An extremely old-looking Joel Grey plays a renowned cancer researcher who stops by PPTH with fluid-filled lungs and a death wish. He's very particular about how he dies, though -- he wants House to assist his suicide. House won't do that until he knows whether his patient is terminal or not, and gets Joel to agree to a twenty-four hour stay of execution so House can figure out what's wrong with him. If he can't, House promises to kill Joel. Well, they don't, and House fakes everyone out and puts Joel in a coma instead of killing him and keeps right on going. This puts Cameron's nose out of joint, although she's not exactly sure why, since she doesn't know if she agrees with assisted suicide or not. Good thing she has this entire episode to Learn A Lesson. While she stages a locker room sit-in protest, everyone else works to figure out what's wrong with Joel. Unfortunately, House realizes that he'll need to wake Joel up to test one of his theories. While his theory that Joel's peripheral nerves are on the fritz is right, he now has an angry conscious patient on his hands. Joel refuses any additional tests or treatment, as he's apparently the kind of guy who goes to the hospital to not have any medical care at all, but they need to biopsy a piece of his skin. House orders Cameron to get it, and after a discussion with Joel about his past radiation experiments on newborn babies without parental consent or knowledge, she decides that if Joel can do that in the name of medical science, then she can, too. She takes the skin, and Joel is very proud of her for Learning Something instead of being pissed off that his patient rights have been thrown out yet again. They test it, and after House comes up with a last minute Brilliant Diagnosis, they confirm that Joel has amyloidosis. But oops! It's terminal! The day, Joel is dead. Cuddy thinks that House granted his wish and killed him. But he didn't -- Cameron did! Man, when she makes a decision, she does it in the most final way possible. House shocks us by actually telling her that he's proud of her, because killing patients is a good thing now. All the doctors are doing it! Also, a Clinic patient's teenage daughter manages to turn her cute schoolgirl crush on House into a creepy stalkerish obsession in just a few scenes.
Class-say music plays. A lab-coated, shaky-handed Joel Grey kills and dissects a rat. Delicious. He's displeased to find a huge tumor in the rat despite his apparent best efforts to treat it. Then he gasps for air and collapses while all the other rats in the room probably laugh and point. One starts eating his lip for good measure. He probably would've called 911 if you hadn't just killed his brother, Joel.
House reports to work the morning and hands the Cottages the file on their newest patient, Ezra Powell. He tells them to disregard the small lacerations on Ezra's face, as those are "creepy" but irrelevant to the case. Cameron disregards the case entirely to ask House why he's using his cane again and cast a few sympathetic glances his way. House won't answer her questions, even after the usually silent Foreman expresses some concern. He tells them to concentrate on their real patient, whose name they all recognize as a world-famous cancer researcher. Cameron can't believe that House actually admires one of his peers. I can't believe that this would make any difference in the dismissive and cold way House usually treats his patients.
The Cottages get down to diagnosing. Chase notes that Ezra's lungs are full of fluid and guesses there's a problem with his heart: amyloidosis. Hmmm! That's an interesting theory; wonder if we'll ever see it again? Foreman wonders if decades of breathing toxic lab fumes have damaged Ezra's lungs. House winces in pain and tells them to stop helping the guy breathe and see what "gives out" first: his heart or his lungs. That way, they'll find out where the problem lies. Chase points out that, at seventy-one, their patients' vital organs may not be in good enough shape to give back in. House doesn't really care about that.
Cameron helps Ezra into the stress EKG machine while he points out that he and another doctor were the creators of the device. The other doctor, Ezra grimly points out, died a few years ago. "I'm sorry," Cameron says, making her best sympathy face. Ezra says the guy was eighty-four and died parasailing: "He was always an idiot." I don't know, I think that's a rather smart way to die. Smarter than, oh, say, admitting yourself into a hospital under the care of a determined diagnostician and then expecting him to help you die without even figuring out what's really wrong with you or whether it's even terminal. Now that would be stupid. Cameron smiles at Ezra and the doctor-patient bond has been formed. Goody. Ezra gets started on the treadmill while Cameron, Foreman, and Chase hang out in the booth and talk about the return of their boss's cane. Chase bitterly remarks that he's sure that House will "handle it in a stoic, grown-up fashion" and not take his problems out on his fellows. Specifically the one fellow he's always taking his problems out on. Poor Chase. Meanwhile, Ezra's struggling on the treadmill, even though his heart rate isn't even approaching the target they need for accurate results. Cameron rushes in to cheer him on and then cancels the test. "This isn't working," she says
House is none-too-thrilled with Cameron's executive decision. He orders her to drain the fluid from Ezra's lungs and try the test again.
