'House' Season premiere: Andre Braugher, Franka Potente and a psychiatric hospital

As if I were not excited enough about the premiere of 'House', the show opens up with a detox montage set to Radiohead's 'No Surprises'. Bliss! Of course, not entirely apropos as there were surprises. Plenty of them.

To start: I apologize for the length, but it's a 2 hour premiere and a LOT happened. Now - to the recap!

It starts when House finishes detoxing and tries to check himself out, finding out it's not that easy. He tells the stately Dr. Nolan that his hallucinations and delusions were drug induced, but Nolan isn't convinced since House had years of Vicodin use and only suffered psychosis after the death of two friends. He also confronts House on his personality disorders (Narcissistic and Antisocial) and then completely blackmails him into staying by declaring that he will not recommend that his medical license be reinstated otherwise. Is this a new therapeutic technique I haven't heard of yet? Blackmailing your patients is generally...bad.

Also generally bad is a manic depressive (which is actually Bipolar disorder and in this case, most likely Bipolar I. OK, I'll stop that.) roommate in the midst of a manic episode because he's decided he doesn't need his meds. He's got all the pressured (and constant) speech, flight of ideas, motor agitation, grandiosity, goal directed behavior and that's not even getting to the possible psychotic symptoms. Not needing meds are the only thing he and House agree on. House meets the other patients and I am struck by the fact that for someone who has long claimed a clear bias against psychiatry, he can nonetheless immediately diagnose nearly everyone on the unit. And then he immediately starts using their disorders against them, causing them to alternately regress and rebel. Of course, his behavior only reinforces his own diagnosis to the staff.

It earns him a couple stays in a padded solitary room (which I would think is preferable to Alvie's constant chatter) which he quickly realizes is a fruitless exercise. He also meets Lydia, who comes to the ward to visit her sister-in-law and play the piano to her. House strikes up a conversation that falls into his usual patterns. Basically she tells him that Annie bobs her head to the music and she thinks it helps and he tells her she's bobbing her head to her own pulse and assigning any other meaning to it is pretty much idiotic. Well, that last part is more implied.  

The group is joined by Freedom Master (AKA Steve) who believes he is a superhero and he decides he can save Annie from her catatonia. House is less interested in the delusions of his cohorts and more concerned with the woman he sees Dr. Nolan kiss and then leave with. He easily gets Alvie to break into Nolan's office to look as his schedule and try to figure out who the woman is, but it yields no results. House picks a fistfight with Alvie to get some Haldol (I think they would have given him an injectable for violence on the unit, not a pill) which he cheeks to pass off to another patient to trade for some phone time. He calls Wilson, asking him to look up the woman's license plate number - but Nolan got to Wilson first and he refuses to help.

We get a montage of what looks like House playing nice and making level gains. We know better. He's cheeking his meds. However, they are on to his tricks and catch him when he demands their trust and offers to take a urine test. Of course, he has the Haldol patient waiting for him in the stall to offer medicated urine in his place. It would be brilliant if Nolan hadn't decided that he was making gains too quickly, with too few complications and had put him on placebo to see if there was any change. When there wasn't and his urine revealed active meds instead of placebo, it was clear they were being had.

House then decides to take up the cause of Freedom Master instead of tackling his own issues. He argues that he sees no reason why the staff won't let Steve believe he is a hero and instead confronts him with the harsh reality that his wife was killed and he was helpless to save her. Just like House doesn't see why he needs to give up his own personality traits, despite how self destructive they've become. In an attempt to break Steve's depression, he steals Lydia's car (with her implied permission) and takes Steve to the carnival, to experience human flight via a simulated sky dive ride. And break the depression it does. It also completely reinforces Steve's delusion to the degree that he is even more convinced he can fly. So he jumps off the parking garage.

House gets a confrontation all his own in the ER, from Nolan himself, who tells him that he acted as if everything in his life had been about finding out the truth but that in reality he doesn't care about truth anymore than he cares about anything or anyone else. He then tells him that he's transferring him to another hospital because he's done dealing with him. Which is when House finally asks for help. And means it.

Of course, this means House has to go through traditional talk therapy and SSRIs. He grumps and drags his feet, but after learning a little about the other patients on the unit, like Alvie's childhood molestation and Annie's past of playing cello with a philharmonic, he's clearly at a loss. Wether it's for how to treat them or himself, is hard to say. And it's a matter that becomes even more convoluted when Steve returns to the unit, as catatonic as Annie. Just with more casts. Either way, House stops cheeking his meds, much to Alvie's heartbreaking disappointment, and starts trying to do the work of treatment because - as he says - he wants to stop being miserable.

