House M.D. Episode 8.05 The Confession

"Good afternoon, Cedarville! It is my distinct honor to present our annual Community Service Award to one of our most outstanding citizens." Mayor Collins is addressing the crowd at a bustling town festival, surrounded by picnic tables, balloons, and a lively jazz band. Champion Little League coach, Harvest Scholarship Fund treasurer, and owner of the town's only gas station, Bob Harris, a handsome man in his mid-thirties with sandy-brown tousled hair, takes the stage with his wife and two kids. "Your community activism, charity work, and character represent the finest Cedarville has to offer," Collins says to Bob, while the beautiful, young Miss Cedarville hands him his trophy. "Please accept this on behalf of all of us, and know that we love you," the Mayor concludes, while Bob lifts the award in the air, smiling.

Hours later, the trophy lies unnoticed on a dresser in a dark motel room, while Bob and Miss Cedarville laugh and roll off the bed together. But suddenly Bob has trouble breathing and collapses, only to suddenly regain consciousness. "I think you're having a heart attack!" the young girl says, racing to get to a phone and call an ambulance. He begs her not to. "Just . . . drive me to the hospital."

"As the new Dean of Medicine, I like to personally welcome all of our new employees," Foreman says, sitting with hands folded at his desk. "And ask: Why the hell do you want to come back?"

It's Chase and Taub appearing before him. House hasn't changed, Foreman assures them. "And neither has the job, right?" Chase asks. "We still get to do crazy crap?" "Save people's lives, instead of just their noses?" Taub adds.

But Foreman's in charge now, so there won't be any "crazy crap" on his watch. "He has no choice," Chase says to Taub. "He's the boss now. He has to be professional. He has to base his decisions on what's best for the entire hospital. We can't take it personally." Foreman is impressed. "I couldn't have said it better myself."

Well, he would be impressed: Chase was just reading from the notes Foreman left on his desk. And there's more: "He also wants us to spy for him," Chase tells Taub. But Foreman argues that it isn't spying; he's merely trying to keep House out of prison. "To do that, I need to know what he's doing and planning." He adds that their new working relationship doesn't have to be awkward or weird.

"I'm glad you feel that way, because I do have a favor to ask," Taub says, as a nurse wheels in a stroller carrying both of his infant children. "Since I have my kids for the next two days, I need a babysitter."

"Male patient went into V-fib but shows no signs of heart disease, or any other symptoms for that matter." Adams reads Bob's case to House and Park, as House paces around the outer office he now occupies again, but which is completely empty except for a small, beat-up table, some folding chairs, and a whiteboard.

"What was he doing when his heart decided to do the Mambo?" House asks. Apparently, Bob told them that he was at work when it happened. House spots Taub and Chase and nearly smiles, before pulling himself together to tell them they're late - and to comment on Chase's new facial hair: "Beard's a nice touch. Lets everyone know you're not a teenage girl."

Back to the case, House has already figured out that Bob's lying. "These abrasions on his knees - they're minty fresh, not ten hours old," Houses notes. But Bob said that he got them playing flag football. "I'm sure that's true if 'flag' is a euphemism for 'penis' and 'football' is a euphemism for 'entering vagina.'" Adams doesn't understand why Bob would lie about it, and Taub informs her that everyone lies.

"Speaking of which," House says, "how are your two baby girls?" Park congratulates Taub on his "twins," giving House the opportunity to tell Adams and Park that Taub got two different women pregnant at the same time. "At least he thinks he did. Did you have the DNA tested yet?" Taub insists that there's no need. House orders an exercise test for Bob to see if they can stress his heart again.

"I told you, I was sitting at my desk when the attack happened," Bob tells Chase and Adams in his hospital room. "We think you were having sex, but memory loss could also be a symptom," Adams says. "Maybe we should ask your wife?"

That gets him to come clean. "I did something stupid last night, but it was a one-time thing." He was having sex with Miss Cedarville when he started feeling lightheaded. "Next thing I knew, I was lying on my back," he says. "I could barely breathe."

"Come on, I spent a month in solitary," House says, getting no response as he pounds on Wilson's office door. "You don't think I can keep this up all day?" Finally, Wilson opens the door.

