House Divided - Recap

A deaf 14-year-old wrestler, Seth Miler, is preparing to go into the ring as his mother Ellie waves to him and his girlfriend, a deaf translator, Laura, cheers him on. Seth takes on his opponent but then clutches at his ears and screams in pain as he seemingly hears explosions, then collapses to the mat.

House is trying to sleep as the hallucinatory Amber talks to him. He insists it’s insomnia but Amber suggests it’s his guilt over Kutner’s suicide. He gets to work to go over Seth’s case, and finds Amber trying to write on the white board with an imaginary pen. Seth has been deaf since age 4 but doesn’t have cochlear a implant. He tells his team to run a seizure tests, even though Amber disagrees and talks about the limp leading the blind, and goes to see Wilson and get some sleeping pills. He finds Cameron there supposedly discussing a case. He manages to grab her file and discovers that it contains ads for a bar: she wants Wilson to set up Chase’s bachelor party. House volunteers and Amber is eager to help.

Foreman and Thirteen discuss the case, and the fact that Seth doesn’t want a cochlear implant. They run flash tests to test for seizures. Seth’s mother notices that Seth can’t see. House and the team go over the results and House remembers Amber mentioning blindness earlier. He tells them to handle the matter on their own. He takes the sleeping pills and goes into an exam room, and Amber discusses the case with him, explaining why House subconsciously that Seth might go blind. House begins to appreciate having a direct line to his subconscious, and Amber gives him another suggestion to play loud music.

House goes to see Seth, carrying a boom box. Seth can feel the vibrations in his abdomen but not his hands, indicating neuropathy. House throws the sleeping pills away, deciding the case is too interesting to sleep through. Foreman wonders how he knew to test about the neuropathy, and Amber reminds House about Seth’s win/loss record, and the fact he lost his last three matches, indicating a loss of sensation. House wonders if Seth’s deafness is the result of NF2 cancer and orders a MRI. He then asks Thirteen and Foreman to go to a strip bar to evaluate it for Chase’s bachelor party. They speculate why House is so interested in the party and Foreman figures that House is jealous of Chase and trying to set it up so he ends up with a stripper and ruins his relationship with Cameron.

Taub explains the cancer possibility to Seth, who says he wants them to treat the cancer but keep the deafness. Seth doesn’t want to change schools and change his life. They check the MRI but find no signs of significant IP levels or cancer. They find ventricle bowing which might indicate a tumor, and House suggests they conduct a biopsy. Amber suggests they use the old scans from when Sean had his nose broken three years ago.

Wilson is warning Chase about House’s bachelor party when House brings in the x-rays from three years ago. House explains that the bachelor party will serve as a test of Chase’s commitment. Wilson notices the ventricle bowing wasn’t in the old scan, but warns they need to do a biopsy to confirm. As House goes, Wilson tells him he won’t be going to the bachelor party because he keeps getting embarrassed at House’s party.

Chase performs the biopsy while House watches from the gallery and Amber says they need to get the stripper from Wilson’s bachelor party. Chase informs him there’s no sign of a tumor but there is increased intracranial pressure. At Amber’s suggestion, House tells Chase to put in a cochlear implant. When Chase is reluctant and wonders if he’s lying, House notices that a cochlear implant wouldn’t help his diagnosis, so he has no reason to lie. Chase agrees to put in the implant.

After the surgery, Chase tests the implant and Seth’s newfound hearing. Seth’s mother goes to Cuddy to complain, but House warns that Seth isn’t stable yet after the surgery. Amber points out that Mrs. Miller isn’t upset, and House comments to her that she isn’t mad enough. He figures she didn’t have the guts to okay the implant on her own. Mrs. Miller denies it and leaves. Cuddy asks why House did it and he insists that Seth doesn’t have the right to opt into a handicap. She tells him she’s putting Foreman in charge of the case and House quietly leaves. Outside, Amber wonders why he’s okay with Cuddy’s decision and House begins to wonder why he insisted on giving Seth the implant. House goes back to the team and they wonder why he did it, but House refuses to give a straight answer. Seth is now running a fever, possibly given to him by Laura several months ago when she was sick, and Foreman orders Epstein-Barr tests. House agrees and goes to see Wilson. He wonders why he ordered the implant and Wilson suggests he was actually caring. Amber doesn’t believe it. Wilson insists he won’t go to the bachelor party and House seemingly accepts his decision.

