Dibala, a genocidal dictator from an unnamed African country, comes to PPTH after barfing blood. Unfortunately for him, his life is in the hands of Foreman, Chase, and Cameron, who Cuddy convinces to come back to diagnostics temporarily while Foreman looks for a new team, thus leaving PPTH's ER and OR doctor-less. Fortunately for him, House is also back on the team in an informal capacity, although he can't give the case all of his attention as he is also doing battle with Wilson's downstairs neighbor, a man who lost the use of a limb and has been in chronic pain ever since, thus making him a total asshole. Sound familiar?
House is able to cure the man's pain, albeit after committing several felonies. His felonies end up being small potatoes compared to Chase, who decides that his life is less important than the millions Dibala is planning to kill back in his country and fudges some test results to show the wrong diagnosis of scleroderma. When they treat Dibala for it, he dies, leaving behind a son who never got to patch things up with his father and will be devastated about that for the rest of his life. Sound familiar? So Chase is a murderer, Foreman finds out but decides not to tell anyone, Cameron is clueless and a coward, and whoever replaces Dibala will probably end up murdering millions of people anyway. But isn't it nice to see House and the original Cottages working together again? I think so.
Two men argue in a car with diplomat plates. One of the men is played by James Earl Jones, so you know this will be awesome. Apparently, James Earl Jones' character, Dibala, is the "president" (dictator) of an African country that will not be named because it doesn't exist and in America for a UN meeting. It's going on right now, but Dibala snuck out of it to visit his son, who is a student, I'm guessing at Princeton. His aide, Ntila (well, he's credited as Ntila, although Dibala calls him "Joseph." I'm confused), thinks leaving the security of the UN building is a bad idea, but Dibala doesn't care. Suddenly, the car is stopped when a large van pulls up in front of it, and Dibala no doubt regrets his decision. A man gets out of the van as Ntila rushes out of the car with his gun drawn and ready to fire. But the man is just presenting Dibala with a "civil subpoena." Yes, he's one of those non-violent hippie types, and he's suing Dibala for crimes against humanity and all sorts of terrible things. The van takes off, its passengers so freaking lucky not to have their faces shot off since Ntila would probably have been justified to think they were a threat and he's got diplomatic immunity anyway, and Dibala exits the car to look at the subpoena, which he then barfs blood on. Good thing they put it in that ziplock bag!
Cuddy has called Cameron and Chase into her office to ask them to temporarily work for Foreman until he can find new Cottages to replace Taub and Hadley. Chase is more shocked that Foreman fired his girlfriend than he is that Cuddy thinks so little of him and Cameron that she expects them to be okay with leaving their positions as the only ER doctor and the only surgeon to work for Foreman, who sucks at everything. Case in point: "you two are both competent and I know I can work with you," Foreman says. Such a sweet talker. Chase thinks it'll be "interesting," but Cameron isn't so hot on the idea of treating "one of the most repressive dictators in the world." No, no, Cameron. Foreman is your boss, not the patient. Oh -- she meant Dibala. He's a jerk, too. Foreman doesn't see how this is any different than when they treated death row inmate LL Cool J, but Cameron says LL Cool J went back to jail after they cured him, whereas Dibala will go back to his country and murder millions of people. Also, Cameron was too busy in that episode trying to avoid telling a woman she had terminal cancer to care about LL Cool J. Cuddy steps up and tells Cameron to stop caring about a fictional ethnic group thousands of miles away who will all be killed if Dibala recovers and start doing her job. Normally, I'd agree with Cuddy here and tell Cameron to shut up, but ... millions of people is a lot of people. I'd rather let Dibala barf up blood than have their blood on my hands. But I also didn't take an oath to treat people and stuff, so I guess Cameron is kind of screwed.
On their way to the meeting room, Chase asks Foreman about Hadley, urging him to reconsider firing her. Oh, please. Chase doesn't care about Hadley. Why would he even bring her up? Foreman says he knows he made the right decision -- it was either risk her dumping him for firing her or have the relationship end for sure because they couldn't work together. With that, they enter the meeting room, only to stop short in horror/shock and in one case (Cameron) happiness when they see House seated at the head of the table. "Oh my god, it's three years ago. Does that mean I'm still crazy?" he says. Once again -- House never was crazy. I mean, I thought he pretty clearly was, but then they gave him anti-depressants and made him talk about his feelings and sent him on his way without ever addressing the hallucinations, so apparently I was wrong. Foreman: "you're back?" Chase: "we're just helping out." Cameron: "you look good." Oh, Cameron. You never change. House already knows the situation, since he "ran into" Hadley while she was cleaning out her locker. Hadley, you can't clean your locker out on the same day as your firing? Really? Foreman makes it clear that he and Hadley are still together (although it seems that Hadley told House the opposite) and asks if he is coming back to PPTH. "Sort of," House non-answers. He won't have his medical license for another month, so he's perfectly happy to let Foreman take the reigns and just "pitch in" every once in a while. It's full of holes, but it's so nice to see House, Cameron, Chase, and Foreman together again that I will take it.
