House, M.D./Love Hurts

Love Hurts
Season 1, Episode 20
Airdate	May 10, 2005
Production Number	120
Written by	Sara B. Cooper
Directed by	Bryan Spicer
Stream
← 1x19 Kids	1x21 → Three Stories
House, M.D. — Season One

Love Hurts is the twentieth episode of the first season of House, M.D..

Starring: Hugh Laurie (Dr. Gregory House), Lisa Edelstein (Dr. Lisa Cuddy), Omar Epps (Dr. Eric Foreman), Robert Sean Leonard (Dr. James Wilson), Jennifer Morrison (Dr. Allison Cameron), Jesse Spencer (Dr. Robert Chase)

Guest Starring: John Cho (Harvey Park), Christina Cox (Annette Raines), Matt Malloy (Aubrey Shifren), June Squibb (Ramona), Keone Young (Clyde Park), Elizabeth Sung (Marilyn Park), Kristoffer Winters (New Guy), Stephanie Venditto (Brenda)

and Peter Graves (Myron)

Co-Starring: Marco Pelaez (Pharmacist), Tom Knickerbocker (Dr. May)

Plot Overview

Cameron comes back, on the condition that she and House must go on a date. Meanwhile, Harvey Park has a stroke after House yells at him in the clinic, and tests show he has a metal jaw. He says his parents were killed in a car accident. When he is unable to remember nouns, he is assisted by Annette Raines, whom Foreman assumes to be his guru. Later, when Harvey enjoys the pain of tests, and Annette is found choking Harvey, Chase reveals she is a dominatrix. Muscle weakness suggests Harvey has aneurysms, but he refuses to consent to surgery on his own. Both Chase and Annette try to intimidate him, but he has angry mood swings towards Annette. Hospital attorney Aubrey Shifren says only the next of kin can approve the surgery. House believes they are still alive and merely ashamed of their son's proclivities. In Harvey's apartment, Chase and Cameron find sexual gear, mints and Harvey's parents' contact information. House calls them and says Harvey is dead to trick them into coming and approving the surgery. Meanwhile, House and Cameron go on their date - although Foreman is worried House will hurt Cameron, and Wilson is worried she will hurt House. On the date, House says Cameron is only interested in him because he is "damaged." Harvey's surgery turns up no aneurysm. House realizes the mints are to cover bad breath from of a jaw infection. He removes the jaw, and Harvey is cured.

Clinic Patients

• New Guy: A clinic patient with whom House and Wilson watch baseball so both House and the New Guy can avoid going back to work. As they watch, House and Wilson discuss Cameron's return. The New Guy is intrigued by the conversation, all the moreso when House reveals they are going on a date. Although House warns him, "I'll finish your exam with a prostate check," when Wilson says Cameron is a "young ingenue doctor falling in love with gruff, older mentor, her sweet, gentle nature bringing him to a closer, fuller understanding of his wounded heart," the New Guy tells House, "Do her, or you're gay." House gets fed up and walks out of the room as Wilson and the new guy sing the "sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G" song. "Grow up," House says, "and learn to harmonize."

• Harvey Park: Harvey first appears as a clinic patient for his grinding of his teeth. He bumps into House, who yells at him, and Harvey runs off in terror. Wilson reminds House he is close to probation, so House "apologizes" by saying, "I forgive you for ruining my jacket. Look, you seem like a regular kinda guy, not the type to get another regular guy into trouble. Am I right?" When House realizes Harvey is not responding, he examines him to find he has had a stroke.

• Ramona: An elderly woman complaining of vaginal pain. House examines finds she has had strenuous, consensual sex. Ramona admits her Myron is on the pills, but she wishes he would do something other than have sex with her. She fears if she does not satisfy him, he will seek satisfaction elsewhere. She asks House to lie to Myron and give him a fake prescription, but House refuses. However, later, when Myron shows up for a refill and reveals he would just as soon have less sex, House encourages him to talk with Ramona, but Myron worries he would disappoint her. House replaces Myron's prescription with a harmless painkiller substitute. Later, Ramona and Myron return to complain the pills are doing nothing. House tells each one what the other said, but then he notices their wedding rings do not match, and they are having an affair. Ramona and Myron kiss and make up in front of a nauseated House. Myron asks for more pills, but House says, "Looks like you guys are good to go drug-free for a while."