While Chase removes the fluid in Ezra's lungs, Cameron tells Ezra what they're trying to do. He already knows, since he's a doctor himself and has been in and out of hospitals for the past year with this mystery illness and gone through all these tests already.
Over at the Clinic, House checks out a patient while he and his teenage daughter fight over a pricy handbag she purchased for the upcoming fall formal. House adds to their discussion with some witty quips that the teenage daughter finds most entertaining. She stares at him adoringly while House diagnoses her father with a cold. He writes the father a prescription (for what, I have no idea. Colds are viruses and therefore don't get antibiotics, right?) and then drops a few papers. New Jersey Lolita rushes over to pick them up and tell House to call her if he can think of "anything else." They commence staring at each other until Cameron runs up to interrupt House's good time and announce that their patient is "too old and weak." She makes sure to throw a few questioning/jealous glances New Jersey Lolita's way.
Now they've got Ezra working on some arm paddling machine instead of the treadmill. He struggles with this as well, and Cameron announces to everyone that it isn't working. Right in front of the patient, too. Very professional. House walks in and greets Ezra with a shot of epi that artificially increases his heart rate. They find nothing wrong with the heart and figure the problem must be in Ezra's lungs. Cameron rushes over with a shot of something that will make Ezra all better, but he begs her not to. "Just let me die," he asks. Cameron assures him that they will find out what's wrong with him and cure him. Not good enough for Ezra, who says that he doesn't want to live "like this" and again begs Cameron to kill him.
What's the differential diagnosis for a guy who wants his doctors to kill him? Depends on who you ask: Cameron seems to support it, saying that Ezra made his decision after a lot of thought; House says that Ezra's just depressed and will get over it and want to live again once he's cured by his incredibly confident doctor; Chase thinks it's Ezra's call, not theirs. I'd agree with that except for the fact that Ezra is asking them to get involved. Chase thinks that they should give Ezra a syringe full of morphine, as that's what every doctor he's ever worked with has done. And Chase is nothing if not a joiner, so he supports this. As for Foreman, he (wisely, I think) refuses to have any part of this. Cameron agrees with him, saying that even though she respects Ezra's decision to die, she doesn't actually want to be the one to make it happen. Chase and Foreman continue to argue their sides while Cameron manages to argue both for and against them. As for House, he's just trying to cure the patient and doesn't really care if Ezra wants to live or die. Everyone's pagers go off.
They report to Ezra's room to find Evil Nurse Brenda shoving him back into bed, saying that Ezra somehow managed to fall out of bed with some plastic tubing wrapped around his neck. Nice try, Brenda. Ezra tells the group that he doesn't want to die hooked to machines and too weak to wipe his own ass. "Why would you want to wipe your own ass when you could have someone do it for you?" House asks, answering his own question. Ezra has decided that his undiagnosed illness must be terminal and refuses to consent to any more tests, saying that if anyone even touches him, he will press charges. This has never stopped House before. But House agrees to these conditions, and says that they should all leave Ezra alone, starting with Evil Nurse Brenda, who responds to this with her trademark glare. "GET OUT!" House yells at her. Amazingly, she leaves the room without throwing a poison dart at anyone or even making a wise remark. Disappointing, Evil Nurse Brenda. Maybe she's all tuckered out from trying to kill Ezra.
House takes a seat on Ezra's bed and asks him why he came to House if he doesn't want treatment. Good question. Ezra says that he thought House could "do what needed to be done, if it came to that." Which it apparently has after only two little stress EKG tests. Ezra thought wrong, and House shoves a tube in his face and tells him to breath into it for a lung test. The Cottages step up and push House off of Ezra, so House angrily tells Ezra that they won't do a thing for him, just like he wants: Ezra will die when his lungs fill with fluid in what is sure to be a slow, painful, and terrifying experience. "We don't choose our birth and we don't choose our death," Ezra says. Except that that's exactly what he's trying to do by telling his doctors to kill him and throwing himself off of a bed with a tube tied around his neck. House makes a deal with Ezra: he has twenty-four hours to try to diagnose him using whatever tests are necessary. If he fails, he will kill Ezra himself. I hope he does it with a quick cane smash on the head. I'm sorry, I just don't like Ezra's quitter attitude. "House!" Cameron says, none-too-pleased that this little deal is sure to include a nonstop twenty-four-hour workday from her. But Ezra and his ridiculous early days of plastic surgery pixie nose agree to it.
