House Fodder

House: "Help Me" Review

House needs to save a woman trapped in a collapsed building, and at the same time treat the man who may have caused the collapse in a hospital miles away AND fight for the woman he loves.

Intro:

The episode begins with House somewhere in a small enclosed space with bloodied knuckles, then jumps to the hospital "8 hours earlier".

House finds Cuddy in her office preparing to respond to a medical emergency - a construction crane has collapsed in downtown Trenton, bringing down a building with it. House ignores the emergency to give Cuddy a book, inscribed to both her and Lucas - it's the rare book he fought so hard to get back last week - her great-grandfather's medical treatise. It’s a housewarming gift, which Cuddy is surprised he knew about. She is touched and a bit confused that he's giving it to both of them, but has to rush to the accident site - don't all chiefs of medicine at teaching hospitals do paramedic duties?

House pulls up to the accident site on his motorcycle. Confusion reigns, police, fire paramedics, dazed victims, gawkers - it's nighttime and helicopters overhead both stifle conversation and light the area with powerful spotlights. No one stops House as he wanders around the site, walking right through the barriers. No usual music/slideshow intros this week, just a brief “House” and right back into the story.

House diagnoses a skull fracture in an woman, then tells Cuddy to ignore the man she’s working on – he’ll never last the tip to the hospital. He can tell this from the color of his toes.

Medics work on the crane operator, pulling him from the wreckage – he’s apologetic, claiming to have fallen asleep briefly and lost control of the load. House examines him and finds he’s been taking caffeine stimulants, and therefore couldn’t have fallen asleep and must have a neurological disorder that caused him to pass out, telling Foreman, over Cuddy’s objections, to use up a valuable ambulance getting the operator back to Princeton-Plains Teaching Hospital for further diagnosis. He plans to go back with the op, but Cuddy nixes this, saying she needs him at the site. House breaks into a soft drink machine while talking to Wilson on the phone (Wilson’s filling in at the ER back at Princeton-Plains). Relaxing with his drink, House hears a “clink” from the wreckage and calls rescuers over. The rescue teams don’t hear anything and turn back to their other work, but House hears another ‘clank’ and goes exploring.

He crawls into the collapsed building and finds a woman, Hanna, trapped by the legs far below. She’s hurting but conscious and oriented. Her leg is extremely painful when House tries to pull her out. She panics when House says he’s going for help, not wanting to be left alone, but he says he must. While he’s out, he phones the team to start the differential for his crane op patient. He gives directions to an EMT for special treatments for Hanna, but the EMT doesn’t have the specialized training for her unique problems and House crawls back down to assist. The firemen can’t lift the beam off her leg with a scissors jack and have to get other, more specialized equipment. Hanna worries about her husband and asks House to use his cell phone to call him.. House says it doesn’t work down here.

House crawls back out again and finds time to ask Cuddy why her reaction was strange to his housewarming gift. Cuddy says it’s because she thought it was an engagement gift – Lucas just popped the question, and she’s worried how House would take the news.

The team has been examining the crane ops’ head with the MRI. They find nothing, but when he comes out he’s bleeding from the nose – and eyes.

The firemen are worrying about causing further shifting of the wreckage if they try to lift the beam off Hanna, endangering everyone. The raise the possibility of amputation with Cuddy, but Hanna objects, and House, understandably sensitive on the topic from his own ordeal, also rejects amputation. They risk “crush syndrome”, building up toxins that could poison her body and stop the heart, but House says they have at least two more hours before crush syndrome is likely to occur. Cuddy concedes and directs the firemen to keep clearing rubble, Hanna profusely thanks House, who promises to ‘not let them cut off her leg’.

House’s phone rings, exposing his lie to Hanna. The team explains the new bleeding to House. Hadley shows up late to diagnosis – she’s been in therapy – her Huntingdon’s is getting worse, but she doesn’t want House to know. House directs the team to get an x-ray phenagram, and also look for venous sinus thrombosis. House says he’ll be back at the hospital in ten minutes, but Hanna begs him to stay. Cuddy stops House from leaving, saying Hanna is freaking out and trusts only him. House crawls back down to her, and gives her his phone to call her husband.

