Here Kitty - Recap

House is busy at the clinic improving a Hot Wheels track and ducking patients when Cuddy brings him a patient, Morgan, a nurse. Morgan says she's had a cold throughout the winter and has felt rundown. She has a seizure and collapses, and House disinterestedly calls Cuddy back in to deal with it. It's only when Cuddy points out that Morgan's urine is green that House takes an interest.

As the team goes over the case, Taub comes in late and dismisses Morgan's case as non-consequential. House ignores him and sends him and Kutner to check Morgan's office at the senior citizen's center where she works. As they go through Morgan's office, Kutner tries to approach Taub as a friend but Taub notes they aren't that close no matter what Kutner thinks. Taub finds an anti-Alzheimer's medication that would cause green urine and takes it to House. House insists that Morgan's seizure was real and tells Taub to test for carbolic acid poisoning.

Later, Taub is leaving when he runs into Neil Zane, who recognizes Taub as an old classmate. Neil is there to have his earache taken care of, and explains that he went into surgical equipment manufacturing in college. Meanwhile, House tries to induce a seizure and Morgan and apparently succeeds, but soon realizes she's faking it. She explains that she faked the seizure so that she could see House because she is afraid she is going to die. A cat, a cat that can predict when someone is going to die, visited her.

Taub manages to fix Neil's ear problem while Neil explains that he's a CEO. He asks Taub to join him for dinner but Taub turns him down.

Morgan shows the cat to House and explains that over the last year it has sat on the bed of ten patients, all of who died. She gives him a videotape of a news story on the cat but then has trouble breathing. House ignores her but Foreman checks on her and discovers that she's suffering from real bronchospasms.

As they watch the videotape, Cuddy tells House she doesn't believe it and gives him 24 hours to confirm if Morgan is sick, or she'll have her discharged. House takes the cat, Debbie, to the conference room. They wonder if the cat is actually causing the deaths, or has some enhanced sense that can detect an illness. House continues to torment Taub, smoking the cigars that Neil sent him. House finally admits that he checked Taub's online financial records and discovered that he's lost heavily in the financial market. He tells them to test Morgan's lung for worms spread by the cat.

Kutner and Taub discuss Taub's personal life as Thirteen runs the test. Taub seems more upset about his wife, and Kutner points out that she isn't getting who she originally married. The test confirms a lack of worms. Next House takes the cat to the coma ward and puts it on one of the beds. Kutner begins to wonder if it's true, a fact House picks up on. House goes back to his office where Cuddy is waiting. She's noticed he stole genetically modified mice to give to the cat, and tells him to take them back to the lab. Cuddy then tells him that she's learned the test results (from Taub), and wants Morgan discharged.

House takes Morgan outside and lights up a cigar, and then blows smoke in her face. He admits he checked her purse and found various good luck charms. House concludes her recent believe in superstitions sprung from a recent incident and Morgan talks about how her stepson Timothy died at school when he choked to death. Her husband broke up with her and now she wants to try to figure out a reason for it all. House points out that it's all random, not a sign of some divine intervention. Morgan starts to choke and gets a rash on her neck, but House isn't satisfied she's ill enough for Cuddy until another doctor confirms the bronchospasms.

House punishes Taub for ratting him out by having him clean Debbie's litter box, but Taub refuses and walks out. When Kutner goes to run a new series of tests, he discovers that House planted Debbie in his bag. House figures that Kutner is a superstitious idiot and plans to provoke him. First, he orders steroid treatments for Morgan, suspecting she has Churg-Strauss syndrome.

Taub takes Neil up on his dinner offer and describes the affair he had that forced him to leave his plastic surgeon practice. When Taub gives Neil some advice on a new laser scalpel his company is making, Neil suggests he could use someone with his experience.

Thirteen checks up on Morgan, who reveals that her urine has turned brown. As they go back to differential, minus Taub, House opens an umbrella, leaves a ladder over the door, and spills some salt, all to make Kutner nervous. They've tested for anything that would cause brown urine without success. However, Foreman suggests leftover green urine formed with something purple to cause the brown discoloration. An infection from colon cancer would cause purple urine. They haven't found any tumors but House tells them to use a pillcam to do a more thorough exam.