Chase tries to talk about the case. Dibala thinks his lung ulcers are from an assassination attempt using polonium, but Foreman says the FBI has already ruled that out. "Acid reflux," Cameron guesses. Yes, Cameron, it's acid freaking reflux. Give the guy barfing copious amounts of blood some Tums and send him on his way. Foreman likes malaria, noting that Dibala had a bug bite on his hand that could be from a mosquito that was carrying the disease. That's quite a reach, but he's ready to throw some anti-malaria pills at the guy without testing for it first. House clears his throat loudly and conspicuously and tells Foreman that malaria is a rushed diagnosis made only to get Foreman out of the room and away from House. His diagnosis is dioxin poisoning with the bug bite actually being chloracne, a symptom of it. Chase likes it, of course. Foreman tells them to start treating Dibala for dioxin with "olestra." Olestra? Isn't that the stuff they used to put in potato chips that gave everyone diarrhea? Bad news for Dibala! With Chase and Cameron gone, Foreman asks House why he didn't just say dioxin in the beginning. "I was hoping you'd get there on your own," House says. Zing!
Chase and Cameron start to administer the olestra to Dibala, who asks if they're sure about the diagnosis. Silly Dibala! Of course they are! What kind of idiot would prove a diagnosis with treatment instead of tests? Cameron is quick to tell Dibala that they aren't sure, while Chase tries to be more diplomatic and explains that this is their "best guess" and the olestra will bind to the dioxin and flush it out of Dibala's system if it's what's wrong with him. Yeah, flush it out with anal leakage. Dibala demands to know where Chase is from, noting a British tinge to his Australian accent. "Most people don't notice it," Chase says. Well, most people are Americans who think all those accents sound the same. Chase says he spent a year in England to attend seminary, which obviously didn't work out. Dibala decides to tell a story about the Catholic priests in his childhood village who were "good people" but couldn't do much when his little sisters were dying from TB.
Apparently, House didn't bother to go to Cuddy for permission to return to PPTH before he just waltzed into the meeting room and started "helping," so now he and Foreman have to have a discussion about it in Cuddy's office. Foreman is pissed because he only fired Hadley because he thought House was gone for good. Really, is that the argument you want to make to your boss? Whining about how you fired your girlfriend? Ugh, Foreman. House says he "need[s] this in [his] life." That is also a bad argument -- this isn't about your life, House. It's about the best thing for PPTH. But I guess personal arguments like this are the best way to approach Cuddy, who is just as unprofessional as everyone else. She says that House said last week that he needed to not be at PPTH. "It's a process. I'm learning," House says. "Screwing me over as you go," Foreman says. Because it's all about you, Foreman. Cuddy says that House can stay on in an unofficial capacity (does that mean unpaid? Because what a great deal this is for Cuddy!), but Foreman is ultimately in charge and House can't do any medical procedures or associate with any patients until he gets his medical license back. House is just fine with this.
Foreman runs to Hadley's apartment. Ew. Wasn't she fired? Then why is she still on the show? Taub won't be appearing in this episode, so why her? When will the writers get over their massive crushes on this woman and give her the same amount of screen time as everyone else who isn't Hugh Laurie?? Anyway, Foreman graciously offers her her job back, saying that now that House is returning, his days as her boss are numbered so they can soon go back to being co-workers and get along like none of this ever happened. Hadley turns both the job offer and an invitation to dinner down flat.
