Episode Report Card Sara M: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Instant Coma
By Sara M | Season 6 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.12.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.A billionaire's son is sick, and no one can figure out why, so he brings him to PPTH and orders Cuddy to make the best doctor in the world (that would be House, not Foreman) treat his son. That's okay with Foreman, because he's pretty busy preparing for the Morbidity and Mortality conference about Dibala's death, which is going to be tricky since there's a discrepancy between Dibala's blood and that which was used to test for scleroderma. Chase and Foreman can't think of a way to explain it without either telling more lies or -- far worse -- the truth. Fortunately, House figures it out for them. Unfortunately, that means he now also knows about it. But he doesn't seem too bothered by the fact that one of his Cottages is a murderer because it's not like PPTH treats many genocidal dictators. As long as they only treat good people, Chase should be able to keep his murderous tendencies at bay.
Meanwhile, this week's patient just keeps getting worse no matter what the team does, from severe constipation to intracranial pressure and seizures to a coma. His father thinks it's his fault, since his business life is so successful that karma has made his kid sick to compensate somehow. Way to make it all about you, Dad. Talk about self-centered. Ultimately, House diagnoses the kid with Degos disease, which is terminal and should be killing him by the end of the day. All the money in the world won't save the billionaire's son, which is for the best, since Dad decides to even things out karmically by sinking his entire fortune in risky ventures and thus losing it all. It works, as House suddenly figures out that the kid doesn't have Degos disease after all, but antiphospholipid syndrome, which is easily cured with blood thinners. The father is bankrupt but has no regrets, as his son is alive and well. We'll see how worth it the father thinks that all was when he gets his son's medical bills, though. Also, Hadley continues to be on this show even though she doesn't work at PPTH anymore and is supposedly leaving the country.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see what vlogger Sean Crespo thinks of House when he has No Prior Knowledge.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!A very rich man named Roy Randall heads into his very large mansion to meet with some very important business people about a very big business deal. He ignores their advice and issues orders before abruptly leaving the meeting and tabling the rest of the agenda to go upstairs to his son's room, where we see lots of toys and medical equipment. A doctor tells Roy that his son does not have C. diff as the doctor suspected, so he's at a loss. He recommends sending his son to a hospital. The son, Jack, speaks up to protest this plan and worries that he's going to die, but Roy promises that won't happen and he's "always right." And then the credits kick in without Jack bleeding out of his ass or mouth or anything! How low key.
Roy meets with Cuddy to demand that House treat his son. Cuddy says House is not available, but she highly recommends Foreman, neglecting to mention that his last patient -- a wealthy and prominent leader of an entire country -- totally died. Roy does not want Foreman. He wants House. "Is House in jail?" he asks. "No," Cuddy says after a pause, because when it comes to House, you really do have to take a second to think "wait -- is he in jail? Or was that last season?" before answering. She tries to plug Cameron and Chase as "House's most veteran associates," but even she doesn't sound like she's buying that. Roy sure isn't. He says his son is dying and he wants the best doctor to treat him. And that doctor is House. "So unless he's dead, comatose, or insane, I want him treating my son today," he says. Funnily enough, House has actually been all three of those things. But then he got better and we were supposed to forget they ever happened. So House Jack shall have!
Cuddy heads to the meeting room and explains that while Jack is technically Foreman's patient, House will be making all of the decisions. Foreman bristles, saying he'll have none of the responsibility and all of the liability. House very much likes this deal. It just gets worse for Foreman, because he also has to prepare Dibala's case for the weekly Morbidity and Mortality conference, much to Foreman and Chase's obvious alarm. They both try to get out of it, saying they're busy and the case wasn't a big deal anyway, but Cuddy says it's "worth discussing" and leaves. I don't know why Chase and Foreman look so surprised about this. Did they really think that misdiagnosing an African dictator who then died because of it -- probably making headlines worldwide -- wouldn't attract some attention from the PPTH community? Cameron turns the team's attention back to the case, and House says that seventeen doctors have tested Jack for just about everything and ruled just about everything out. He thinks the first thing they should do is start from scratch with a new physical and medical history.