Seth insists to his mother that they remove the implant but he begins to relent when he hears her speak his name for the first time. However, when Taub arrives, Seth uncontrollably urinates. The next morning, the team meets for differential while House serves alcoholic ice cream samples for the bachelor party. As the team works and Taub suggests sarcoidosis, everything except Amber fades away. She reminds House of how he heard a similar case in med school caused by steroids that caused urination at night when the patient was incumbent. Concluding it was the heart, House “suggests” tests and Foreman orders the team to proceed. In his office, Amber notes that House is now learning how to focus. Chase comes in to tell House that he wants him to kidnap him for the bachelor party. As Chase leaves, House remembers the name of the stripper: Karamel.

Seth talks with his translator and girlfriend, Laura, who says she’d like to get a hearing aid too. He notices that her voice sounds rough and wonders if he sounds the same, and Thirteen says it’ll take time for him to sound normal. Meanwhile, the team goes to tell House that Seth’s heart is seemingly fine. House suggests the arrhythmia is hiding and they need to put him on a treadmill to stress him. When Foreman balks, House seemingly accepts his decision… then plans to test Seth anyway behind Foreman’s back. Amber suggests they slip Seth asthma meds. However, as House prepares an injection, Seth rips out his implant, and the stress sets off the arrhythmia.

Foreman concedes that House was right as House officially takes over again. Taub suggest a pulmonary scan and Amber lights up a match. House stares off into space until he remembers to tell the team to go ahead with a VQ scan for embolisms. Down in the morgue, House figures out Amber means he should try his alcohol-lighting trick. It doesn’t go well. Amber goes over the case and points out that all the symptoms are related to heat. House realizes it’s MS and orders interferon treatment.

As Foreman, Chase, and Cameron leave for the day, two immigration officers arrive to arrest him. Cameron tries to come along but the officers say not to. Cameron readily figures out what’s going on and tells Foreman not to let House get her fiancé into too much trouble.

At the bar, House successfully performs his trick and Chase has his first drink. Wilson arrives and realizes that House is using his apartment… and the furniture is gone. Karamel, the stripper, remembers Wilson and asks about his wife. He explains that he’s divorced and she suggests they get a drink. Wilson is soon drinking off of her, as is Thirteen. House is drinking in the tub, and Amber notes he should be out enjoying the lamp dances. She suggests he works better alone and they share a drink.

The team encourages Chase to have a drink on Karamel but he suddenly tastes strawberries and collapses. It turns out he’s allergic to Karamel’s strawberry body butter and they’re taking her to the hospital to be safe. House realizes that he knew about her body butter and his allergy, and he figures that he’s trying to kill Chase. Amber points out he’s not a big fan of other people’s happiness. They’re interrupted when he gets a call from the hospital: it’s not MS, and Seth’s dying of lung failure.

Everyone but House returns to the hospital: he goes home to get some sleep over Amber’s objections. He figures she tried to kill Chase and he has to push her down. Cuddy calls to get his diagnosis while the rest of the team sober up. House disagrees with Amber’s new diagnosis of eosinophilic pneumonitis and hangs up, but Thirteen realizes that House ruled it out because it would cause hoarseness of the larynx, and they couldn’t tell with Seth’s hoarse speaking voice. They remove the breathing tube and Foreman confirms there’s no problem with the larynx. However, Foreman notices tobacco stains on his teeth and Seth explains he used to chew tobacco. Foreman realizes it’s sarcoidosis: Seth’s chewing tobacco suppressed the symptoms but when he stopped, it caught up with him.

House goes to see Cuddy and asks for sleeping pills. She notes that Wilson was arrested while walking home… from his home. Cuddy asks House to talk to her. He looks at Amber, and then explains he hasn’t got a full night’s sleep since Kutner killed himself.

Mrs. Miller explains to Seth that she’s going to order the doctors to put the implant back in, and it’s her call as his mother.

House wakes up in the morning after a full night’s sleep. He goes to the mirror, relieved… and finds Amber still there.

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