House M.D. Review: Season 1 Episode 4 "Maternity"

Episode By: Peter Blake

*Spoilers!*

Maternity (or The Case of the Unexplainably Dying Babies)

Quote: “I defer to your legal wisdom; which takes precedence, six dying babies or a missing consent form?” - House

Overall Thoughts/Observances:

            Obviously, not every patient is going to survive. House may be the most brilliant doctor there is, but even he has to lose a patient now and again. House, as a show, knows this. And in this episode, they portray the very hard decisions doctors sometimes have to make.

The opening itself should have given us a warning, I suppose. Though they successfully show the parents as just being over-protective (which they kind of are), having a baby going into spasms might have given the sign this episode was going to hold some uncomfortable moments.
   

            After the opening, though, the episode continues light-heartily, with House mooching the maternal doctor’s lounge to watch his soaps (anyone else think the doctor in his show looks creepily like Chase?). Of course, he gets kicked out. And that’s when it all begins.

            House finds the epidemic. He sees that something is going on. He’s Sherlock – his deductive observances lead him to believe that there’s an epidemic. And what does Cuddy do? She says that he’s wrong.

            I understand saying that to another doctor, maybe. But 1) if there was any possibility of an epidemic at my hospital, I’d have at least somebody check it out, and 2) this is House. He’s the Sherlock to Cuddy’s Lestrade, in a way. She knows that he’s better at doing his job than she’ll ever be. She couldn’t diagnose half of the things House has (though she’s still a good doctor in her own right). If House thinks something is up, I’d check it.

            Well, doesn’t matter anyway. Because Cuddy gets her proof soon enough.

            The faces of the team when House says they need to risk two babies’ lives to save the others, and they all know that one of them will die… it’s painful. But they know that, as horrible as it is, House is doing the most logical thing. Minimalize the damage, save everyone you can.

            But oh, it can’t just be two random babies. We have to meet the parents as well. I’m actually glad we got to see both couples. We were equally familiar with both, and we don’t want either baby to die (though I did find myself wondering which would perish – and felt kind of startled by the thought process). Also, lesbian couple – yay House for normal human being LGBTQ+ character writing (you wouldn’t believe how much TV messes around with the presentation of Gay characters).

            One of my favorite scenes ever of House is when the whole team plus Wilson and Cuddy get together to decide which illnesses they should test the children for. All of them together, working towards saving these children, and succeeding to do so, was nice to see after having the death of that sacrificed child.

            We saw more of Cameron’s vulnerability in this episode – when she can’t tell the family how badly their baby is doing, when she says everything’s going to be fine when it’s obviously not, her inability to state the fact that the two woman’s child died for five others…

 But her compassion also lets her do some wonderful things. When she got the one couple to hold up their baby for a minute or two, you could tell how much they needed that contact with their child. Even though the other couple had the right to know their child was doing poorly, it was only out of love that Cameron didn’t tell them the full truth. Yes, it’s a bit idealistic, but Cameron really is just trying to ease the pain of a very pain-filled situation.

            House is right to get upset with her. She’s not doing her job. But you can also see, in the way she talks to Foreman, Wilson and House after backing away from saying the blatant truth, that something’s happened (as House deduces). Whatever it is, it must’ve been bad. Though Cameron does seem a bit soft, she doesn’t seem like the kind of woman to let an unimportant event affect her. No, this was, as House said, a loss. Of a friend, a child, maybe a boyfriend? Sister? We have no idea. But now I want to know more than ever. And I think House does, too.

The Case and the Patients

            The patients are the children of two couples, both of whom have just had their newborns whisked away from them because of an unknown disease. We see the couples looking on anxiously, waiting to hear the next piece of news. We also see the reaction of the couple whose child died for the sake of the others, and the reaction of the other couple whose child lived because of that sacrifice.

            I really, really liked this episode. Though it was sad, it wasn’t overbearingly so. We did have some funny moments with Cuddy leading the team of med students around the hospital while trying to find the source of the virus. I especially liked when she cut off the one guy's tie - she told him to get a clip!

And when the kid does die, he doesn't go easily. The whole Team tries so hard to save that poor child. The little crack in Chase's voice when he says "Charging," right before House stops him made my heart skip a beat. In this episode, it's easy to see the doctors, especially House, as being cold and cruel. But they really do care. They just don't know how to save everyone.

            The solution itself was almost frustrating to me. The woman who was bringing the toys to all the babies’ rooms passed on Echo 11 to the children because she didn’t use tissues or wash her hands while having a runny nose. The fact that one person could do that much damage by being careless is infuriating. Though I suppose we can’t blame her, I’m still going to. She’s in a hospital. USE A TISSUE AND STOP FORCING HOUSE TO SACRIFICE THE INNOCENT. 

            I needed to let that out.

The Clinic

            The clinic was another little spot of humor amongst the anguish elsewhere in this episode. My favorite House scene of all time comes from the clinic, where House tells the patient she has a parasite.

            “A parasite?!?” she exclaims, alarmed. But House goes on to consolidate her.

            “But don’t worry. Many women learn to embrace this parasite, they name it, dress it up in tiny clothes, arrange playdates with other parasites.”

            And she even convinces him to do the delivery. It’s a very sweet story – and the only thing that help me survive this episode.

Last Words

            The most striking scene, to me, was when House preformed the autopsy on the child that died. The child who died because of his decision. I think it was the right one. I’m sure everyone thinks it was the right one by the end of the episode. But I wonder what ran through his head during that time. Did he feel guilt? Grief? Or did he, in his Houseish way, merely feel that this was a necessary consequence of a disaster that wasn’t his fault?

Rating: 9.3/10

Thanks for reading!

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