It takes some interesting and extremely non-traditional turns. Like when Nolan takes him to what looks like a gala dinner for the contributors to the hospital. It's done under the guise of getting House to open up just a little with strangers, but it feels like a clear ploy to get him and Lydia together on a more even playing field. And it also shows how she reinforces House's negative behaviors, by taking part in his deceptions and manipulations of the other guests. However, in the end, he does connect with her. A fact that is made all the more clear with a goodnight kiss.

It's a matter that's on his mind the next day in session with Dr. Nolan, but he deflects the issue by asking Nolan about the woman and the affair he assumes he is having. He moves on from there to bring up the fact that there are no personal items in Nolan's office because Nolan has no personal life, but the other doctor wisely keeps the session focused on House. And his fear of failure and inability to apologize due to not feeling like it's fair if he doesn't suffer as much as the person he wronged. Nolan points out that he's only human and that he needs to learn to forgive himself to start feeling better.

House, instead, turns his attention to trying to save Steve - just as Steve wanted to save Annie - by retrieving a music box from the nurses station. Alas, putting the box in his hands has no effect on anyone but House, who can't understand why "all the parts work" but Steve still can't communicate. Just as House and Lydia have trouble communicating. He asks her what's going on between them and she wants to keep it as something that's fun, while he keep looking down the road at the hurt he knows is coming. So he sort of breaks up with her.

In another non-traditional moment, Dr. Nolan asks House for a consult on his father. House tells him that he wants absolution for pulling the plug, but when Nolan sheds tears and tells him to shut up...he does. And he sits down and just waits with him. When House returns to the unit, Lydia is still there and is also crying. Not because he sorta dumped her but because she misses Annie. House holds her to comfort her. And then holding becomes dancing. And then dancing becomes sneaking off to an office. The sex they have is more a reflection of two desperate people needing to change the routine of their lives, in one sense. House's tears seems to indicate change - he has finally connected to someone.

There is an...interesting talent show, which ends up reigniting House and Alvie's friendship as House helps him through a freestyle rap with increasing enthusiasm. He also tells Nolan that he's feeling...good. And not in a manipulative "I'm cured, can I go now?" way. In fact he even admits that he still needs work. When he leaves their session, he goes to sit by Steve and apologizes. Steve offers little in the way of response until House wheels him past Annie, when he lifts the music box he's been holding each day. House wheels him back to Annie and as everyone else watches awestruck, Annie takes the box from him, opens it to play the same tune Lydia played on the piano to her and then says "Thank you". And he answers "You're welcome". Another connection finally made.

When Lydia comes to the unit, House takes her to see Annie, who is playing the cello to the rapt audience of the entire unit - staff and patients alike. It's a joyous moment that is almost immediately crushed by the revelation that Annie is leaving becasue Lydia and her family are moving. House demands an overnight pass and though Nolan urges him to talk his idea through before taking action - he gives him the pass anyway. House arrives at Lydia's door to find her there with her children and husband and it drives home that there is no chance of keeping the connection they shared.

They say goodbye and he immediately returns to the unit, to talk to Dr. Nolan. Who responds by telling him that he'll write the letter to recommend his license be reinstated. Not as a pat reward, but because House allowed himself to connect to someone enough to be hurt by them and then instead of regressing, he came to Nolan to talk about it -showing he recognized his need and desire for wellness. A happiness that is reflected both in his face first dive into his "re-birthday" cake and his smiley face t-shirt as he leaves the unit. A change of face that has inspired Alvie to return to his own medications because he too wants to get better.

The Funny:

House: Oh, I'm sorry. Is suicide taboo? If I've broken a rule on my first day, I would just KILL myself.

Alvie: House! House! He's on my team!!
House: Shut up, no one likes you.

House: If only you had said that two minutes ago. Before I came up with my new scheme. Now I'm committed. GET IT?

My Thoughts:

Manuel Miranda was wonderful as Alvie and I wouldn't mind him showing back up in House's life at some point (possible POTW). I also hope he continues to see Dr. Nolan every few episodes, as I think a lot could happen in their sessions in regards to how he treats his team, Wilson and Cuddy. And while I know many won't agree, I am glad that they didn't drop back into the 'formula' by giving Annie a rare biological disease that House could discover and cure, instead allowing her catatonia and spontaneous remission to be as much a mystery to him as it is to the rest of us. All in all, I thought it was a strong start to the season. Were there parts that could have been sacrificed to condense the story (Talent show, gala, Nolan's father)? Of course. Were there parts that were unrealistic (not using injectables, a psych unit talent show, House not saying SOMETHING snarky about a "Re-Birthday" cake)? Absolutely.  But I'm rather glad they didn't cut those things out and instead let us take a long look at House and the other patients, as they struggled their way through their situation. Even when those situations seemed absurd. 

So what are your thoughts?