Gregory House
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| Dr. Gregory House | |
|---|---|
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| First appearance | "Pilot" |
| Information | |
| Occupation | Head of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine |
| Family | John House (father), Blythe House (mother) |
| Relationships | Stacy Warner (ex-girlfriend) |
| Portrayed by | Hugh Laurie |
Dr. Gregory House is a fictional character and protagonist of the Fox medical drama House. He is played by Hugh Laurie.
House is a maverick medical genius (often quoted as "medicine's most brilliant mind") who heads a team of young diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. He has been called a "misanthrope" and a "curmudgeon" — in fact, "curmudgeon" was named one of the top television words of the year in honor of the character.[1]
House commonly expresses a profound and innate disappointment in the fallibility and inferiority of other people. His crankiness is commonly attributed to the chronic pain in his leg (the result of an infarction in one or more of the quadriceps muscles in his right thigh), for which he requires the aid of a cane. However, according to former girlfriend Stacy Warner, he was "pretty much the same" before the infarction. It is later revealed that House's father was abusive to him.
House takes Vicodin frequently for the pain in his leg (and usually while dealing with a case that wastes his time or annoys him); whether he takes it too frequently was the subject of an entire episode, "Detox". He agrees that he has an addiction, but when his boss, Lisa Cuddy, interprets this to mean he admits to having a problem, colleague Dr. James Wilson has to explain the difference to her. House claims the addiction is not a problem because it does not interfere with his life.
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[edit] Biography
Gregory House was born to John and Blythe House either on June 11, 1959 (according to a hospital identification bracelet seen during House's hallucination in the second season finale "No Reason", and also the birth date of actor Hugh Laurie, who portrays House), or during the late fall or early winter (according to references to House's birthday occurring during "The Socratic Method"); the previous date was given as December 21. His social security number was issued in Ohio. (According to his listed social security number (295-13-7865) on the hospital identification bracelet in "No Reason").[2]
A "military brat", House's father served as a Marine Corps pilot, and moved bases during much of House's childhood (cf. "Daddy's Boy"). It was during these travels that House presumably picked up his affinity for languages, showing some level of understanding of Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Hindi over the course of the series. One of these stations was in Egypt, where House developed a passing fascination with archaeology and treasure-hunting, an interest which led him to keep his treasure-hunting tools well into his adulthood (cf. "Clueless"). Another station was Japan, where, at age 14, House discovered his ambition to become a doctor, after witnessing a buraku doctor solve a case no other doctor could handle (cf. "Son of Coma Guy"). House's interest in archaeology is perhaps a nod to Hugh Laurie's own Archaeology degree.
House loves his mother but hates his father, who he claims has an "insane moral compass"; his father is and always has been incessantly straightforward and honest, which House still finds infuriating, and which showed House that humans are, in general, incessant liars themselves. It is later revealed that John House's punishments normally consisted of abuse, such as making Gregory sleep on the lawn or taking an ice bath (cf. "One Day, One Room"), which goes some way towards explaining House's unpleasant misanthropic behavior.
After receiving his undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University, House studied at Johns Hopkins' prestigious School of Medicine until a classmate, Phillip Weber, turned House in for copying exam answers from him (cf. "Distractions"). House is still extremely bitter about this, especially since Weber's paper had the wrong answer. Following his expulsion from Johns Hopkins, he applied and was accepted to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where he graduated with his M.D.. House's future boss, Lisa Cuddy, was an undergraduate at the university at the same time (cf. "Humpty Dumpty"). In the episode "Occam's Razor", House introduced himself to a group of waiting clinic patients as "a board-certified [alternately "bored, certified"] diagnostician with a double specialty of Infectious Disease and Nephrology."
