Ignorance is Bliss

Ignorance is Bliss is a 6th season episode of House which first aired on November 23, 2009. On the eve of Thanksgiving, House and the team take on the case of James Sidas, an exceptionally brilliant physicist and author who traded his successful career for a job as a courier. For the ailing patient, intelligence is a miserable burden that has prompted depression and addiction, and this, coupled with a myriad of strange symptoms, nearly stumps the team. Meanwhile, the doctors at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital wrestle with strained personal relationships. House will say that he loves Cuddy. This is the first episode where Cameron is gone from the show, and after House compares Chase to Cameron he loses it and punches House.
The episode explores the interaction between happiness and relationships, with just about everyone's relationships being put under the microscope. House is in a classic love triangle with Cuddy and Lucas and he seems his happiest when he believes his schemes to break them up are working. However, neither Cuddy nor Lucas takes any joy when they thwart House's plans. Foreman and Thirteen both act like adults over their recent breakup. Chase deals with his personal and professional separation from Cameron with aplomb, but can't deal with the constant need to provide him with reassurance. Ironically, only House seems not to care about Chase's emotional state and, as a result, Chase reaches out to him – literally.
But at the top of the episode is the relationship between Sidas and his wife Dara. Years before, Sidas realizes that he derives only anxiety from his work as the pressure on him to come up with even more brilliant ideas becomes unbearable. This parallels House's recent breakdown when House realizes the satisfaction he derives from his work is at risk, and then finds that it's the only thing that makes his life bearable. Both Sidas and House try to find solace in relationships, but they both have severe deficits when trying to bond with people – their intellect gets in the way. Sidas seems to have found the answer – a way to turn his intellect down to normal without damaging it permanently. He does it because he truly cares for Dara and realizes that in his "clear" state, he will punish her for her limited intellect.
As with a lot of episodes, we see a lot of foreshadowing. Cameron's breakup with Chase parallels the breakup between Cuddy and Lucas later in the season, and largely for the same underlying reason – neither Cameron nor Cuddy seems comfortable dealing with a real issue in their relationship. House's dialogues with Sidas give him insight too – that he must find his own path to a relationship before it's too late.
==Recap==
A bookstore owner recognizes famous physicist James Sidas when he makes a delivery to his store. He asks him to sign one of Sidas' books. Sidas tries to comply, but has trouble using his hands and becomes disoriented.
House is trying to get the cafeteria cashier Daria to charge Wilson for his bagel. Cuddy comes by and pays for House. Cuddy gives him Sidas' case. He describes Sidas' case to his team. Thirteen thinks it's an infection, but that appears to be ruled out. Taub thinks it's sickle cell anemia, even though Sidas is Caucasian. Foreman thinks it's thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and when Thirteen and Chase agree, House orders tests for it. He pages Wilson, but gets no response.
Taub and Thirteen meet the patient, who is with his wife. They ask why he isn't working in a better job given his reputation. Sidas says he doesn't like thinking so much and having so much anticipation for him. He says he's happy in his new job as a courier and he likes being happy better than being smart.
Foreman talks to Chase about Cameron, but Chase says it's over. He turns aside Foreman's offer of help.
Taub talks to Thirteen as to why the patient, with such a high IQ, seems so normal. They talk about why they returned to work for House. They confirm TTP and Taub wonders why House took the case if it was so easy. However, Taub thinks it's a test. He suggests to House they do a splenectomy because plasmapheresis has been ruled out. House agrees and assures Taub he's not just testing them. He says he took the case, even though it's easy, because he wants to find out about Sidas. House is looking for Wilson in the men's washroom, but still can't find him.
Wilson arrives late after a dental appointment and House asks why he hasn't been answering his pages. Wilson knew the pages were about Cuddy. House is planning to break up Lucas and Cuddy by crashing Cuddy's Thanksgiving dinner with her sister. However, House doesn't know where the sister lives and Wilson says he doesn't know either.
Sidas shows signs of improvement, but all of a sudden, it appears he's delirious. Chase realizes he's having a stroke.
They manage to treat the stroke and the patient suffers no brain damage. They realize it isn't TTP because the removal of the spleen would have improved it. Taub thinks it's a form of vasculitis, but nothing showed on the CT scan. House is trying to find Cuddy's sister by calling everyone in the phone book with Cuddy's sister's name. They finally decide to test for rare toxins and do an environmental scan. Taub and Chase go to the patient's apartment and Taub asks Chase for Thanksgiving dinner. Chase figures it's just because Taub thinks he's lonely and politely declines. Taub finds a lot of Sidas' notebooks. They realize he was working on physics in high school even though it wasn't part of his homework. Chase finds hidden alcohol.
