House's patient this week is a woman with a perfect memory, something she says makes her special but doesn't seem to have done much for her in her life, since she's a waitress estranged from her family due to being unable to forget any of the bad things they've done to her. Her sister still wants to make peace, though, and wins serious brownie points by donating one of her kidneys to her ailing sister, but it's still not enough for Nadia. House eventually figures out that her memory, along with everything else, is actually a symptom of McLeod's Syndrome, which can somehow cause sufferers to get OCD, which manifested itself in Nadia through her love of puzzles and her memory, which is not some superhuman skill but the result of her brain obsessively going over every detail of her life over and over again. Chase suggests that she take SSRIs to control the OCD -- it will take away her perfect memory, but it will also allow her to have relationships with other people, like her sister, again.
Also having trouble with relationships is Wilson, whose new, diabetic pet cat, House believes, will doom him to being girlfriend-less forever. House tries to help Wilson replace the cat with a woman, but Wilson says he needs more time. Taub and Foreman strengthen their relationship with each other when Foreman is assigned to help Taub study for a pathology test and Taub ends up moving in with him.
A woman tries to order food, but doesn't get the chance before her waitress, Nadia, informs her that teriyaki chicken is no longer on the menu, remembering that the woman ordered it the last time she was there. The woman says she's never been to this restaurant before and neither has her husband. He agrees, saying they're only "up north" to visit a friend. But Nadia insists that the woman has been here before, and that her hair was lighter and she was wearing glasses last time. Not only that, but it was August 14th and the woman was wearing a blue polka dotted dress and looked like she'd been crying. This all rings a bell with the husband, who suddenly realizes that his wife has been cheating on him with the "up north" friend they were on their way to see. Nadia finally realizes that she just made things awful for her customers and offers to get them some water, perhaps hoping to salvage her tip. I don't think that's going to happen. Ultimately, Nadia is unable to get the water or the tip, as she takes a few steps and collapses, unable to move her legs.
House starts the meeting in a most dramatic fashion, turning the lights off and placing a flashlight under his face. Or maybe this is just the natural progression in lighting on this show after last week's barely-visible episode. Martha M. Masters refuses to play along, so House gives up and turns a light on and tells the Cottages to check out the file of their latest patient, a woman with temporary paralysis and a perfect memory. She has complete recall of every second of her life since puberty. House says there are only a handful of reported cases like hers in the world. One of them is Marilu Henner, or so she claimed on 60 Minutes recently. House wants to include Nadia's memory as a symptom, but Foreman really doubts this, pointing out that it would mean a twenty-year-gap between the onset of her symptoms. He seems so confident that he's right even though he's obviously wrong. Of course Nadia's memory will have something to do with the case. They wouldn't have written it in if it didn't. Also, she'll probably have to choose between living without the memory or dying, just like what happens to every other patient on this show who has some kind of gift. House sends Taub and Foreman off to check Nadia's home for toxins and Chase and Martha to get a complete medical history from her, which I'm assuming will be pretty thorough.
But before they can go, House has to take a second to publicly embarrass Taub for failing his pathology recertification exam. Now he has to take the test again and pass or else he'll lose his board certification and be fired. Foreman doesn't understand how Taub could have failed it at all since they do so much lab work for House. True, but they're usually violating all kinds of safety rules when they do it, so I could see how that worked against Taub. Taub says he failed because he was sick at the time, but he's retaking the test week and is confident he'll pass. House doesn't want to take the risk, though, since Taub is still the face of PPTH and if he doesn't pass the second exam and gets fired, that's going to be kind of embarrassing. Yeah, because PPTH hasn't had any hugely embarrassing moments before. Martha cheerfully suggests that Taub get a tutor to help him study. House loves this idea, and lets Taub pick which Cottage he wants to tutor him. It's slim pickings, though, between annoying Martha, lazy Chase, and Foreman, who is an asshole. Taub goes with the lesser of three evils in Foreman, much to Foreman's surprise and displeasure.