About ten years before the series began, House embarked on a relationship with Stacy, a constitutional lawyer. Five years later, he suffered an infarction in his right leg, which caused his quadriceps muscles to become necrotic. House had the dead muscle bypassed in order to restore circulation to the remainder of his leg, accepting the possibility of organ failure in a portion of the muscle; he was willing to endure excruciating, unstoppable pain as a trade-off for retaining the use of his leg. After House was put into a chemically-induced coma, to sleep through the worst of the pain, Stacy decided to exercise her right as House's medical proxy and chose a safer surgical middle-ground between amputation and a bypass involving removing just the dead muscle. This resulted in a partial loss of the use of his leg, and left House with a lesser, but still serious, level of pain for the rest of his life. House could not forgive Stacy for making the decision, so she left him (cf. "Three Stories"); she eventually married a high school guidance counselor named Mark Warner, who was House's patient in "Honeymoon."
[edit] Personality
As a protagonist, House exemplifies many qualities of a post-modern anti-hero; many aspects of his personality are the antithesis of what might be expected from a doctor. He never seems to miss an opportunity to exercise his cunning and biting wit, and spends a great deal of time picking people apart and mocking their weaknesses. House confounds patients with an eccentric bedside manner and often unorthodox treatments, but impresses them with rapid and accurate diagnoses after seemingly not paying attention. In one episode, he diagnosed an entire waiting room full of patients on his way out of the hospital clinic. House does not suffer fools gladly; as a corollary, he seems to regard most people as fools, and is on record that, in his opinion, "everybody lies". However, in the first season finale, he jokingly remarked that he was lying when he said that.
It would seem that House's powers of deductive reasoning are not limited to medicine. Rather like the character's inspiration, Sherlock Holmes (see below), House appears to enjoy deciphering—with startling accuracy—people's motives and histories from aspects of their personality and appearance. This is useful both for unraveling patients' conditions and, apparently, for his own amusement and displays of intellectual superiority. He showed a natural affinity for the game of poker in the episode, "All In." Dr. James Wilson once stated in the episode "DNR" that while "some doctors have the messiah complex — they need to save the world. You have a Rubik's complex — you need to solve the puzzle."
House could be said to possess a strong non-conformist or anarchistic streak to his personality. Throughout the series, he displays sardonic contempt for figures in positions of authority (although not exclusively by any means), from senior doctors, politicians, and businessmen to nuns and even God. In the episode "Kids", House berated a young man, who was applying for Cameron's job, for believing himself non-conformist, and to be "cool": growing his hair long and having a tattoo of an Asian character on his arm, which, House argued, showed that he was as conformist as the next 20-year-old white male. House himself shows an almost constant disregard for his own appearance, dressing informally—often in jeans—and without the standard white lab coat, and possessing a permanent stubble.
House has one real friend, Dr. James Wilson, and almost no social life to speak of. He is often unpleasant bordering on cruel, and dislikes mandatory politeness in all its forms; he claims that people are cowards, and to say what they really mean would risk "mutually assured destruction." House also has nothing but contempt for optimism and sometimes goes to unusually brutal lengths to prove that humans are in essence selfish, predictable liars, and that any kind gesture or intent is meaningless. This misanthropic outlook frequently puts him at odds with his most good-natured employee, Dr. Allison Cameron, whom he frequently bullies. However, Cameron has displayed an almost robotic attachment to principle, which House, Foreman, and Chase have noted.
Television programs House has shown interest in include General Hospital, The O.C., SpongeBob SquarePants, The New Yankee Workshop (of which he says, "It's a complete moron working with power tools — how much more suspenseful can you get?"), Monster Truck Jams, Blind Date, Dawson's Creek, 24, The L Word (which he watches muted), and Blackadder (which Hugh Laurie starred in from 1986 to 1989).
He is also fond of playing portable video games, notably from the Metroid series on multiple platforms (Metroid: Zero Mission on a Gameboy Advance SP and Metroid Prime: Hunters: First Hunt on a Nintendo DS). In one episode, House even proved a patient to be in a coma by placing the speaker of the Nintendo DS he was playing next to their ear. During Season 3 he is seen playing a Sony PSP, a gift from an autistic child near the end of the episode "Lines in the Sand." House is also shown with a few reoccurring toys; he's skilled with yo-yo and can juggle.