Cuddy finds House doing voluntary clinic duty. She figures he's up to something, either screwing with her or trying to show he's changed. She invites him to Thanksgiving dinner. House goes to Wilson. Wilson suggests it might be a trick, but House has checked out the address even though it's a three hour drive away.
The team reports to House that they found alcohol but no toxins. Chase thinks it's liver failure and tells House to wear a less flashy tie to dinner. Everyone seems to think it's alcoholism and Foreman wants to go for Thanksgiving and do the biopsy when they get back. House lets Foreman and Chase leave, but orders Taub and Thirteen to do the biopsy as soon as possible just in case they're wrong.
The patient denies being an alcoholic, but his wife wonders when he started drinking at all. They argue about how much he must be drinking. Taub does the biopsy.
House arrives for dinner at the address Cuddy gave him, but finds that she has misdirected him to the house of her sister, who's vacationing in Hawaii. The house sitter offers him a turkey sandwich on Cuddy's direction. Cuddy and Lucas are enjoying Thanksgiving with her family.
The biopsy shows no scarring or other signs of cirrhosis, but the blood tests show an elevated albumen level. Taub thinks it might be kidney failure. It would explain everything except the stroke, but that could be explained by a related condition. They realize they have to biopsy his kidney to find out.
Lucas arrives home to find that House, having broken in, is waiting for him in an inebriated state, having drank Lucas' bottle of tequila. They discuss Cuddy. House figures Cuddy's trying to figure out if he's willing to change, and he realizes she always has given him a chance, but he used up too many of them. Lucas offers a coffee. House stands up, says that he (House) is pathetic and doesn't deserve Cuddy, and collapses on the floor, telling Lucas he loves Cuddy.
The kidney biopsy confirms kidney failure. House has called in sick and the rest of the team tries to work it out themselves. Chase denies he had a bad time on Thanksgiving. He starts to focus on the patient's recent cough. Foreman suggests immunosuppressants and dialysis to treat the kidney failure. The rest of the team think he's trying to be in charge again, but he agrees to the treatment.
Sidas asks how long he has to be hooked up for dialysis. The wife is concerned about the changing diagnosis.
Thirteen speaks to Chase about Cameron and suggests counseling, but Chase just wants to be left alone.
Cuddy goes to confront House about what he said to Lucas last night as Lucas has broken up with her. Lucas told her he didn't realize how much there was between her and House. House can't remember much of last night or even how he got home, but admits he was drunk. Cuddy admits that she started feeling bad about giving him the wrong address, but has now realized House didn't deserve her sympathy. She tells him that there was never anything between them.
House is jubilant and brags to Wilson that he got Cuddy and Lucas to split up by lying to Lucas. Wilson says Cuddy probably hates him. When Wilson notes sarcastically that it's Lucas' fault for being so stupid, House thinks of something.
House goes to Sidas and tells him that he's stupid. He's realized that the cough syrup was his real addiction – dextromethorphan. Taken constantly, it lowers IQ. Although he's still smarter than average, he's a lot dumber than he used to be. However, dextromethorphan would also cause permanent brain damage, unless the patient used alcohol in moderation. He figures that Sidas was intentionally lowering his intelligence while maintaining his brain. Sidas admits that this was his plan – not being as smart made him less miserable. Dextromethorphan abuse explains all of his symptoms, even the coughing – a rebound effect. House orders a bowel lavage and activated charcoal to clean the drug from his system. When Sidas says he can't live without it, House tells him it's surprising what you can live without.
Sidas improves quickly and starts making physics drawings again. He tries to explain them to his wife, but he realizes it's too advanced for her. He asks for juice to get his wife out of the room and confides in Foreman that his wife is now so much less intelligent than he is, it's like having sex with a monkey and he wishes his wife could at least spell "applied physics". Foreman asks if he would be happier without her. Sidas admits that he wouldn't, and that he owes her everything, but being as smart as he is makes him a jerk who doesn't really feel like he wants to be with her.
Sidas' wife realizes he is treating her differently. Foreman tells her not to worry, but all of a sudden Sidas cries out – he has no feeling in his legs.
