Lisa Cuddy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dr. Lisa Cuddy
House character

Time on show	2004-present
Position	Dean of Medicine
First appearance	Pilot
Portrayed by	Lisa Edelstein

Dr. Lisa Cuddy is a fictional character, portrayed by Lisa Edelstein, on the American medical drama House. Dr. Cuddy is the Dean of Medicine and hospital administrator at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, where the show takes place. She often has to handle Dr. House's outlandish requests, and is usually left to deal with the consequences of his erratic behavior. She also has to force him to complete his required weekly duty at the out-patient clinic. Her position often requires her to make extremely difficult moral and ethical decisions regarding patient care (particularly in situations where Dr. House insists that highly dangerous and often illegal procedures are a patient's only chance at survival).

There is a degree of sexual tension inherent in her relationship with Dr. House. While it may have been implied that the two have had a sexual relationship, nothing has been confirmed, and both characters are currently single. Thus far, viewers are left to provide their own interpretations on the subject.

Little is known about Dr. Cuddy's personal history. The episode "Three Stories" reveals that she treated House when he suffered the infarction in his leg. She is presumably Jewish (as is Dr. Wilson): a menorah can be seen on her desk, and House has wisecracked about her using JDate. While all doctors have a medical specialty, Dr. Cuddy's has never been alluded to. During the episode "Histories", however, Dr. House asserts that she is not a neurologist.

Much of what is known about Dr. Cuddy was revealed in the episode "Humpty Dumpty". She attended the University of Michigan around the same time as Dr. House. She was an undergraduate there and she described him as "already a legend". During a conversation with Stacy Warner in the same episode, she mentioned wanting to be a doctor since she was 12, graduating medical school at age 25 and being second in her class, and becoming the first woman and second youngest chief of medicine ever at age 32.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details about (Ep 2:22, Forever, and later episodes) follow.

Towards the end of the second season Dr. Cuddy asked her colleague Dr. James Wilson out on a date (2.22, "Forever"). Believing that Dr. Cuddy might be concerned that she had cancer, but was afraid to be tested, Wilson swiped her spoon to test her saliva for cancer markers, but the result came back clean. The result also revealed that her female hormone levels were extremely high, piquing Dr. House's curiosity. When House questioned, Cuddy admitted that she wants a child and was deciding if she wanted to ask Wilson "for a donation". Dr. House agreed to keep her secret, and assisted her with fertility injections, as well as helping her screen potential sperm donors (all of whom House subsequently rejected). In Season 3, Dr. House continuously makes observations ending with wisecrack conclusions that Dr. Cuddy is pregnant. As of "Fools for Love," Cuddy is still not pregnant, as evidenced by a negative pregnancy test she is shown throwing away.

In episode 3.09 ("Finding Judas"), Cuddy acknowledges that her artificial insemination attempts had failed after House insulted her mothering skills. She seems like she has lost most of her hope for being a mother, citing that she doesn't have the "mothering handbook encoded in her genes" and was not meant to bear children. She claims she has a total of three attempts at inpregnation, one of which was miscarried. House's malicious comments coming after confiding her insemination attempts with him is seen as a betrayal, although the viewer is led to believe House did not make the comment purely out of malice, but also due to his withdrawal symptoms as Cuddy had put House on a "tight leash" on his Vicodin intake due to the Tritter Case.