House is a fan of monster trucks, supposedly having spent $1,000 to get all access passes for Wilson and himself to a local rally. Though Wilson later declined to go, House still had an enjoyable evening at the rally with Cameron, even though she didn't know what a monster truck was. In the episode "Distractions," House attended the lecture given by his rival, Dr. Phillip Weber, while donning sunglasses and a trucker-style baseball cap bearing the logo of the Grave Digger monster truck to remain incognito. It is also likely that House is fond of -- or at the very least familiar with -- Monster Trucks' close "sports entertainment" cousin, the pseudo-sport of professional wrestling. On one occasion, House tells his staff that he "could smell what The Rock is cooking." When asked to affirm his belief in a higher power while in rehab, House cites Andre The Giant as his example.
House uses sports metaphors on occasion, a quirk Cameron seems to hate. There is also a possibility that he is an ice hockey fan and, more specifically, a fan of the Philadelphia Flyers, as mentioned in the episode "Distractions", when Wilson tells House that "You get distracted by pain, leaves less room for the things you don't want to think about, like the Flyers sucking or the price of gas..." Also, House may have at one time been a lacrosse player or at least a lacrosse fan, hinted at in the episode "Paternity." Near the very end of the episode, he attends his former patient's lacrosse game and stands off beside the bleachers. House starts to softly coach the boy as he plays, giving him advice with a slightly glazed look in his eye, as if remembering a past athletic ability or interest. He then clutches his cane like a crosse (the proper name for a lacrosse stick) and stares at it sadly. In the episode "Euphoria, Part 1", House is twice shown using his cane in a crosse-like fashion, first knocking up a large ball and catching it in the hook of the cane, then later launching the ball against a wall and catching it as one would in a game of lacrosse. He also does this in the episode "Informed Consent."
[edit] The Holmes connection
Series creator David Shore has said in an interview that House's character is partly inspired by Sherlock Holmes.[3] The name "House" is a play on "Holmes" (a homophone for "homes").[4][5]
Both Holmes and House are experts who are brought into cases that have proven too difficult for other investigators. Both characters exhibit remarkable powers of observation and deduction, a tendency to come to rapid conclusions after the briefest examination of the circumstances, drug use (cocaine for Holmes, Vicodin for House, morphine for both), talent with a musical instrument (violin for Holmes, piano for House), and only one real friend (Dr. Watson and Dr. Wilson, respectively), who connects the detached hero to human concerns. Also, just like Watson, at one point Wilson is roommates with House. Watson and Wilson are both attributed to be "ladies' men"; Watson has at least two wives over the course of Holmes' run in literature, while Dr. Wilson has a few ex-wives. Both House and Holmes rely on the use of a cane. The two characters also share an unconventional personality and, to an extent, a brusqueness of manner, especially when occupied in an interesting case. Actor Hugh Laurie has remarked that House's obsession with television, video games, and popular music is meant to echo Holmes' habit of listening to classical music or reading dull monographs for hours on end in order to relax his mind while pondering a case[citation needed].
While House uses large quantities of Vicodin for pain management, Holmes used drugs in an experimental, often research-driven modality; some episodes imply that House at one time also used drugs in this experimental fashion before he developed his current dependency on Vicodin, making references to experiences with LSD and cocaine. In the episode "Distractions", House used LSD to treat a self-induced migraine.
House's dependency on Vicodin as a substitute to his cases has recently been touched upon at the onset of Season Three. Without the intellectual stimulation of diagnosing patients, House falls into a stark depression, even when his leg is supposedly "cured" and pain-free (see the episode "No Reason"). He requires either the high of a confirmed diagnosis or Vicodin to function. The similarity between his and Holmes' own addictions (Holmes only required drugs whenever there wasn't a case at hand) is another bridge between them.