Taub is discussing his decision to work for House with his wife. He says he can always make money, but he won't always have the opportunity to work with someone of House's calibre. Rachel denies it's about the money or his decision to work for House again without asking her. Her real problem is that he went from being the boss to doing grunt work for House. That's what he did when they first got married (he was an intern), and she only put up with it because she knew it would lead to something better. Now, House makes Taub miss Thanksgiving dinner. Taub gets paged.
Thirteen thinks Sidas has vitamin B12 deficiency, but that wouldn't cause a stroke. Foreman suggests a problem with the bone marrow, but that wouldn't explain the schistocytes they mistook as a symptom of TTP. Taub suggest lupus, but the ANA was negative. When Chase has no suggestions, House threatens to call Cameron. Foreman tries to stop House, but he's gone too far – Chase slowly walks over to House and punches him in the face. House hits the floor, still conscious, and Chase leaves the room.
Cuddy finds House in her office and asks if he's going to press charges, but he claims he tripped over an ottoman. House asks Cuddy to dinner, but she says there are witnesses to the assault. House writes it off as mass hysteria. When Cuddy says doctors can't punch each other out, House asks who got punched. When Cuddy asks if Chase needs help, House says Chase couldn't have punched anyone as he was with Chase when he tripped over the ottoman. He asks Cuddy to a movie, but she says she's not going to play his game because it isn't fun. She tells him to just do his job.
House goes to Sidas, who asks about his face. He says that he wants to ask Sidas for a differential diagnosis. Sidas doubts it will work given his lack of medical knowledge, but House says he has no-one else to ask anyway. Sidas talks about how smart they are and how lonely it is. He admits that he started abusing drugs when he unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide by jumping and he was put on narcotics for his injuries. He started to feel more normal and less isolated. He met his wife at the hospital and fell in love with her when he was high on drugs. House gives him more dextromethorphan. However, House then thinks of something – he asks which ribs he broke in the fall – it was the bottom 3 on the left side, but that was 12 years ago.
House arranges an MRI with ferrous oxide contrast. Taub says this better be important because his wife is now ready to leave him. When Chase arrives, House uses Taub as a human shield. House explains that, in a normal patient, ferrous oxide is absorbed by the spleen, unless the patient doesn't have one, in which case it is absorbed by the liver and is toxic. Chase has already removed the spleen and wonders if House thinks he missed it. The scan shows that the patient has over a dozen more spleens throughout his torso. When the patient broke his ribs, the spleen ruptured, but then broke off and travelled to different parts of his body. It was TTP all along, but Chase didn't remove all of the spleens so the splenectomy was ineffective. They schedule more surgery.
Chase chases down House in the hall, and apologizes for doing so much damage. Chase says it wasn't about what House said, it was about everyone asking if he was okay about Cameron. He figured by hitting House, it would keep everyone else from talking to him about it.
Sidas recovers from surgery and plans to return to a life with his wife in it – back to dextromethorphan and being a courier. Taub wonders why House is okay with the patient's decision, and House tells him ignorance is bliss. Taub takes a picture of House's broken nose, saying he's going to put them on T-shirts and mugs. Instead, he shows the picture to his wife and says he did it himself. Rachel wonders if he's going to be fired or arrested, but he tells her not to worry. They make up.
House catches Cuddy leaving the hospital and asks if they can still be civil to each other. He offers her tickets to a carnival so she can take Rachel Cuddy. He says he bought them off a nurse, but she turns them down anyway.
House realizes that Cuddy hasn't really split up with Lucas. House tells Wilson that he's realized she just said they did so he would back off. House says he hasn't got anything else planned and that he's okay with that.
Cuddy tells Lucas that she knows that House figured out they didn't break up. When Lucas asks how she knows, she says she just knows. Lucas says maybe House isn't so bad after all. Cuddy admits that would be nice.
==Clinic Patient==
House starts asking about the patient's symptoms, which are vague, and all the patient's reactions are normal. The patient asks if he's always this rude and what he thinks she has. He asks, as an insurance company spy, if she shouldn't have a better job. She denies it, but he notes that the handwriting in her medical records is way too neat to be from real doctors, she's asking more questions than she's answering, and he's already searched her purse (he was looking for gum) and found the list of questions she was supposed to have memorized. He buys her silence and a show that she's pleased with $20 so he can impress Cuddy. However, Cuddy has left for the day and the patient runs out when House looks like he wants his money back.
