Merry Little Christmas

Episode Report Card
Sara M: B- | Grade It Now!
A Little Of This, A Little Of That

House limps out of the room. Maddy follows him. In the hall, she confronts House about why he has to make Abigail feel like life as a dwarf isn't worth living every time he talks to her. House says he just wants Abigail to be "tall enough to wipe her own butt," and then laughs at his quip. "Are you high?" Maddy asks. "Higher than you!" House replies immediately. Oxycodone has not dulled his insult reflexes, I see. Excellent. Maddy says that she won't force Abigail to chose "the easy path," and House calls her a bad mother for wanting her daughter's life to be needlessly difficult so that she can become stronger by overcoming adversity: "You and I have found out that being normal sucks. 'Cause we're freaks. The advantage of being a freak is it makes you stronger. Now, how strong do you really want her to have to be?" He's actually getting kind of serious here, and adds, "You told her what you had to tell her. Now you tell her you lied. Even if you didn't." He leaves Maddy with that. It's a nice little insight into why House is being so stubborn about not taking the deal; I think he sees his leg and the Vicodin as being things that make him different than everyone else, and, not liking other people, he likes that. He's afraid that if he has to give up what he sees as an integral part of his personality, he'll be more normal and lose something of himself that he enjoys. It's a similar decision to what he faced when he was shot last season and ended up deciding that ketamine was worth the possible mental side effects. So why doesn't he want to make the same kind of choice this time?

So Maddy tells Abigail that by taking the growth hormone, Abigail will just become the person she was supposed to be. Abigail says that her mother hates normal, and that being normal will make her "fade into the background"; she worries that she'll become boring. Oh, please, Abigail. She must know enough by now to know that size doesn't have anything to do with how exciting you are. "We'll get you a funny hat," says Maddy. Now, can someone say that to House? Abigail asks her mother if she wants her to be just like everyone else. "I want you to have what I can't," Maddy replies. Which is what, exactly? A car that doesn't have special platforms on the brake and gas pedals? A kitchen with upper cabinets?

Meanwhile, House sits in his office, listening to music on his headphones and twirling his bottle of pills in his hand, riding the high. Wilson stops by on his way out to inform House that Abigail agreed to take the growth hormone after all. "Who's Abigail?" House pretends not to know. Please, House. He knew her name well enough before; he's not going to convince me that he doesn't care enough about her to know it now. Wilson asks House what he's planning on doing tonight for Christmas Eve, hoping House would rather spend it with him (at the New Jersey Best Western? Fun!) than with Oxy. House laughs in his face. Well, it was a nice try, Wilson, but I can't see how you expected any other response. Gone are the days of laughter and Chinese food.






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