corilannam | HOUSE!

Thanks to a massive back up on I-95 at a completely inappropriate hour last night, I didn't get home from

meeby's TAR party until almost 1 a.m. So of course, the logical thing to do is fire up the TiVo and watch the new House.

And then watch it again.

Oh man. How awesome was that? This was totally the episode I've been waiting for -- Wilson! Wilson angst! House devotion to uncovering the Wilson angst!

I can't help but love upset, flustered Wilson. He's always so cool and dry, so seeing that emotion welling up beyond his control was just... guh. And I loved House's reaction to it -- deeply intrigued on both a personal and an intellectual level. He honed in immediately on the fact that something major was going on with Wilson, and he took the case figuring that if he solved the medical mystery, he'd solve the Wilson mystery at the same time. His two favorite hobbies together -- puzzles and Wilson! Although no, he never has needed a better reason for taking a case than Wilson asking him to. Foreman should know that by now.

Speaking of Foreman, I really liked the development of his relationship with Wilson over the course of the episode. I get the feeling that Foreman doesn't know quite what to make of Wilson, but they seemed to come to a greater mutual appreciation of each other, even if Foreman never found out exactly what Wilson's motivation in the case was. Bonding over a rabies shot, you gotta love it.

And I enjoyed the contrast not just in their personalities and backgrounds, but also in their branches of medicine and their medical experience. Foreman asks "what are we supposed to tell her?" frustrated at not having anything to offer but hopeless treatment and some pain relief, and Wilson very calmly replied, "Yes. That's exactly what we tell her." This is a big difference between Wilson and Foreman. They're driven to find the clues that will tell them how to fix their patients, but as an oncologist, Wilson has probably had many more occasions where he diagnoses a patient for whom he can do nothing, and he's had to learn how to cope with that. I love that even after grim diagnosis after grim diagnosis, they couldn't save her. That had to happen sometime.

James Wilson, Boy Wonder Oncologist. Hee! And an unusual mention of Wilson's first name, which made me wonder if the fact that the homeless woman kept calling for "James" had any significance. I don't know if it was meant to be misleading in some way, or if we were supposed to think it was part of why Wilson took over the case. But on my second viewing, I was struck with an image of Wilson listening to her call out for James, and in his mind, seeing his brother in a hospital somewhere, calling out for him.

In Swedish, "friend" means "limping twerp." Heeeeee!

And oh, the joy of that last scene. House *follows* him. House has follow-up questions. House knows his family. House just can't stand it that there's something he doesn't know about Wilson. And I love that House doesn't figure out the answer -- Wilson tells him. Maybe he tells him because he knows House won't let it go, and maybe it's a relief to finally tell someone about his brother and House is the only person he would even consider telling. I would bet serious money that his wife doesn't know. He's even more tightly buttoned than I thought, our Wilson.

So, nine years. That probably means that House and Wilson have known each other for less than nine years. But I do like the idea that they've known each other just a little longer than that, and maybe whatever happened with Wilson's brother happened in the early days of their ~~courtship~~ acquaintance, but since it probably took a long time for them to work past each other's substantial intimacy barriers, House had no idea what was going on. Mostly, I like that idea because it would drive House crazy to find out this happened right under his nose and he had no clue. I can totally see him trying to put together all the evidence in hindsight.

I love this show beyond all reason. Almost as much as House loves Wilson.