Notes

Cold Open

Although the main characters rarely appear in the cold open of the series, House and Wilson do here.

Medical Terms

(See the Medical Dictionary for all definitions.)

• House presents Harvey Park's stroke to his staff, and Cameron says it is a sign of brain stem edema, but House says it is more likely a stroke in the optic nerve. He shows them Harvey's CT scan, which shows ischemia and Harvey's metallic jaw, which eliminates the possibility for an MRI. House orders an angiogram to look for vasculitis, an EMG for neuropathy and an echo for cardiac emboli.

• When Harvey cannot remember nouns, Annette Raines says he is suffering from nominal aphasia. Harvey tries to tell Foreman what kind of doctor he saw for his teeth grinding, and Foreman thinks he is trying to say pulmonologist, but Annette says it was an acupuncturist. She says the acupuncturist sent him to a shen balancer, who sent him to a homeopathic doctor, who sent him to a chiropractor, who sent him to a naturopath, who sent him back to the acupuncturist.

• Ramona says she has come to the clinic for her vaginal pain because her OB/GYN died. House prescribes estrogen for lubrication.

• After Harvey's tests, Foreman says they found a mitral valve prolapse, which he hypothesizes is indicative of endocarditis. Chase hypothesizes an aneurysm from trauma, a diagnosis he claims to be basing on a bruit he has heard in Harvey's carotid.

• To fill Myron's prescription, House asks the Pharmacist for blue pills. The Pharmacist says he has ED medication, but House asks for other blue pills. The Pharmacist suggests acetaminophen, and House orders that.

• House realizes Harvey's bad breath is a sign of osteomyelitis in his jaw.

Music

• "Some Devil" by Dave Matthews: House looks over old photo booth pictures in his office.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• After a two-episode absence, Cameron comes back to work.

Characters

• House and Cameron: House and Cameron go on their second (and first official) date. Although House dismisses Cameron because he is "damaged," and that is why she likes him, he is interested enough before the date to ask Wilson for advice and to buy her a corsage.

• House and Cuddy: Cuddy says House's date is good, as he has been pitying himself for five years, since his last relationship ended.

Referbacks

• 1x07 - Fidelity: On their date, House refers to Cameron's marriage to a terminal cancer patient, which she revealed in that episode.

• 1x19 - Kids: Much is made of the fact Cameron has agreed to return if House dates her, a bargain she struck in that episode.

Trivia

The Show

• Recurring Character: This is Stephanie Venditto's second appearance as Brenda, who tells Harvey Park to wait in the clinic. She previously appeared in 1x19 - Kids as the nurse with whom Foreman argued. The Pharmacist played by Marco Pelaez, who fills Myron's prescription with non-Viagra blue pills, previously appeared in both 1x03 - Occam's Razor and 1x11 - Detox.

Allusions and References

• Bear and a Rabbit Taking a Shit Joke: When we first see Foreman and Chase, Chase tells Foreman a joke, which Foreman calls "lame." We only hear the punchline, "So the bear wipes himself with the rabbit." The joke is an old one, told by comedian/actor Eddie Murphy in his stand up comedy TV concert film Eddie Murphy Delirious. The full joke, as told by Murphy, is:

Bear and a rabbit were taking a shit in the woods. And the bear turns to the rabbit and says, "Excuse me, do you have problems with shit sticking to your fur?" And the rabbit says, "No." So the bear wiped his ass with the rabbit.

• Chi; Shen: Annette Raines says the acupuncturist Harvey Park visited diagnosed him with a liver chi problem and sent him to a shen balancer. Chi is an important concept in Chinese philosophy and culture, although its misuse by Westerners - some of whom are charlatans - has led to its becoming popularly misunderstood. The Chinese word literally translates to "air" or "breath," although it also refers to the life force which sustains all living beings. Shen translates as "soul" or "spirit," and it is an important concept in Taoism.

• Viagra: House examines Ramona and deduces that her husband has "some little blue pills." Later, her boyfriend Myron asks House for a refill, and House replaces the real prescription with a harmless painkiller substitute. The "little blue pills" are a reference to the popular impotence medication Viagra, a product of the Pfizer Corporation.

