House – Recap & Review – Broken

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House
Broken

Original Air Date: Sept 21, 2009

Shannon – Associate Editor
shannon@thetwocentscorp.com

Welcome back! If you’ll recall, House has checked himself into Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital to get clean of the Vicodin that’s causing him to hallucinate. I’m going to apologize for the ridiculous length of this review but there isn’t much that isn’t important so I think we need to cover it all.

House is in a solitary room in a hospital bed with an IV, detoxing and in a lot of pain. He starts yelling and pounding on the door for help and then he’s restrained to the bed. After the credits, House says he’s all detoxed and hallucination-free and now he’d like to go, kthxbai. Dr. Nolan, his psychiatrist, won’t check him out because he thinks that House has bigger problems than Vicodin. They put House in Ward 6 with Dr. Beasley. She tells him that he’ll be out of there if he cooperates and takes his meds. He assures her that won’t happen and that his plan of action is to turn the ward upside down until they’ve had enough and kick him out.

House’s roomie, Alvie, is a manic depressive who never stops talking. In group therapy, House takes notes of everyone’s issues for future reference. House gets a padded cell for his troubles. Dr. Beasley tells him to try to work with people. Little does she know House doesn’t play well with others.

There’s a piano on the ward they keep locked up. Someone’s playing it now. It’s Lydia (Franka Potente) there to visit her sister-in-law, a catatonic mute named Annie.

Dr. Nolan has a lady friend and House sends Alvie to find out her name. Alvie couldn’t find it so House stages a fight with Alvie to get Haldol to get phone privileges. House calls Wilson to ask him to track down the license plate of the girl Nolan is meeting. Wilson says that Nolan called him to tell him not to help House get out. Wilson won’t help.

House has to take a urine test to prove he’s taking the meds, since he isn’t taking them, he has one of the other patients do it for him. One of the doctors, the young guy that made House take the test, calls out a guy who thinks he’s a superhero (Steve). Dr. Douche (that’s what I’m calling him) intimidates the poor guy and he gets carted off by some orderlies. House does admit to Nolan that he isn’t taking the meds in a misguided attempt to prove he’s fine. Nolan knows since he’s been giving House placebos for awhile now.

Lydia’s back and she brought a cello this time. House gets her to lend him her car because, well, he’s House and he’s dead sexy. House takes Steve to one of those skydiving things where they blow a bunch of air underneath you so you can fly. It’s completely adorable until Steve decides he can really fly and jumps off the side of the parking garage breaking both his legs and messing up some of his insides.

Nolan says he’s done with House because House doesn’t care about anything. House asks him not to transfer him. He says he needs help. Nolan and House talk about what House wants. He says he wants to get better, that he’s sick of being miserable. Nolan wants him to take meds, but House doesn’t want to change. Nolan says if House wants his help, he needs to trust.

Nolan brings House his suit and says he wants House to trust people. There’s some sort of fundraising gig and Nolan takes House there to mingle. House walks up and creeps out a donor at the buffet. Lydia’s there, of course. House pretends to be a philanderer and a porn producer for a bit of fun. Lydia and House have a little kiss. She’s married, remember.

Steve, is back. House tries to apologize to him so that he can feel better. Nolan tells House he’s not God. Steve is still catatonic. There’s a music box in the office. House is convinced that giving the music box to Steve will snap him out of his funk. It doesn’t work. Nolan says House is trying to fix instead of moving on.

Lydia brings sheet music. House wants to know what she’s doing. Lydia says she’s having fun, House says it can’t continue. He pushes her away because he’s getting too close.

Nolan sends for House because Nolan’s father had a fall and he wanted a second opinion. Nolan Sr.’s doctors had it right. He’s going to die. House starts messing with Dr. Nolan who tells him to shut his games. House stops being a jerk for minute and stays with Dr. Nolan when he needs a friend.

House comes back to the ward and Lydia’s there and crying. They hug and dance and it’s all very sweet and then, heyo, they’re getting nakie in an office. Truly, a Hugh Laurie sex scene is a sight to behold.

House thoroughly apologizes to Steve. House thinks that the best way to apologize is to let Steve “save” Annie. House convinces the doctors to give him the music box from inside the office. They do and Steve gives it to Annie and she says “thank you”.
Annie gets to go home. That’s all it took was a music box? She was, according to House, silent for a decade. Apparently, she’s moving to Arizona to another facility and her family is moving there. Guess Lydia’s going too. House asks for an overnight pass but Nolan is hesitant. House gets the pass. House goes to see Lydia who confirms the move.

House waits for Nolan outside and admits that she’s leaving and he’s lost. Nolan says he’ll write the letter because House made a connection to someone and then came to him when he was hurt. That’s what he was trying to get House to do all along.

House gets his re-birthday and slams his face in the cake and is it alright with everyone if I lick it off? Yes? Ahem. Carry on.

House gets a bus back to town. Wilson couldn’t come and get him or did House not call him? So, is House going to be all happy and well-adjusted now? I’m not sure if I’m down with this. I like my House all snarky and miserable and brilliant. I guess we’ll have to see how this plays out. What do you think will happen with his relationships with Cuddy and Wilson? Do you think he’ll start treating patients with kindness and tact? Perish the thought!