House sidles up to that Fed guard and asks him how, exactly, he got all that money he was being questioned about before. Bill comes up behind them and tells House to leave the guy alone, which tells House all he needs to know. Bill and House walk down the hall, and Bill admits that he paid the guy to bring his brother some pasta for dinner, although the guy ended up bringing back steak, since the Feds are all ardent believers in the Atkins diet, apparently. House says that Joey has ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, meaning that his body can't break down large amounts of protein, especially when he's not used to them since he usually eats pasta. Thus, it was the steak that put him in the comas. This doesn't explain the estrogen level, but House says he knows of a chemical that raises one's estrogen levels dramatically when ingested: estrogen. Bill asks why, exactly, his brother would be taking girly hormones. House says there are some in a Chinese herbal aphrodisiac for gay men, which just happens to be sold on the same website that sells Joey's quit candy. Bill asks House if he wants to get bitch-slapped, too. House says Bill would have to slap him pretty hard to turn Joey straight. He tells Bill to be real here: mob guys like Joey don't get raped in prison unless, you know, they want to be. Bill insists that his brother is not gay. House says that Bill's over-defense of his brother's heterosexuality indicates that he has an idea that it isn't true, just like Chase's over-defense of his innocence indicated that he was actually guilty. House says it's up to Bill: if he doesn't think his brother is gay, then the hepatitis treatment should continue. If he does think Joey is gay, then the treatment has to stop and Joey will recover on his own. Joey will die if Bill makes the wrong choice. Joey, and every family member House and the Cottages have. They'll even dig up Cameron's poor, dead, husband and kill him again.
Bill takes a minute to himself to think, and then finds House outside Joey's room. He tells him to stop the treatment. Chase does so, and Bill says that Joey never said anything to him about being gay. House says that the Mob isn't known for its tolerance of others. He suggests that Joey's reason for wanting to testify might have been that the Witness Protection Program would allow him to start a whole new gay life for himself.
Three hours later, Bill is having second thoughts about taking Joey off the hepatitis medicine. But then Cameron comes up and informs him that Joey just woke up and asked to see him. Looks like Bill made the right choice after all.
“ Bill and Joey hold hands, but not in a homosexual way. ”
Joey tells his brother he looks like crap. Bill says he just went through a lot of crap, having to figure out whether Joey was "normal" or not. Joey asks what Bill means by "normal," and Bill clarifies that House thought Joey was a "fag," and was using the Witness Protection Program to go out and be one. Joey asks Bill what he thinks, and Bill says he didn't know, but he had to make a decision, so he agreed with House. And lo and behold, Joey is getting better. Joey tries to talk to Bill, but Bill says there's nothing to talk about. Obviously, that Chinese internet company sent Joey the wrong pills and he took them without realizing it, probably because he was distracted because he was having sex with a woman. Joey figures that's as much acceptance as he's going to get, and drops it. Bill says that if Joey wants to testify, then Bill will support him. In the testifying thing, not the gay thing, which doesn't exist. He wants Joey to do whatever will make him happy. They hold hands, but not in a homosexual way.
The Eternity Meeting has concluded, and Cuddy informs House that Vogler wanted to get rid of House and his entire department. House drops a few pills in his hand and thanks Cuddy for sticking up for him, saying she'll have to follow it up with a "nasty" weekend in Vegas where she can really show off her administrative skills. Cuddy says that Vogler threatened to fire her, and House gets sincere for a second to apologize for that. He assumes this means he's been fired, but Cuddy says she just told Vogler that she knows everything about how the hospital runs, so firing her is not an option, and neither is firing House. House says that Vogler will figure everything out eventually and be able to replace Cuddy, so the solution is only temporary. Cuddy says she'll deal with it then. For now, though, "some things are going to change."
Not all things, though, as a lab coat-less House and Wilson walk down the hall. Wilson suggests that House rent out his new Corvette to try to make some money for the department and appease Vogler. He also points out the significance of Cuddy's sticking up for House. "To a point," House says. In return for not getting fired, he and two of the Cottages have to do six more Clinic hours a month. The third Cottage won't be doing any Clinic hours, since s/he will be fired. With that, House enters the meeting room. He and Wilson exchange a look through the window, and then House begins the day.