House - Broken, or You GUYS, rehab is serious!

If I didn’t have a reason to NOT get hooked on narcotics then have to go to a dry out tank, I certainly have it now. The sad, tinkly emo music of the introductory montage is enough to steer any Vicodin-popper straight.

Now, compare that to the cool, funky jazz we get when House cooperates in the mental hospital, and a clear picture emerges: Mental Health is Fun! What's also really fun for the viewers is a scene where House immediately diagnoses all his co-patients' illnesses, and proceeds to mercilessly berate them using all their hot button issues. It's one of those times where you really shouldn't laugh, but somehow Hugh Laurie makes laughing at mental illness okay. And that's why he's great.

The episode quickly devolves into a One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest retelling, complete with our own Nurse Ratchet, who overmedicates a delusional young man who’s lost his wife. To compensate, House takes him out to a carnival for some gravity-defying fun. Unfortunately, this gives Freedom Master (yes, he's a mental patient who believes he's a superhero) the mistaken idea that he can fly. After jaunting off a roof, Freedom Master lives, but sustains terrible injuries.

House, surprisingly, feels really bad about this. So, it sets off a journey of actual recovery, where House tries therapy (for real!) where his tasks are to trust people and forgive himself.

But, in the end, it’s House who cures everyone. By apologizing to Freedom Master, he unlocks the secret of another patient whose been silent for over 10 years. Turns out she just needed her music box, which the cruel orderlies kept out of reach but in her sight line. The fact that it took one of their patients to figure out this mundane revelation shows that maybe this mental hospital is not exactly of the highest caliber. But, oh well.

House fulfills the other part of his therapy requirement (learning to trust) in the form of the silent woman's best friend, who faithfully visits her everyday. She and House fall in lust, and then House is really sad when he finds out she's moving to Arizona. He finally learns to trust someone, and is then crushed, so what does he do? Turn to Vicodin for the sweet haze of nothingness it provides? No! He goes to his therapist and talks about his feelings. This means he's cured, so the doctors recommend House's medical license be restored, and House jauntily walks out to the bus station, a wry smile on his face, and goes home.

But now you're saying to yourself, "A wry smile? House at peace with himself? However will the show recapture its misanthropic charm if House is no longer a hotbed of emotional and physical pain?" Well, reader, I feel your pain, for I too have these questions. I suppose we'll just have to see what the good doctor has in store for us.