Taub arrives late but insists that he's not quitting despite walking out the previous day. House tells him that he's a coward and doesn't have the guts to quit. Next, House tries to reassure Morgan by showing her that the coma patients are still alive despite the cat sitting with them. Morgan stands by her belief that the cat is responsible and House points out that sometimes, when someone has their beliefs challenged they just believe more strongly than ever.

Wilson begins to wonder why House is so obsessed with the case. House claims it's nothing personal and takes the cat to the children's ward, but Wilson quickly stops him. Wilson figures that House may be having second thoughts about his own beliefs and is trying to prove something to himself. House blows him off as the team reports that the pillcam didn't detect a tumor. Kutner suggests skin cancer in the intestines and House has them look for melanomas. What they do find are spider veins on Morgan's back. Kutner calls House at home with the news, and the fact the spider veins suggest Cushing's. Kutner has more important news, though: the coma patient the cat sat with is dead.

The next morning, House arrives as everyone looks for the cat. House insists the whole thing is a coincidence even though there's no other way to account for the cat's apparent gift. Suddenly House sits up blood into Kutner's face, only to reveal that it's cranberry juice, and another attempt to psych Kutner out. The Cushing's is either in Morgan's brain (in the pituitary), or in her adrenals. He tells the team to have Chase do surgery to check Morgan's brain.

Taub meets Neil for lunch and takes him up on his offer. Neil says he was only tossing the idea around and he already has a chief medical officer. Seeking a change in his life, Taub offers to invest in the laser scalpel development. Neil warns that it will take a while for the investment to pay off but Taub insists on giving him the money later.

House prepares to do an autopsy on the dead coma patient. Chase informs him that the weakened Morgan went into cardiac arrest during the surgery. However, testing has confirmed that Cushing's is in her pituitary, inside of her brain. House tells them to take it to Morgan to make the call of whether to remove it. Wilson wonders what's happening, since usually House would browbeat the patient into doing what he wanted. As House starts to perform the autopsy, Wilson warns that this time House's obsession might endanger a patient rather than save their life.

Chase tells Morgan about the risks of brain surgery to remove the pituitary. She insists that the cat is right and Chase points out that he also has faith, but it doesn't belong in the operating room. Morgan explains that she needs the cat to be right, even if it's bad news for her, because at least that means there's some pattern to it all rather than random chance.

Taub tells House that he's quitting, but House doesn’t believe him. He tells Taub that he'll be back and he should bring bearclaws with him. Taub just leaves and House goes to work.


As Chase prepares Morgan for surgery, Taub goes to House and tells him he’s quitting. House doesn’t believe him and tells him to bring pastries, but Taub simply turns and leaves. As House goes over the files, he sees the cat enter his office and tries to capture it. It curls up on his laptop computer. House has the news story videotape playing, and notices the cat is curled up on a woman with a heating blanket, and gets an idea.

Taub goes to Neil's company to give him the investment money. A woman informs him that Neil has been arrested. He was actually a temp using the office and claiming it as his own while running a scam. He'd fake an ear injury, then claim to know the doctor and convince him to invest in his phony project. Taub hastily pockets the envelope with his investment money.

House explains to Wilson what happened: the cat seeks out warmth. All of the dead patients either had fevers, or were wasting away and had a heating blanket. Since the cat is attracted to Morgan, she must be overheated. Only one form of overheating, combined with the other symptoms, would explain her illness: she has a tumor in the appendix, where the pillcam couldn't go. House quickly calls to cancel Morgan's brain surgery.

As Morgan is discharged, House goes to see her and points out she was an idiot for risking brain surgery because of a cat. He notes that it was science and logic that cured her, but Morgan notes that it might not have been coincidence that led the cat to House at just the right moment to lead him to the truth. She insists having some higher power to believe in is important. House shrugs and tells her to get well. Back at his office, he discovers that his chair is covered in cat urine. He confronts Kutner, who cheerfully admits he did it as revenge for the fake blood prank. House looks at him then just walks away. He goes past Taub, who has come back and has bearclaws for the next morning. He sits down in the conference room and stares at the cat, which stares back at him.


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