"I have a headache," Wilson practically whispers to House. "Can you just lower your voice?" "CHASE AND TAUB ARE BACK!" House yells, peering around Wilson's darkened office. Also he suspects Taub brought his babies in to work with him today, since House wouldn't give him time to find a babysitter. "But then I thought: who'd be sappy enough to watch them for him?" Wilson denies being the sap in question. "I have a massive migraine. Will you please just go away?" But first House pulls back the curtain on the door leading to a patio outside Wilson's office . . . and sees the two babies.

"He's in too good a shape. We need to get him to the point he was at last night," Chase tells Adams, while they watch Bob easily stride on a treadmill. "Don't look at me," Adams says. "But if you want to . . ." He's not talking about physical stress, though. Meanwhile, Park still isn't convinced the test is a good idea. "It's extreme and reckless," Taub says. "That's House. You get used to it." "Or I fire you," House says, wheeling in the babies, and a swab.

"I'm not letting you DNA test my kids!" Taub tells him. "Already did," House says. "This swab's for you." Taub still refuses. "Fine, if you don't mind paying a fortune for some other guys' kids, no skin cells off my check," House says. In the other room, Chase has found a way to get Bob's heart rate up: he brought in Bob's wife, Denise.

"Dr. Chase said you had something to tell me?" she asks. Chase wants him to tell Denise about the knee abrasions, from the flag football game. Bob's caught off-guard, but then he asks Denise if she'd let the guys know he won't be able to play next week. "That's not what you wanted to tell her," Adams says. "You said the game wasn't . . . typical, something happened that you were upset about?" Now Bob really has to scramble and he's sweating bullets. "I don't understand . . . what are you -"

But before he can finish, Bob collapses on the treadmill. "It's not his heart," Taub says, looking at the monitors. Chase already knows. "He's having a seizure."

"There wasn't any abnormal electrical activity in his EKG when the seizure occurred," Park says, huffing and puffing, as she and Adams carry in a new couch for the office. But Adams says they can't rule out V-fib, since his original emergency room EKG documented it. "Myocarditis. Viral infection weakening the wall muscles," Chase suggests. But myocarditis wouldn't cause a seizure. "Could be genetic. Brugada syndrome?" Taub asks. They would have seen evidence of that in the EKG.

House is displeased with the location of the couch, so the ladies move it, while Chase and Taub sit on the floor and watch. "A pheochromocytoma," Park says. "Excess adrenaline can cause heart problems and seizures." Too boring, House claims. And wrong. He settles on photic epilepsy. "It's equally boring, but it has the advantage of possibly being right." He orders an EEG to confirm.

"If you ever hear me mention anything about wanting kids, please feel free to punch me in the liver," Wilson says to Foreman, as he's pushing the babies' stroller around the lobby. Foreman has a dilemma of his own: what's wrong with House?

"He hasn't asked me for anything," Foreman explains. "He's been incredibly well-behaved. He's doing his clinic hours." Wilson thinks that House is content having his team and his office back. And if Foreman has a problem with House, he should deal with it himself. "Cuddy had a problem with House, she came to me. Wanted to vent, me. How did that turn out?"

"Sorry about earlier, but we needed to provoke a reaction." Chase and Adams are prepping Bob for the EEG. "It worked," Bob says, "I can barely look her in the eyes anymore." Adams tells him that she'd want her husband to tell her the truth, but Chase thinks Bob would only be doing that to make himself feel better, while his wife would be heartbroken.

"The EEG didn't show any abnormal brain activity," Chase says, back in House's office, part of which is sectioned off by curtains and undergoing construction, into what House won't say. He's onboard now with a pheochromocytoma, which he earlier thought was both boring and wrong.

"Finding a tumor that's flushing adrenaline through his system's going to take all night," he says. "Monitor his brain activity, start a continuous urine test, and blood draws every two hours." Taub tells him he's got to watch the babies tonight. "Chase and Adams can do the test," House says, handing Taub some quarters. "For the massage bed," he explains. "You and Park are checking the motel he was bumping uglies at for environmental factors."

The "Hourly Rates" sign is glowing in neon as Park, Taub, and the babies stroll into the motel, past a prostitute glaring at Park. "He couldn't find a babysitter. Get over it," Park says to her. "You're going to get us killed!" Taub says. "She thinks I'm a prostitute on her turf. Showing weakness is what gets you killed," Park explains. But why would she think Park was a prostitute? "I'm in a dump with a guy almost twice my age; what else is she gonna think?"

