Let Them Eat Cake - Recap

Emmy is at a stadium filming a health commercial when one of her participating clients, Irv, collapses with cramps. She has everyone else keep fake-exercising and wants to make sure it looks convincing. She checks with the actor who says he’s good to go. They go to the top of the stadium stairs… and Emmy collapses, falling down the seats and breaking her ankle.

House is getting on the elevator when Cuddy barges in and asks him why he’s not getting a many requests for his services. She then informs him that she’ll be sharing his office since he was responsible for her office being destroyed when a patient took it hostage. House doesn’t have any luck objecting. He arrives for differential while Cuddy takes his main office, but only Kutner and Taub are there. Taub reminds him that Thirteen is undergoing clinical testing with Foreman. They proceed with the case and Cuddy starts tossing in ideas. House dismisses her suggestion of asthma brought on by exercising in the cold air… then tells the team to check it once they’re out of her hearing.

As Thirteen waits for her testing, she sees a patient suffering from advanced Huntington’s and remembers when her mother had the disease at the same stage.

Taub and Kutner have Emmy exercise in the morgue to simulate the conditions of her attack at the stadium and she talks about how there’s more to life then not indulging her every whim. She collapses in mid-conversation and they conclude it isn’t asthma.

Thirteen undergoes tap testing with Foreman and thinks she got a spot because of nepotism. Foreman assures her that isn’t the case and notes that her tapping has slowed down, indicating she’s showing symptoms.

Cuddy starts bouncing House’s ball, much to his annoyance. He offers to split the desk 50/50 and she quickly agrees. House warns her that being nice won’t work. Taub and Kutner inform House that Emmy’s heart stopped and they shocked it back into cardiac rhythm. Kutner suggest a carcinoid tumor and House tells them to scan and find it, then cut it out. As Kutner and Taub go over Emmy, Kutner asks for medical advice about a leaking breast implant and finally informs Taub that he’s set up an on-line second opinion web site, noting it’s legal in New Jersey. When Taub wonders if Kutner would mind him telling House, Kutner admits he set it up in House’s name. Taub threatens to tell House unless Kutner cuts him in for 30%. They find that her stomach has shrunk, indicating she’s lying.

House goes to his (and Cuddy’s new) office to review the old photos of Emmy, showing that she was fat before and had stomach stapling to reduce her weight. Kutner suggests she may have had Type 2 diabetes but House notes it would have kicked in years ago if that was the case. House tries to annoy Cuddy but she refuses to be annoyed and takes her call outside. Kutner suggests sleep apnea but House doesn’t believe it. Irritated that the office isn’t working, he takes Taub and Kutner into Foreman’s testing room and gets their input as well. Thirteen suggests the bypass is responsible, which could lead to low potassium. House notes Emmy doesn’t have low potassium but Kutner notes that the intestines could be infected due to the gastric bypass surgery. House suggests they test for sepo bacteria in the feces while Foreman is irritated that House is using his test room for diagnosis.

As Taub goes to Emmy to get a sample, she defends her actions, saying that nothing else worked and she doesn’t tell her customers to do what she did. Taub is unimpressed.

Wilson visits Cuddy to find out if she’s serious. He notes that she shouldn’t pretend she took House’s office just to take the office, and she threatens to take Wilson’s office if he doesn’t leave.

As they run tests, Kutner asks Taub for more input on Deedee, the breast implant patient who is threatening to go to the licensing board if he can’t solve her problem. House comes in and tests the sample simply by tossing it in water and seeing if it floats. The lack of bacteria suggests apnea, and House irritably congratulates them for being right. Kutner and Taub monitor Emmy that night and when they look away, discover that she’s unhooked herself and gone to the exercise room. She insists her ankle doesn’t hurt but Taub notes that her leg is bleeding. He confirms that she doesn’t feel anything.

Kutner and Taub report the new symptom to House and the others as they head for House’s office. He discovers that Cuddy has spilled a chemical that stinks, and then exits. The team meets for differential in the hallway but Foreman is called away. Thirteen tells him to go and says she’ll be down after the differential. House sends them to test Emmy’s electrical impulses and Taub is abrupt with her. Emmy admits she is a hypocrite but nobody would listen to her and she’d be unable to help people if she told them the truth. She wonders if Taub hasn’t done anything hypocritical, and he softens toward her. However, she’s unable to raise her arm, displaying muscle weakness and disproving House’s current theory.

Foreman goes to find Thirteen and discovers she’s gone.

Kutner and Taub discuss their diagnosis in the elevator but notice a woman with tattoos and realize she’s coming to visit House: she’s Kutner’s on-line patient and is losing her hair. They quickly direct her to the ER and treat her, and Taub suspects she has a staph infection. They then return to where House is out in the hallway, but he noticed they took too long to run the test and figures something is up. Kutner suggests House just give up his office but House prepares to escalate the battle. He goes to Cuddy’s office and smashes her toilet, then orders chelation treatment in case Emmy is suffering from toxins.

