Finding Judas

"Finding Judas" is the ninth episode of the third season of House and the fifty-fifth episode overall.

Plot

Six-year-old girl Alice (Alyssa Shafer), is enjoying herself at an amusement park with her father. When they go on a ride, Alice starts screaming uncontrollably.

House's team checks her and finds pancreatitis. It turns out that her parents (Christopher Gartin and Paula Cale) are divorced, and argue all the time. Consequently, Alice's parents are unable to agree on whether to trust House's judgment or not, so her guardianship is awarded to Cuddy.

Each time the doctors perform a test on Alice, her skin reacts as if she has allergies to everything. House thinks it's impossible for her to be allergic to everything, so he suspects infection. House recommends broad-spectrum antibiotics, but Cuddy fears this will cause systemic shock, so she just administers one antibiotic. Alice keeps getting worse, including muscle rigidity and liver failure. Without answers, Cuddy runs a charcoal hemoperfusion during which Alice gets a blood clot on her arm. Foreman and Cuddy operate on her and remove the clot, but her temperature rises dangerously. Cuddy cools her off by placing her under a shower. House concludes she has necrotizing fasciitis, even though he has no evidence, for which her only chance for survival is amputation of the infected limbs (left arm and leg). The team does not agree on such a radical measure, but House scolds them for being too cautious.

The surgery is prepared while the team hangs out in the Diagnostics office. Chase is playing with a laser pointer and has an epiphany. He stops House in the hospital hall and says that he thinks Alice has erythropoietic protoporphyria which makes her allergic to light. House rejects the explanation saying that would not explain the liver failure. When Chase tries to stop him, House punches him in the face. While lying on the floor, Chase explains the specifics about how the disease can cause the liver failure. House, shocked at his outburst and lack of clarity, realizes that Chase is right, and calls the OR to stop the surgery.

Detective Tritter is in an unused office in the hospital, reading files and papers. All the characters except House talk to him. He scolds Cuddy for being permissive, offers Foreman to let his imprisoned brother go in exchange for info, taunts Cameron about her false crush on House and tries to frame Chase into looking like he squealed on House. Tritter also freezes the team's bank accounts only to release them three days later, in order to create animosity and distrust among them. All the while House is distracted by his lack of Vicodin, which Cuddy is administering in meager doses.

He gets furious and yells at everyone, including insulting Cuddy for her inability to take care of Alice and tells her that "it's a good thing you failed to become a mom, because you suck at it!" Cuddy is destroyed by this comment, since she has already tried three times to get pregnant. Wilson talks to her and tries to calm her. She talks to Wilson about how she has never seen House be mean just for the sake of being mean. After Chase is punched, he talks to Wilson, who is working clinic duty. Chase tells Wilson that he cannot stand the situation anymore, and that he's through waiting for House's approval. Wilson then goes to Tritter and says "I'm gonna need thirty pieces of silver".

Awards

Lisa Edelstein and David Morse submitted this episode for consideration in their behalf in the categories of "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series" and "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series" for the 2007 Emmy Awards.^[1]

References

External links

• FOX.com-House official site
• "House M.D." IMDB Profile