"So, who cheated on you?" Chase and Adams are in the monitoring booth, while Bob and his wife sleep in the other room. Adams just laughs and tells him it's a little early for them to be dragging out all their baggage. "Who says I have baggage?" Chase asks. "I know when House went to prison, you quit medicine," Adams says. "You don't do that unless -" Chase maintains that he was merely taking a vacation until House returned. But House didn't even know if he would be coming back at all. "I had faith," Chase tells her. "Now that has baggage written all over it," Adams says.

Suddenly, they notice an anomaly on the screen. One of the monitors has come loose, so Adams goes in to fix it. When she does, she sees a huge bulge protruding from Bob's neck. "What is it?" Chase asks. "Not a pheochromocytoma," Adams says.

"Our patient has a mass in his neck and his body temp's been rising over the last three hours." Chase relays the findings to House and the team the next morning. "And his urine and blood test didn't show any evidence of an adrenaline-secreting tumor," Adams says. Meningitis? His neck isn't stiff and his mental status is normal.

Taub bursts in. "Sorry I'm late. I had to drop my kids off at day care." "He's only guessing," House tells the team about Taub. "He can't say 'my' kids until he lets me test him."

What about the motel room? "Lab tests show the bed tested positive for semen, vaginal secretions, saliva, and fecal matter - both human and animal," Park says. "The bathroom also tested positive for five different types of pathogenic bacteria." House guesses correctly that fusobacterium necrophorum was one of them. "Bacteria colonized his parapharyngeal space, moved into his jugular vein, causing a thrombus," he explains. "Lemierre's syndrome. Treat with amoxicillin and clavulanic acid. Take out the clot before it moves to his lungs and kills him."

"I have to tell my wife the truth," Bob says, as Park and Taub are preparing his treatment. If he dies during the operation and she finds out later, he'd never be able to explain himself or tell her he's sorry. He won't agree to the surgery until he talks to her. Soon after, Denise and their two kids, Sally and David, arrive. "I missed you both so much," Bob says. "But I need to ask you a favor. I need to talk to Mommy alone for a second."

"This guy's an idiot." Taub and Park are waiting for Bob to talk to Denise. But Park thinks he has a point. "What would you think if you found out years later your beloved, dead wife cheated on you?" Taub says he wouldn't believe it. And as long as she didn't tell him herself, he could at least cling to hope. "But this way, she has to either dump him or forgive him."

Denise walks out of the hospital room, looking distressed but trying to pull herself together. "I'll be back," Denise says. "I'm going to drop the kids off at my mother's. Look, he made a mistake. A stupid, horrible mistake. But we'll get through this. All I care about right now is that my husband is getting better."

"Why is he so obsessed with my kids being my kids?" Taub asks, as he and Wilson eat lunch in the cafeteria. Taub thinks he already knows the answer to his question: "Because he sees insecurity, and when House sense's weakness he pounces - and because his insecurity is the fact that other people can have faith and don't have the obsessive need for physical proof." There might be a simpler answer: "He started a betting pool on which kid is yours and which isn't," Wilson tells him.

"Approaching the clot, stand by . . ." Chase is performing the surgery on Bob with Adams, but it doesn't appear to be a clot anymore. "It's his lymph nodes," Chase says. "Bulge wasn't caused by pus or blood; it's tissue formation. How could there by that much tissue?" Lymphoma, Adams guesses. "We need to take a biopsy." Suddenly, Bob starts to crash. "Did I nick something?" Chase asks. Adams takes a flashlight to Bob's eyes. "The sclera's jaundiced. I think it's his liver. It's failing."

"We did a major operation for no reason," Adams says to the team, who House has assembled in the doctors' lounge. It's not Lemierre's syndrome, and the biopsy was clean, so it's not cancer, either. Park thinks that if Bob is a recovering alcoholic, withdrawal would explain the heart, seizures, and liver failure. "But not his swollen lymph nodes," House says, from behind the couch, where he's got the lounge's wiring panel open. "Why are you stealing cable from here? We don't even have a TV in our office," Park says. "I'm an ex-con, trying to adjust to a world that's passed me by. Stealing's all I know," House says.

And he knows that he was right about what's wrong with Bob, he was just wrong about what. Adams looks confused. "He means it's not Lemierre's, but it's still an infection, which is why it's spreading so rapidly," Taub explains. House wants to blast Bob with broad-spectrum antibiotics. "The blast will fry what's left of his liver," Adams says. "Not if we get him a liver transplant first, and then treat him with the broad-spectrum," Chase tells her.

