Original Air Date: 3 October 2011
House: You think one of Santa's reindeer was called Stomper?
Frankie: You're missing my point.
House: I'm not gonna listen to a guy who can't name the reindeer.
That being said, I was waiting forward to see how my favorite damaged character on television will get out of the mess he made for himself when deciding to drive his car into his ex-girlfriend's living-room. We've seen House institutionalized before, and it didn't really go all that well. This time, he is in prison, an environment that, by definition, is a lot more entertaining than a rehab facility. With five days left before his parole release, he has to stay out of trouble, which is not something he can easily do. Not only is he being blackmailed by his prison mates to give them Vicodin in exchange for not making him problems when he gets out, but he also gets himself involved in an interesting medical case, which puts him at odds with the prison doctor.
The case was not all that interesting, nor were House's actions anything special when coming from him. Also, I'm not sold on Odette Annable, she doesn't have any of the magnetism Olivia Wilde and Jennifer Morrison had and her character was too plain for this series.
Nevertheless, all in all, the episode was great in showing us that, despite everything he's done to get himself into prison, House is mainly the same character. There was some hint of remorse in that he didn't hire a lawyer to defend him and he thinks there's a reason he is "locked away from nice, normal people", but that doesn't change who he really is. He's still taking chances for the fun of it (like he did when Stomper demanded his stereo) and he still goes above and beyond to prove a diagnosis, no matter what the rules say. His only problem now seems to be that he is "peep-less": no phone calls, no visitors, which means everybody, including the all-accepting Wilson, have deserted him. This will make thins interesting when he gets out.
By far, the best interactions were those with Frankie, his chess partner, and his psychotic cell mate Asofa. I'm kind of bummed that he will be getting out of prison, because we won't see any of the two anymore.
It was entertaining to follow him try to get the 20 Vicodin that Mendelson - the prison's reigning thug - demanded from him in exchange for his early release to go smooth. Despite that meaning he would have to live with the leg pain for five days, he also has to go to great lengths to steal some meds from the young Dr. Adams, who becomes star-struck with him despite getting mad at him for constantly lying to her.
All in all, the season premiere was better than I had expected. The entire show's premise can be concentrated in this piece of dialogue between House and Adams, where she says, "People are complicated. And people change.", to which he replies, "Not that much to the first, and not at all to the second." I, for one, don't want House to change. I will be done with this show the minute he does that. I haven't watched him for seven years to see him become a boring doctor, if I'd wanted that, I would have gone with Grey's Anatomy. And now with Cuddy out of the picture (thank God for that, I would have hated any awkward encounters around the hospital), maybe this show can be good again.Back to Season 8