Outside the room, the Cottages are abuzz about this turn of events. "Cuddy's not gonna let you!" Cameron says, apparently thinking that House would tell his boss and the administrator of the hospital about this new, totally illegal plan of his. House assures them that he has no plans to kill Ezra; he's sure he'll be able to save his life. If, that is, the Cottages do their jobs. That's a rare acknowledgement of the Cottages' importance and abilities from House. Recharged, Chase thinks up a bunch of tests they can do on Ezra, using a little creativity to get them accomplished within their time limit. House adds a few more and sends him off. Cameron is ordered to Ezra's home and lab to check for toxins and radiation, and Foreman will do a bone marrow biopsy.
Cameron manages to check Ezra's lab out without being overcome by the plight of his rats and trying to set them all free. Which is a good thing for her, since they probably all would've tried to eat her.
Foreman busies himself in the lab.
Chase collects some urine from the bag o'neon yellow pee to Ezra's bed, which we get to see a nice long close-up of. Thanks for that, show.
Foreman does the bone marrow biopsy. Ezra makes a face. Bone marrow biopsies are never a particularly pleasant experience.
Chase and Cameron read the hell out of some notes. Chase notices Cameron dozing and wakes her up. time, Cameron, take some of that meth to keep your eyes open!
When a well-rested and refreshed House reports to work the morning, he delightfully notes that his team looks like "crap." But they don't have any new information for him. "What have you been doing all night?!" he asks. "Jell-O shots and wild sex," Cameron retorts. Even on a tight schedule, there's always room for Jell-O. And wild sex. While House narrows his eyes at Cameron, hoping her last statement was true, Foreman says that they're still waiting on a few results to come back, but everything they've gotten so far has been clean, and Ezra's home and lab are clean as well. House takes a minute away from his life-or-death situation to take a phone call. Whoever is on the other line tells House that someone has a "personal" message for him. Since when did House have an answering service? Weird. "Who's that?" asks the ever-curios Cameron. "Your protégé," House snorts. Ooooh, burn! Anyway, House brushes off the call and gets back to work, noticing that Ezra has put all of his notes on tape and decides that this could mean that he's having memory problems (memory problems in a seventy-one-year-old man? NO!) and that whatever he has in his lungs has spread to his brain. Since they don't have anything else to go on, Cameron is off to give Ezra an MRI (of DOOOM!). As for House, he's going to take a mid-morning nap in his office. Cue angry glares from the very tired Cottages.
Cameron helps Ezra onto the MRI bed as he joyfully notes that if they're looking for something in his brain, then they must be really out of ideas. Man, it's like this guy wants to die. "Do you want us to fail?" Cameron asks. "No. But you will," Ezra says. One thing's for sure: Ezra has a mean case of negativitis.
Wilson makes his weekly non-contribution by analyzing the bone marrow biopsy. He doesn't find any cancer, but seeing as he also didn't see those undescended testes, I wouldn't trust that too much. Meanwhile, a world-famous cancer researcher is in his hospital, and Wilson hasn't even bothered include himself on the case. Worst Oncologoist Ever. Wilson does note that the bone marrow isn't in such great shape, but that's probably a result of years of heavy drinking, even though Ezra said in his medical history that he doesn't drink at all. Wilson chooses to believe that Ezra's a dirty liar alcoholic, while House prefers to think that the weird bone marrow is a symptom. Who cares? I just want to know why neither of them are acknowledging their little tiff last week. This better not get swept under the blood-stained carpet in House's office where seemingly significant plot points go to die! Cameron walks in and says the MRI was clean. They're out of time and have found nothing. House says that they'll just have to sneak into Ezra's room and change his clock to read a few hours earlier, a joke that no one except me enjoys.