Chase is doing Clinic duty for some reason. His patient is a black man with a vaguely African accent just like Dibala's. That's because he's from the same country. "You must not treat him," he tells Chase, who turns around and tries to leave. But the guy pulls him back with a picture of his wife, who was a trade unionist and a member of that Southern tribe Dibala is accused of trying to kill. The tribe has a name, but it's not a real tribe and it sounds really hard to spell, so I'm not going to try. Let's just go with "Southern tribe," shall we? While the man was at work, members of Dibala's "labor league," which is just a name for a group of young men Dibala's people recruit, supply with drugs and alcohol, and set loose to torture Dibala's opponents. They returned the wife two weeks later, raped and tortured with the word for "cockroach" (which is what they call members of the Southern tribe) carved into her stomach. I'm not sure if she was alive or dead. I guess that doesn't really matter. Chase says that's too bad, but he's just a doctor who can't discuss his patients with anyone. He recommends that the man get a lawyer or talk to the UN about what happened to his wife, because that always works. Lawyers are so effective against tyrannical dictators. The man points out that the UN did nothing when the Tutsis were being murdered in Rwanda, so he doesn't hold out much hope for them helping the two million Southern people now. "[Dibala] can't recover," the man says. Chase looks rattled, but just says "I'm sorry" again and leaves the room.
House returns home to find Wilson eating Chicken Florentine sans garlic, watching the TV at a very low volume, and not wearing shoes. Wilson thinks he can distract House from his suspicions with a reference to True Blood, which they no doubt watch together every Sunday night. It doesn't work: House puts everything together and comes up with a whiny downstairs neighbor, a hypothesis he proves by banging his cane on the floor a few times and hearing the neighbor angrily rap on a pipe in return. Wilson admits that his neighbor, Murphy, isn't a fan of the "extra noise" and "cooking smells" associated with living below House, and Wilson doesn't want to piss him off further because the guy is on the condo board and Wilson is hoping for a renovated back garden. And apparently a renovated back garden is worth the loss of self-respect that comes from kowtowing to an unreasonable jerk. Although I guess that's nothing new for Wilson. He is friends with House, after all. House assures Wilson that he now knows some useful coping skills he can employ while talking to Murphy, but Wilson says Murphy is a decorated war hero who lost an arm in Vietnam and so demands everyone's respect despite being a giant asshole. House agrees to stay out of the man's way. Then he gets a call from Cameron to tell him that Dibala is currently having a heart attack. She talks to House on the cell phone casually while Chase does everything to save Dibala. Foreman is nowhere to be found. They probably didn't even call him about this. I wouldn't, either.
Upon entering the meeting room the day, House immediately calls out his diagnosis of Lassa fever, figuring that if Foreman was mad at him for holding the diagnosis back last time, this should make him happy. No one is buying that House is concerned about Foreman's happiness. Foreman rejects the diagnosis, saying that Lassa is not present in Dibala's always-unnamed country. House raises his hand like that annoying know-it-all kid in class, and Foreman pointedly ignores him until Cameron just points at House, giving him no choice but to call on him. "Don't people sometimes travel?" House asks with fake innocence. I'll bet the expression on his face as he said this was awesome, too, but I can't see it because everything on either side of the screen has been cut off for a second week in a row. Is this my TV's fault or does Fox assume we all have widescreen sets now or what? Foreman turns his suggestion down, saying that none of the three countries Dibala visited in the past two years had Lassa, either. House points out that one visit was to an African Union conference, which would therefore expose him to someone from a country that did, in fact, have Lassa fever. It's a stretch, but Foreman has no choice but to agree with the diagnosis, although he could at least try to test Dibala for it first before treating him. But he doesn't. House cheerfully says it's great to have the old team back. Chase just raises a coffee mug in agreement, because this is a lot easier than all that surgery he was doing before.
Ntila is getting a little wary of these doctors with their multiple diagnoses that are wrong. But Dibala insists that they know what they're doing, and damn if he doesn't sound wise. I really think that James Earl Jones could tell me to do anything and I would blindly follow, just because he can make it sound like it's for the best. He asks Foreman if he's married or dating the woman standing in the hallway outside with a "complicated expression on her face." Well, that can't be Hadley he's talking about, since she only has two facial expressions and neither of them is complicated. And yet, it is Hadley outside. I guess I don't believe everything James Earl Jones tells me after all.
Foreman leaves Dibala to deal wi
th personal bullshit. Hadley and her awesome leather jacket got a call from Princeton General asking her to come for an interview. She figures Foreman had something to do with that. He admits that he did. For this, he gets dinner with Hadley tomorrow. I can't blame her. The job market is tough. I'd totally go out to dinner with a guy who could get me an interview somewhere. Anywhere. Preferably with health benefits.House returns to Wilson's home to find a one-armed man at the mailboxes. It's Murphy, and he knows exactly who House is. He spots the cane and says it's responsible for all the "damn noise." Apparently, House makes so much noise tapping around on the floor that the neighbor is having trouble sleeping. House swore not to talk to Murphy, but he can't resist pointing out that the neighbor is complaining about the volume of a cane, which, by the way, has a rubber tip on the end and not a tap shoe. But how awesome would it be if it did have a tap shoe on the end? Season 7, guys. Come on. House tries to make nice with Murphy, actually apologizing and promising to try to be quieter. Murphy says he doesn't "give a crap" about that. "You keep it down or we're gonna have trouble," he says. Um, really? Because I'm pretty sure you can't kick someone out of a condo because the cane that he has to use is too loud. Hell, I can't even kick my old deaf neighbor who listens to her TV at full blast all day long and screams into her phone all night out. "Wow," House says to himself after the guy walks away. Wow, indeed. I didn't think House was capable of keeping his mouth shut in the face of such assholishness. Hooray for therapy!
