Pilot - Recap

School teacher Rebecca Adler arrives late at school. As she goes to class, her friend and fellow teacher, Melanie, figures that Rebecca was up late with her new boyfriend. Rebecca denies it but isn't very convincing. Rebecca greets her students and they ask her to talk about what she did over the weekend. She admits that she made a new friend but then suddenly discovers she's making odd squawking noises. She goes to the board and writes out a message for the children to call the nurse, and then collapses.



A month later at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, Dr. James Wilson describes Rebecca's case to Dr. Gregory House, the head of the diagnosis department. He says that Rebecca is his cousin, and House warns him that Rebecca has a brain tumor. He considers it a boring symptom. Wilson notices that brain tumors are extremely rare in women of Rebecca's age, and she's not responding to radiation treatment. House still isn't interested, and Wilson notes that House has a team that he's not putting to use.

In her room, Rebecca lies unconscious.

House's team reviews the MRI of Rebecca's brain, and House refuses to let them talk to the patient. Dr. Eric Foreman finds the approach unusual, and Dr. Allison Cameron warns him that House doesn't like talking to patients. House notes that everyone lies, and starts a differential diagnosis. Dr. Robert Chase comes up with suggestions, as do the others, Foreman suggests that the lab screwed up the blood test, and House orders them to take another sample.



As House takes the elevator at the end of the day, chief administrator Dr. Lisa Cuddy approaches him and tells him that he has to do his clinic hours and fulfill his obligations. He ignores her and tries to leave for the day, noting that she can't afford to lose him given his reputation.



Chase, Foreman, and Cameron take Rebecca for her tests, and she wonders where House is. They explain that he's busy, but interested in her case. They put her in the MRI, but get notice that the procedure has been cancelled.

House to confront Cuddy, who tells her that she's withdrawn his authorizations and privileges. He yells at her but Cuddy is unimpressed. As they talk, House takes some Vicodin. Cuddy tells him to do his job. House agrees to do the clinic hours so he can get the MRI privileges back. While his team runs the tests, House figures he'll be caught up in 2054, and tells Wilson he'd better love his cousin.

The team runs the MRI scan on Rebecca and tells her to remain still. She starts hearing banging noises and then chokes as her windpipe closes up. The team goes in and is forced to perform a tracheotomy when she stops breathing.



Afterward, House figures that Rebecca is allergic to the MRI dye and tells Foreman to talk to Rebecca since they can't do the scan. He then goes to the clinic and Cuddy makes sure that he has an interesting case: an orange-colored patient with back spasms. House sees the patient, who says that he injured his back after playing golf. House offers him some Vicodin and tells him that his wife is having an affair, because she's too distracted to notice her husband turned notice. After telling the patience he's been taking carrots and megadose vitamins, accounting for the skin color, House moves on to a boy with asthma. The mother is getting her son off of his inhaler, insisting she doesn't believe in artificial medicine. House explains that her son has asthma and the medicine is necessary. As he talks, House gets an idea from describing how the steroids work.

Foreman and Cameron talk to Rebecca, who describes her family history. House pages them to come outside and tells them to give Rebecca high doses of steroids. As they talk, Rebecca notices House outside. House suspects cerebral vasculitis, which will look like what they saw in the MRI. The only way to diagnose it is to treat: if they're wrong, they learn something else.



As the team administers the treatment, Chase notes that Rebecca hasn't had many visitors. Rebecca admits that everyone she likes is five years old. She realizes that the steroids are an unusual treatment for tumors, and Cameron admits that they're treating for vasculitis. Outside, Chase objects to Cameron giving Rebecca false hope. She insists she did the right thing.

Foreman goes to the school and smells the carpet for mold. A student notes that they have a parrot. Foreman goes back to House and suggests that the parrot is responsible, but House notes that none of the children are sick. He tells Foreman to break into Rebecca's apartment. When he wonders why House doesn't trust Rebecca, House points out a sick employee who came in against policy. When Foreman insists that he can't break in, House points out that Foreman broke into a house when he was 16. He explains that he needed someone with street smarts, Foreman refuses, and eats the food that the sick employee prepared.

Cuddy comes to the clinic to ask why House is prescribing steroids. She warns him that they can't prescribe based no guesses and stops the treatment. House insists he has a legitimate theory and notes that no doctor ever has conclusive proof. He wonders why she's afraid to take the chance, and Cuddy says that when they make bad decisions, they die.