Everyone reports to Ezra's room. "Must be bad news!" Ezra practically laughs. But no, House says, Ezra's bone marrow showed multiple myeloma. The Cottages exchange glances that indicate that this is a surprise lie from House. You'd think House would've tried to think of a disease that Ezra was at least not a world-famous expert on, and, sure enough, Ezra sees right through his lie, saying that his lungs couldn't be suffering from the associated hyperviscosity syndrome since Chase told him that his calcium levels were normal. Way to blow that one, Chase. House covers by saying that Chase is stupid and gets stuff wrong a lot. Ezra also says there isn't any M protein in his urine, which is apparently significant. "Odd presentation," House shrugs. It sure was! That neon yellow piss was practically glowing in the dark! Ezra says it must be odd, since he can tell that Cameron doesn't believe it either. I expect them to cut to her mouthing, "No! It's not true!" and shaking her head behind House's back, but no, she's just standing there apparently looking disbelieving. House asks for twelve more hours. No way, Ezra says. He wants to die RIGHT NOW. And if House won't honor his end of the bargain, then they should discharge Ezra so he can go home and die slowly, painfully, and terrifyingly. Unless he, you know, spares everyone the burden and kills himself. "You're really gonna let me die like that?" asks the man who apparently forgot that throwing himself off a bridge doesn't really take all that much effort.
Everyone sits in their offices and sulks about their failure. Except for Cameron, who's hanging out in Ezra's room on what I'm assuming is suicide watch duty. And House, who's only seen in a recycled shot from only two episodes ago. Either that, or he went home and changed into the same outfit he wore in that episode and stashed his cane somewhere off-screen, only to change back into his original clothes and get his cane back for when he suddenly takes off without telling Foreman and Chase were he's headed.
House's going to Ezra's room, of course. Foreman and Chase follow him in. Cameron stands up. House tells them to leave while he prepares what I'm guessing is a nice big dose of killer morphine from his handsome leather suicide assistance kit, which has ample pockets and room for all your suicide assisting needs! Only $99.95 at Brookstone. He tells them to make sure someone sees them downstairs in the cafeteria and not in the room of the patient who just died. Aw, he sort of cares sometimes. Foreman runs up and says that he won't let House do this. House threatens to shoot him up with the morphine instead. When Foreman looks to the Cottages for support, it's not forthcoming. So he abandons whatever morals made him want to stop this and leaves the room. "I can't be a part of this," Cameron says, as if House didn't just tell her to leave the room and not be a part of this. She leaves. Chase and House stare at each other, and then Chase closes the door and shuts the blinds in what appears to be the time-honored Assisted Suicide Procedure. I'm sure it won't look at all suspicious that two doctors just bolted out of Ezra's room loudly announcing their intentions to go to the cafeteria and then the door closed and all the blinds were drawn. Not at all. Anyway, good for Chase for actually showing some kind of personality here, although I'm still not sure if he's doing it because he believes doctor-assisted suicide is right or to suck up to House.
"Thank you," Ezra whispers as House hovers over him with the needle of death. Bad move, Ezra -- House doesn't know how to deal with people's gratitude. "I always wondered exactly what was on the other side." "Nothing," House responds. Well, except for some farmers and volleyball players. With that, House, injects Ezra's IV line with the needle. Ezra dies. The monitors beep. And then House checks his watch and springs into action, much to Chase's confusion. He grabs some medical equipment and tells Chase to give him a hand. He lied to Ezra, figuring that it wasn't as bad as killing him. Ezra's simply in a coma so he can't whine while House continues to test him.
Meanwhile, Foreman and Cameron are in the cafeteria sharing a slice of pie and loudly informing all patrons of their presence and the exact time they could be seen there, just in case anyone asks.
With Ezra unconscious and hooked up to a ventilator, House tells the Cottages that they can assume that Ezra would consent to the same procedures that any normal person would. Cameron is incensed that House would put a guy in a coma against his will just to "satisfy [his] curiosity." House rightly points out that when he tries to kill Ezra, Cameron gets pissed. When he keeps him alive, she gets pissed. He can't win! House orders the kids off to do all the tests over, taking their time and being careful, then calls them back after seeing something on Ezra's brain scan. In a hilarious touch, the Cottages are still standing in the exact same spots they were in before, none of them having even started to run off and do any work. House points out some scarring on Ezra's lungs, which he can see on the MRI since Cameron decided to go pretty far down on it. Cameron says nothing, but glares. Which is kind of funny, actually. Childish, but funny. "You do know that you can't pierce me with your stares?" House asks. Chase says that lung scarring plus the bad bone marrow could mean an autoimmune disease. House orders them off to test for that. Foreman and Chase turn to go, but Cameron refuses to have any part of it. "Drama queen," House scoffs after her. Hey, it's easy to be a drama queen when almost every single episode of this show has a meaty part of you to play while the rest of the cast languishes on the back burner.