With the Cottages off doing things, House suddenly remembers that Wilson exists and goes to visit him. He finds him wrapping up with some old lady patient, who tells him to "give Sara a kiss for me." I don't know if that's spelled "Sara" or "Sarah" so I'm going with "Sara" because it's a better way to spell it and it saves time with the fewer letters. Of course, House demands to know who this "Sara" is, but Wilson claims he has no idea, figuring the patient is in the early stages of dementia. House accepts this and tells Wilson to pick which bar they're going to tonight to celebrate the end of Wilson's traditional three month post-break-up mourning period. Wilson says he can't make it tonight because he's "busy." He scampers off before House can pump him for details, so House has to ask Cuddy instead. He thinks this has something to do with the mysterious Sara. Cuddy says she has no idea who Sara is.
Taub and Foreman search Nadia's apartment. She has some strange artwork -- a bunch of framed puzzles. I didn't think anyone actually framed their puzzles. Especially someone with a perfect memory who can just take apart and re-assemble the puzzle any time she wants. Foreman tries to quiz Taub to prepare him for the exam, but Taub says he doesn't want to be challenged -- he actually picked Foreman to be his tutor because he figured he wouldn't want to get involved in someone else's problem. Um, you mean like how Foreman didn't get involved with Taub's problems last week and didn't call his almost-ex-wife to tell her that Taub was trying to save a kid's life? While Taub casually brings up the possibility of buying a copy of the exam, Foreman finds an empty bottle of laxatives in Nadia's garbage.
Taub and Foreman have to call House with their new magnesium poisoning theory because he's out of the office searching Wilson's car for clues as to the identity of Sara. He leaves Taub and Foreman hanging for a second when he finds a baggie full of green plant life in Wilson's trunk and sniffs it before saying, disappointedly, that he thought/hoped Wilson had a drug problem, but this is actually much worse. Taub and Foreman don't care about Wilson and ask if they can go ahead and treat Nadia for their theory. House says they cannot, because her blood pressure and respiratory rate is normal, thus disproving their theory. He finds a bunch of syringes in Wilson's very full car trunk and asks if Chase and Martha are done with Nadia yet.
They are not, because a simple question to Nadia like "do you drink alcohol?" elicits a lengthy description of every single alcoholic beverage Nadia has ever consumed, including when and where and how the beverage tasted. Martha can't take it any longer and asks Nadia the question that has obviously been on her mind all day: "shouldn't you be working for NASA or something?" Nadia seems to have gotten this question before and explains that just because she can remember everything doesn't mean she can understand it. Well, no, but you'd think it would definitely help. I mean, I have a photographic memory and that's pretty much the only thing that got me through my math and science classes. Nadia claims that she loves her job and she's really good at it. Except for when, you know, she's destroying marriages. And being too paralyzed to get her customers their water.
House walks in and introduces himself to Nadia with "you are not pooping." Nadia does not deny this. House then asks her how many times she fell in 2008: 11. 2009? 12. And 2010? 20. Looks like Nadia's having coordination problems. That combined with the constipation she was treating with laxatives leads House to believe she has early-onset Parkinson's.
House can't stick around Nadia's room, though, because he has to sneak into Wilson's apartment to be waiting for him when he gets home. He greets Wilson with the baggie and syringes he found in Wilson's trunk along with a cardboard box. Inside the box is Sara. She's a cat. The baggie contained catnip, while those syringes are to treat her diabetes. Yes, not only does Wilson have a cat, but it's a diabetic cat that's probably old. House says this cat is a terrible sign that Wilson is "approaching end-stage male spinsterism." Well, he has had three failed marriages. Maybe he should stay single at this point. While Wilson prepares a syringe for Sara, House says that Wilson has clearly given up on ever meeting a woman and wants to know why Wilson gave the cat a human female name. Wilson says he didn't; the cat belonged to his neighbor. When she died,
Wilson took Sara in, knowing that if she went to a shelter with her diabetes, she would have been put down for sure. House would prefer it if Sara did die, and says it's not too late to throw Sara in a river. For some reason, Wilson does not agree to this.Back at PPTH, Martha is still curious about Nadia and perhaps even a little bit jealous of her abilities. She asks if Nadia uses any memory tricks. Yeah, Martha. Nadia can remember every single second of every day because she has like three million mnemonic devices. Come on. Nadia says she doesn't even try to remember anything -- "it's just there." She then wonders if this Parkinson's will take that away from her. Foreman says it probably will. Nadia says she's going to hope it's something else, like cancer. Foreman frowns as if it's odd to prefer cancer to a terminal and degenerative disease. And then, some woman walks in with a bouquet of flowers. She introduces herself as Nadia's older sister, saying she found out what happened to Nadia because her boss called her. There is obviously some tension between the sisters, but Nadia's sister, Elena, says she brought daisies because they're Nadia's favorite flower. Nadia snaps that they most certainly are not. In fact, she's hated daisies ever since she was stung in the face six times after sticking it in an apparently bee-ridden field of daisies. I'm sorry, but that's kind of funny. Stung on the face six times! How does that even happen? Once when I was a kid, I got stung on the butt and I knew that, as much as it hurt, it was still kind of funny that I got stung on the butt. Too bad Nadia doesn't have a perfect sense of humor to go along with her perfect memory. Also, way to hold stuff beyond the daisies' control against them. It's not like the daisies stung her. Nor did her sister bring her a bouquet of bees, so chill out, Nadia. But she doesn't. Instead, her heart races dangerously. I'm sure that's the daisies' fault too.