The patient in the series' pilot episode is named Rebecca Adler, whereas Holmes is outwitted by Irene Adler in his first short story, "A Scandal in Bohemia." The man who shoots House in the episode "No Reason" has the surname Moriarty, echoing Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty (the name is never mentioned in the episode; merely derived from the credits). Also, in one episode, House's apartment number is revealed to be 221B, Sherlock Holmes' Baker Street address. In the episode "Whac-A-Mole", House challenges his team to a game, and places what he says is the right answer in an envelope on which was written "The game is a itchy foot," which is a play on "The game is afoot," a quote often attributed to Holmes (who was in turn quoting Shakespeare (Henry IV, part 1)).
Near the end of the episode "Failure to Communicate," in explaining his understanding of what his patient with aphasia is actually saying, House gives a relatively common riddle about a room with an all-southern view and a polar bear to his lackeys. This is the exact same riddle given by Holmes to Dr. Watson in Young Sherlock Holmes, and being another nod to the parallels between Holmes and House.
The character of Sherlock Holmes was originally based by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, on Joseph Bell, a doctor noted for his love of deductive reasoning and skill with both ordinary diagnostics and forensic medicine (which was quite new at the time); the character of House can thus be seen in a way as taking the idea of Sherlock Holmes full circle.
[edit] Relationships
[edit] Dr. James Wilson
James Wilson is House's closest friend (his only friend, according to Stacy Warner and Dr. Lisa Cuddy) and his most trusted confidant. He is also one of the few individuals who can make House laugh. It is suggested that Wilson received his training at Montreal's McGill University; the aforementioned is based upon the fact that he has been seen wearing a McGill University sweater. He has known House since before House's infarction, although it is not clear exactly how long ago they met.
Wilson is the originator of the bet Cuddy makes with House in the episode "Detox," which is intended to get House to fully realize his addiction to Vicodin. Later, he goes out on a professional limb to protect House's job in the episode "Babies & Bathwater," a move that causes him to lose his job, almost permanently.
At the end of the episode "Sex Kills", Wilson moves into House's apartment after learning that his wife has had an affair. He stays with House for a few episodes before moving out to live with a patient with whom he had become involved.
In Season Three, a great deal of attention is paid to House and Wilson's relationship. Michael Tritter, a police detective and the unfortunate recipient of one of House's more memorable clinic visits, investigates House on the charge of drug possession with intent to traffic. Because of his refusal to admit that House stole his prescription pad to forge a prescription for Vicodin, Wilson becomes an inadvertent target for Tritter. Before long, he discovers that Tritter had his bank account and all his other assets frozen (under basis of a "criminal investigation"), presumably until he gives in and agrees to give House up. When Wilson still refuses to cooperate, he leaves for work one day to find that his car has been impounded and his prescription license revoked. This turn of events places his friendship with House in a period of jeopardy. At the end of the episode "Finding Judas," Wilson agrees to cooperate with Tritter (such as admitting to not writing the allegedly forged prescriptions) for a variety of reasons, unbeknownst to House, which include worry for his friend and pity for Chase, on whom House is taking out most of his anger. In the episode "Merry Little Christmas," Cameron thinks Wilson did it for his own gain when he asks her "What's your problem with me?" and insists he betrayed House because of House's actions, and Cameron says that that's what her problem is with him - that he pretends his motives were pure.
In the same episode, House finds out Wilson has struck a deal with Tritter: House can either enter rehab or face jail time. House initially refuses to go into rehab, and for three days, he searches desperately for Vicodin, leading to him being removed from his current case, even though his colleagues are stumped without his input. While going through withdrawal, House resorts to taking the medication of a deceased patient by signing the dead man's name into the pharmacy's log. In less than a twelve-hour period, House consumes an entire bottle of stolen oxycodone. Back at his home, he uncharacteristically telephones his estranged parents to wish them a merry Christmas before finishing off the oxycodone, washing down the pills with a considerable amount of alcohol. House overdoses on the combination of alcohol and oxycodone, although his earlier behavior makes it somewhat ambiguous to the viewer as to whether or not the overdose is accidental or if this is a deliberate suicide attempt. Wilson later discovers House lying on the floor, barely conscious, with the stolen oxycodone bottle nearby. Upset and disgusted, Wilson leaves.