Chase and Foreman discuss the state of Ezra's colon and Cameron's refusal to help out. Chase says that she's just standing up for her beliefs, something that he's never actually been able to do, but Foreman thinks she's running away from the issue instead of facing it one way or the other. Chase points out that Foreman ran away, too, when House was going to kill Ezra. Foreman knows when he's beaten and doesn't respond, instead pointing out that Evil Nurse Brenda has been giving them the Evil Eye for some time now and will probably be going to tell on them to Cuddy if they don't get out of there soon. Suddenly, Ezra crashes.
House finds Cuddy marching around the hallway. He makes fun of her for being fat and pregnant (no, and please please please no) and she says she heard about his little "stunt" with Ezra. Oh, so putting someone in a coma and doing medical procedures you know he wouldn't want is called a "stunt" now? And here I thought it was called "what made House's leg bad in the first place." And Cuddy should know that better than anyone. House says that when he lies, it's to save his patient's life. Unlike SOME people who lie in order to teach a lesson in humility . Cuddy says that she won't give House the argument he wants here; she doesn't think doctors should kill their patients and is happy House didn't kill Ezra. House reacts to this with a hilarious gag where he points at Cuddy's gigantic brooch, gives the "I see this is a listening device!" nod, and addresses it, saying that other things doctors don't do include: padding their bills, stealing samples from the pharmacy, and fantasizing about their patient's teenage daughters. "True, better be true, and you're a pig," Cuddy says. True. She takes a moment to be sympathetic and places a hand on House's arm and sincerely says she's sorry about House's leg. "Yeah. We really should spend some time talking about that," House says. Yes, we should. And maybe some time addressing the fact that the guy who shot him is running around New Jersey free as a bird or some of the trauma issues one might have after being shot twice. But we won't. Instead, House tries gets away from Cuddy as quickly as possible. Which isn't all that fast, since his leg is bad again.
House hobbles into Foreman, who reports that the lupus IV Ig treatment has made Ezra worse, not better. He doesn't have lupus. House orders an open-lung biopsy to confirm whether or not Ezra has pulmonary fibrosis. Foreman and Chase exchange looks, and Foreman asks House whether he's really asking them to perform surgery on a patient without his consent. Yes, House says, he is. Then he finds Cameron where he apparently expected her to be: sulking in a shower stall. He tells her to go back to Ezra's lab and read a medical journal, since she isn't doing anything else with her time. The Massachusetts Medical Journal from January 1967, to be exact. "Centerfold's a killer," he says.
House does some lacrosse-like moves with his cane and giant tennis ball in his office. Wilson stop by and asks House about his leg, like he even cares. House says it hurts. Wilson asks about Ezra, like he even cares. House says he's "resting comfortably." "Hmmm, that's not what Cameron says!" Wilson sings-songs. "I hate practicing medicine in high school," House grumbles. Aw, what the hell, Cameron? Last week she was all rightfully pissed off at Wilson, and now this week she's running to him to tattle on House? House may hate practicing medicine in high school, but I hate watching people do it. Stay in the Shower Stall of Your Discontent, Cameron. Wilson says he doesn't understand why this case is different than all the other patients House has apparently killed off over the years. House says that those cases were definitely terminal; this one is not. "Give me a break," Wilson scoffs; he thinks House just can't stand the thought of a patient dying before House can figure out why. Well, no shit, Sherlock! Most doctors don't want their patients to die for unknown reasons, especially if those doctors are diagnosticians whose job is to FIND OUT WHAT'S WRONG WITH THEIR PATIENTS. I guess that's something a sub-par cancer doctor wouldn't understand, though.
