House M.D. Review: Season 1 Episode 5 "Damned If You Do"

Episode By: Sara B. Cooper

*Spoilers!*

Damned If You Do (or The Case of the Frequently-Lying Nun with an Interesting Past)

Quote: “You can’t hate someone if you don’t know them.” - House

Overall Thoughts/Observances:

            House and nuns. Now there’s something you don’t see everyday!

            This episode was kind of refreshing after the whole “sacrificing babies” situation last time. And hey – it’s Christmas! For some reason, it always makes me happy when they make it Christmas in a show for their Christmastime episode. It makes everything seem a bit more real. Don’t worry; I know the difference between television and real life (no really, I do). But to be fair, House is a show that tries to be realistic. And seeing all the character’s feelings about Christmas makes them seem that much more human. 

            Speaking of feelings about real-world things, let’s talk about the immense amount of sharing the Team did with us during this episode. House, obviously, seeing as he was watching his soaps in the nun’s chapel and made the jab about “candy canes” to Cameron (which I found more funny than I probably should have), doesn’t see the big deal with religion and holidays. Well, he does. He just thinks people who do believe like the nuns do are ridiculous.

            (Okay, before we get into anything here: Just so you know, I am never going to judge anybody based on his or her religion. I’m going to talk about faith a bit because this House episode dealt with the topic a lot (especially with Chase, but I’ll get into that later), but I’m merely trying to get a fix on the character’s view on religion. Okay. We good? Let’s continue on!)

            But not all of the Team agrees with House on the issue of whether there’s a God or not. Let’s look at the pole, shall we?

Foreman – Of course there’s a God, and of course he’s watching over us.

Cameron – There’s a higher power, yes, but I don’t think we should call it ‘God’ or that it’s very concerned with what we human do.

Chase - *deflects topic by talking about the patient*

            Chase hates nuns. At first, we’re not sure why. But as we get further and further into the episode, it becomes more clear.

            Chase is the ‘focus’ character during this episode, I think. Though we do learn some more about House and Cameron and Foreman, Chase is the one that we get to look more deeply into. When he talks to the nun in the clean room, and tells her about his favorite passage from the Bible, it surprised me. Up until then, he’d been pretty rude to the Sisters. But through his conversation with Sister Augustine, we learn that he was raised religiously, but lost faith as he grew up. In his words, there was a test. One that the Sisters passed and that he failed.

            House tries to prod deeper into Chase’s past, talking about how “someone” might have been forced to be a doctor when it was the last thing he wanted to be, but Chase brushed him off before we could learn any real deductions. House has done this twice now – first with Cameron, now Chase. He’s just itching to figure out the dark secrets behind every person – a very Sherlock feeling to have.

            This episode was nice. We got to go into a very rich topic (religion) with the Team and House, nobody died, and we get to see them all celebrating Christmas in their own way at the end – Wilson and House eating Chinese, Cameron opening her gift, Cuddy working with a patient, and Chase trying out going to church, and deciding against it. Strangely, we didn’t see Foreman – I assume he went to church, but we actually don’t know. Hmm.

            Oh, note – that’s Hugh Laurie playing piano when House is playing. Laurie is an amazing pianist. He travels around the world and gives concerts. As a pianist myself, I look up to him immensely. And just when you thought Hugh Laurie couldn’t get awesomer!

The Case and the Patient:

            Of course House didn’t screw up. It was the copper cross that she was allergic to, coupled with the tea that elevated her heart rate, that made her system overloaded. But Foreman does have a good point.

            “I don’t trust a man who won’t admit he might be wrong.” – Foreman

            And House does go and check the drawer with the shots to try and figure out if he really did mess up. He’s very self-absorbed, but with a good reason. Just like Sherlock. House saves people no one else can save. He solves cases that are unsolvable to the rest of the world. But that doesn’t mean he can’t make a mistake.

Listen to Wilson, House!

            
            As for the patient, I liked her very much.

            Having nuns in the first place is interesting – we get to see The Six’s (that’s what I call House, Wilson, Cuddy, Cameron, Chase and Foreman collectively) reactions to them, as well as delve into topics you wouldn’t get with a non-nun patient. And having the patient have a junkie past (and having that be part of the solution) was some good writing, to me. She’s started over, but her past actions still haunt her today. Nun today, drug addict yesterday, who knows what tomorrow. Deepness. House has it.

            The head nun – the one that says the patient is lying – was probably my favorite nun in the episode. She takes House’s ridiculously rude comments about her faith in stride, and doesn’t mind sparring with him, even commenting on his personality. She’s the Cuddy of the chapel.

            Interesting explanation, coupled with unusual patient – I’m satisfied.

Last Words:

            Gradually (as good shows do), House is showing us more and more about The Six. Little things for now. Chase’s religious past, Cameron’s overwhelming compassion, Foreman’s steel against House, Wilson’s relation to House, Cuddy’s will in battling House, and House’s limitless source of self-worth. But do we really know those things about the characters? Will someone change drastically in the coming season? Well, only one way to find out… *clicks ‘Next Episode’ button*

Rating: 8.3/10

Thanks for reading! Sorry for the break – I’ve been caught in the Supernatural trap recently *glances over at Emily,* but I am BACK! Hope you enjoyed! :)

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