The Down Low - Recap

Eddie and his partner, Mickey, are meeting with Gorski to complete a drug deal. Mickey laughs at Gorski's first order, but Gorski insists on getting a break. When he refuses, Gorski's man gun draws a gun on Mickey, who disarms the man. The gun goes off in the struggle and Mickey collapses. However, Tommy shot himself in the foot, and Mickey is unharmed but unconscious. As Gorski and his man drive off, Eddie tries to wake up Mickey without success.

Eddie takes Mickey to Princeton's clinic to tend to a scratch on his head. House soon realizes that they're drug dealers and asks for the full story. He figures that Mickey suffered from vertigo but the crooks won't give an explanation and possibly incriminate themselves. When Eddie and Mickey insist on leaving, House warns that it will happen again. He hits his cane on the exam table, inducing vertigo and causing Mickey to collapse again.



Intrigued, House brings the case to his team. When Taub notes that Mickey's medical history is a blank, House notes that he's a drug dealer and won't tell them anything incriminating. As House explains how he came to that conclusion, Foreman notices a pay stub laying on the floor and picks it up. He then notes that noise-induced vertigo stems from either the ears or the brain, and he suggests acoustic neuroma. The head CT was clean so he suggests a hearing test. House disagrees, suggesting it's caused by contaminated cocaine, and goes to look for the cocaine while they check Mickey's ears.

Wilson is chatting with one of his new neighbors, Nora. They make small talk and she seems interested. However, when he invites her out to dinner, she figures that he and House are lovers. When he denies that they're partners, she figures that he'd prefer another term and doesn't believe that he's a heterosexual.



As Foreman and Taub check Mickey's ears for tumors, Foreman shows Taub the pay stub. It belongs to Thirteen, and shows that she makes more money than Foreman does. He figures that it's a fake paystub and House is screwing with them. Taub thinks it looks real and notes that he makes just as much money... and then realizes he's said too much.

House tries to interrogate Eddie and find out where the drugs are. He refuses and House takes a different approach, asking obliquely about Eddie's alleged textile business. Eddie manages to indicate that nobody touched the "culottes," including Mickey. Wilson comes in and tells House that everyone in their new building thinks they're gay. House doesn't see the problem, but Wilson wants to date Nora but she won't be cause she doesn't think he's into women. Trying to get back on subject, Eddie insists that Mickey hates "culottes," and he trusts Mickey to watch the stuff overnight. He asks if Mickey will be okay and House notes that it's just an ear test.

In the test chamber, Mickey goes into convulsions as his blood pressure goes up. They manage to bring his BP down and go back into differential. Since he got worse at the hospital, they figure that whatever is affecting him doesn't have to do with his criminal lifestyle. As they suggest possibilities, Foreman notes that Thirteen has bought a new watch. She casually says she decided to treat herself and suggests carotid stenosis. House tells them to check via ultrasound. Once everyone else leaves, Foreman asks Chase how much money he makes. Once he finds out, he goes to Cuddy and asks for a raise. She refuses to discuss the others' salaries and says she'll talk about his salary at his next review. When Foreman says it isn't fair, she points out that it's a matter of leverage in negotiation, and he doesn't have any competing offers.



When Thirteen and Taub report to House that the test for carotid stenosis turned up negative, they find him trying to tune in on the bug he planted in Mickey's room while they were testing him. House figures that he's absorbed toxins into his fat cells, and is burning them off and poisoning himself. When House is unable to tune in the transmitter, he tells them to tell Mickey that the tests will take weeks. When Mickey gets the news, he demands to be released and Taub agrees. Thirteen then drives after him with Chase as a passenger. As they drive, Chase compliments her on the ploy with the watch and wonders how long they're going to play with Foreman. Mickey pulls through a stoplight and when Thirteen runs the light to keep up with him, they get pulled over by the police.

House greets Nora as she comes in and insists that he and Wilson are heterosexuals. However, he then deliberately undermines his claim by bringing out a poster of A Chorus Line and compliments Nora about her shoes.



Foreman tells Taub that Cuddy refused to give him a raise, and he'll wait until his performance review. Taub notes that's what he would do, but admits he's a coward. They get a page that Eddie has brought Mickey back in because he's collapsed again with a high fever and delirium. They bring down the fever and start differential again. House doesn't believe it's environmental, and wonders where Foreman is. The others explain that he's with Cuddy and House wonders if he fell for their paycheck gag. They're surprised to know House knows about it, and he congratulates them. House then explains it can't be environmental because Mickey wasn't away long enough, and believes that the fever signifies infection in the brain. They leave to do a lumbar puncture.

As they administer the puncture, Mickey tells them that he knew they were following him, and says that he had business to take care of. He insists that he's just a supplier, and it's up to his buyers to decide for themselves. Taub finally gets the needle into Mickey's spine after several painful attempts, but Chase notes that Mickey's heart rate hasn't changed.

Wilson goes to see House and tells him he's failed to convince Nora they're straight. House admits that he's pretending they're gay to mess with Wilson, and to hit on Nora. He figures he can fake a breakup of their homosexual relationship, get Nora to become his confidant, and eventually stage a drunken sexual experiment to convince her he's bisexual. Wilson is astonished and invokes the guy's code, saying he saw her first. House, amused, figures that Wilson is going to lose. Chase arrives to tell House that there's no sign of infection, but Mickey is showing autonomic nerve dysfunction because of the lack of pain from the LP. House disagrees and confronts Mickey, calling him a wuss. He's deduced that Mickey is taking beta blockers for stress, and Mickey explains that he takes them because of the stress of operating outside the law. He asks them not to say anything to Eddie, and confirms he took the last beta blocker the night before he was admitted. House concludes that once he was in the hospital and couldn't access the pills, Mickey went into beta blocker withdrawal, causing the hypertension. Once they eliminate the hypertension as a symptom, and factor in the stress, they conclude that Mickey has pheochromocytoma. He tells Chase to run a MRI to check Mickey's adrenal glands.