Chase and Foreman do the open-lung biopsy. House watches from the balcony. Cameron comes in and asks him why he wanted her to look up that specific article, which she apparently ran right off to do. The article was about how Ezra shot a bunch of newborn babies up with radioactive agents without telling their patients just to see what would happen to them. House shrugs that this was the style at the time. Cameron asks him if he's okay with that, then. House says what he thinks doesn't matter. What Cameron thinks does. "Because if I think less of him, I'll help you more?" Cameron asks; "You're wrong." Enh, judging by past history, Cameron's personal feelings about patients have definitely affected the way she treats them. House isn't really out of line to think the same would apply here. Cameron argues that a patient deserves to have control over his or her own body no matter how good or bad of a person they are. Unless that patient is a newborn baby, I guess. House points out that if Ezra had control over his body, he'd have offed himself by now. Cameron adjusts her statement: "Some control." "You can withhold treatment without killing him," she protests. "No, you can't!" House yells; "you either help him live or you help him die. You can't have it both ways," he says. But...but...Cameron wants it both ways! With that, Chase shakes his head from the operating table. No pulmonary fibrosis. Ezra crashes. House rushes downstairs to help save him.
There's air in Ezra's chest. Without even bothering to scrub up or put some gloves on, House sticks a tube in there and the air whooshes out. Ezra's stats return to normal. So House rushed down there to do a simple procedure that any of the several doctors already in the room could do? That doesn't really make sense, unless there's some plot-furthering discovery to be made. Sure enough, while House is stitching up Ezra's chest tube wound and looking around the balcony to see if Cameron's watching him work, his hand slips and the suture needle pokes Ezra's hand. Nothing happens, which House finds odd. So he pokes Ezra's other wrist, which jumps. Ezra only reacts to pain stimuli on his left side. Well, maybe. There's no way to confirm this while Ezra's in the coma. So they'll have to wake him up. You guys, Ezra is going to be so pissed off. Hopefully, they'll have enough time to either think of an excuse as to why he isn't dead or to construct a heaven-looking set so Ezra will think he's dead and the afterlife consists of a bunch of medical tests and feeling a lot like he did right before he "died."
"Don't go towards the light!" House shouts at Ezra as he wakes up. Chase removes the breathing tube and Ezra is all "what the hell?" But House won't give him much time to complain as he tells him that they need to test Ezra's nerves now that he's up and at 'em. Ezra calls House a "huge failure" for still not having a diagnosis and refuses any treatment or tests. House says that he won't kill Ezra and he's assigned a nurse to make sure Ezra doesn't kill himself, so he might as well play along. Because I have a feeling that nurse will be Evil Nurse Brenda, and you do not want to be the subject of her suicide watch. Ezra decides to discharge himself from PPTH, even with the tubes in his chest, and angrily removes various tubes and medical equipment with such vigor that one would wonder why he couldn't have just killed himself if he's so into it. I mean, obviously he can't do it now, but he never seemed too weak or in too much pain to be able to do it before. It makes it hard for me to agree that assisted suicide is the right idea for him when he seems perfectly capable of doing it himself. Anyway, House responds by quickly testing various parts of Joel's withered body for reflex responses. He tickles Ezra's legs and splashes ice water on his abdomen. The left leg twitches, the other one doesn't. And there's no feeling in the abdomen area.
House and his remaining Cottages walk down the hall and discuss these results and what they mean. The brain looks fine, but the peripheral nerves and bone marrow are damaged. Kawasaki's, lymphoma, and sarcoidosis are thrown around as options. House says they'll need a piece of Ezra's skin to test this. This might be a problem, because Ezra isn't willing to give them any
House asks Cameron to get the skin sample. She says that she wants a "foot massage from Johnny Damon," and that's about as likely as her helping him right now is. Cameron likes Johnny Damon? Really? I would have thought Lou Gehrig would have been more her baseball player type. House has had enough of this and yells at her while he slams his cane down on her desk. Whoa. He says she hasn't been able to make one decision about this case; whether they're helping Ezra or hurting him. I guess now she'll have to. "Do your damn job," he orders. Undaunted, Cameron says she won't lie to Ezra to do it. House doesn't care what she tells Ezra as long as she gets the skin sample.