Realizing he has hit rock bottom, House goes to Tritter to accept rehab, to which Tritter says is now off the table due to the new evidence of House stealing the oxycodone. House enters rehab in an effort to try to convince Tritter to drop the charges. After going to trial, the judge drops the charges and House apologizes to Wilson for everything that had happened. He later claims the apology was void and simply part of the program (although House had no intention of undergoing rehab and still took Vicodin even while in session). It is implied that House actually felt a tiny bit of remorse for Wilson, when Wilson asks him why he apologized if it wasn't necessary and House says, "Believe what you want."
[edit] Dr. Lisa Cuddy
Lisa Cuddy is House's boss at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and fellow University of Michigan alumna. Cuddy seems to have a special relationship with House, in that she is, aside from James Wilson, probably the only person whom House can call an ally.
She is able to withstand House's many taunts (often about her breasts or other such provocative topics) while having the wit to retort or laugh him off. Cuddy seems to have almost limitless patience with House and his unconventional methods, though is not afraid to step in when House steps too far out of line. This tenuous truce, where Cuddy bends the rules for House in hopes of controlling him, is frequently under attack by authority figures such as Edward Vogler and Michael Tritter, who think House is too unstable to allow to operate unrestricted.
Cuddy also seems to have a strong emotional attachment to House, as well as a level of comfort with him that she does not have with anyone else except Wilson. House seems to have an unusual knowledge of details of Cuddy's personal life, such as where she keeps her spare keys and the timing of her menstrual cycle; this has led many to believe that they once had (or even currently have) a relationship, but both seem to deny this.
Near the end of the second season, House became involved in Cuddy's mission to have a child through sperm donation, giving her hormonal injections and advising her on her choice of sperm donors. In the midst of Season Three, however, he hurts Cuddy when, in the episode "Finding Judas," she makes a medical treatment decision for a child she is given temporary guardianship of. House disagrees with the decision and when it begins to cause the child further harm, he berates Cuddy, telling her it was a good thing she hadn't become a mother yet because she "sucks at it." Cuddy is seen later in her office crying while Wilson attempts to comfort her.
In the episode "Words and Deeds," Cuddy fabricates evidence which allows House to have the case against him dismissed. She later tells House that since she did that for him, she now "owns his ass" and demands that in the future, he will help more in the hospital clinic, lecture to medical students, and assist in finding financial donors, all activities House despises.
In the aftermath of "Words and Deeds," the romantic relationship between the two seems to be developing. In "Insensitive," House frequently harasses Cuddy, who is in the midst of a blind date. Cuddy eventually asks House if he "likes" her. In "Half-Wit," when House is pretending to be dying of cancer, he steals a hug from Cuddy, apparently in order to squeeze her butt. In "Top Secret," it is discovered that she and House have had a past romantic (if not a one-night stand) relationship. Cuddy states, "That ship sailed long ago," in reference to a comment House made about that relationship.
[edit] Stacy Warner
In the pilot episode, House reveals that his limp is the result of a misdiagnosis, which is covered in more detail in the episode "Three Stories." He exhibited only leg pain, and the doctor failed to realize that he had an infarction that led to muscle necrosis. Unwilling to have his leg amputated, House recommended a potentially fatal treatment for himself that would fix the infarction but not the free-floating potassium and cytokines in his system, which he underwent. However, the pain from this treatment did not subside, and he requested to be put in a chemically-induced coma.
While House was unconscious, Stacy (his girlfriend and medical proxy at the time) decided to have the dead muscle removed. While she believed this treatment would probably save his life, it left House crippled and in chronic pain. Some viewers speculate that the free rein House receives from Cuddy is caused by guilt over this event. House has not fully forgiven Stacy for what he views as a betrayal. However, in spite of these events, Stacy maintains that House always had an antisocial personality, and that his being crippled was not the reason for his misanthropy.
Following his brief affair with Stacy, House told her to go back to her husband, because he would not be willing to do whatever it would take to sustain a relationship. According to Wilson, this further proves House's need to be miserable, but may also show that House has a well-hidden sense of decency.