==Major Events==
*House starts working with his whole team again.
*House tries to break up Cuddy and Lucas's relationship. They pretend House succeeded, but then Cuddy realizes House hasn't been fooled.
*Jeffrey Sparkman, a nurse, is introduced for the first time.
*In order to keep people from asking him about Cameron, Chase punches House. The tactic works.
*Taub uses House's black eye by pretending he hit House so his wife won't be worried about him seemingly taking a step back in his career.
==Title==
The title of this episode comes from the last lines of the poem Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College by Thomas Gray: "where ignorance is bliss,/'Tis folly to be wise." It may refer to the following:
*The patient prefers to dumb himself down because he is happier when he is not intelligent.
*Cuddy prefers not to know if House has changed or whether he's trying to do something mean.
==Zebra Factor 7/10==
TTP is a very rare disease, with an incidence of about 1 in a million. It is more common in pregnant females (see Kids) but almost unknown in white Caucasian males. Foreman got this one right on the nose because he saw similar systems in Kids and he's the one who treated it.
==Trivia & Cultural References==
*James Sidas is based on William James Sidis. He was a genius who would only work in menial jobs later in his life.
*"MIT" is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the leading science and engineering universities in the United States.
*NOVA is a long-running science program produced by Boston PBS station WGBH.
*The purported photograph of a young Sidas on the back of the book is actually actor Jonathan Brandis, who committed suicide in 2003 at the age of 27.
*Thanksgiving is an annual holiday in the United States, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Like many holidays around the world held at harvest time, it is often when extended families get together.
*Mike Tomlin is the head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. House was most likely referencing the common perception that Tomlin is Omar Epps' celebrity look-alike.
*House wears a Hugo Boss tie.
*Toroidal helicon plasma devices are used in fusion power experiments.
*The first scene of the episode opens displaying several physics books, the most noticeable of which is a book on quantum physics titled Discrete Energy States. Given that the episode focuses on James Sidas - a physics prodigy - this isn't particularly surprising.
*An ottoman is a type of upholstered stool used as furniture that usually matches the couch. It's named after the Ottoman Empire, where the concept originated.
*The fact that the ottoman "acted alone" is a shout out to common conspiracy theories about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, particularly the common belief that Lee Harvey Oswald was involved in a conspiracy.
*At the end of the episode, when talking to House about Cuddy and Lucas, Wilson references the World War II Native American "code-talkers", using the name of the movie made about them, Windtalkers. That movie featured Martin Henderson and Holmes Osborne.
*Polite Dissent pointed out a trope unique to the series – an air vent that the team finds contraband in because the cover hasn't been properly replaced.
*"Peace in our time" is a reference to the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who proclaimed it following the signing of the Munich Agreement with Nazi Germany in 1938. Fittingly, as in House's case, it was a ruse and it didn't end well.
==Music==
*Games People Play by James Taylor – during Cuddy's Thanksgiving dinner
*Enditol by James Taylor – over the closing scenes
==Reviews==
Reviews of the episode were decidedly mixed, with many fans complaining that the show seemed to have lost its way by this point. Very few critics had anything positive to say about the acting or storyline, and many thought that attempting to focus on all the show's romantic relationships (even Foreteen) made the show a bit too busy. Many thought that the storyline of the love triangle between House, Cuddy and Lucas seemed not to ring true.
*TV.com members rated the episode an 8.0. They picked Jesse Spencer as the episode's most valuable performer.
*IMDB members rated the episode an 8.6, with 29.6% of users giving it a "10". The episode performed best with females under the age of 18 (average 9.5 rating) and worst with males under 18 (7.3).
*For once, Polite Dissent was actually rather happy about the medicine in this episode. He gave all the medical aspects a B and admitted the final solution was based in fact – failure to remove spleen remnants has happened with other real life patients. However, he thought the scenes between House, Cuddy and Lucas were strained and gave them a C.
==Medical ethics==
A common theme on House that runs through this episode is treating self-destructive patients. Indeed, one of the parallels that Sidas has with House is their dependency on drugs. However, they are dependent for different reasons – House trying to be at the top of his game and Sidas trying to be at the bottom of his. In the scenes where the intelligent Sidas has a conversation with the newly clean House, we get a rare opportunity for House to talk to someone who mirrors his recent ability to cope without Vicodin.
