House 7x23, "Moving On" - Recap and Review

Wow. Huh. That was...depressing. And compared to the promo above, extremely anticlimactic. Well, the summary and review (both contain spoilers) are below.


Spoilery Summary: Cuddy tries to convince House to talk about his self-destructive behavior and about their relationship; for a second he admits that he feels hurt. Cuddy's sister encourages her to move on, so she starts dating a new guy. Meanwhile, the patient is a rather crazy artist who came to the hospital after almost setting herself on fire for the sake of "art." It turns out she's been researching House and challenges him because she wants to make "art" out of the diagnosing process. In the end, however, she essentially chooses her lover over her art, which provokes an angry rant from House because she's not as miserable as he is. House is locked in a blank, spiraling depression which he tries to drown in Vicodin, but Wilson confronts him about his behavior. Unfortunately, the attempts of Wilson and Cuddy to get House to let out his anger result in House psychotically smashing his car into Cuddy's living room when he sees her with her new date. No one gets physically maimed, but it's a close call, and by this time it's 100% certain that there will be no Huddy reconciliation. Considering that Lisa Edelstein isn't returning next year, this seems to be the way their relationship will end: with her livid at him and sending the police on his tail. The end shot is of House walking alone on a tropical beach.

Oh, almost forgot Taub's little discovery in the midst of the House-centric angst. Taub ignores calls from his wife because he doesn't want to tell her he got the pretty young nurse (can't remember her name) pregnant, but then he finds out that his wife is pregnant too. Cue the "oh %@&#!" moment.

Review: Well...it wasn't what I was expecting. A lot of watchers felt that this episode really jumped the shark, and though I wouldn't go so far, it certainly wasn't the best finale in history. Much better than the Bones finale though, because at least we got plenty of character focus, development, and introspection. The loony artist-patient made a great foil for House, since their self-destructiveness was so parallel in the beginning while their outlooks diverged so sharply in the end (artist chose love/happiness, House stayed miserable). To give credit to the writers, I really felt House's misery, depression, and loneliness along with him--but that's a pretty downer ending for a season. It left me with a bitter taste and no particular desire to watch season 8 (though of course I will). The dialogue was snappy as usual but this episode was disappointing in its lack of both closure and climax.

Rating: 6/10