After the break, Chase says Nadia's heart problems rule out their Parkinson's diagnosis. Well, that's good news. But House only wants to know if Martha would ever sleep with a man who owned a cat, providing that she ever does lose her virginity. Martha says she would, figuring it's pointless to be appalled by or refuse to answer the question at this point. House says she would not, and she's a slut. Martha is used to this treatment by now. I don't feel sorry for her; she had her chance to quit last week. House asks the guys if any of them have ever owned a cat. They have not. House asks if they've ever had sex. They have. House's point is proven, even though no one else in the room really knows or cares what his point is. Oh, wait, no -- Martha does want to know, and asks him about it after suggesting that Nadia's heart is at the root of all of her problems. House refuses to tell her while asking her to tell him more about her theory. Martha says Nadia's heart problems only began when she was under the stress of seeing her sister. House says they'll have to try stressing Nadia out again to see if it causes another arrhythmia. Instead of sticking her on a treadmill like usual, though, House suggests they stick her in a room with her stressful sister. And then he and Martha have a weird staring contest for like a minute while they wait for the scene to end.
House confronts Cuddy, accusing her of lying to him about Wilson's cat. Cuddy says she never lied -- she simply said she didn't know anything about Wilson having a friend named Sara. Sara is a cat, and everyone knows that cats are friends to no one. Cuddy doesn't think it's a big deal that Wilson has a cat, but House claims that after Wilson's second divorce, he got a three-legged Siamese cat and turned all weird and anti-social until one of his windows was left "suspiciously open" and the cat got out, thus breaking its spell over Wilson. Cuddy warns House to leave both Wilson and Sara alone. House has no intention of doing this.
Elena hovers over her sister, who is strapped down on some medical evaluating table thing. Elena apologizes for giving her daisies, saying she always forgets if Nadia loves them or hates them. Nadia says she can tell her exactly how many times she's reminded her, apparently still not realizing that not everyone has a memory like hers and so mistakes will be made. In the booth, Chase says Nadia's heart rate isn't moving, so Martha will have to go out and try to start a fight between the sisters. Martha doesn't want to, but Chase says she'll be able to tell the truth while at the same time help their patient's medical needs. Martha can't resist an opportunity like that, so she walks out and immediately starts talking about the time Elena totally ran Nadia over in her car. Nadia can see it all like it was five seconds ago, of course (although... didn't they say her perfect memory started at puberty? And she was hit when she was a child? I guess being hit by a car isn't something you forget, though). Elena is all mad at her for telling her doctors about that at all, but Nadia says they asked her if she had any broken bones. Elena quickly says that she totally checked her mirrors before backing out. I think someone's being a little bit too defensive. Nadia, on the other hand, thinks Elena "didn't care enough" to check those mirrors, much like she "didn't care" and ruined Nadia's 23rd birthday. And, Nadia says, Elena is only "acting" like she cares about Nadia by visiting her now. How can Nadia have a perfect memory and not realize how unfair she's being to her sister? I mean, yeah, Elena ran her over, but sisters run each over with things all the time. I'm pretty sure I ran my little brother over with a bike at least five times growing up. Not a car, though, because unlike Elena, I always check my mirrors. Anyway, Martha's mission is soon accomplished as the stress causes Nadia's heart rate to rise again. Martha tells Elena to leave the room. Nadia screams it to her.