Cameron has been paged to Dibala's room, where there's a woman who used to live in his country (and somehow made it out of there to the United States), and recovered from Lassa fever, meaning her plasma is full of helpful antibodies that Dibala's country's health minister says will be better for him than the medicine. Come on, Dibala. I wouldn't trust your country's health minister against a United States doctor. Then again, that United States doctor is Cameron, so ... hmmm. Close one. Ntila hands Cameron a signed consent form from the woman that it's pretty obvious she signed under duress. Cameron refuses.
To Cuddy's office they go! Cuddy explains to the woman that her blood will be used to cure Dibala. "I know," she says, insisting that she wants to donate her blood. Even though she's from the Southern people. You'd think that if Dibala hated them enough to want to kill two million of them, he certainly wouldn't want their blood coursing through his veins. Weird. Cameron figures that the woman's family back in her home country will be hurt or killed if she doesn't give her blood, but that doesn't matter. The woman is an adult and consented -- even begged -- to give her blood, so she will. Cuddy says that even if the woman was coerced, she'd much rather the woman give blood than her entire family be killed. Although that woman's family will probably be killed anyway. But this way it's not Cuddy's fault.
Chase is hanging out in the hallway when he sees a familiar figure rolling a medical cart down the hall. It's the guy from the Clinic, and he managed to disguise himself in PPTH scrubs, get access to a medical cart, and figure out which room Dibala was in. "Hey! Don't let him in there!" Chase yells to Dibala's guards. But he's moving in slow-motion which, while dramatic, doesn't get him to the room in time. Although even if he was moving at regular speed, who was going to stop the guy? PPTH Security? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. No.
Fortunately for Dibala, his guards didn't train where PPTH Security do (if they even do train, which is doubtful), so they are on top of the situation. The guy manages to get two shots off, but both miss Dibala. One of Dibala's guards is currently on top of the guy beating him to a pulp. "Who is that man?" Dibala yells, no doubt ready to enter it into the iPhone app he and his people apparently have that tracks all of his countrymen all over the world just in case he needs Lassa fever blood or something, complete with the names and addresses of all family members back in his country, just in case they need to twist some arms. So, that guy's entire family just got murdered. Chase is only concerned with Dibala's right eye, which is all bloodshot.
After the break, Chase tends to the would-be assassin, who doesn't even get a Clinic room. He's just propped up against a hallway wall, bleeding all over the place, on display for all of PPTH's patients and employees. Yes, there's the guy who almost murdered a patient because PPTH doesn't keep its scrubs or medical equipment under lock and key or check its visitors for weapons. Chase tells the guy he'll need a lawyer, but even though what he did was "stupid" and "terrible" (I don't know about that), the court should go easy on him because of what Dibala's people did to his wife. The guy says that woman wasn't his wife at all. He didn't even know her. He was one of the boys in that labor league who raped and tortured her under the orders of Dibala's men. And, the guy says, that will happen to all of the Southern people if Dibala recovers.
Back home, Cameron is initially mad at Chase for getting involved in the assassination attempt, saying he could have been killed himself. Not really, Cameron. The guy was a terrible shot. Obviously, the labor league's training did not include firearms. "He fired a gun in the hospital!" Cameron says, like that's something new. It happens every week at PPTH. Get over it already. Chase takes his shirt off because this season is all about less clothing and hugs Cameron, who reveals that one of the reasons why she didn't want Chase involved with the assassination attempt is that she wouldn't mind if Dibala was killed. "Maybe time don't yell out that warning," she says. Poor Chase just can't win.