• Jeopardy!: Ramona tells House she misses the days when she and Myron would watch Jeopardy! together. Jeopardy! is a popular, long-running American syndicated quiz show, in which contestants are required to state their trivia answers in question form.

• Macbeth: House says Harvey's problem is an infection from a needle the acupuncturist "let sit in eye of newt," a reference to the potion made by three witches in William Shakespeare's play MacBeth. The recipe of the potion is:

In the poison'd entrails throw.-- Toad, that under cold stone, Days and nights has thirty-one Swelter'd venom sleeping got. ... Fillet of a fenny snake, ... Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,-- ... Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, Witch's mummy, maw and gulf Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark, Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark, Liver of blaspheming Jew, Gall of goat, and slips of yew Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse, Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips, Finger of birth-strangl'd babe Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,-- Add thereto a tiger's chaudron. ... Cool it with a babboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good.

• Marvin Gaye: As Foreman coaches House, House says he has a Marvin Gaye CD. American singer/songwriter Marvin Gaye was known for his soulful 1960s and 70s hits, including "How Sweet It Is," "Let's Get It On" and "Sexual Healing."

• Jack the Ripper: When Wilson speaks with Cameron about her date, she says, "I'm fine. Everybody's acting like I'm going out with Jack the Ripper." Jack the Ripper was a serial killer who terrorized London in 1888. He was responsible for the murders of at least five prostitutes, although his or her identity has never been determined. The name "Jack the Ripper" comes from taunting letters (not likely sent by the actual killer) sent to the London police during Jack the Ripper's reign of terror.

• Lou Costello: As House dresses for his date with Cameron, Wilson says, "The wide side [of your tie is] too short. You're gonna look like Lou Costello." American actor and comedian Lou Costello was the comic half of the comedy duo Abbott and Costello. One of his trademarks was a short, very wide necktie.

• Sigmund Freud: On her date with House, Cameron paraphrases Freud as saying, "The instinct of love toward an object demands a mastery to obtain it, and if a person feels they can't control the object, or feel threatened by it, they act negatively toward it." The 19th-century neurologist Sigmund Freud was the founder of modern psychology. He broke all of human behavior - including the needs for religion, parental affection and love - down into basic instincts relating to biological urges.

Memorable Moments

• House nervously prepares for his date. "This is a mistake," he says. "I don't know how to have casual conversation. You think you're talking about one thing, and either you are, and it's incredibly boring, or you're not because there's a subtext, and you need a decoder ring." Wilson tells House to compliment Cameron's shoes and earrings and "then move on to DHA - her dreams, hopes and aspirations. Trust me. Panty peeler." Wilson says he has condoms if House needs them. House asks, "Did your wife give them to you?" Wilson says, "Drug rep. They've got antibiotics built in somehow." Still thinking of excuses to cancel, House opens the refrigerator, where he has a corsage he bought for the date. "This is pretty lame, right?" he asks. Wilson says, "I think she likes lame."

• On their date, remembering Wilson's advice, House compliments Cameron's earrings, which are her mother's. He compliments her shoes, although they are sitting at a table, and he cannot see them. She realizes he is just being who he thinks she wants him to be. "According to Freud," she says, "the instinct of love toward an object demands a mastery to obtain it, and if a person feels they can't control the object, or feel threatened by it, they act negatively toward it. Like an eighth-grade boy punching a girl." He asks what he could do to tell Cameron he does not like her, and she says there is nothing. "I have one evening with you," she says, "one chance, and I don't want to waste it talking about what wines you like, or what movies you hate. I wanna know how you feel. About me." House says, "You live under the delusion that you can fix everything that isn't perfect. That's why you married a man who was dying of cancer. You don't love. You need. And now that your husband is dead, you're looking for your new charity case. That's why you're going out with me. I'm twice your age. I'm not great-looking. I'm not charming. I'm not even nice. What I am is what you need: I'm damaged."

Quotes

• Wilson: You think that was a bit of an overreaction?

House: Well, he peed on me. I'm not into that.

• Ramona: You try talking a 73-year-old out of sex. With all these male enhancements, the pressure to put out's incredible. It's worse than high school! He doesn't get what he wants from me, he'll get it from Connie in the corner condo. She's dying her hair red. Major league slut!

• House: Me, I'm a freak. I get off on not being in pain. That and chocolate-covered marshmallow bunnies.