychological pain. Dad can't see the handicap, and he certainly cannot fathom depression. (My late step-father could never understand depression either. He thought it was just a question of "bucking up" and a character flaw. Until he suffered it as a result of his congestive heart failure. But he was part of the World War II generation of men who thought mental illness was a sham. I see House's dad in that same camp. He's probably seen horrific things in the military and got through it fine. So his son shouldn't whine over a limp).

And House puts on a show for his folks. He doesn't tell them anything, he doesn't complain about his life, he doesn't pop any pills (although given the tone of his voice and his facial expression, I bet he took a few AFTER dinner)--he doesn't let them into his life at all. Which of course is the point of dad's comment to Cameron about teasing his son: of course he's never told them about her or anyone else on his team.

You're right about the pill usage. He's probably taking more at home. But he's doing less of the "I'm about to have an unpleasant experience so I'll pop a couple of vicodin now" than last season. He seems to be doing less preemptive medicating.

The 'marine pilot' concept didn't make the same impression with me. Armed Forces in thr UK conform to stereotype but in a different way. Pilot here would make me think highly intelligent, Uni educated, almost geek type image, mostly upper class., public school types. My brother is in the RAF and officer class, which I think all pilots are, is distinct and not necessirly such a macho pursuit, although the hero conitations are similar.

It's pushing a stereotype but the ink and sovereign ring made me think his Dad was more of a Marine soldier until House said he was a pilot. But that's just the way it would work here in most cases and we have more class distinction and pre-occpuaption unfortunatley- cheers for the info!

Awesome analysis everybody. I love hearing all these theories.

Good point. Dad's whole "So, any babes you want to tell be about?" remark seemed to be another attempt at this.

I def. feel for his mom, who as a human lie-detector (as House put it) clearly knows what's going on but still tries to pacify everything without being confrontational. Which with types like these, isn't going to work. But she keeps trying.

Any one else find it interesting that House's parents have been married 47 years, and they have a kid who is (based on his remark last season about being 46) also 47? Not sure if the writers are going for that kind of implication, but who knows?

Ponder . . .

If dad is 67 he would have been too young to fight in Korea, but still draftable (the draft continued through the 1950s and 1960s even in peacetime). If he was drafted at 18 and House was born in 1958 he would have been 20 years old. Not uncommon then or now for men in the military (many of the young guys dying in Iraq are 19 or 20 and have families). I'm not sure a college degree was necessary in those days for someone to become a pilot, although I think it is now. Of course that ring could be from one of the service academies--probably Annapolis--in which case my math is off because you can't be married while you're enrolled. He would have been the right age for Viet Nam, and he would have served there while House was a kid. His attitude makes me feel he's seen combat.

There's nothing "upper class" about the Marines. It's reputed to be the toughest branch of service, and probably has the lowest percentage of college grads. It used to be thought of as the place to send kids who got into trouble--the drill sargents would straighten them out in a hurray.

One thing I found interesting is that when DadHouse gave Cameron that line about "he's told us all about you," he then let her off the hook not by saying "I'm just kidding/teasing" (as House did when she was gullible enough with the "candy canes" bit last year. Instead, he did so by saying: "I'm just giving my son a hard time." So he's basically saying at that point that Cameron's gullibility isn't her flaw, it's House's.

Odd.

And if that's the kind of responsibility that Dad House heaped on him throughout his life, I can definitely understand the reticence in dealing with him at all. Heck, Dad probably actually said at some point that if House were a better doctor he would have diagnosed his own infarction earlier. In "Humpty Dumpty" we saw House blaming himself (not saying so directly, but indirectly) for not finding the solution to Alfredo's illness before the amputation. I'm sure that was the result of years of Dad's training.

Yes. No matter how good you are, you're never good enough. Remember when Stacy said "You lay in bed at night worrying about..." and he cut her off? Maybe she knows he worries about not being good enough.

I took dad's comment to Cameron as another shot at House: he never tells us anything about his life. At least he was kind enough towards Cameron to let her off the hook, although "New?"..."No, just gullible." isn't that nice.

parents in general are insane no way around that they wants whats best for you but then they don't always let you know exactly what they want.

my mom the past 2 weeks has been particularly mental i asked where dad was cuz i could tell she didn't want to cook dinner so i was going to get him to come get me and she went off on me about him for 15 minutes...i should learn not to ask and just call him. then this other time i said i wanted a salad and then when i got to dinner i didn't have one so i inquired about it and my mom called me a liar and practically threw hers at me i left with a roll and my milk don't think had anything else that night. my dad's flakey but hes cool and real laid back and chill right now I'm favoring him although he can be an asshole to my mom at times.

you just have to live with them sometimes, as they have to live with you.

Yet another thought- this time random and shamelessly shallow.

Watched a docu on Britpop (ten years ago, means I'm old-argh!) and they were interviewing Liam Gallagher and it struck me. He was wearing virtually same the jacket as House in the ep and I just thought the interviewer really needed to say "Liam, wanna see how that jacket can look cool and hot on a guy, check out House". Would have been awesome with added bonus of being damn true. :)

I'm a week late on this one! Just a couple of comments:

-I love that the surgeon was talking to Chase about the Beatles and Paul McCartney. Being a giga Beatles fan my ears perked up. And having just seen Paul McCartney in concert the night before, hearing his name on the show was a huge rush! :lol:

-Love that they got R. Lee Ermy (sp?) to play House's dad. He played one of the murdered kids' fathers in "Dead Man Walking." An amazing actor. Look forward to seeing more of him.

-Anyone know what other movies/shows the kid's dad has been in? He looked awfully familiar to me.

Cheers,

-Pradon

The actor's name is Clifton Powell. Click his name for his listing in the Internet Movie Database.

One major one comes to mind; "Full Metal Jacket." He was Sargent Hartman. I has done quite a few military type roles. I also saw him about a month ago doing a 'horay for the military' type show on I think it was Spike TV.

I just watched Daddy's Boy for the second time today and noticed something. You know the surgeon at the end? The one that was saying his kid got him into the Beatles? His voice sounds really familiar, but I couldn't see his face. Does anybody know who he was and what else he's been in?

As to my earliier post, never mind. His name is Matt McKensie (sp?) and I recognised him as the voice of my favorite character in my favorite video game.