Foreman meets Taub in his hotel room for a study session. He has a practice test waiting for Taub, who would rather watch The Usual Suspects on his hotel's video-on-demand service. Foreman accuses him of being "nothing but excuses and distractions." Taub says that goes well with Foreman's "condescension and superiority." Foreman decides that he's sick of trying to help Taub and takes off, making sure to ruin the surprise ending of The Usual Suspects while he's at it. So mean! I guess the writers are sick of Bryan Singer, who directed Suspects, getting an executive producer credit on this show despite probably having nothing to do with it since, like, that season one episode where he had a cameo.
Martha tracks down Elena, who asks about her sister. Martha says Nadia is on a beta blocker that should control her heart rate. Elena says Nadia banned her from her hospital room. Really? Then why is Elena still there? She's done her time. Nadia isn't worth this. "She can be such a bitch," Elena says; "she never ever ever lets anything go." Well, that's not exactly her fault, Elena. But this time, Martha knows, it wasn't Nadia or Elena's fault. It was Martha's for starting their fight. She feels compelled to tell Elena the truth. Elena doesn't take the news well. She knows that it doesn't matter who started their fight; in the end, that fight is what Nadia will remember in perfect detail and hold over her sister's head. "You're both bitches," Elena says. She walks away, leaving Martha to try not to cry in the hallway. Chase distracts her by calling her into Nadia's room to smell her breath. It smells like ammonia, and that means either Nadia just ate a slice of ammonia pie or her kidneys are shutting down.
The Cottages are hard at work coming up with new diagnoses. House isn't, as he'd rather toss a bunch of insurance forms in front of Foreman, the new foreman of the Foreman department of insurance forms. Yes, Chase tattled on Foreman for giving up on tutoring Taub. Taub and Foreman can't believe it. "He asked!" Chase says. "You're worse than Masters," Taub says. "How is this my fault?" Martha asks, now involved. House says F
oreman can look forward to doing insurance forms for the rest of his time under House's thumb if he doesn't go back to tutoring Taub and tutoring him well enough that Taub passes his second exam. Taub goes for a desperate last-ditch effort to get Foreman off his back: he accuses House of caring about him so much that he can't stand the idea of losing Taub because he failed the second exam. House calls this a noble attempt, but it won't work. Taub and Foreman can go off and study together while Chase and Martha give Nadia steroids for a possible autoimmune disorder and dialysis for her kidneys.Wilson is preparing Sara's latest insulin injection when he finds himself feeling sneezy and generally allergy-ridden. He knows exactly who to blame for this, and goes to work to accuse House of planting something he's actually allergic to in his apartment to make him think he's allergic to Sara. House says Wilson sounds paranoid, which is a symptom of being a Crazy Cat Lady. Wilson says he knows what he's allergic to: ragweed and dandelions. He is not allergic to cats. And even if he was, it's not like he'd suddenly start sneezing after having the cat with no problems for days or even weeks. Try harder, House. He says if Wilson wants to prove that he can be sociable and meet women, even with a pet cat, then he'll join House on a boys' night out.
Chase prepares Nadia for her dialysis. He mentions her sister, and Nadia says he must think she's being too hard on Elena. Chase says he understands that grudges can be difficult to get past, but Nadia says this isn't a grudge -- it's "common sense." Elena has hurt Nadia more than she's helped her, so Nadia is better off without her. She claims that because she has a perfect memory, she doesn't "edit" her memories like everyone else does to keep from remembering the painful truth. I don't know; it seems to me like Nadia is forgetting one very big part of her relationship with her sister: that she's her sister, and she loves her. And that has nothing to do with whether or not you have a perfect memory and can keep a mental tally of pros and cons. It might make it more difficult to forgive someone when you can remember every thing she said or did to you and how awful it made you feel, but it shouldn't make it impossible. Especially since Nadia should be just as good at remembering the good times as she is the bad ones. And finally, she's had this memory since puberty, so why hasn't she learned how to deal with forgiving people or accepted that not everyone can remember things as well as she does? This is like The Flash challenging mere mortals to a foot race and then getting angry when they aren't very good competition. Chase says if Nadia can never forgive anyone then her life must be pretty lonely. Nadia claims that she does forgive people, but only if they've done more good things for her than bad. And then she stops being able to breathe, so there goes her friendly relationship with her lungs.