Thirteen arrives home to find that Foreman has broken in. He suspected her of destructive behavior but checked her appointment book and has discovered she’s been keeping to the regimen. She says she arrived for the testing but there was another patient, Janice, suffering from late-stage Huntington’s. She explains she doesn’t want to be reminded about the disease, and Foreman tells her to get over it or not to show up.

The team are back doing differential on the stairs, and House reveals that Cuddy removed all the furniture as payback for the toilet. House notices that Thirteen is avoiding Foreman. When Foreman suggests alcoholism, House notes they’ve already done a tox screen. Both Kutner’s and Taub’s phones go off and House again figures something is going on. Foreman and Taub suggest she has Guillain-Barre, which means her muscle weakness is a pre-indicator of total paralysis and House orders treatment.

Kutner and Taub go to see their patient Deedee, who is being treated by Cameron. She’s singing uncontrollably and Cameron suggests that they call in House. They object but she points out that Deedee’s left ear is bleeding and tells them to get House.

Taub tells Emmy that her disease is manageable but she’s depressed over it. When she wants to take a wheelchair, Taub tells her to get out of bed and walk.

Kutner meets with Chase and Cameron in the cafeteria, and they both tell him to call in House. Kutner tries to come up with a differential and suggests a biliary tumor. Chase agrees to administer the test, in return for a 25% cut.

House takes plans of the new office to Wilson. He’s convinced the workers that he’s in charge of the renovation. He plans to put in a bidet, but Wilson points out that House’s plan is simply going to leave him with Cuddy even longer. He tells House to ask her out and save the expenses.

Irv and Emmy’s other clients arrive to visit her but soon leap on her… and she snaps out of her hallucination. The team meet in House’s office, now empty of furniture, figures that Emmy’s illness has spread into her brain. Thirteen leaves for her treatment with Foreman and House calls her on it, but she insists on going after suggesting CNS lymphoma. Taub suggests a prion disease and House orders a biopsy. Cuddy overrides from the office and tells him to do a non-invasive test before testing for a psion disease. House orders them to go ahead and confronts Cuddy, noting she’s stopping him because she has the hots for him. She accuses him of having the hots for him, and he asks why she’s dressed to get his attention. Cuddy admits that everyone knows they’re going to end up together and thinks they should kiss. House says they’ve already done that, and gropes her breast instead. She admits she’s an idiot for being surprised and walks off, disgusted.

Thirteen returns to the waiting room and sees Janice. She asks Foreman to change her appointment time but Foreman says his schedule is full and Thirteen might as well get to know her. Thirteen remembers looking down from her room as her father got her suffering mother into the car. She pauses for a moment… and then goes over to Janice.

Taub tells Emmy that there’s no sign of brain tumors so far. She asks for a piece of chocolate cake and Taub tells her not to give up. She demands the truth from him and he says tests for prion disease are next. He explains there’s a few treatments but no guarantees. She repeats her request for chocolate cake and he takes her to the cafeteria.

Cuddy has returned the furniture to House’s office. He’s in there when Taub reports it’s not CNS lymphoma and Emmy is getting worse. House asks Taub about his feelings when he was philandering and Taub admits that deep down he was miserable. House notes he wasn’t miserable and rationalized the entire thing. House says they’re going to go with the biopsy and goes to Emmy’s room, only to find her going through stretching exercises.

Back in differential, House doesn’t believe Emmy spontaneously recovered. Taub hasn’t given her anything since the MRI but admits he did get her a piece of chocolate cake. House seizes on it and takes a chocolate cake to Emmy. She has hereditary coproporphyria and is suffering from a lack of a certain enzyme important to the liver. It’s cured by a high carb diet with plenty of sugar. Once she lost weight and stopped eating, the disease manifested. Emmy refuses to overeat and asks if there’s any other treatment. There’s a drug that will suppress the syndromes but it won’t cure her. Emmy agrees to the treatment rather then become ugly again.

As Taub and Kutner discuss the case and the fact Taub is depressed that Emmy turned out to be superficial, they visit Deedee and discover that she had a respiratory arrest and died.

Wilson talks to Cuddy as she goes to her new furnished office. She complains that House is incapable of intimacy. However, she discovers that her “new” desk is her one from med school, that she had in storage. She realizes that House was responsible.

Thirteen visits Foreman and admits she lied to him. Janice didn’t freak Thirteen out about her future, but about her past. Thirteen admits she wanted her mother to die because of how she yelled at her, and that her mother died while she hated her. Foreman hugs her.

Kutner and Taub go to the morgue and House is waiting for them. He notes they’re frauds and killers and derides them for incompetency. He notes what Deedee had was easily treatable and then gets on top of her and starts administering CPR. Deedee comes to life and Kutner and Taub back away in terror… and House reveals that he set the whole thing up. Kutner says he’ll take down the web site but House insists that they keep it up as long as he gets 50% for them using his name. As they leave, Deedee notes that House still is paying for three more hours.

Cuddy goes to see House in his office… and sees him with Deedee. She turns around and leaves before he sees her.

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