Wilson comes home and finds House giving Nora a back massage, drinking wine, and eating Chinese. Much to House's dismay, Wilson refuses to back off.

As they run more tests, Foreman tells Taub that he claimed to Cuddy that he's had an offer. However, he also admits that she called his bluff and now he's going to leave when the case is over. Taub realizes they've gone too far.

Wilson tries to explain to Nora that House is lying to her. She agrees... but only because she figures they're both lying about being heterosexuals so they don't have to go public and admit that they're gay. He tries to explain the seemingly insane idea that House is pretending to be gay to sleep with her, and Nora figures that Wilson is jealous and making up the whole thing.

The team informs House that there's no sign of a pheochromocytoma, so stress isn't a symptom. Thirteen reads the instructions on the radio but is unable to get an open frequency. House realizes that they should always be able to get at least one open frequency. He goes to Mickey's room and gets Eddie to leave by saying he's going to do a rectal exam. Once Mickey's partner is gone, House removes the bug he plants... and another one. Thirteen wonders if Mickey is an informant, but House notes that if he was, he would have sold out his partner. Mickey is an undercover cop.



House tells his findings to the rest of the team, but Foreman and Taub note that it doesn't provide them with a diagnosis. House wants to use Mickey's undercover status as a threat to get him to talk. He sends Chase and Thirteen in to give it a try. However, Mickey knows they have nothing on him and no one to report him to. He says that Eddie killed a snitch on his boss' orders, and that the boss is a major cocaine importer. Mickey has set up an arrest to capture Eddie, his boss, and their buyer the next night at the place where the cocaine is stored. If the team pokes around there and gets caught, it'll blow the bust. Thirteen says he can't put his life at risk, but Mickey explains he's been undercover for 16 months and hasn't seen his wife that entire time. If they keep him alive for 24 hours, Mickey promises to tell them everything afterward. Eddie comes back in and Mickey has a sudden attack.

After they stabilize him, Chase tells the others that Mickey had a GI infarction. They removed a foot of bowel to stabilize him, but he won't survive 24 hours if the clots spread. They're back to environmental and Thirteen suggests they fake a similar illness with Eddie so he'll lead them to the location. She offers him drugged coffee while discussing Mickey's case and Eddie's son. Eddie gets "sick" but quickly realizes that he's been drugged. She tells him he'll be fine and starts to leave, but Eddie asks if Mickey could die. When he realizes his friend could die, Eddie agrees to take her there to save his friend's life.

The drugs are hidden at a drycleaners. She takes samples but they're interrupted when one of Eddie's men arrives. Thirteen pretends to be a prostitute and Eddie plays along, convincing his man that they're having a private party.



House and Nora go to a fancy restaurant to discuss his relationship with Wilson. He gets himself invited to her house but before they can leave, Wilson arrives and publicly declares his love for House and asks him to get married. Nora leaves to let them talk and a self-satisfied Wilson takes a drink of wine.



Taub, Thirteen, and Chase analyze the samples and believe that he inhaled chemicals. Realizing that Foreman will soon be leaving since they've concluded the diagnosis, they worry that he'll quit over his prank. They realize they need to beg Cuddy to take Foreman back, but Taub works out that begging won't work. Foreman comes in to tell them that the treatment for inhaling the chemicals isn't working, and Thirteen discovers that the drycleaners are using a green shop, and the chemicals aren't dangerous. V/T scans show four mycotic aneurysms, indicating fungal infection. There's nothing to confirm, but House orders anti-fungal treatments to stop Mickey from coughing up blood.

Eddie watches over his partner, but Mickey blames him for taking Thirteen there when they didn't find anything. Eddie says that he couldn't just sit there and watch his friend die, and figures Mickey would do the same for him. He leaves to finish up the deal that night, but says that he'll stay if Mickey needs him. Mickey tells him to go on ahead and finish the deal.

Chase, Thirteen, and Taub tell Cuddy that it's their fault that Foreman is leaving, due to their practical joke. When she refuse to give them a raise, they offer to garnish their wages to give their supervisor a wage. Cuddy agrees, but admits she's surprised: Foreman never talked to her. They realize they've been played and find Foreman outside, smirking at them.



Nora comes to see House and he confesses that it's his fault and they're really not gay. As Nora walks off, angry, House stops her and explains that Wilson is a good guy that really likes her. However, she realizes that he's being nice to convince her to sleep with him, and suggests she might sleeps with Wilson to get revenge. House starts to list off Wilson's bad qualities, and then gets an epiphany. He goes to see Mickey and explains that the aneurysms are inflammatory, not mycotic. The hypertension was a symptom, but the beta blockers kept it under control. Mickey has Hughes-Stovin, an autoimmune disease that is too far advanced for treatment. Eventually one of the aneurysms will rupture, killing him. Thirteen notes that he was too far gone by the time he came in for his being honest to have accomplished anything. Mickey says he's going to call his wife.

Mickey's wife stays with him until he dies.

Eddie and his boss go ahead with the deal. The police bust them all. As he's lead away, Eddie realizes that Mickey set him up.

House and Wilson watch hockey and Wilson expresses his condolences about Mickey. House figures that he died a hero in his own mind. Wilson tells House that he's talked to Nora and she's convinced they're not gay. However, she thinks they're dirt bags. House figures they can get rid of the A Chorus Line poster, but Wilson wants to keep it and get rid of House's cheap sofa. Wilson threatens to sing musical numbers until House gets rid of the sofa.

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