Foreman reveals that Dibala's bloody right eye came from an enlarged lymph node that blocked the retinal vein. That's a new symptom, and House clearly has an idea of what it means but refuses to say it because he doesn't want to "inadvertently" undermine Foreman's authority. Then why be there at all, House? Foreman guesses sarcoidosis, and House clears his throat loudly, conspicuously, and undermining-ly before putting on a big show of looking at a chest X-ray. Chase explains that House is showing them something on it that rules out sarcoidosis. House's happy face turns clownishly sad when Foreman comes up with a staph infection . He shakes his hand and sticks a finger in his mouth. "He smokes?" Chase guesses. They don't play a lot of charades in Australia, I guess. Foreman knows what House is saying: he was miming a thermometer to say that Dibala's fever isn't high enough for it to be a staph infection. House's expression turns happy again. "Lymphoma," Foreman says . No, that's not right either. House uses his arms to form the letters "L" and a lower-case "d," then asks for Cameron's legs' assistance in making an "H." Cameron quickly says House is trying to say that Dibala's normal LDH readings rule out lymphoma. I just want to know why House made a lower-case "D" when it would have been easier to do the upper-case version. Anyway, Foreman doesn't care about LDH levels and orders Cameron and Chase to biopsy Dibala's lymph node. On his way out, House suggests that Foreman close the blinds. He does, only to find that House wrote "lymphoma ta da!!" on them. Authority: undermined. Also, that sucks for the cleaning crew.
House zips over to Wilson's office to be lectured on how he treated Wilson's asshole neighbor, who apparently went running to Wilson to complain about the "rude jerk" he lives with. Even though House didn't do anything wrong, Wilson is still mad at him for talking to Murphy at all. What, was he supposed to give the guy the silent treatment at the mailboxes? Then Murphy would have complained to Wilson about that. House tells Wilson not to worry -- he has some dirt on Murphy: he's lying about his stint in Vietnam and resulting war wound. Well, the wound itself is
real -- he definitely has a hook where his hand should be -- but the way he got it is not. For House happened to notice that Murphy was holding a letter from a private medical insurance company, which he shouldn't have if he's a vet because they get the VA for their medical needs. That's not always the greatest thing in the world, but it's probably better than PPTH. Also, House notes, the guy is too young to have served in Vietnam. A little online detective work revealed no records of service for Murphy, either. Wilson asks why someone would lie about serving in Vietnam. "Victims get pity, heroes get adulation. It's way better," House says, so mad that he didn't think of this first. Wilson tells him to stop investigating Murphy and start writing an apology letter. Come on, Wilson. An apology letter? House isn't your child who you need to teach a lesson about personal responsibility. "Being nice to people you hate -- that's a skill," Wilson says. You know what else is a skill? Standing up to your neighbors who make unreasonable demands.Chase and Dibala spend some quality time together. Dibala thanks Chase for saving his life. Chase says that the would-be assassin told him that Dibala is preparing to massacre millions of people. Dibala says he's just "fighting a guerilla war." Chase says another word for that seems to be "genocide." Dibala says it's not that simple -- the Southern people massacred tens of thousands of people twenty years ago when their rebels took over part of the south. "And they would happily do it again! I'm trying to impose order. I'm trying to prevent genocide," Dibala says. And when he says it, it really does sound reasonable and make logical sense. But that might also be because it's James Earl Jones saying it. He says that his youngest son -- the one at Princeton -- hasn't spoken to him in years because of the things the American newspaper accuse Dibala of. So American newspapers are accusing Dibala of genocide, and yet we still let him in this country? And the UN wants to meet with him? And he still pays to send his son to an American school? Weird. Chase asks Dibala about that labor league, and Dibala sighs and takes responsibility for it -- sort of -- saying that he hired men to run it who "stepped over the line" "in their zeal." But he assures Chase that he's very sorry about all that. Not as sorry as the victims of that "zeal," I'd bet. "That will not happen again," Dibala promises. Because there won't be any people left for the labor league to torture.
House actually wrote the apology letter and is about to leave it on Murphy's doorstep when a cleaning lady opens the door and walks out with some garbage bags, thus leaving the guy's door wide open. Okay, fire her ass. That's ridiculous. There's a strange man standing right there, and she just walks away from the apartment and leaves it open? I'll bet the cleaning ladies in Dibala's country wouldn't dare to act like this. House starts to look inside, but then summons up all of his strength and actually leaves the letter on the doormat and starts to walk away without doing anything illegal. This won't do at all, so God promptly strikes House down by causing his cane to slip on the hallway floor. House's legs fly out from under him and he crashes to the ground, taking a bucket full of splashing water sound effects with him. House quickly picks up his apology letter before it gets too wet and now he has no choice but to enter Murphy's apartment and leave the note in a dry place. And while he's in there, he just happens to notice a big Canadian flag on the wall. Hey, he tried to be good. This is still progress.
