House M.D. Episode 4.14 Living the Dream

House's favorite daytime soap opera, "Prescription: Passion" films on a fake hospital set on a soundstage. Actor Evan Green plays Dr. Brock Sterling. When the character takes a swig from a flask, Evan collapses. Evan passes fans as he exits the soundstage toward a waiting town car. He is concerned when the driver takes him in the wrong direction. The driver is Dr. House, dressed as a chauffeur.

At Princeton Plainsboro Hospital, Cuddy and a hospital inspector named James Conway discuss the day's accreditation review. The town car screeches toward the ambulance entrance. House convinces Evan that his speech has been slowing down on the show, and thus, he may have a brain tumor. House knows he can save him.

Cuddy briefs the staff about the onsite inspection. She asks the former Fellows to be on "House watch." Cameron is assigned to organize House's files that are piled into a janitor's closet.

House tests Evan on a permetry machine. Although his results are normal, House tells Evan that they are not. Foreman corrects him. House opens a pharmacy cart in the hallway and takes out a syringe. Wilson approaches him, limping because he is sore from Amber's mattress. House and Wilson enter the elevator, and Evan is there. As House warns Wilson about Amber, he stabs Evan in the neck with the syringe. He wants Evan sedated so that he can run an MRI on him.

Taub and Thirteen run the test and find nothing. Evan wakes up in the machine. Thirteen and Taub try to calm him down, but he storms into the lobby asking for Dr. Cuddy. Suddenly his leg becomes numb and he collapses, unable to walk. Cuddy is there with Conway. They rush to his aid.

House and the team gather for a diagnostic about Evan's foot. Kutner runs an EMG test on Evan and asks him what it's like to be on a hit TV show. Evan answers that he yearns for something more meaningful in his life. House makes Foreman, Thirteen and Taub watch "Prescription: Passion" to look for any symptoms in Evan.

Cuddy summons House, asking him to cure Evan without committing any more felonies. He agrees but he wants the flat screen TV from the doctor's lounge in return. House has Kutner run tests for toxins after the EMG comes back negative.

Amber and Wilson shop for a new mattress. She bargains the salesman for a lower price, but when she has to leave for work she leaves the decision up to Wilson.

House goes to the set of "Prescription: Passion" to search for clues. On the phone with Wilson, House discusses Amber's tactics and Evan's case. He looks around Evan's dressing room and finds a tub of sunflower seeds. Evan's co-star tells House that Evan is a gentleman who does not drink. House equates this with impotence caused by B6 toxicity from the sunflower seeds.

Thirteen and Kutner run a reflex erection test with Evan. His heart rate increases to the point of a heart attack. House and the team wonder if this was a septic reaction. Cameron suggests Grave's Disease, an extreme hyperthyroidism. The treatment for it requires irradiation of the thyroid gland. House wants to skip the iodine uptake test that will diagnose this and go straight to the radiation. Foreman tells the team to run the test first anyway.

House is snacking in the morgue, using one of the drawers to store the food he took from the staff refrigerator. Cuddy walks in to meet the inspector there. House pressures her for the flat screen TV to avoid any trouble.

As the TV is installed in House's office, Cameron brings the files and admits to missing her old job. Taub and Kutner run the iodine uptake test on Evan and find that the iodine is not being absorbed in his body because his kidneys are failing. House is angry that they ran the test without telling him. Foreman argues it was the correct protocol.

Wilson bought the mattress that Amber liked in order to make her happy. In bed that night, she is unhappy because she hoped he would choose the one he wanted. He shouldn't have just pleased her.

Evan is treated for an auto-immune disease and is placed on kidney dialysis. He tells House that he thinks he has been given a second chance to do something meaningful in his life. He slips into a feverish delirium and recites lines from "Prescription: Passion" as if they were his own. House panics as Evan falls into a coma. The team thinks it may be an infection and House orders them to test for fungi and parasites.

House and Wilson go to the mattress store. Wilson confesses that he really wants a water bed. House encourages him to "live the dream." As House plops down on a bed dressed with floral linens, he gets the idea that Evan has a severe floral allergy.

At the hospital, Foreman argues with House that Evan has an infection. The prednisone to treat an allergy will damage him. House asks the hospital pharmacist for methlprednisolone. Although he needs Cuddy's approval to get it, House goes in and takes it anyway.

In the ICU, House convinces Cuddy to trust him on the dosage of the steroid. If Evan does not survive, Cuddy is sure she will be fired. As the team waits for Evan to regain consciousness, Cuddy tells House the tests for floral allergies proved negative. Cuddy arrives in Evan's room to find him awake. Foreman acknowledges that House was right.

The inspector is in Cuddy's office with his final report. He mentions House's patient. She defends House to him.

Amber is alone on the waterbed while Wilson lies on the living room floor. He admits that he hates the bed and wants to return it.

House watches "Prescription: Passion" in his office that night. Evan's character drinks a fake gin and tonic, and House realizes that the quinine in the tonic has made Evan sick. He is allergic to quinine. House calls Cuddy at home. She tells him that she got slapped with a $200,000 fine because of him. House thinks that she should have been fired for permitting his anti-protocol behavior.