Episode Report Card Sara M: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Bully For You
By Sara M | Season 5 | Episode 11 | Aired on 12.09.2008
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.A bullied teenager named Natalie comes to PPTH after barfing during a school concert. Various secrets about her classmates and herself are revealed throughout the course of the episode -- they slipped her shrooms, she used to drink, she was secretly dating a popular boy, she got pregnant, didn't tell anyone, prematurely gave birth to the baby in an abandoned house, thought it was dead, and left its body there. But the baby left a Christmas present of eclampsia, which went undiagnosed because no one knew that Natalie was pregnant and her pregnancy test came back negative. By the time Cuddy (of all people!) figures it out, it's too late to save Natalie. Cuddy decides to find the dead baby to give it a decent burial, only to find that it's alive and been adopted by a homeless couple. They give it up to her, and she gives it to Natalie's parents, who in turn give it up for adoption. And Cuddy gets her baby after all, much to House's disappointment. Since he didn't bother much with his real case this week, he busied himself trying to be nice to Clinic patients to get a Christmas thank-you present from one to prove to Wilson that he could. When he lies to a pregnant woman's virgin fiancé that she managed to get pregnant without having sex, he succeeds. Kumar is revealed to have a secret past as a high school bully, and Hadley and Foreman make out despite their complete lack of sexual chemistry.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Someone school's Christmas concert is pretty damn sophisticated. They've got people in the rafters sprinkling fake snow and everything! My high school's concerts were never like this. In the wings, a group of kids in private school uniforms claim that the concert sucks even though it has fake snow. The leader of the pack says they need to "make a statement." One girl who is obviously different than the others because she's overweight doesn't want to make any statements that will get her in trouble, but the leader insists that there's strength in numbers and they can't all get a detention. There's, like, ten of them. They sure can all get a detention. The lead girl's assistant chimes in that this is the perfect opportunity to inform Mr. Henderson that he is totally lame. With that, the vocal jazz ensemble takes the stage. They start singing "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire," and the girl who doesn't belong suddenly has trouble seeing, but keeps singing. Then comes the moment we've all been waiting for, when the jazz ensemble tells lame Mr. Henderson how they really feel. Oh, wait -- everyone stops singing, leaving the reluctant girl to sing "Mr. Henderson is stupid" as a solo. The other kids laugh at her. The audience mutters generically. The piano player is a freaking champ through all of this and just keeps playing. "Why'd you do that?" the girl asks breathlessly, as if she didn't know. She has more trouble seeing, and then she throws up. This time, the piano player stops playing to rush to her aid. Hey, do you guys think that the piano player is the Mr. Henderson we've heard so many bad things about? He seems like a decent enough guy to me.
Cuddy gave herself an early Christmas present of a new hairstyle, complete with overwhelming bangs. She reads off the latest case, although I don't know how she can read anything with all those bangs in her eyes. Seriously, it's not a good look. Here's hoping for a New Year's Resolution trim! The girl from the pre-credits sequence is suffering from vomiting, hallucinations, and a failing liver. House doesn't care about Christmas concerts, so he instead asks why Cuddy is in his meeting room and Foreman is not. Hadley explains that he took some vacation days to finish his FDA reports. Yes, that does sound like a fun vacation. I went to Barcelona this year for my vacation and I didn't bring a single FDA report with me. I thought I had a blast, but now I see that I was seriously missing out. "When are you taking vacation?" House asks Hadley. I'd like to know the answer to that as well. Then again, if Hadley were to go on vacation, we'd probably have to go along with her, and it would be a vacation full of angst. No thank you.