Chase finds Cameron in the lab looking at Dibala's biopsy. He wants to talk to her about her "joking" about letting Dibala be assassinated. Cameron insists that that was no joke. "You can't want to kill anyone. Especially not your own patient," Chase insists. Cameron doesn't think it's that simple, but Chase says you'd have to be a psychopath to kill someone without having "some sort of breakdown." Cameron thinks it would be justified in this case, but Chase says that doesn't matter. Cameron says she's not going to kill Dibala, but she wouldn't be all that broken up if he died, either. And anyway, the biopsy is negative for lymphoma.
Murphy comes home to find House waiting for him outside his apartment, looking very smug indeed. House says he knows Murphy's dirty little secret, thanks to a look at his proudly-displayed flag and a chat he apparently had with the housekeeper afterwards. I hope that chat was good for her, because she is so fired now. Murphy is definitely Canadian, and House knows that Canada didn't send troops to Vietnam. Outraged rather than busted, Murphy quickly tells House that he's going to jail for breaking into his apartment, to which House says he'll join Murphy there, because pretending to be a war hero is against the law. Is it really? Even if it's just so you can get away with being an asshole to your neighbors? As it happens, though, Murphy did go to Vietnam from Canada after all: they sent troops over to reinforce the 1973 peace accords. That was where Murphy tried to save a boy who stepped on a landmine. He was not successful in this endeavor, and for thirty-six years since then, his phantom hand still feels like it's closed tightly and painfully around the boy's arm. "Oh," House says. Yeah. OOPS. House is lucky he wasn't punched in the face by an arm-hook.
Chase and Cameron inform Dibala that the biopsy was negative. Dibala doesn't seem relieved about the news, though, most likely because he doesn't remember them even saying it. He asks about the biopsy results again. So that's a new symptom.
But let's check in on Foreman and Hadley for some reason. They're out to dinner, eating outside even though we're supposed to be in New Jersey in mid-October. The LA writers forgot that it's cold outside in other parts of the country. Foreman thanks Hadley for coming around and being so understanding about him firing her. He says it was his only choice if they had a hope of staying together. Not quite, Hadley says. Foreman could have stepped down as head of diagnostics. Foreman says they both would have lost their jobs then, since there wouldn't be a diagnostic department. Hadley says Cameron or Chase could have taken the head position, since they're both obviously interested enough in the department to temporarily be on the team. She asks Foreman what he would do if he could do it again. All he has to do is say what she wants to hear, but he won't. "I made the right decision," he insists. Hadley decides to get dinner somewhere else. Doesn't she know Foreman well enough by now to know that he can't see when he's wrong, let alone admit it to someone else? And hasn't she been on this show long enough to know that no one gets any real character development so he'll stay that way forever?
Meanwhile, back at PPTH, someone decided to save on the power bills by turning the lights out in the hallway outside Dibala's room, where Ntila asks Cameron for her "medical opinion" as to whether or not Dibala is capable of thinking clearly. Ntila, if you want a good medical opinion, you should probably ask someone -- ANYONE -- else. Even Wilson's neighbor's cleaning lady would be a better choice. Cameron says he isn't, for now. When Ntila asks about the future, Cameron has a nice little opportunity to possibly undermine Dibala's rule and takes it, telling Ntila that Dibala is declining and will not get better, so they'll never know from now on if his orders are sound or "just the delusions of a sick, mad, dying, old man." Meanwhile, she could not be more obvious in her agenda. No doctor talks like that when she's giving actual medical advice. Nor do they disclose things like this to the patient's personal bodyguard or whatever Ntila is. But nice try anyway, Cameron.
