TV-Reviewed

It isn’t very often that two cases are tackled in one episode, so I was very pleased to see the writers change things up a bit this week. While the team worked on a female race car driver, House took a little field trip to the CIA. Yeah, I’m serious. He was escorted to the CIA headquarters to help diagnose a CIA agent who is gravely ill.

The CIA plot was not only intriguing, but there was a lot of humor in it. Wilson didn’t believe House when he was initially told where he was. And really who would? He’s at the CIA? Yeah, right! While House helps diagnose the mystery patient named John, he took the time to hit on one of the CIA’s doctors. She didn’t seem bothered by House’s relentless sexual advances, which surprised me. She just sort of brushed them off as though House didn’t say anything.

Initially, I thought the patient, John, was a victim of radiation poisoning. House’s first suggestion of alcohol poisoning didn’t fit one bit. It was a ludicrous suggestion in my opinion. It later turned out to be unintentional poisoning. John was in Brazil for an extended period of time, where he consumed an abnormally large amount of Brazil nuts which are loaded with selenium. Symptoms from selenium poisoning can look very similar to that of radiation poisoning… hair and skin loss, for instance.

Meanwhile, Foreman and the rest of the team try to diagnose the race car driver. She collapsed at a track and has had multiple seizures. Foreman’s confident she is suffering from a heat stroke, but some of the team isn’t so sure. Brennan, the doctor who worked with Doctors Without Borders thinks she has polio. This suggestion was laughed at by several of the fellowships. But as her symptoms progress, they wonder if it’s MS or lupus. Finally, when she lost feeling in her legs, it seems Polio may be the problem after all.

Foreman felt terrible for misdiagnosing the woman. He’s been struggling the past few weeks, but Cameron gives him a pep-talk. She doubts Foreman was wrong about everything. She and Foreman actually fought a bit in the episode. Cameron has been having a difficult time of letting go of her old position and has enjoyed meddling with the department.

Foreman’s original diagnosis of a heat stroke turned out to be accurate when the patient’s blood is re-tested. The blood which was tested was the sample taken from when she arrived to the hospital. Brennan poisoned her with polio in hopes of getting the medical establishment to put more money into polio cure research. Today, polio only affects the poor. This was quite a strange way to go about getting rid of this doctor. It’s hard to think a doctor would actually try this in real life though.

In between making sexual advances with Dr. Terzi, House offered her a job at his hospital. Though she said she was happy working at the CIA, we learned she was lying. At the end of the episode, she meets with House to see if the job was still available. Wow, with Foreman, Terzi, and the fellowships to weed through, I’m wondering just how the team will look at the end of the season. Cameron and Chase haven’t been mentioned as coming back. Cameron is having trouble moving on though. As for Chase, he was fired, so he’d have to have a hell of a good reason to get Dr. House to re-hire him.

House - Whatever It Takes
Original Air Date: November 06, 2007

Rating: 9.1