Cameron reports to Ezra's room and tells him that House wants her to get some of his skin for a biopsy. In an effort to get on his good side, she quickly points out that she had nothing to do with keeping Ezra alive or the subsequent tests. And she's been doing a little reading in her downtime. Reading about irradiating babies without permission. "Who knows how many cancers you caused?" she asks Ezra. "I don't know," he says. I think that question was supposed to be rhetorical, Ezra. But, Ezra says, they did make some discoveries that saved a bunch of other, apparently better, children. And, showing a heretofore unseen hard and cruel edge, he says that he isn't sorry at all. "Informed consent, patient rights -- holds back research," he says, apparently not realizing the amazing irony here. Cameron gives him the glare that House said couldn't pierce the skin. Turns out he was wrong about that -- this time, it gets a chunk of Ezra's skin removed. That, and a scalpel. "What the hell are you doing?" Ezra asks, like he doesn't know. "Informed consent is holding back our diagnosis," Cameron throws back in his face, along with a guaze pad. "Good for you!" Ezra says. "Finally standing up for something. Acting on what you believe" Wha? Wasn't he in a coma for most of Cameron's waffling? How would he know that she was having trouble with that? And I'll tell you what, Cameron doesn't seem too pleased to have joined the ranks of doctors who don't give a crap about patient rights when it interferes with their purposes. Today it's just taking a skin sample, Cameron. Tomorrow you'll be irradiating helpless babies!
House stops by the Gift Shop, which is having a sale on B-plot wrap-ups. The New Jersey Lolita stops by and is happy to see House. She quickly says that she isn't stalking him (which is probably the first sign that she is), saying her dad lost his medicine (a.k.a. she threw it down the sink for an excuse to go back to PPTH), so she's back for a refill. While she's there, though, she's like to know why House won't return her calls. House says he will -- "in a couple years." Teen denies calling House for a date, saying she was doing it to thank him for treating her father. I think one call from the actual patient would have sufficed there. Before leaving, she adds that House doesn't have to wait a few years to call her back -- she'll be an adult in less than six months. And what better way to celebrate one's newfound adulthood by hooking up with a cripple more than twice your age! As she walks away, House checks out her red thong-covered ass. Class-say. He enjoys the view for a while, then looks thoughtful.
House reports to the lab where the Cottages, including Cameron, are busy testing and discounting all their differential diagnoses: "Congo red!" Congo Red is a solution that, when added to cells, stains something or other and proves amyloidosis. Foreman doesn't think this test is necessary, as they already proved that Ezra's heart was never affected, which is a hallmark symptom of amyloidosis. House says it was; they just never realized it because they didn't push him hard enough during the stress tests, which it seems are pretty much useless.
Chase comes up with the Congo Red stain and prepares a slide in record speed. Guess what? It's positive for amyloidosis. Chase was right after all! The Cottages are amazed. Foreman asks House where he pulled that out of. House does not respond that he pulled it out of a teenager's ass, but he might as well have. Anyway, amyloidosis is treatable, so it looks like Ezra's going to be fine and life will be awesome and long for him after all --"Oh God," Chase says. Ezra has protein type AA. This must be bad, as everyone makes sad faces. House hands Cameron the candy bar he got at that gift shop and goes off to shoot the horse.
House comes to Ezra's room and tells him the diagnosis. Ezra doesn't believe House until he says it's a terminal case. "Congratulations!" Ezra says, smiling, "you got your answer." Yay, you get to die now! Sweet!
Music montage! Ezra gasps for breath. House pops pills. Cameron spends more time in the Shower Stall of Her Discontent. The music continues into the morning. House comes to work to find a present on his desk: a brand new calendar. A date has been circled and "six months...and counting" is written over it in what is supposed to be teenage girl handwriting. Wow, that girl comes on strong. You'd think she would've sent a more interesting calendar than "Fresno by night" though. Like maybe some Robert Mapplethorp photos or Georgia O'Keefe paintings. Cuddy comes to his office to tell him that Ezra died last night, although she's sure House knew about that already. He didn't. Cuddy angrily notes that at 2 in the morning, Ezra was stable. At 2:30, he suddenly died. House asks Cuddy if she really wants to know if he was involved with this or not. She doesn't.
An anonymous nurse cleans Ezra up and put a blanket over him, erasing any doubt that someone put him into a coma again. He's dead. And just who is responsible?
Angel of Death Cameron cries her eyes out in the chapel. A hand squeezes her on the shoulder. It's House. "I'm proud of you," he says, as much as it pains him to actually have to admit it. Well, it's good that he's proud of her. I'm not -- if Ezra wanted to die so badly, he should have sucked it up and done it himself. He certainly seemed healthy enough to. Instead, Cameron gets to feel like shit for killing him. Way to make finally make a decision, though, Cameron. That's one of the few decisions that you can't take back, so it's totally reasonable and normal that she'd be able to make it after twenty-hours of no sleep and hearing a few people's opinions. What an upper of an episode that was.