Hanna’s blood pressure spikes and House cuts off the phone call, telling her that’s why he lied before about the phone not operating. House sits and talks with her, keeping her calm. She asks about his leg, which he keeps rubbing, but House clams up. She asks him to pray with her, but House won’t truck to superstitions, either.

House and Hanna exchange philosophies, when a fireman crawls in announcing “good news.”

Hanna wants to know if they can be friends after she gets out. House warns her she’ll feel a lot of pain as the beam lifts with the high pressure air bags. The lifting only causes more collapse, and Hanna is still trapped. Hanna is breathing rapidly. One of her lungs has collapsed. House punctures her chest to allow it to reinflate.

House crawls out to get his own abrasion treated (by Cuddy), while continuing the differential over the phone. The phenagram was clean and now the patient has a fever. Possible meningitis. House directs them to do a lumbar puncture.

A fireman reports they can’t try another lift for hours. Cuddy says it’s time to rethink amputation. House says they can treat the potassium buildup that crush syndrome causes with drugs. He wants to dose her with insulin. Cuddy accuses him of taking Hanna’s side against hers to get back at her because of her engagement. Insults are exchanged. Cuddy says she’s risking Hanna’s life to spite Cuddy. Cuddy says she’s going down to convince Hanna to try the amputation and if he has any decency he’ll stay out of it.

House crawls up and joins Cuddy in urging amputation saying they’ve run out of time. He brings up his own case, when he saved his leg when all the doctors wanted to amputate. In a self-analysis we’ve never seen from House before, he says “I wish I hadn't. They cut out a chunk of muscle about the size of my fist, and they left me with this mutilated, useless thing. I'm in pain... every day. It changed me. Made me a harder person. A worse person. And now... now I'm alone. You don't want to be like me. You’ve to a husband who loves you. You have friends. You can start a family. You have a life, and this… is just a leg.” She agrees to the amputation. Cuddy has heard all this and is silently touched.

House prepares for the operation. It won’t be quick. It will be painful. He’ll save as much of the leg as possible and get her to the hospital as soon as possible. House starts, and the pain is tremendous. He works quickly as Hanna’s screams can be heard all over the area. They get her out and into an ambulance.

Her husband joins them for the ambulance ride to the hospital, as does House. An EMT cares for the wound, as House takes another call from the group. The crane operator has fallen into a coma as he was being questioned by the police, a development that angers House. Now they’re suspecting an arachnoid cyst on his lower spine, but before the diagnosis can go further Hanna begins stroking. House applies a blood thinner to protect against clots – but it’s not a clot, it’s a fat embolism. House sits back – there’s nothing he can do and Hanna dies before his haggard gaze and her husband’s pleading. She’s DOA at the hospital.

Foreman tries to comfort House that there’s nothing he could have done, but it doesn’t make House feel any better. Foreman doesn’t want House to be alone, but House orders him away.

Emergency over, Hadley is asking for time off, but doesn’t want to talk to a concerned Taub about it.

House returns to his lonely apartment, smashes a mirror, behind which is his last vicodin stash. He takes the bottle and sits on the bathroom floor staring at it. He dumps some pills in his hand. As the tension builds, Cuddy walks into the room. She says Foreman didn’t send her, and she’s not going to yell at him. She tells him she ended the engagement with Lucas.

“I'm stuck, House. I keep wanting to move forward. I keep wanting to move on, and I can't. I mean, my new house, with my new fiancé, and all I can think about is you. I just need to know if you and I can work.”

“You think I can fix myself?”

“I don't know.”

“ 'Cause I'm the most screwed-up person in the world.”

“I know. I love you. I wish I didn't. But I can't help it.”