"And Old Team for the win!" House says. "Not that I'm keeping score. It's more of a grid, where I assign numerical value to determine who gets raises, vacation time, and my respect."

"We have him on the donor list for a liver, but these things take time." Adams and Chase are explaining Bob's situation to Bob and Denise. But there is another option: they can do a partial liver transplant from a living donor. Denise quickly volunteers herself. "If you're a match," Chase says. "But to increase our odds, we'd like to get your friends and family tested as well." But the donor would have to spend a week in the hospital and up to three months convalescing at home.

"I can't ask someone to do that for me," Bob says. "There are hundreds of people who would do that for you," Denise assures him. "Because they don't know the real me," he says, crying. "You are a good man, who made a mistake," Denise says. Bob will do it, but he wants to confess to everyone first. But Denise has to live with what Bob did, too. "I know, and I'm sorry, but it's the only way that I can do this," he says.

The next day, it looks like the entire town of Cedarville is filling out donor forms in the clinic lobby, when the doctors and Denise wheel Bob in. The crowd starts to clap for Bob, but he cuts them off. "Before I ask any of you to sacrifice three months of your life for me, I have a confession. I had an affair. I cheated on Denise. I wouldn't blame anyone if you decided -" "I forgive him," Denise interrupts. "That should be enough for all of us. Thank you so much for coming."

But Bob isn't done confessing. "There's more. Larry," Bob says, pointing to an older gentleman, "that new transmission I put into your truck - you didn't need it. Joe, same thing with the engine rebuild. In fact, I cheated most of you here tonight. Half the time you bring your cars into my garage, there's nothing wrong with them. I've been ripping you all off for years," Bob says, choking back tears, as the crowd starts to look more and more restless.

Bob takes a deep breath. "I also took $10,000 from the Harvest Scholarship fund, and I lost it gambling." Townspeople start to stream out of the room. "I'm sorry. I'm not the man you thought I was," he says, wheeling himself out, while Denise stands back, looking shocked and embarrassed.

"Out of the two donors that didn't walk out, both were negative for a potential match," Chase tells the team, back in House's office, now equipped with a martini bar. "Telling the truth may have just killed this guy." But they only thought he was going to tell Denise he cheated, not confess every sin he ever committed. "If everyone did that, we'd never find a donor for anyone again," Park says. "Everybody doesn't lie, cheat, or steal from their friends," Adams says. "Yeah, they do," Chase argues. "Maybe not as much as this guy, but if people told nothing but the truth, the world would probably burn down overnight." "Some people think it's burning now. Maybe if everybody didn't lie . . ." Adams says.

"Aww, that is cute," House says. "I'm talking about your breasts. They always get perky when you're being painfully earnest. Truth. It's uncomfortable, isn't it? More truth: I only noticed because Chase was staring at them. He'd never admit it because he doesn't want to offend you, the same reason that he'd never tell you that he's thought about having sex with you. Although, to be fair, every man you've ever met has thought about having sex with you. They'll lie, because if you knew, you probably wouldn't want to have sex with them. And that's just some of the lies from the last minute. And here's a bigger one: you already know this, but you pretend you don't, because it makes you feel civilized. Most people find it easier to ignore the truth."

Meanwhile, Bob can't wait for a transplant that may never come. "We need to get reckless and extreme. CT his liver, find the damaged area, and cut it out. Hopefully, what's left will be enough so we can start treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics."

"I'm sorry the first time I had both of you together I had to work," Taub says to his infant daughters, as he lifts them both from the stroller and places them on a bed in his apartment. "But Daddy's boss is what we call a jackass. I'm also sorry for what I'm about to do, because nothing will ever change how I feel about you guys. But daddy is weak and needs to know." And then he swabs both of them for samples.

"It's 3:30 in the morning. Why are you still here?" Chase and Adams are surprised by a visit from Foreman to the CT room where they're testing Bob. "House is here, preparing for an operation that will probably kill a patient," Foreman says. Chase tells him that he wouldn't be doing it if he thought there was another way. "There is! He needs a transplant," Foreman says. But Bob will be dead unless he gets one in the next several hours. "That falls under natural causes," Foreman says. "If you kill him, we're looking at -" "Dead is dead!" Chase interrupts. Not as far as the lawyers are concerned. "This is a real issue," Foreman says. "And I have to worry about the big picture now."

