House - season 8 thread (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

One of my favorite favorite endings to a show.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

A wonderful tip of the hat to the show's inspiration, Sherlock Holmes, and it gave me something I've been waiting the whole series for: House breaking his self-destructive pattern and doing something genuinely selfless.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Heh,

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

People can change.

 

[Josh Dial]

I really enjoyed the final homage to Holmes, though back in my mind I always felt it was the way the show would end (if it ended on its own terms).

A great finale to a show which, though it certainly had its ups and downs, was one of the great shows of the last decade. Hats off to all.

Also, that retrospective was nice: it's a shame more shows don't get that sort of classy treatment when they go out.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I want to watch the episode again from the top to see how it plays in light of the ending. Should be interesting.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Loved the whole thing, especially the nod to Holmes. The Final Problem, indeed.

More when I've had time to digest it all.
Regards,
Joe

 

[MikeyWeitz]

Too similar an ending to east Bound and Down, tho.

 

[Michael Henry]

They got EVERYONE pretty much to return but could'nt get Lisa Edelstein??? Oh well...
I enjoyed the final episode, especially the 1 hour pre-show...
Thanks to all at House, was a great end to a great character.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

They got EVERYONE pretty much to return but could get Lisa Edelstein??? Oh well...

Her absence was certainly glaring, but NBC Universal really burned a bridge on that front so there was nothing doing. If I had to guess, I'd say a good portion of the stuff delivered by Sela Ward's character would have come from Cuddy if they'd been able to get Edelstein back.

 

[Michael Henry]

Was kinda weird that she was invited to do the interviews in the 1st hour, but was not put into the final episode...

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Was kinda weird that she was invited to do the interviews in the 1st hour, but was not put into the final episode...

That was actually a bit deceptive, because all of her interviews in the first hour were previously recorded for earlier "House" publicity materials. The tipoff is that she's referring to events from previous seasons in the present tense.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I knew those Edelstein bits were not current, it looked like stuff you'd see in bonus materials on the DVD season sets.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Too similar an ending to east Bound and Down, tho.

*shrug* Never watched Eastbound and Down, and the House finale was certainly written and probably shot before that aired. The ending we got fit this show, and that's all I care about. Also from what I've heard, the character in Eastbound and Down made a decision to walk away from one possible good outcome in order to enjoy another, having learned his lessons prior to the final decision. House, by contrast, painted himself into a corner with his usual thoughtless and self-destructive behavior and appeared to have no good outcomes available. ("Stupid is our best case scenario.") In fact, it is arguable that what he did is a lesser-of-many evils choice: a good outcome for the time-being, but in the long run not a great one for him, in many ways. Finally, as mentioned in a couple of posts, the ending was as much a nod to Conan Doyle and "The Final Problem" / "The Adventure of the Empty House" as anything else.
I'm still trying to work out the timeline of events and of House's thought-process after watching the episode for the 2nd time last night.
Further speculation hidden to protect those who haven't hit their DVRs yet.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

He had to have planted clues and arranged the decption before he ended up in that building, but if he did, what was all that arguing with himself about? How and when did his patient end up dead? When did House swap the dental records? Place his ID under Foreman's chair? (Did Wilson do that after the fact?) Why shoot up heroin at all? Maybe I'm just dense, but I'm really puzzled by some of this stuff.

Regards,
Joe

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Further speculation hidden to protect those who haven't hit their DVRs yet.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

He had to have planted clues and arranged the decption before he ended up in that building, but if he did, what was all that arguing with himself about? How and when did his patient end up dead? When did House swap the dental records? Place his ID under Foreman's chair? (Did Wilson do that after the fact?) Why shoot up heroin at all? Maybe I'm just dense, but I'm really puzzled by some of this stuff.

Based on the episode,

Spoiler

I'd say he didn't decided to fake his own death until that moment near the end when he declares he can change. I'd guess things played out as follows: He saves the patient's life, and the patient decides to go back to his drug-addled lifestyle. The addict in House, heartbroken by his self-sabotaged plans to stay with Wilson having failed, goes out with his patient and gets wrecked out of his mind in the abandoned building the patient had been squatting in. Assuming they were inhaling heroin, they probably vaporized it on aluminum foil, and the flame got away from them and started the fire. The patient took one hit too many for his weakened state, and expired. He decides to walk out the front door, but just as he's getting close, the beam supporting the floor above crashes down right in front of him and the entire entrance is engulfed by flames. He beats a hasty retreat out the rear. Based on the ID, we can assume that House himself somehow slipped into the hospital undetected at some point and swapped dental records with his dead patient and slipped in his ID to stabilize Foreman's table. He used the heroin because he's addicted to painkillers, and heroin's the ultimate painkiller.

 

[David Norman]

I agree with most of Adam's assumptions and interpretations.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

If everything had been planned ahead then the whole subconscious arguments make no sense at all since all of them were trying to convince House to get out. If he had planned things
out and had no intention of staying in the building then his brain would have already known he was escaping and the whole storyline was just audience baiting. I think House truly was planning
on giving up until the very end and then improvised a plan to allow him to be dead and go off with Wilson
I'm not convinced the 2 Heroin users had anything to do with the fire since it apparently started fairly far away from where they were injecting. I don't see any reason to believe House injected
his 'buddy' since there was nothing in that conversation with the Head Characters that indicated such premeditation. Maybe the buddy was weakened, but maybe the amount and quality of
stuff that I'm assuming House was able to obtain since he had money was far more than the friend would normally have had access to. The same goes for House intentionally setting the fire --
nothing in the subsequent argument led me to believe House had set it. It might be possible that this was their last batch of heroin and they both planned on going out together with a OD, but
House's tolerance to Narcotics was high enough from his years of use that he didn't give himself enough to finish the job. It was never mentioned as a suicide attempt, but the actions after
he woke up certainly could be interpreted that way -- he didn't seem terrible surprised his buddy was dead and certainly had no real desire to escape the fire (suicide by OD or by fire would have
ended up the same).
The whole character conversations make a lot more sense if House went back after to switch the records and then tweak Foreman's nose with the card under the table leg. Since Foreman and
Wilson left the office pretty much immediately after getting the address and we know House hadn't been in the hospital for days, it seems unlikely the card had been there for days without him noticing.
It's possible that Wilson did it, but that seems even more roundabout. The question is was House tweaking Foreman or was it more of a sign of respect that he was the only one other than Wilson
to know that House was alive.

 

[Stan]

Never read a Sherlock Holmes story, just saw a few films when I was youger. Guess it's time to brush up on my literature and maybe this will make more sense.
Personally I would have liked for him to have died in the fire, put and end to the story. I've watched it for years, but I've always been one of those that liked watching for the ensemble cast and really could have had just about any other actor replace Hugh Laurie in a more toned down version. Still the boss, but not so rude and abrassive.
Enjoyed his interactions with Cuddy and Wilson, but overall he was a jerk. Had Foreman been a little looser, not so by the book, he could have been a great House replacement. Also miss Cuddy a lot, to bad that couldn't have been worked out a little better.
Will never know the details, but you would think with all the syndication deals, or even Hugh Laurie parting with a small part of his huge salary, they could have kept her around.
Guess I just don't like big changes when I've become very comfortable with something and didn't think this show was handled very well in it's final year.