From The TV IV

This article about an episode needs to be expanded with more information. Please help out by editing it.

One Day, One Room is the twelfth episode of the third season of House, M.D., and the fifty-eighth episode overall.

Guest Stars: Katheryn Winnick (Eve), Geoffrey Lewis (Older Man)

Co-Stars: Drew Matthews (Kid), Sean Christopher Davis (Father), George Williams (Doctor), Michelle Gardner (Dr. Stone), Todd Sandler (Ear Patient), Roger Ainslie (Nose Patient), Ray Chavez (Sick Patient), Nick Slatkin (Hiccuping Patient), Joel David Moore (College Student), Marco Pelaez (Pharmacist), Randy Evans (Patient #1), Bryna Weiss (Patient #3), Michael Rivkin (Patient #4), Jason Galloway (Patient #5), Hope Shapiro (Patient #6), Kristen Glass (Beautiful Woman), Bobbin Bergstrom (Nurse)

Contents 1 Plot Overview 2 Notes 3 Arc Advancement 3.1 Happenings 3.2 Characters 3.3 Referbacks 4 Trivia 4.1 The Show 4.2 Behind the Scenes 4.3 Allusions and References 4.4 Memorable Moments 5 Quotes 6 Reviews

[edit] Plot Overview

Cuddy gives House extra mandatory clinic duty as a repayment for her perjury on his behalf in the previous episode. He is forced to examine three patients who fear that they may have sexually transmitted diseases. He goes out to the waiting room where one of the waiting patients suddenly jumps up and starts running around the room clutching his ear. House convinces Cuddy to let him take the case rather than working clinic. His team comes up with some tests to run, but he tells them that the man has a cockroach stuck in his ear, and that it'd simply bite him. He only took on the case to avoid clinic duty. Cameron tells Cuddy, who forces House to continue his clinic duty. Cuddy agrees to pay him $10 for each patient he successfully diagnoses without physically touching them, as long as he pays her $10 for each one he has to touch. However, his plan to win the game appears to be ruined when he has to diagnose an attractive-looking female patient.

One of the original three clinic patients is psychologically unstable Eve, who is diagnosed with chlamydia. She breaks into sobs and House explains that it is a curable disease, when she suddenly shouts "Don't touch me!". House realizes that she is a rape victim. Eve insists that House treat her and Cuddy forces him to spend time with her. It is found that Eve is pregnant and House now insists on confiding with her, in an effort to get her to talk about the rape. Ultimately they both break down and talk honestly with each other, and House reveals some startling details about his relationship with his father, who abused him as a child. Meanwhile, Cameron deals with a terminal cancer homeless patient who wants to die in suffering simply so that people will remember him.

[edit] Notes

[edit] Arc Advancement

[edit] Happenings

[edit] Characters

We see development happening on the part of Dr. House as a character. House reveals that he was abused by his father, which helps to explain his difficult personality. We also learn something about his family. Allegedly, his grandmother was Dutch and he called her 'oma', which is Dutch for 'grandmother'.

[edit] Referbacks

[edit] Trivia

[edit] The Show

• House mentions Dawson's Creek to the three clinic patients suspected of STDs. Jennifer Morrison, who plays Dr. Cameron, appeared in two episodes of Dawson's Creek as Melanie Shae Thompson.

[edit] Behind the Scenes

[edit] Allusions and References

[edit] Memorable Moments

[edit] Quotes

• Patient: (finding pulse) Got it.
  House: Start counting. (brief pause) How many?
  Patient: Twenty-six.
  House: (disbelief, mingling with contempt and frustration) Okay... Either you suck at math, or you're gonna die in 2 seconds.
  Patient: (panicked look)
  House: (expectant, then dismissive) You suck at math.

[edit] Reviews

• Overall Grade: D with 1 review
• Review Breakdown: A+: 0 A: 0 A-: 0 B+: 0 B: 0 B-: 0 C+: 0 C: 0 C-: 0 D: 1 F: 0

• One would think there was nowhere for House to go but up after the interminable "Tritter's Vendetta" arc. One would be wrong. This episode underscores the show's major flaws, particularly that (1) every character must defer to House, and (2) the characters cannot change.

Solid acting by the cast and a guest star as well as a couple of good scenes (especially the one where House solicits advice from the other cast members, who all offer different approaches perfectly consistent with their characters) are betrayed by some shoddy proaganda masquerading as a script. The hoary old "religious people are only religious because it offers them comfort, not because it's true" cliche is dragged out again. When House says that belief in God doesn't make sense, the religious patient tries to change the subject or simply agrees instead of standing up for her beliefs. When House irrationally appeals to birth as the dividing line for where human life begins, it smacks of the writer using the character as a ventriloquist dummy. Ever heard of conception, if the character must draw a hard and fast line? No sane and knowledgeable person could ever conclude a child in the late third trimester isn't human life. A pity, because Laurie and the actress playing the rape victim showed chemistry; sadly, that's wasted by making her a doormat instead of a character able to hold her own with House.

The B plot isn't any better. Cameron is faced with a patient who wants to die in pain. His story eventually settles on wanting Cameron to remember him, wanting something to change because he died differently than everyone else. And then, a few scenes of ragged breaths later, he dies. Not screaming or in obvious pain, but in what seems like mild discomfort. And, of course, nothing changed and his story will never be referenced again. The show is like a carousel: there's lots of movement, but the characters always wind up right back where they started. House will always be an arrogant jerk who is always right, Cuddy and Wilson will always be his enabling friends, Cameron will always be caring and compassionate, Chase will always be self-absorbed, etc.

Oh, and then there's the angle that House was abused as a child (maybe). Yay, let's make him even more pathetic, and let's toss in two more Hollywood cliches: the military father as abuser, and the abuse victim who is messed up beyond ever being fixed.

House has always been as formulaic as any procedural, but inane and lazy writing like this season's is exposing its problems. Grade: D Jdb1972 12:25, 31 January 2007 (EST)