Foreman brings Taub to his home. Taub is surprised by Foreman's personal style, saying he always figured Foreman's place would have shag carpeting and a "Mod Squad vibe." Oh, it's probably best that we don't bring up the names of shitty movies this show's cast members were in. I'm sure Peter Jacobson has a few clunkers on his résumé, too. Foreman scowls and tells Taub he's only allowed in the dining room and Marcus's old room, as Marcus moved out to work for their uncle in Florida. Sounds like Foreman and his brother didn't have a very happy reunion after all. Also, I guess Orlando Jones had better things to do than collect a paycheck for appearing on this show again. I can't imagine what those things are, but good for him. Foreman says Taub is only allowed to study and sleep from now until the exam. Taub doesn't think this sounds like fun and has no desire to abide by Foreman's rules. Foreman says if Taub fails his test the second time and House makes Foreman's life miserable, Foreman will kill Taub. Honestly, if Taub loses his job at PPTH because he failed a test twice in a row after everything else he's blown, I think Taub will kill himself and save Foreman the trouble.
House stops by Nadia's room to figure out what caused her respiratory distress. While Chase and Martha assume it's another symptom of her mystery disease, House spots hives on Nadia's legs and guesses they're looking at an allergic reaction. Chase doesn't see how, since Nadia is on steroids right now. House says a really bad allergic reaction would show up even with the steroids. His guess? Nadia is allergic to the dialysis. That's bad news for Nadia, since she kind of needs the dialysis for her failing kidneys.
In the hallway, Martha asks what they should do . "Look for another case," Chase shrugs, figuring that Nadia is going to die from kidney failure before they can figure out what's wrong with her and treat it. Martha points out that Nadia can get a donor kidney from a family member. Apparently the only family member she has is Elena, and she's kind of mad at her right now and probably not in a kidney-donating mood. Martha says she might have been if they hadn't interfered and made things worse between the sisters. Chase doubts it, sharing with House and Martha about how Nadia keeps score of the good and bad things people have done for her, and used it to determine that her own sister doesn't deserve her affection. Chase sounds disgusted with Nadia for this, but House clearly admires Nadia's talents as he says that she's probably right about Elena and that her memory gives her a "pure and objective view" free of agendas or emotions. Um, just because Nadia's memory is perfect doesn't mean it isn't subjective. People are subjective, and they see things subjectively. House says that, unlike Nadia, Elena has plenty of agendas and emotions, so Martha can go work off some of her guilt by exploiting them to get Nadia a new slightly used kidney. Martha doesn't want to, saying she's not "good at that type of thing." That, and she's scared Elena will call her a bitch again. House doesn't care.
Martha dutifully goes to Elena's house and tries to apologize, saying she's not very good with people since she's more of a "book and equations" person and people are so "random and messy." Um, who wrote this episode? Was it a robot? Because many of the characters are certainly being written as they were robots this week. Martha says she doesn't have much experience with sisters, either, since she doesn't have a sister although she did have a female cousin, and when they got their periods at the same time "it was like gladiator school ... " Elena saves Martha from herself at this point and asks if Martha is here to ask her to donate a kidney to Nadia. Martha says she is. Elena says she will. "It might not fix your relationship. Uh... probably shouldn't have said that," Martha says. Ha! I enjoy Martha when she isn't annoying the shit out of me.
Meanwhile, Foreman and Taub are hard at work studying nothing but a videogame. In fact, it's that videogame we've seen before. Twice now! I guess the creator was so happy to be cured that he gave everyone on House's team their own free copy. Foreman says they have five more minutes of playing before Taub has to take a practice test. Taub sighs and admits that he didn't fail the first test because he was sick. He "choked." Foreman pauses the game and asks Taub how he could choke on a simple test when he makes life or death decisions under incredible pressure every day. Taub says the first time he took the pathology board exam, he got a perfect score. So when it came time to take it again, all he could think about was that whatever score he got would show how much worse he's gotten since then. Foreman says Taub has to stop freaking himself out like this. Taub doesn't think that's possible, considering that he failed the first test when he still had a marriage and a home, so he doesn't have much hope for things this time when he has that much more to lose. Foreman un-pauses the game and shares with Taub that he feels the pressures of the job sometimes, too -- waking up
in the middle of the night worried he got a diagnosis wrong and staying up for hours. "These things work out," he says. In an episode where many characters act like robots, Foreman is actually being a human. Weird.Chase tells Nadia that she won't die after all -- they found a kidney donor. Her sister. That's, like, plus 10 points at least on Nadia's mental tally, right? Then again, George Lopez's wife gave him a kidney and they still got divorced.