"I don't," Chase responds. "I'll be doing what you would have done a year ago. I'll be in surgery." But Adams sees something strange on the monitor. A recent CT scan versus one from ten hours ago shows that his liver has improved. "It's healing itself," Foreman says, perplexed.

"When I left the room, he was telling her about the strippers from his bachelor party." Taub and the team, plus House, who's got a bag of popcorn, are watching Bob and Denise argue from the nurse's station outside Bob's room. At least they have a few more days to figure out what wrong with him, as his liver function has improved 30 percent. But why is it regenerating? Finally, Denise has had enough and storms out of the room. "Aaand scene," House says. "Now we're back to boring reality reality."

House thinks Bob's liver was in shock before, and he's been having an allergic reaction since he got here. That would explain why his symptoms appeared so rapidly. "We need to run a scratch test to find out what set it off," Taub says. "Or who," House notes. "This all started when he cheated on his wife." Maybe he's allergic to the girl, or something she's wearing. "Make-up, perfume, birth control method, her Hello Kitty doll. Two of you go find her and find out what. Two of you start treatment with corticosteroids and epinephrine while you run a scratch test."

"You think I did this to him?" It's Miss Cedarville, Cindy, and she's getting blood drawn by Adams and Chase. It could be something she wore, used, or gave him. "I gave him a condom. He didn't have one," she says. She doesn't know what kind it was; she picked it up from the health fair where she was working. "Are you in the medical profession?" Chase asks. "I'm Miss Cedarville, the health fair is one of my responsibilities," she says. "Is another one hooking up with thirty-eight-year-old married men?" Adams asks. Cindy looks crushed. "Guess I was supposed to be the good cop," Chase says. "I know this is tough, but anything you might remember might help save his life."

"He was giving me a ride home," Cindy starts, "and he always seemed so nice. And then we ended up at the motel." She starts crying. "And now everybody's talking about it, and if they find out it was me I'm going to lose my title and probably my job. And no one in town is every going to speak to me again. I made a mistake, and now it's going to end up ruining my life."

"Denise never wants to see me again," Bob tells Park and Taub as they administer the test and give him the medicine. What did he think was going to happen? "I was sick of living a lie. Everybody loved me. Everybody looked up to me. I didn't deserve it." He thinks if he's going to die, at least it will be with a clean soul. "And if you live?" Park asks. "You didn't just burn bridges. You torched, nuked, and salted the earth with them." It looks like she found a reaction on Bob with the test. "Feels like you stuck me with a hot poker!" It's the swab for a wheat-based allergy. Suddenly a rash starts to spread. "I've been eating wheat my entire life. I'm not allergic to wheat," he says, but his heart is pounding, and he's shaking from the pain.

"This doesn't make any sense. He broke out with a rash right after I tested with a wheat allergy swab, but none of his blood samples show he's allergic to it." Park is in the lab with Taub and Chase. The steroids couldn't have caused it, because they hadn't given them to him yet. "None of the samples test positive for anything," Park says. "Then he's allergic to something not on the test," Taub says. "I'll keep looking here." Which also gives him an opportunity to compare the DNA samples he took, but he's interrupted by Foreman.

"Chase called me a sellout," he says. "Just because you hung up your lab coat for more money and a bigger office?" Taub asks. Foreman tells him that someone had to run the place after Cuddy left. "There are a lot of good administrators out there. Not many good doctors," Taub says. "There's more to it than you think," Foreman says. "For example, you're looking at monkey DNA. My analysis: House took your results after he manipulated you into providing them." Suddenly Taub's pager starts beeping.

Bob is screaming in agony when the doctors race in. He tries to lift up an arm, and they see a long patch of skin draping off. Chase gently lifts part of Bob's gown and pulls off a layer of skin from his chest.

"He's shedding skin like a snake," Adams and the team tell House. "If it was an allergic reaction, the corticosteroids and epinephrine would have made him better, not worse," Taub says. "Is everyone trying to think of an answer?" Park asks. "Or is everyone afraid to say what they think the answer is?" Stevens-Johnson syndrome fits all symptoms, and explains why he got worse after the steroids. But there's no treatment for it. "It fits," House says. "Case closed. Why don't you go home and get some sleep."

