House M.D. Episode 6.21 Baggage

House is late to his therapy appointment with Dr. Nolan, who notices that House is stressed. House starts recounting the events of the past week for Nolan: Cuddy had given House a case from the ER of a young female jogger with amnesia found on the street. In his exam, House notes that she is wealthy and is an extreme long distance runner.

House admits to Nolan that he was in the ER because he was avoiding Wilson, who wanted House to move out of the condo in order for Sam to move in. Dr. Nolan is surprised that this does not make House feel hurt or betrayed. Nolan thinks House took the amnesia case to avoid facing the truth with Wilson.

House summarizes for Nolan that the team tossed possible causes for the jogger's amnesia. Chase suggested they check her heart rate monitor for a serial number that might lead to a store she remembers.

House continues the tale to Nolan that he returned to his old apartment to find Alvie, his hyper roommate from Mayfield, squatting there for the past few weeks to hide from Immigration because he couldn't prove his citizenship. Alvie painted the apartment, waiting for House to return. To avoid having Alvie destroy his place even more, House decided to bring him along on a field trip with the amnesia patient. Nolan suggests that House is allowing Alvie to hang around because he makes a good distraction from Wilson.

House and Alvie take the patient to the shop where she got the heart rate monitor, yet nothing in the area seemed familiar to her. Alvie insists that they go to the donut shop down the block. The girl behind the counter recognizes the patient as a regular and mentions that a business card is on the wall from the man she usually came in with.

House and Alvie bring the amnesia patient to Jay Merrick who greets his wife as Sidney. He is relieved that she had been located. They are both lawyers and have been married a few years. Sidney is uneasy around Jay and more comfortable with House. Nolan interrupts House's story to ask if this made House either attracted or disturbed. House says neither -- she was only an interesting case.

House continues the tale: Sidney is surprised to find out she is married to Jay and that she used to surf. After Sidney falls on the front stairs, she complains of a numb foot. House spots urine on her pants and diagnoses a seizure. Nolan interjects in the story again, suggesting that House is only choosing diagnoses based on his own personal issues. House dismisses this and continues on...

Alvie and House go to a pawn shop to retrieve the books that Alvie sold from House's apartment. House is angry that one in particular is gone - "Approach to the Acute Abdomen." Nolan wants to know why House was willing to pay so much to retrieve his things. House says this is NOT about Wilson.

House tells Nolan about tossing a football with Alvie and that he set up an immigration hearing for him. Yet House mentions that Wilson stopped by without telling Nolan what Wilson said.

House continues explaining to Nolan that Sidney has no seizure activity, and is fighting with her husband about their boring life. Since her brother died in a car accident, she vowed to have a life of purpose. She's like a new person in the early stages of development and her husband now bores her.

When Sidney can't breathe, her lungs fill with liquid from diabetes insipidus, caused by damage to the hypothalamus. House diagnoses Spongiform Encephalitis, which requires removing the part of the brain that keeps long-term memory. Nolan wants to know how this case pertains to House's feelings and issues. He also notices a bruise, but House cannot remember how he got it because he claims to have been drunk. Nolan thinks he must have been punishing himself, and House relents to discussing Wilson...

Wilson paid off the pawn shop owner for the name of the man who bought House's book. He does this as an apology for making House move out when he wasn't ready after leaving Mayfield. Wilson offers House to live with him and Sam. House tells Nolan that he thinks Cuddy convinced Wilson to do this because neither of them can trust him. Nolan prods House about why he is friends with Wilson, and questions whether House considers this his only safe relationship because he believes Wilson will never leave. Nolan asks if House got any other people angry at him, and House continues recalling the events of the week.

Sidney's husband protests the procedure on her brain despite her willing to give up her long-term memory. Yet the SE has spread to the patient's brainstem, which means that surgery is no longer an option. House orders a pacer, chemo and radiation to slow the rate of the illness. Nolan questions why House was punishing Jay.

House and Alvie show up at the home of the book buyer, who refuses to sell the book back to House because it is so rare. Afterwards, Alvie reveals that he stole the book from the man.

Alvie is with House in his office when Taub enters with the news that the patient does not have SE. However, something is attacking her whole body. Two immigration officers arrive to take Alvie away because House called them to turn him in.

While House is at Alvie's court hearing, he diagnoses Sidney with the team over the phone. Her extreme exercise could have left her immunity suppressed and allowed an infection or recurrence of one to sicken her. House recommends a multi-drug regimen and UV light treatment. Alvie is called to face the judge, and House provides a note to the court stating that DNA proves his maternal lineage. Alvie is safe.

Later, back at the hospital, Sidney is in the UV light isolation room. House notices something on her ankle visible under the light. It is the outline of a tattoo that reads "Eddie Would Go." House realizes that Sidney must have had the top layer removed and the ink underneath is causing an allergic reaction, agitated by the immunity suppression from her long distance running. They give her a full thickness skin graft and she will be fine, but House is unsure if Sidney will get her memory back.

Sidney's husband Jay brings her roses at the hospital as if they have just met. Dr. Nolan thinks it was House's idea for the husband to back off, and he connects House's interest in the case to his relationship problems. House tells how he came home to find Alvie gone. "Something about relationships made you go out and provoke a fight," Nolan says. House laments that everyone else is happy - Alvie, Wilson and Sam, Cuddy and Lucas. Nolan stops him. House had never mentioned Cuddy was moving in with Lucas. Suddenly, Nolan realizes that a Dr. Ernest Cuddy was the author of the rare book House was eager to retrieve. House confesses that it was Cuddy's great-grandfather and he wanted to give her the book as a gift on a special occasion. Nolan thinks it is significant that House didn't mention someone he cares about is taking another step away from him. House lashes out at Nolan because he followed his advice but still isn't happy even though everyone else is. "Whatever the answer is, you don't have it," House says before storming out of Nolan's office.