Nadia gets a new kidney. Chase is trying to get her to wake up in the recovery room when she starts having seizures. Great, now she's going to blame Elena for that, too. Minus 15 points.
As Martha, Chase, and House head back to the meeting room, Chase says they're back to the beginning with no working theories as to what's wrong with Nadia. House asks if Nadia thanked her sister yet. Um, when? She was awake from surgery for all of one second before she went into a seizure. House wants to see if Nadia thanks her sister at all to prove if she was telling the truth about her memory being objective. This doesn't seem to have anything to do with Nadia's mystery disease, though, and more to do with House still testing Nadia's perfect memory. Chase comes up with a new diagnosis that won't be correct and House sends him and Martha off to treat Nadia for it and try to get her to thank her sister.
Foreman has finished grading Taub's practice test, and it's not looking good: 54%. Taub freaks out. Foreman tries to reassure him, saying the practice test is deliberately more difficult than the actual one will be. Taub says he's choking in Foreman's living room now, so there's no hope that he won't during the real exam. He starts dialing the number to a guy he knows who can sell him a copy of the test. Foreman refuses to let Taub call him, saying Taub needs to prove to himself that he can take and ace this exam to get his confidence back. Taub says he can't handle failing another thing in his life right now. Foreman kindly says he knows for a fact that Taub is a good doctor, and fast, decisive, and bold. He doesn't need to steal a test. He just needs to realize that he already knows everything that will be on it. Taub seems inspired by Foreman's words, so Foreman continues that they are going to take practice tests all night long until Taub knows he can kick the real exam's ass. "You can do this! You feel me?" Foreman says. "Yeah!" Taub says.
And then I don't know what went wrong after that, but the thing we know, Taub is buying a copy of the test while Foreman stands guard on the corner. The men head for Foreman's car, and Foreman says Taub can prove all that stuff to himself some other time.
Nadia's not feeling much better, but when Chase mentions Elena and how she may have put herself in the good category with that life-saving kidney donation, she asks to see her.
Oh, remember when House invited Wilson out? Well, they're out. House looks around the room for a woman Wilson can chat up. He rules several out for various superficial reasons and encourages Wilson to try judging women based solely on their appearances with him. "Too armpit-fatty," Wilson says of one woman, who is no doubt thrilled to have just appeared on House as "Fat Armpit Woman." Fat Pits walks past another woman that House decides is very attractive. It turns out that Wilson knows who she is -- she's a new barista at his coffee shop. She's currently a student getting her masters in finance but doesn't have the brains not to put whipped cream on everything Wilson orders from her, no matter how many times he asks her not to. House says that's a clear sign that she's interested in him. Wilson decides to try his luck. As House watches, Wilson says hello to the woman, who smiles at him and responds. And then, just a few seconds later, they're leaving together. Wilson tells House that he was right, and the barista just told him his coffee isn't the only thing she wants to put whipped cream on. House is so happy to have broken Wilson out of his slump that he orders a round of champagne for everyone. Everyone cheers. House turns and leaves the bar without, it seems, leaving his credit card to pay for that round of champagne.
Chase wheels Nadia into Elena's room and waits in the corner while she thanks her sister for saving her life. Elena says she loves Nadia, and Nadia is able to conjure up a few good memories of their life together, like family trips to a lake, canoeing together and stealing popsicles. Elena says they could always take another trip up there, rent a cabin, and spend some time together. But no, they can't, because Nadia can't seem to stop remembering that one freaking time her sister hit her with a car. She cuts her poor sister off and cries that she "can't do this." Chase decides it's best to take her back to her room, leaving Elena looking very sad and hurt. But since Nadia is the only person capable of remembering things, I guess that's okay and Elena will forget all about that.
In the hall, Nadia asks Chase to give her a minute. He chooses instead to say he understands why she felt the need to "lock herself away" from friends and family all those years. She can't forgive anyone for anything. Instead of giving equal weight to both good and bad memories, she can only focus on the bad ones. Nadia claims she doesn't have a choice. Nor does she have a choice whether or not her left hand moves from side-to-side. She's developed a new symptom: chorea.