[edit] Dr. Allison Cameron
House had said in the pilot episode that he hired Allison Cameron because she was extremely pretty: a pretty girl who went into medicine shows greater commitment than an ordinary-looking better student because a pretty girl could have used her looks to get an easier job.
A major subplot of the first season dealt with Cameron's growing attraction to House. House has admitted to at least being physically attracted to Cameron, but has been unclear regarding any personal feelings towards her. He took Cameron on an informal date to a monster truck jam in the episode "Sports Medicine."
After his infamous speech regarding Edward Vogler's "new" drug, House was told he would have to either fire Cameron or Foreman. Cameron took the decision out of House's hands and went to his house to resign her position that same night. She later returned to her fellowship, on one condition—that House take her out on a date. The date was an eye-opener to Cameron, who got to learn the true sombreness of House's persona - House explained his view that Cameron was attracted to him because she considered him "damaged" emotionally and physically, making the assumption that she fell for her dead husband, too, because she knew he was terminally ill.
In the second season premiere, an inebriated House observes that he could have had Cameron if he wanted. At the start of the third season, when House is able to walk without a cane, he asks Cameron out again, to which she reacts with bewilderment. Proclaiming victory, House says her reaction proves (in his mind) that Cameron was only attracted to the part of him that was "damaged." Cameron assures House that limp or no limp, he is far from healthy. Though this storyline wasn't featured prominently in Season Two, House's subconscious portrayal of Cameron in the season finale "No Reason" shows a possible sexual attraction.
In season three, Cameron kisses House after she (along with Chase and Foreman) are led to believe that House is afflicted with terminal brain cancer (cf. "Half-Wit"). He is initially startled by it but reciprocates. The kiss ends, however, when it's revealed to be a ploy to get his blood sample when Cameron reaches in to her pocket for a syringe and House catches her hand. He eventually compromises as Cameron tells him that there is a nurse willing to risk his job to get his blood sample and gives her "his" medical history details instead. This scene mirrors a scene in season two where House tells Cameron he loves her in order to get a swab for her final HIV test (cf. "Need to Know").
[edit] Dr. Eric Foreman
Eric Foreman has a notable rivalry with House, which began in the first episode, when House admitted that he specifically hired Foreman because of his criminal record. Foreman is also the most recent hire into the fellowship, apparently starting just a few days before the series premiere. Unlike Cameron or Chase, who more or less suffer under House's quips, Foreman frequently locks horns with his manipulative boss and strongly dislikes being toyed with. In "Damned If You Do", Foreman even sought retribution against House by going behind his back and reporting him to Cuddy. As of Season Three, Foreman's patience for House's insulting remarks has not improved.
Cameron suggests in the episode "Poison" that the reason Foreman and House don't mix is because they are so much alike. When Foreman temporarily assumes House's position as diagnostic department head in the episode "Failure to Communicate", Chase insinuates that Foreman is obsessed with appearing "just as good as House," but "nicer."
Foreman is unafraid to speak candidly to House, and often takes House aside to speak to him on a frank level about certain wild treatments on their patient of the week, and never hesitates to tell House what he thinks of him at that moment. Consequently, House is never seen rebuffing Foreman completely, implying that he might appreciate Foreman's candor more than he lets on.
Also, House is frequently seen making jokes pointed at Foreman due to his being an African-American, referring to him as "the dark one", and sending him to break into patients' homes due to his street smarts, but Foreman always has a good comeback and is not offended by House.
[edit] Dr. Robert Chase
Out of the current three fellows under House, Robert Chase has been working there the longest. In the first season, when Edward Vogler put his job at risk, Chase was shown to be willing to do whatever it took to stay working with House, even if that meant betraying House himself. While on paper Chase stayed morally spotless, merely reporting Diagnostic Department's activities to a superior, he blatantly betrayed House's trust in him. This was found out and there was tension between House and Chase for a time, but it is generally believed that by Season Two, the entire department had put the incident behind them, as can be seen in the transition from the episode "Kids" to "Love Hurts", and it is barely ever referenced again.