However, House has always been on the side of treating people with self-destructive behavior, from the death row inmate in Acceptance to his own experience in Three Stories. Doctors face the same ethical dilemma on a constant basis. Over the past few decades, both the approach to patient treatment and our understanding of beating dependency have changed. In addition, it's not like only fictional doctors have substance abuse problems.
Despite House's tendency, even in this episode, to treat patients dismissively, with Sidas we see that House is ahead of the curve in dealing with a patient with a substance abuse problem. Many of the fellows, in contrast, are judgmental and want to intervene more. As a former druggie himself, House has a fuller understanding of the problem. Drug abuse is rarely a single issue problem. Many people who abuse drugs are trying to self-medicate to treat other problems, like clinical depression or bipolar disorder. Sidas is just lonely and anxious when he's sober, while on DM he's happy and relaxed. House knows better than anyone that the drugs aren't going to stop until the other problems do.
Physicians who specialize in drug abuse now realize that relapses are common, and usually inevitable. However, they cannot be treated as a sign of failure, just a roadblock to further success. Physicians in this field now collaborate with their patients, whose anxiety arising from sobriety is often exacerbated by their anxiety that they will once again lapse into drug use. Avoiding that takes more than psychotherapy or even medicine. Patients who succeed often have to leave their whole life behind. Many alcoholics, for example, don't know how to socialize without using alcohol and often become lonely when they abstain. That just makes staying sober that much harder no matter how much medical intervention there is.
In addition, many sick drug abusers face discrimination and the feeling that their medical problems are their fault even when their underlying condition isn't caused by their drug abuse. Here, Sidas' DM abuse may have made his TTP worse, but it's unlikely to have caused it in the first place. It's why he become so defensive when his alcohol use is revealed – like the overweight George in Que Será Será, the physician's diagnoses from that point forward become colored completely by a single issue.
==Goofs==
*When House and Wilson get on the elevator together, they enter the elevator to the audience's left. However, the elevator they emerge from is on the audience's right.
*As House and Lucas talk to each other, the pillow next to Lucas goes from crumpled to upright back to crumpled again.
*When Taub takes a picture of House, it's clear that the lens is closed.
*Although it's a common belief that alcohol will offset the detrimental effects of dextromethorphan, this has never been proven. In fact, dextromethorphan abuse causes long term mental changes that take time to revert, and Sidas would not have returned to normal intelligence levels just from discontinuing it.
*Before operating on a patient to remove their spleen, it's usually a good procedure to run a CT Scan. If they had, they certainly would have found the accessory spleens and removed them at the same time as the main spleen.
*If a physician suspects liver damage, a biopsy is not a good first step, particularly if a lack of platelets is going to cause severe bleeding. It's a much better idea to run lab tests and abdominal scans, which would be much more informative in any case.
*A patient suffering an injury to the spleen is more likely to develop splenosis rather than accessory spleens.
*The mnemonic "Otis Campbell" is for explaining the causes of a seizure, not a stroke. It's named after the town drunk on The Andy Griffith Show. It appears that House prefers the mnemonic MOIST PLLACEB.
*The effects of dextromethorphan aren't accurately described. One of the clear side effects is euphoria, which is why a lot of people abuse it.
*Although Sidas has thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, he doesn't exhibit either thrombocytopenia or purpura.
*Schistocytes aren't unique to TTP. They can also occur with DIC.
*A really good test for TTP is to test for ADAMTS13 antibodies. High levels are pretty much unique to the genetic forms of the disease. Although the test is mentioned, they don't appear to have run it or it would have ended the episode really early.
*Sidas' CT Scan was clear even though he had extra spleens. Maybe they didn't CT his abdomen.
==Quotes==
:Ed Beringer: [looking at a book jacket] Wait, hang on a second. This guy is you. I saw a profile NOVA did on you. You're like the youngest guy to ever graduate MIT.
:James Sidas: Standards were lower back then.
:Foreman: TTP's a better fit.
:Thirteen: He's right. [everyone stares at Thirteen] What? You thought I wouldn't agree with him... ever?
:Taub: It's too hard to think?
:James Sidas: No. Just unpleasant. No matter what I did, it really wasn't good enough. Then I met Dora. She didn't care how smart I was, or what I might accomplish in the future. It was the first time in my life that I was really happy. So I decided I'd rather be happy than smart.
:Chase: I know what you're trying to do, and I appreciate it. But I've got it under control.