Cuddy goes to see Rebecca, who is doing better. House is waiting outside for Cuddy and asks if she should discontinue treatment, and she tells him that he got lucky.

As Wilson checks on Rebecca, she wonders when she'll meet House and if he's a good man. Wilson says that House has found something other than care for his patients to motivate him. As they talk, Rebecca tells Wilson that she's gone blind. She then convulses and finally flat lines.

The next day, Foreman tests Rebecca's cognitive processes and confirms she can't put a simple sequence in order. He warns that Rebecca will soon go permanently blind, become paralyzed, and die, and gives a time frame for vasculitis, a tumor, or infection. House orders them to stop all treatment and concludes that the steroids did something. They can watch how her condition progresses, and see which diagnosis matches the timing. Foreman objects, but admits he has nothing better. As he goes, he asks Cameron to come with him so she can provide cover if he gets caught breaking into Rebecca's house.

House deals with a clinic patient who has been using the Internet do diagnose his symptoms. House goes to get Vicodin from the pharmacist, and then candy from a machine. He puts the candy in a Vicodin bottle and has the pharmacist give it to the patient.

As they search, Cameron insists that House doesn't believe in pretense. Foreman doesn't buy it, and notes that he was 16 when he broke into someone's house. He finds ham in the refrigerator and uses it to make a sandwich. As they talk, Cameron notes that Foreman got better grades and went to a better school, and wonders how she got the job.

They report back to House, who notes that Rebecca is getting worse too fast for it to be a tumor. House asks them what they found that doesn't have to do with the symptoms, and Foreman notes that Rebecca had ham in her apartment, meaning she's not Wilson's cousin since she isn't Jewish. Wilson insists she is, but House is more interested in the ham. He notes that pork has tapeworms, meaning Rebecca has one in her brain. Cameron is skeptical, but House notes that when you give steroids to someone with a tapeworm, the symptoms match what happened to Rebecca.



House explains that when someone eats poorly prepared pork, tapeworms lodge in the bowels. The eggs slip through the arteries and enter the bloodstream. The worms then hatch, build walls, and block off flow to the critical areas. The tapeworm is dying and the body's auto-immune system is attacking it, causing the swelling in the brain. The others are skeptical and House says he can prove it if he can treat, but Wilson tells them that Rebecca is refusing all treatment and simply wants to go home to die.

House goes to see Rebecca for the first time and tells her that she's being an idiot for refusing treatment. He explains that she has a tapeworm in her brain, but Rebecca points out he was sure about his other deductions. She asks what made him a cripple and House explains that he had an infarction in the leg, and the pain was excruciating. Rebecca figures that he hides in his office so that he doesn't have to bear people's sympathetic glances, and wonders why he wants her to fight. House warns her that she's turning into him, and that she can't die with dignity: no one can.



Rebecca refuses to go in and House tells his team. Foreman suggests they get a court ruling that she's incompetent, but House refuses to consider it. Wilson notes that House won't do it because he's met Rebecca and cares about her. House says that the case is solved and starts to leave, but Chase suggests a non-invasive safe procedure: using an old x-ray that will cause the worms to light up. It won't show up in her brain, but they can x-ray her leg where the worms are almost certainly situated in the thigh muscles. They take the x-rays, find the worm larva, and show it to her. Two pills every day for a month will kill both tape worms, in her leg and in her brain. She takes the pills.

House finds Cameron waiting for him in his office. She asks why he hired her, and House wonders why it makes a difference. However, he finally admits he hired her because she's attractive. Cameron insists that she worked hard, but House notes that she didn't have to, suggesting that she is somehow damaged. Cameron doesn't deny it, and leaves.



House's formerly orange-skinned patient, a major donor, complains to Cuddy that he confirmed his wife was having an affair. He blames House, but Cuddy refuses to fire him because he's the best doctor they have.

Chase brings Rebecca's students to see her. She asks to thank House, but Cameron says that now that she's cured, he's not interested.



As House and Wilson watch a soap opera, House points out that Wilson lied to him about Rebecca. Wilson admits that he did and wonders if House has ever lied to him. House insists he hasn't. A nurse comes in to tell him that the Internet hypochondriac is back, and wants a refill. House goes to the candy machine to get some more "medicine."

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