Later, instead of going home, Chase is sitting by Bob, who looks like he's shed an entire layer of skin and is moaning from pain and having trouble breathing. "I feel like I'm in hell," he says. "We can't give you too much pain medication or it will make your condition worse," Chase tells him. Bob looks at Chase. "I've got one final confession to make." "What's left?" Chase asks. "You cheated on your taxes?" But he's not prepared for Bob's answer: "I'm a murderer. I killed my business partner. I shot him in the head. I made it look like suicide. And he was just the first." Chase can't believe it. "You killed more?" "Three . . . or four," Bob says. That gives Chase an idea. He leans into Bob. "Try not to kill anyone else until I get back."

"It's neurological. There's an aneurysm in the anterior communicating artery of his brain." Chase shows the team a scan of Bob's brain in the CT room booth. "The area moderating impulse control and compulsion. As it grew larger, so did the confessions. Watch." He calls to Bob in the other room. "One of my shoes is missing from my locker." Bob immediately sounds remorseful. "I'm so sorry. I needed the cash. And, um, the locker was open and I couldn't help myself." But what kind of neurological problem causes someone's skin to fall off? "There isn't one," House says. "The aneurysm is just another symptom. It's not the cause. We add them all together, we get . . .?"

But neither his new team nor his old team knows the answer. He tries to help: "We get Kawaaa? ... Kawas? ... It's Kawasaki disease. It's autoimmune." "Yes, we knew what 'Kawaa' meant," Tau says. "We just figured since it basically presents only in Asian children -" "Which you might have, by the way," House interrupts. "Which is basically why we missed it. Rug burns. Certain carpet cleaning chemicals have been linked to it. Start treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin. And monitor the aneurysm. If it doesn't resolve itself, we'll have to repair it."

"Monkey DNA. Nice touch." Taub follows House out into the hallway. "Really? You don't think I should have gone with rat? I've been second-guessing myself all day," House says. He's got the DNA results, but he won't give them to Taub until he admits House was right. "I love them. I don't care if one of them isn't biologically mine," Taub says. "What about both?" House asks. Taub's face drops. "Could be. I haven't read these," House says. "Now say I was right." He won't do it. "I'll admit I was weak for a moment, but I'm not doing this. I don't care."

House thinks he can prove that Taub does care. "I will shred this. I'll call off my pool, return the money, and forget all about it. Or, we'll go to the light box in the lab and know the truth once and for all." He holds the folder with the results over the shredder. "Stop!" Taub doesn't let him go through with it. "Let me see it." House hands over the results to Taub, who quickly looks inside and then drops the folder into the shredder himself. He just wanted to make sure all three results were inside.

"The Mayor checked. There wasn't any money missing from the scholarship fund." Denise comes to see Bob, who already looks much better from the treatments Chase and Adams are giving him. "Dr. Chase told me about your disease, and how it made you confess to crimes you hadn't committed." Chase and Adams look at each other. They know there's at least one confession that was true. "The affair with that girl? Is that real?" Denise asks. "Honey, I would never, have never cheated on you," Bob says. Denise is overcome with relief. "I knew you could never do that to me. I don't know how, but I knew."

"Glad to see taking a year off didn't dull your skill set," Foreman congratulates Chase in the doctors' lounge. Chase says he just got lucky. "About the other night," Foreman starts, "I have enough problems with this job. Second-guessing my best doctors shouldn't be one of them." That's as close to an apology as Chase is going to get.

But why is he still in the hospital? "I haven't left the hospital in four days," Foreman tells Chase. "House won't go home. And there's no way I'm leaving him here unsupervised."

Chase laughs. "House is screwing with you - by not screwing with you," he says. "He's watching TV and drinking martinis all night. Meanwhile, he's keeping you searching for a plan that doesn't even exist." Foreman can't believe he missed that. "I'm glad you're back," he tells Chase. "Me too," Chase says.

"Either a hot tub or a sauna." Chase is trying to guess what new amenity House is about to unveil to the team from behind a giant red curtain. "New Team, Old Team, I present: Phase 1 of Outer Office 2.0." He drops the curtain . . . and it's exactly as it was before. Nothing's changed. House laughs. "Oh, everything has changed."

He picks up a small remote control, and suddenly a huge panel of the wall starts slowly lifting, revealing a direct view into Wilson's office. House holds up a martini glass to Wilson, who surveys what House has done to their offices, and just says, "No." House smiles and hits the remote and the panel starts slowing dropping down again.