Wilson's Heart (Part 2) - Recap

After House's recall of the bus accident and the fact Amber was on board, he and Wilson go to the hospital where she's being treated as a Jane Doe after her transfer. Her kidneys were destroyed in the crash, and her femoral artery pierced. The doctors have her in stable condition but now her heart is racing for now accountable reason. There are other crash victims ahead of her so House has Wilson pretend to be her husband to get her transferred to their hospital. In the ambulance, House prepares to defib her but Wilson suggests they free her to lower her heart rate, buying them time to determine what is wrong with her.

House agrees and they get Amber to the hospital and stabilize her for the time being. The differential diagnosis is inconclusive and they can't test her heart in its current reduced rate. All they can do is perform an angiogram while House sends Thirteen and Kutner to Amber's house to look for possible contaminants. Taub approaches House privately and suggests that he might have been having an affair with Amber. House can't remember, but Taub notes that if they were at a bar drinking, they might have done drugs, and orders a tox screen.

Kutner and Thirteen search Amber's apartment and find a video of her and Wilson having sex. Kutner quickly shuts it down and Thirteen notes that if they didn't know Amber, he would have kept watching. She notes that none of them should be treating Amber because of their personal involvement with the patient.

House dozes off and dreams of Amber appearing in his office. She flirts with him and tells him to remember what they were doing. She pours him a glass of sherry and suggests they had an affair. She mentions how there was "electricity" between them, and House wakes up with an idea. He suggests to Wilson and Cuddy that they use electrical stimulation on his brain to help spark his memories of what happened and what he saw that indicated Amber was sick. Cuddy refuses, noting he's still suffering from his concussion. Amber's EEG is still registering positive and she seems to respond to Wilson's voice.

Kutner and Thirteen report that they found a hidden stash of diet pills at Amber's apartment, which could have caused calcification of the heart. Wilson refuses to let them remove the ice packs and House gives in, suggesting they crack her chest and check manually. Chase goes to perform the surgery while House notes that Thirteen didn't participate in the search of Amber's apartment and she needs to treat Amber like any other patient.

Chase begins the surgery but notices that Amber's eyes are yellow, indicating jaundice: her liver is shutting down. The diet pills couldn't do that, but they still need to thaw Amber's heart to run further tests. House is pondering what the glass of sherry in his dream meant, and then sides with Wilson and suggests they keep Amber on ice by putting frozen slurry in her lungs. Kutner remembers there's a Sharrie's Bar and House takes Wilson there. The bartender recognizes House and remembers that Amber was there and they seemed to be having an affair. House doesn't believe it although Wilson is left to wonder. When the bartender mentions that Amber was sneezing, House wonders what color it was and suspects an infection.

Kutner and Thirteen are preparing to insert the slurry when Thirteen almost makes a mistake. He warns her that she needs to divorce herself from any personal involvement. When she wonders how he can do it, he notes that his parents worked in a convenience store and were killed by a robber, and he's learned since then not to take things personally.

House believes the sneezing plus the liver failure indicates Hepatitis B and orders interferon treatment. He goes to see Amber in the ICU and hallucinates her waking up and saying his diagnosis is wrong. She takes off the medical gown to show him her back, and he wakes up. Going into the ICU, he checks her back and discovers a rash. Wilson wonders how House had seen the small of Amber's back but he claims he saw it when she leaned over. When Thirteen hesitates to test the rash, House overrides her and has Taub do it. The rash might indicate Rocky Mounted Spotted Fever caused by a tick, and Wilson notes that they were walking a friend's dog. House orders antibiotic treatment, which will take eight hours and means they have to thaw her heart. Wilson refuses, noting that they shouldn't do anything until they're certain, even though the blood cultures will take eight hours. House agrees, and Foreman is angry they're letting Wilson's personal concerns drive their treatment.

House confronts Thirteen in the women's restroom and notes her reluctance is the same reason she refuses to test for Huntington's despite the good possibility she has it. She agreed with him but notes that he's taking the whole thing personally as well. Foreman goes to Cuddy and gets her to override House and Wilson. They thaw out her heart but her EEG slows and Wilson is furious when they've found out, since now whatever Amber has is in her brain.

Because of the new symptom with the brain, House suspects autoimmune failure and orders steroids. However, Wilson points out they'll probably kill Amber if they're wrong. House refuses to cave in this time and Wilson admits he's afraid. Then he asks House to undergo the electrical brain stimulation in case there's something else they missed. House is reluctant, since the electricity could bring on a seizure, but agrees to save his friend's girlfriend's life.

Wilson and Chase administer low-voltage shocks to House's hypothalamus and he remembers what happened. When he got drunk at the bar, he called Wilson and got Amber. She came to bring him home and ended up drinking with him while sneezing. House remembers that the snot showed no signs of infection. On the bus, she mentions that she has the flu, accounting for the rash. Finally, House remembers her taking anti-flu pills. He explains that with her kidneys destroyed in the crash, Amber is ODing on the amantadine in the pills… and there's nothing they can do. The medicine binds with proteins, so dialysis won't work. House remembers the crash again, and then goes into a seizure.

House goes into a coma while the team realizes that Amber's heart is irrevocably damaged and injury to her other organs make a transplant impossible. Cuddy tells Wilson that he should have her woken up so he can say his goodbyes, and he eventually agrees. She wakes up in ICU and he describes what happened to her, and she knows she's doomed.

Wilson holds Amber as the rest of the team says their goodbyes to her. He's left to lie in bed with her and suggest they try to keep her alive a little longer. She warns that they'd always try for a little longer, but it will do no good. She admits she isn't angry and they say they love each other, and then he shuts down the life support.

In his coma, House is surrounded by a white light and then finds himself on the bus with Amber. He realizes that she's dead and wonders if he is too, but she says not yet. He would rather be dead than face Wilson, who will be angry at him for being the reason Amber was on the bus. House would rather be dead and free of the pain, but Amber says that he can't always get what he wants and tells him to get off the bus. House wakes up in his hospital bed.

The team deals with the situation, each in their own way. Thirteen confirms she has Huntington's, facing up to the possibility of her own death. Taub goes home to his wife. Kutner eats cereal and watches movies. Foreman goes to a bar alone… until his friends Chase and Cameron join him.

Wilson stays long enough to confirm House is all right... then walks away without saying anything. He goes home to find a note from Amber saying she went to pick up House, and he lies crying on their bed.


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