She gives House a hand up, and they kiss.

“How do I know I’m not hallucinating.”

“Did you take the vicodin.”

“No.”

“Then I think we’re OK.”

“Yeah.”

He drops the bottle on the floor. And they kiss again, and hold hands.

= Cecil =

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Next Year

Something marvelous, I'm sure.

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Favorite quotes:

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House: Is that a pill in your pocket, or are you just happy to have a tiny pill-shaped penis?
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House: So I hope I didn't weird you out giving you that gift.
Cuddy: Can we talk about this later?
House: Of course. Is now later?
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Hanna: Can I ask what's wrong with your leg?
House: Crane fell on it. Small world.
Hanna: You could have just said no.
House: I'll remember that for my next human contact.
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Hanna: Would you pray with me?
House: No. I'm not in the habit of encouraging my patients' superstitions.
Hanna: How is that a habit? You plan on getting trapped under a building again?
House: I don't believe in God.
Hanna: I don't either.
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Hanna: I always thought... if I did the right thing, if I treated people right, then good things would happen to me. You think that's how it works?
House: I didn't use to. Then recently I tried... now I don't know.
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Hanna: You think we could be friends when I get outta here?
House: Sure. We'll catch a ball game or... group sex show or something.
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Cuddy: What are you clinging to, House? You're gonna risk her life just to save her leg? Really worked out well for you, didn't it? What do you have in your life, honestly? Tell me. I'm moving on. Wilson is moving on. And you... you've got nothing, House. Nothing.
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House: You asked me how I'd hurt my leg. I had a blood clot, and the muscle was dying. And I had all these doctors telling me I should amputate, and I said no, and they did this... very risky operation. I almost died.
Hanna: But you saved your leg.
House: I wish I hadn't. They cut out a chunk of muscle about the size of my fist, and they left me with this mutilated, useless thing. I'm in pain... every day. It changed me. Made me a harder person. A worse person. And now... now I'm alone. You don't want to be like me.
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House: We thought the problem was in his toilet--by that, of course, I mean his head. Which distracted us from the fact that it could have been just a clog in his sewer pipe. And by that of course, I mean his spinal cord. And blah, blah, blah, blah. You get the idea.
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Cuddy: I'm stuck, House. I keep wanting to move forward. I keep wanting to move on, and I can't. I mean, my new house, with my new fiancé, and all I can think about is you. I just need to know if you and I can work.
House: You think I can fix myself?
Cuddy: I don't know.
House: 'Cause I'm the most screwed-up person in the world.
Cuddy: I know. I love you. I wish I didn't. But I can't help it.
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Cast and Crew Ep. 6-21, “Help Me” Air Date 05/17/2010

Cast and Crew

Director:___ Greg Yaitanes

Writers: __ Greg Yaitanes
__________ Russel Friend
__________ Peter Blake (IV)

Stars:

Hugh Laurie ________ Dr. Gregory House
Lisa Edelstein _______ Dr. Lisa Cuddy
Robert Sean Leonard _ Dr. James Wilson
Omar Epps _________ Dr. Eric Foreman
Jesse Spencer _______ Dr. Robert Chase
Olivia Wilde ________ Dr. Remy Hadley (Thirteen)
Peter Jacobson ______ Dr. Chris Taub

Guest Stars:

China Jesusita ____ Shavers Hanna
Doug Kruse ______ Dolce
Jamie McShane ___ Captain McCreavey
DeSean Terry _____ Charles
Angel Oquendo ____ EMT Coumont
Kimberly Bailey ___ Dolce's Wife
Jason Paul Field ___ Rescue Worker #1
Teddy Chen Culver _ Rescue Worker #2
Matthew Brent _____ Dislocated Shoulder
Caroline Pho _______ Head Wound
Marty Hrejsa _______ Purple Toes

Music:

Me and My Woman
_______ Shuggie Otis
Make Me Smile
_______ Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
_______ Buddy Guy & Junior Wells