While House has said he believes Chase "loves" him, there has been no outward reciprocation or particular attachment on House's part. However, in the finale of Season Two, House appears distinctly ruffled by the idea of not being able to depend on Chase, and in "The Mistake" House makes a sincere effort to keep Chase on staff after he makes a serious error that could lead to his dismissal.
In Season Three, Michael Tritter looks into Chase and learns that he has betrayed House before. Tritter sets Chase up to make it appear as if he is conspiring against House again. Mortified, Chase attempts to smooth things over with House, but House (who is in a fit of drug withdrawal) wants nothing to do with him either way. After this, Chase realizes a patient's diagnosis on his own and races to the hospital exit to tell House to cancel a little girl's unnecessary surgery, which will only hasten her demise. House tells him to get out of his way, and when Chase does not comply, House hits him in the jaw, knocking him down. Only after this does House realize Chase is right and cancel the surgery. Afterward, a bruised Chase bitterly tells Wilson that even though he had the answer and did everything right, it still wasn't enough to earn even a modicum of House's respect. In this conversation, Chase states that he will no longer seek House's approval. However, in the next episode, Chase is quick to reassure House that he, and his jaw, are fine and things seem to be back to as they were before.
[edit] Edward Vogler
For five episodes during Season One, the writers introduced a nemesis for House in the form of a new hospital chairman—billionaire businessman Edward Vogler. Vogler donated $100 million in hopes of advancing research into life-threatening diseases, but as the episodes featuring Vogler advanced, it became clear that he may have had several ulterior motives, including unethically profiting from the hospital's promotion of his drug company.
Vogler, acting in his new position as Chairman of the Board, declared that he was "going to run Princeton-Plainsboro as a business." High on his list of expense cuts was House and his Department of Diagnostic Medicine. The department, as constructed in the show, serves far fewer patients than any other hospital department and appears to function to allow House to take those particular cases that interest him because they are far more complex and difficult to diagnose than any others, in other words being House's "vanity project" (as Vogler terms it), and brings little money into the hospital aside from the PR generated by House's victories.
Vogler later offered House a Hobson's choice: fire one of his team members and take on more clinic hours or risk losing the entire department; how this choice plays out was the focus of several episodes. In the end, the hospital board of directors votes Vogler off the board after Vogler effectively forced them to vote to remove House and Wilson, and threatened to do the same to Cuddy.
[edit] Dr. Phillip Weber
Regarding House's fellow student at Johns Hopkins who "ratted" on him for cheating on an exam: in the episode "Distractions," House exacted his revenge against Weber, who was touting his new treatment for migraines. House referred to the "snitch" as "Dr. von Lieberman", although his real name was revealed to be Phillip Weber. When asked about this discrepancy, House said that he calls him "von Lieberman" because it's "way eviler."
House surreptitiously invites the "snitch" to speak at the hospital and, at the lecture, proceeds to heckle him, questioning both his research and competence. Later, Weber storms into House's office with news that his drug had been withdrawn by the pharmaceutical company after House contacted them via e-mail, complaining about Weber's poor research and ineptitude in mathematics. At one point in this confrontation, House tells Weber, "I know your math skills. They blow!" At the end of the episode, House declares the score settled.
[edit] Jack Moriarty
Jack Moriarty is a vengeful individual who shoots House in the second season finale, "No Reason." His wife was once a patient of House, and in the process of investigating her illness, House pressured Moriarty to tell him the absolute truth. Moriarty revealed to House that he had had an affair; although this fact was medically irrelevant to her illness, House told Moriarty's wife. Consequently, Moriarty's wife committed suicide (how much of this is true is open to debate, for this information is revealed to the audience during House's hallucination).
In the hallucination that results from Moriarty's attack on House, Moriarty is wheeled to the same intensive care unit House is in. There, Moriarty proceeds to psychoanalyze House, though it turns out at the end that this is actually House conversing with his subconscious. It is revealed in the episode, "Meaning", that Moriarty was never caught for shooting House.