House returns to PPTH to diagnose Dibala with scleroderma. He cites Dibala's nice, tight skin as a symptom. That might also just be a symptom of black don't crack, though, House. Foreman likes blastomycosis, a fungal infection, instead. Ch
ase agrees with Foreman, but then says they didn't see the fungal lesions on the head CT that would indicate Foreman's diagnosis, so I don't know what he's talking about. Cameron says they can try something crazy called a "test" on Dibala for some antibodies that would indicate scleroderma, but Foreman nixes that, saying the test is not conclusive and Dibala's fever is too high right now to wait on silly test results anyway. They have to pick one diagnosis and treat Dibala for it. If they pick the wrong one, he'll die. Of course. House looks to Cameron for support of his diagnosis, but she says she doesn't really care about Dibala. House tells her that if she's going to be here and work on Dibala's case, then she needs to get over her personal feelings and do her freaking job. Foreman should have told Cameron that already, but he was too busy with Hadley. Cameron takes a stand for blastomycosis, then gives House a childish "ha ha" look, having obviously only agreed to Foreman's diagnosis to stick it to House. House threatens to go to Cuddy, but Foreman reminds him that he's in charge and this is his call to make. He orders Chase and Cameron to treat Dibala for blastomycosis.Cameron prepares to inject Dibala's IV with the medicine when he grabs her wrist and tells her that since she's so dead set on killing him, she might as well go ahead and do it right now with her own hands by putting an air bubble in Dibala's IV instead of telling his advisors things that will cause them to revolt and kill him. Whoops! I guess Dibala's memory loss thing went away, and also Ntila is a tattletale. And why is the camera out of focus right now? We finally get a face on camera and not chopped off the side of the frame, and it's all blurry. Why. Dibala says that killing people isn't so easy when you have to do it yourself. I guess he would know. Cameron thinks for a minute, then injects the medicine, air-bubble-free, into the IV. "Allison," Chase speaks up. Oh. I guess they would call each other by their first names now, huh? Cameron tells Dibala that apparently when it comes down to it, she doesn't want him to die after all. Well, she just got told. By a third world dictator with the blood of thousands and perhaps millions on his hands. That's not easy. Chase tells Dibala that if he lays a hand on his wife again, he will personally kick him out of PPTH. Honestly, that would probably be a favor for Dibala. Speaking of favors, Dibala thinks he did one for Cameron by showing her "her true character," which is "too weak to act on her beliefs." I'm sure she's out in the hallway feeling really grateful for that gift right now, Dibala. He says most people are that weak. Like his advisors and Ntila, who are always telling him to be diplomatic and sign stupid treaties and promise not to hurt people while letting his enemies run around free and clear and plot his assassination. Those enemies, by the way, are the Southern people. Dibala says Chase couldn't possibly understand, since all he has for an enemy is "some younger physician who covets your office." Um, younger? Chase is like fifteen. They don't get much younger than that. Dibala says that his enemies want to kill him and his world is full of bloodshed. "That makes you a man. And men make choices," he says. Chase asks what those choices are. Dibala won't go into specifics, but it's pretty obvious that those Southern people are not going to have a good time when he returns. If he returns.
And now, it's time for House to face the wrath of Wilson about the neighbor. House says he'll fix this, but Wilson isn't having that, since last time House tried to fix it, he broke into the guy's apartment and made everything a whole lot worse. Wilson fixed it instead, agreeing to kick House out of his condo if Murphy didn't press charges against him. Aw, House is sad about this. His feelings are hurt. But how could he have thought this would end any differently?
Now that Cameron knows she's too weak to act on her beliefs, she's going to do her best to save Dibala's life. She thinks House was right about the scleroderma and presumably only agreed with Foreman's diagnosis because she thought it was wrong and thus Dibala would die. Now she wants to run that antibody test on him to show it's scleroderma, and she wants Chase to help. Screw you, two million Southern people! But I'm sure you'll be happy to know as you're being tortured and raped and watching your family members murdered and your village burned to the ground that Cameron learned a lesson. Chase says he can get Cameron some of Dibala's blood to test.
Sure enough, it's positive for the antibodies. Cameron shoves the test result in Foreman's face, but he refuses to be convinced, saying it's not definitive proof that it's scleroderma. "Blasto still fits best," he says; "I've made my decision." Cameron decides to get personal, saying she knows Foreman well enough by now to know that he can't admit when he's wrong when it's about something really important. Like firing Hadley. Or this diagnosis. Foreman tells them to treat Dibala for scleroderma.
Murphy arrives home to find House waiting for him inside his apartment with a syringe full of sleeping potion. When he wakes up, he's duct-taped to a chair with some more duct tape over his mouth and House sitting in front of him. Murphy starts to panic, as you would, but House ignores him to say that he has some real personal issues he's trying to work on and what he's just done to Murphy is "a definite setback." He did try, though. But Murphy made it impossible, so here he is. I think Murphy is learning a few lessons of his own about treating people a little bit better just in case they happen to be insane and good at picking locks. Oh, and have access to sleeping potion. How does House have that stuff, by the way? He shouldn't be allowed to touch drugs without his medical license. House puts a large box with two large holes in it on the side on the table, calling it a "magic box of neurological trickery," and forces Murphy to shove his stump through one hole and his left hand in the other. House closes the top of the box over the stump and tells Murphy to look at the divider in the middle of the box, which is a mirror. It reflects Murphy's left hand so that it looks like he has two intact hands. House tells him to clench his fists as hard as he can. And then let go. When he does, his phantom right fist unclenches, too, for the first time in thirty-six painful years. House can tell by the amazed expression on the guy's face that the trick worked and he can remove the duct tape gag without Murphy screaming for the police. He sobs that his pain is gone and thanks House, who probably wishes his pain could be cured so easily. , Murphy might want to have a chat with whoever his private health insurance assigned to be his doctor for not trying this a long time ago.
