Informed Consent (House episode)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| House episode | |
| "Informed Consent" | |
 |
|
| Episode No | HOU-303 |
|---|---|
| Airdate | September 19, 2006 |
| Writer(s) | David Foster |
| Director(s) | Laura Innes |
| Guest star(s) | Joel Grey as Ezra Powell Leighton Meester as Ali William Charlton as Mark Stephanie Venditto as Nurse Brenda Previn |
|
|
| All House episodes | |
Informed Consent is the third episode of the third season of House, and the forty-ninth episode overall.
Contents |
[edit] Plot Overview
Dr. House's ketamine treatment has worn off and House is back to using his cane and doesn't want to talk about it. House has to diagnose Ezra Powell, a 71-year-old renowned pioneer in the field of medical research who collapsed while studying rats. House puts Ezra through diagnostic rigors, but the team is unable to come up with a conclusive diagnosis, and Ezra's health continues to deteriorate. Becoming increasingly debilitated, Ezra ultimately demands that the team stop the litany of medical tests and help him end his life by injecting him with a large amount of morphine. House strikes a deal with him and asks for one day to do tests on him.
The moral dilemma of whether to assist in his suicide and abide by Ezra's wishes, or to ignore what their patient wants drives the team in very different directions. The team members have divergent opinions on the morality of helping Ezra die. Cameron despises the idea of interfering with what Dr. Powell wants to do. Both Foreman and Cameron are opposed watching House put Ezra to sleep, but Chase seems to have little problem. Wilson says that House has done it before "plenty of times" and House insists "two patients that I knew were terminal." In an example of Chase's ongoing character development, among the four, Chase is the most religious.
When House fails to diagnose Ezra in one day, House agrees to give him the morphine dose. Instead of killing him, House puts Ezra in a coma, so that he can do his diagnosis in peace.
[edit] Diagnoses
Amyloidosis, sub-type AA, an invariably fatal form of the disease.
[edit] Clinic patients
- Mark: A middle-aged man who suffers loss of appetite and headaches. He has an attractive daughter who has an obvious crush on House, and tells him he only has to "wait six months, 'til I'm eighteen."
[edit] Notes
[edit] Music
"Prelude Suite # 1 in G Major" by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Yo-Yo Ma: Ezra collapses while studying rats.
"Into Dust" by Mazzy Star: Ezra is mysteriously dead only thirty minutes after being declared stable. Cameron cries in the chapel. House puts a comforting hand on her shoulder, and says that he is proud of her.
[edit] Arc advancement
[edit] Referbacks
- TB or Not TB: The wall clock in the MRI procedure room has the words Stoia Tucker on it. This is the name of the pharmaceutical company that provides anti-tuberculosis medications that Dr. Sebastian Charles uses to treat TB patients in Africa.
[edit] Trivia
[edit] The Show
[edit] Behind the Scenes
[edit] Body Count
- This is the first episode of the third season where a patient dies under House's care. It is implied Cameron euthanized him.
[edit] Allusions and References
- The Wizard of Oz: When talking to Ezra, Dr. House peers under the bedsheet and says, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." While this could easily be misunderstood as merely a reference to The Wizard of Oz, it is in fact an allusion to Joel Grey's role as The Wizard in the Broadway musical Wicked, based on a novel that tells the story of The Wizard of Oz from the Wicked Witch of the West's perspective.
- Pulp Fiction: Early in the episode, House remarks that "the little vermin seized the day, so to speak, and went medieval on his ass." The line "I'ma get medieval on your ass!" was spoken by crime boss Marcellus Wallace in the film Pulp Fiction.
[edit] Goofs
- During a montage halfway through the episode, we see a shot of House sitting in his office, taken from "Meaning." The shot does not fit the continuity of this episode since House is wearing different clothing before and after the shot.
- When House is getting ready to inject morphine in Ezra, it alternates between a quarter full (camera shot behind) and half full (camera shot in front).
- House tells his staff that Ezra wasn't responding to stimulation in his left leg, abdomen, and right arm, when he didn't respond to stimulation to his right leg, abdomen and arm.