The name "Moriarty" is never used in the episode itself; rather, only appearing in the press releases and script for the episode. It is one of many parallels to Sherlock Holmes, as noted above; it's the name of the great detective's nemesis Professor Moriarty.
[edit] Michael Tritter
Michael Tritter is a clinic patient of House's who was observant enough to notice that House is a mean-spirited misanthrope who always gets away with it because he walks around with a cane. Tritter is one of the first patients to actually kick said cane out from under him (Wilson had sawed halfway through it once as a prank, causing it to break when used). House retaliated by measuring Tritter's temperature rectally and exiting the room, leaving Tritter in that position indefinitely.
Tritter approached Cuddy to demand an apology for the embarrassment, which, of course, he did not receive. Soon after, House is stopped by a police cruiser, from which Tritter emerges; although it had not been mentioned beforehand, Tritter is a police officer. And he is absolutely willing to use every means at his disposal to do what he describes as "teaching House a little humility," beginning with a speeding ticket for breaking a 25 mph speed limit by 15 mph. While patting House down, Tritter discovers a bottle of un-prescribed Vicodin on him, places him under arrest for possession of narcotics and orders a search of his home. Of course, this results in the discovery of a massive amount of painkillers that House, presumably, had no prescriptions for. Additionally, at the beginning of Season Three, House was under treatment with ketamine and he underwent a seemingly complete recovery with regard to the pain in his leg. The pain began to recur, so (characteristically) instead of asking for help from any of his colleagues, he obtained more Vicodin by forging Wilson's signature on at least one prescription. Tritter is able to use this to accuse House of illegal drug possession with intent to traffic, resulting in the nullification of Wilson's DEA registration. After Tritter raids his apartment and confiscating all the drugs he can find, House is still un-rattled.
Tritter soon turns his wrath on House's coworkers, freezing their bank accounts in a "criminal investigation." He declares House to be a ticking time bomb, but after House's trial, Tritter grudgingly admits defeat, and hopes that his initial impressions about House are wrong.
Tritter has been alluded to being House's equivalent in the police department: unmarried, cynical, and relentless to the point of being dangerous. It is theorized that he has a relationship with a district attorney, who gives him free rein due to his acute investigative skills (per Cuddy). Tritter has also used House's catchphrase, "Everybody lies." Also, while House takes Vicodin on numerous occasions, Tritter has been shown unwrapping and chewing nicotine gum.
However, there is a significant difference between the two. House is an "equal opportunity offender" who has his patients' best interest at heart (i.e., survive whatever is wrong with them). Tritter, on the other hand, goes on a vendetta to destroy House's life and that of those around him in order to get revenge.
[edit] Quotes
- "Everybody lies."
- "I teach you to lie, cheat, and steal, and as soon as my back's turned you wait in line?"
- "Overall, drug addicts are idiots."
- "Do I get points if I act like I care?"
- "Congratulations, you've got a tumor."
- "Welcome to the end of the thought process!"
- "Do you think Grey's Anatomy got it all wrong?"
- "Oh, I stuck that primo; how rad am I?"
- "I'm not gonna like you. It's nothing personal. I don't like anybody."
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.languagemonitor.com/wst_page11.html
- ^ This Social Security number is not valid, as the area 295 has not released SSNs with a group value of 13. Social Security High Values
- ^ Zap2it � TV news � Building 'House' Is Hard Work
- ^ http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7518037
- ^ http://8763wonderland.com/2006/01/16/hugh-laurie-wins/
[edit] External links
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| Episode list | Awards | Soundtrack | |
| Cast and crew | |
|---|---|
| David Shore | Hugh Laurie | Lisa Edelstein | Robert Sean Leonard | Omar Epps | Jennifer Morrison | Jesse Spencer | |
| Characters | |
| Gregory House | Lisa Cuddy | James Wilson | Eric Foreman | Allison Cameron | Robert Chase |
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | House (TV series) characters | Fictional child abuse victims | Fictional doctors | Fictional characters with disabilities | Fictional drug addicts | Fictional atheists | Fictional agnostics | Fictional characters from New Jersey