Meanwhile, back at PPTH, Dibala is bleeding profusely out of his nose and mouth. Chase tries to cauterize the bleeds, but there are too many of them. Dibala is dead. Well, yeah. We couldn't let him get better and go back to his country and kill two million people, right? Even for this show, that's still too dark.
House finds Foreman sulking in his office. He doesn't know if Dibala died because he realized it was scleroderma too late or if it wasn't scleroderma at all. Which means neither House nor Foreman can tell the other one I told you so. This will not do, so House just says Foreman killed Dibala no matter what, because he was either too attached to the wrong opinion or not confident enough in the right one. And Foreman will never know which one, since Dibala is locked away in the morgue and will be sent back to his country tomorrow so his own doctors can do the autopsy. House reminds Foreman that he's good at breaking into places.
Foreman finds Chase in the locker room. He says he couldn't get into the morgue after all, but he did happen to notice Chase's name on the sign-in sheet from earlier today. Like right around the time Cameron asked him to get Dibala's blood. Chase says he was following up on a C
linic case. Foreman asks if he happened to stop by another morgue patient who died from scleroderma while he was down there and take some of her blood. And then test it. And say it was Dibala's, then convincing Foreman to treat him for something he didn't have and killing him. Chase says Cameron had nothing to do with it, although we already knew that when she pussied out of killing Dibala. Chase says Dibala was going to kill two million people. Foreman doesn't care, because those people are not his patients and thus their deaths have no effect on his success rate as head of diagnostics, which is currently a lowly 50%. Chase says that all of their work and all of the lives they saved would have meant nothing if he helped Dibala get better to go back to his country and murder those people. Now that Dibala's dead, things are already getting better in his country. Moderates have come to power and they want peace talks. If Foreman tells on Chase, then Dibala will become a martyr and the Southern people will be screwed again. Foreman says if he doesn't tell on Chase, then he's an accomplice to murder. I guess he's going to be an accomplice no matter what at this point. Better to be an accomplice to the murder of one guy than to the murder of millions. Chase has yet another request of Foreman: if he does turn Chase in, let him know so he can tell Cameron before the cops come. Meanwhile, did anyone check to make sure there's no one else in the locker room? I feel sorry for the janitor who just heard all of that. What's he supposed to do now? Anyway, Foreman is shocked. "Chase," he gasps; "you really think you can kill another human being without any consequences to yourself?" "No," Chase says. But I guess he figured his soul was worth less than the lives of all of the people Dibala won't get a chance to kill.House returns to Wilson's apartment to find that things have changed. Murphy called Wilson sounding uncharacteristically happy to tell them that he will not be pressing charges against House, who is free to stay at Wilson's place as long as he wants. And he's approving the stupid garden thing Wilson was so hot on. Wilson knows this amazing turnaround did not happen independent of House's machinations. "What did you do to him?" he asks. "I was nice," House says. He offers to give Wilson the details if he really wants them, but Wilson says he'll just give House "the benefit of the doubt." And with that, they watch as an alligator on TV attempts to catch a frog on a nearby lily pad. The frog escapes, and the men say "OH!" in unison.
Guess who feels bad about not talking to his father now? Dibala's youngest son, who is let into the morgue to see his dad. Did Dibala die, like, five minutes ago? Because not only did they not wipe the blood off of his face yet, but it's also still red.
And guess who also knows how it feels to suddenly lose a father before you get a chance to patch things up with him? Chase, who watches Cameron sleep for a while before trying to get some sleep of his own. I have a feeling he won't succeed in that goal. I wonder if one of his thoughts will be that he never knew for sure that Dibala would kill all those people. Sure, he pretty much said he would, but the UN could have stopped him or Ntila could have taken over power or he could have changed his mind. You really never know, and that's why you can't go around killing people for something they might do.
Oh, and Foreman burned the morgue sign-in sheet because what else could he do? If he turns Chase in, then he's stuck working with just Cameron. Although you'd think he'd find a less dramatic and more low-key way of destroying the sheet than setting it on fire in his office. That's what they invented paper shredders for.
You can read more from Sara Morrison at L.A.me, or you can email her at saramorrison@gmail.com.