Post-shower Cuddy drips water all over House to punish him for bouncing a rubber ball against her bedroom wall. I guess we just haven't seen enough of Cuddy's body this season, so here's another shot of her all wet wearing just a towel. House asks about an OR nurse Wilson was once interested in, and Cuddy asks why he cares; she thought his Wilson thing ended once he hooked Wilson up with that barista. House says he's just trying to line up a "second string" in case things don't work out. Cuddy thinks there's more to this than House simply trying to help his friend out, and she's right: House doesn't think it's right that he's in a happy relationship and Wilson isn't. "You still don't think you deserve this," she says. "Have you met me?" House asks. Good point. With that lesson, House gets a call from the Cottages reporting that Nadia has chorea and thus, they have no idea what's wrong with her again. Chase adds that Nadia actually did try to reconcile with her sister, but couldn't. House says they must be missing something. Foreman doubts it, commenting that there wasn't much in Nadia's apartment other than tons of jigsaw puzzles. Of course, that gets House's attention. He says he's on his way back to work.
House pops his head in Nadia's room. "Remember me? Just kidding," he says. He asks Nadia about her interest in jigsaw puzzles. Nadia says they calm her down. Chase puts a folder on Nadia's table, moving her cup of water a few inches over. Nadia immediately moves the cup back to its original position while saying that it would "drive [her] crazy" to leave a puzzle unfinished. House rotates her cup so that the seam is off-center. Nadia immediately moves it back. House tries to move it again, and Nadia finally asks him what his deal is. He says the person with the problem is actually her, as her simple "habit" is actually a sign of OCD. Nadia denies this, and I have a hard time believing she could have OCD and not know it, but Chase says her jigsaw puzzles and "memory hoarding" are signs. House says she doesn't have a super-human memory after all. Her brain just obsesses over every detail of her life so much that it's all committed to her memory. Which is ridiculous, but okay. This all relates to what's really wrong with Nadia because OCD, along with her other physical issues, are symptoms of McLeod's Syndrome. Unfortunately for Nadia, McLeod's Syndrome has no cure, although her symptoms can be "managed" and "best case scenario," she'll live another 20 years. In crippling debt, no doubt, as I have a feeling her waitressing job doesn't give her health insurance. House decides to make Nadia feel better by reminding her that everyone dies alone.
Foreman returns home to find a post-test Taub packing to return to his hotel. Taub is pretty sure he passed the exam since he had all the answers. Foreman notices a giant flat-screen TV in his living room, a gift from Taub, who says the ex Mrs. Taub didn't want it and it was too big for Taub's hotel room. So he figured Foreman could use it to replace his other "embarrassing" TV. Foreman allows himself to express gratitude for this. Then, as Taub is about to leave, offers to let him stay in Marcus's old room until he can find a new place. Wow, that is quite the odd couple right there.
Nadia is final
ly feeling better. Chase stops by to visit and to offer her some help: a bottle of anti-depressants that may treat her OCD. She'll lose her super memory, but gain a relationship with her sister. Nadia doesn't like this idea one bit, saying her memory makes her special. Chase says that may be true, but it's also made her lonely. And a waitress, so, how special is she really? Not that waitresses aren't special, but it's not like she was using her memory to truly benefit humanity or anything.Wilson returns home to find a small white mouse in the foyer. He freaks out and grabs a frying pan, his first inclination apparently to savagely kill the cute little pest. House suddenly appears, holding Sara, and tells Wilson to lay off the mice, which are a present for Sara. He claims they aren't even poisoned. With that, he puts Sara down and grabs some ragweed out of its hiding place in Wilson's kitchen and throws it out the window. For a few seconds, he leaves the window open and invites Sara to walk out of it, but she does not. House has to settle for hearing the dirty details of Wilson's hook up with "Java the Slut," but, while Wilson winds up to talk a good game, he suddenly admits that he didn't get anywhere with her. He just walked her to her car and said good night. House is so disappointed. Wilson says he just needs more time to get back into the dating game. House gives him ten days. Sara helps herself to a mouse dinner.
Music montage! Elena cries in bed, thinking of how she just gave up a kidney to someone who can't even look at her. Nadia stares at the bottle of pills. Also, her water cup's seam is off-center, so I guess she doesn't have OCD that bad after all. She decides to take them.
Taub and Foreman drink beers and play videogames.
Wilson cuddles Sara in bed. Aw.
House sort of cuddles with Cuddy. Meh.
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