:Foreman: That's what you said about the Dibala incident. Obviously you didn't.
:Chase: And talking about it made it so much better.
:Taub: Life's too short to worry about money.
:Taub: [reading some of James' notebooks] This isn't some homework assignment his parents forced on him. This is passion. Why would he want to stop doing this?
:Chase: Marriage destroyed his soul.
:Wilson: This is a three hour drive. Have you considered the possibility that this is a fake address.
:House: You think she'd send me to a vacant lot for Thanksgiving dinner?
:Wilson: If she's smart.
:House: She is. So I ran it through Motor Vehicles. Good as gold.
:Wilson: This cannot end well.
:House: Don't want it to end well. You should come as my date. You're not gonna want to miss this.
:House: [to Taub, who has arrived late] Sorry to inconvenience you. Dying patients can be so thoughtless.
:Taub: Don't.
:House: Great comeback. Is that Oscar Wilde? What about you? Got any predictable drivel you'd like to add?
:Chase: I think they've given you enough already.
:House: Well at least they're trying. They're not just sitting there like roadkill. Give me something! Give me something or I'll get your ex-smarter half on the phone and ask her!
:Foreman: House... [Chase rises, and walks to House and punches him]
:James Sidas: It's lonely, isn't it?
:House: It's not that bad.
:James Sidas: Then you're not that smart.
:House: 16 splenectomies. Pretty sure he gets a set of steak knives.
:Chase: Sorry about the nose. And the eye, and the, uh... eyebrow.
:House: Guess I deserved it.
:Chase: Well, if I thought that, I wouldn't be apologizing.
:House: Your fist slipped?
:Chase: Everyone kept bugging me. Asking if I was okay.
:House: So you busted my nose to keep people off your back?
:Chase: Pretty much.
:House: Making people even more worried about you.
:Chase: Maybe, but at least they're not talking to me about it.
:House: ...Fair enough.
:Chase: Cheers.
:Chase: What are you so excited about?
:House: Why wouldn't I be? Got all my starters back, plus a couple of first-class free agents. I feel like Mike Tomlin. [Tomlin look-alike Foreman glares at him] Probably not as much as you do, but... you get the idea.
:House: I've decided what I'm going to do about Cuddy and Lucas. I'm going to break them up.
:Wilson: Of course.
:House: I've got me a purpose in life. A goal. A raison d'être.
:Wilson: Albeit a selfish, mean-spirited, childish raison.
:House: I think of it more as benevolent. There are only two possible outcomes: they split or they stay together forever. If it's split, the sooner it happens the better for everyone. If it's stay together, my meddling won't matter. In fact if they survive it, it might make their bond stronger.
:Wilson: How you manage to elevate your narcissism to beneficence is masterful.
:House: Put it on Dr. Wilson's tab.
:Cashier: I don't know who Dr. Wilson is, and we don't have tabs.
:House: Do you know who I am?
:Cashier: No.
:House: Good. [walks away]
:Taub: It could be sickle cell.
:Foreman: Guy's white.
:Taub: Whites can get it.
:House: Come on. We get tennis elbow and all the money. Let them have sickle cell.
:Thirteen: You're sure you want us to take out his spleen.
:House: Is that what a "splenectomy" is? I thought it was an ice cream treat. Yuck.
:House: Do you know where Cuddy's sister lives?
:Wilson: You see, this is why I don't answer your urgent pages. Because they're not urgent pages.
:Cuddy: Hold on. Take this instead. I was expecting more resistance.
:House: That was the old me. New me is static-guarded and friction-free
:Thirteen: You gonna ask?
:Taub: I'm sure he's got a perfectly logical reason.
:House: Can't be DIC, no hemorrhaging. And I'm calling all twelve Julia Cuddy's within a hundred mile radius.
:Taub: See? Completely reasonable.
:Chase: I'm gonna pretend there's something interesting over here so you'd shut up.
:Cuddy: So which one of us slipped through the wormhole into an alternate dimension?
:House: I have always loved to travel. And paint.
:Thirteen: What's with the ties?
:House: Makes me look adorably non-threatening.
:House: On the other hand, Taub and Thirteen can do the liver biopsy today.
:Taub: Why us?
:House: Juniority. Welcome back!
:Chase: What do you want us to do?
:House: Same as me. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
:House: You are not right for her.
:Lucas Douglas: And you are?
:House: Less wrong.
