When a special needs kindergarten teacher begins coughing up blood and passes out, Dr. House is called. Except instead of Cuddy calling on him, her new part-time replacement, Cameron, does so.
Despite her joy when she was given the opportunity to foster parent a baby, Dr. Cuddy shares with Wilson that she “doesn’t feel anything” towards the little girl.
Meanwhile, House is finding, much to his amusement, that Cameron is much easier to negotiate medical requests with than Cuddy ever was.Now that Foreman knows that Thirteen is on the placebo, he confides in Chase that he wants to switch her over to the drug.
When Cuddy comes in to yell at Cameron for granting an outrageous request for House, House reveals that he knows Cuddy doesn’t feel like the baby’s mother. In his own convoluted way, he tries to help and even reason with her. He says that she is not legally the baby’s mother, and therefore she does not owe her anything. Yes, Cuddy will feel guilty for a while, but in the long run, if Cuddy “returns” the baby, the baby will not even remember Cuddy.
While telling an anecdote about why she became a teacher, the patient mentions she messed up room numbers six years ago. Ergo, especially in House’s mind, means that she has brain damage. House tries to get Cameron to allow him to do a procedure to help the patient, but she will not allow it until another test is done first. This displeases House, and brings to the surface the little power-struggle game that he and Cameron have been playing.
To Cuddy’s disappointment, Cameron allows House to conduct a test which includes cutting off the top of the patient’s skull and placing electrodes on her brain. When Cuddy finds out, she calls the OR and tries to stop House, but is distracted by Rachel crying. Cuddy is at her wit’s end with the baby, but eventually coddles her. It looks as though foster mother and daughter have finally bonded.
It turns out that the patient has a heart defect that causes her to become unstressed when she is stressed. The good news is that it is treatable, the bad news is that it may change how she feels about her students.
Spoiler Alert!
This was episode 99 of “House”. Obviously, it was the primer for the big 100. And, honestly, while there were a few funny moments and this episode as a whole was a big improvement from other episodes this season, I can’t say that the premise for the next episode is even appealing. I don’t know how many times I, an average viewer, can say this, but I do not like Foreman and Thirteen together.
In “Big Baby” Thirteen reveals to Foreman, her boyfriend of approximately three minutes (in stereotypical annoying TV time, that is), that she wants kids some day, since she is starting to feel better now. This is especially heart wrenching and ironic because Foreman and viewers know that Thirteen is on the placebo and not the actual drug. After getting the same advice from everyone he asks, which is to let it be, House causes Foreman to think differently about switching Thirteen to the real drug. Naturally this occurred after House mentioned the L word.
Give me a break. If the 100th episode is just as bad as the majority of this season, I may be forced to stop watching, which would, for lack of a better word, suck because “House” used to be one of my favorite shows.
On a positive note, I am glad that Cuddy and Rachel finally connected because seeing Cuddy, the woman who has ached to be a mother for so long, questioning her choice was legitimately sad.
Fortunately, unlike Thirteen, it looks like in our clinical trial for lupus, we are not on a placebo.
Rating: B