:House: She invited me. She didn't know if she should until she figured out if I really have changed or if I'm still the same old SOB I have always been. But she always gave me a chance. Eight hundred thirty two chances. I used up everyone of them. 832's her limit. Make a note.
:Taub: Chase, you have a wonderful Thanksgiving?
:Chase: I don't remember. So I guess I did.
:Taub: Got drunk? Alone?
:Chase: No. That would be a sign I need to talk to you about this
:Chase: Why does everyone assume everyone works in the *exact* same way?
:Thirteen: We pretty much do. Our egos want to think we're all snowflakes, no two alike. But really we all want the same thing: love, forgiveness... chocolate.
:Chase: Well what I want is for everyone to leave me alone. How do I get that?
:House: I can't believe that Lucas fell for my "I never say this because it's so personal except I'm so drunk" profession of love... the second oldest trick in the book.
:Wilson: You're right. It's his fault because he's stupid.
:House: He wasn't abusing the booze and taking the cough remedy medicinally. He was abusing the cough meds taking the booze medicinally. Bravo.
:James Sidas: I don't think I could live without her.
:House: You'd be surprised what you could live without.
:James Sidas: You what the difference between her IQ and mine is? 91 points. In relation, she's closer to a gibbon than she is to me. Having sex with her would be an act of bestiality.
:Foreman: You really think you'd be happier with someone who could spell better?
:James Sidas: No. That's the problem. I'm the one who's a jerk. But I owe her everything. I want to want to be with her. And when I'm clear... I can't.
:Ronnie: Is the wait always this long?
:House: Only on days that end in "day".
:Ronnie: Don't you ever shave?
:House: Yeah, once a week. How about you?
:Ronnie: Every now and then, are you this rude to all your patients.
:House: Oh yes! Don't think your special.
:Chris Taub: That's what this is about? You think I'm a wuss?
:Rachel Taub: He made you miss Thanksgiving dinner.
:Cuddy: I heard. Gonna be pressing charges?
:House: Against the ottoman I tripped over?
:Cuddy: Against Chase.
:House: Pretty sure the ottoman was acting alone.
:James Sidas: Easier on your conscience if I die an idiot?
:House: What's a conscience?
:Taub: Einstein's giving himself a lobotomy and you're cool with that?
:House: Ignorance is bliss.
:Cuddy: There is no us. There never will be.
:House: Key under the mat.
:Lucas: There is no key under the mat.
:House: Oh. Right. I owe you a kitchen window.
:Thirteen: Your wife happy about that?
:Taub: She's happy to cut back on some things... like sex.
:House: Sorry, I can't remember if I mocked you yet for being a male nurse.
:Sparkman: I think this counts.
==Cast==
*Hugh Laurie as Gregory House
*Lisa Edelstein as Lisa Cuddy
*Omar Epps as Eric Foreman
*Robert Sean Leonard as James Wilson
*Jennifer Morrison as Allison Cameron (credited only)
*Jesse Spencer as Robert Chase
*Peter Jacobson as Chris Taub
*Olivia Wilde as Remy Hadley
*Michael Weston as Lucas Douglas
*Esteban Powell as James Sidas
*Vicki Davis as Dara Sidas
*Jennifer Crystal Foley as Rachel Taub
*Larry Cedar as Ed Beringer
*Andrea Gabriel as Ronnie
*Patrick Price as Jeffrey Sparkman
*Dava Krause as Daria
*Cheryl Carter as Diana
*Gabrielle Thomas as House sitter
*Bobbin Bergstrom as Nurse
*Felicia Chong as Hospital Secretary
*Eric Naroyan as Cuddy's Dinner Guest
==Release dates==
*United States – November 23, 2009 on Fox
*Canada – November 23, 2009 on Global
*Australia – March 21, 2010
*Hungary – May 5, 2010
*Israel – July 28, 2010 on HOT3
*Czechia – September 22, 2010 on TV NOVA
*Germany – September 28, 2010 on RTL
*Poland – October 28, 2010 on TVP2
*Slovakia – November 9, 2010 on STV1
*Sweden – February 28, 2011 on TV4
*Japan – September 6, 2011
==In other languages==
A problematic title to translate as the title carries a great deal of cultural baggage that won't translate into another culture.
*France & Quebec – Heureux les ignorants (Eng. Blessed are the ignorant) – The title borrows from the French translation of Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount" (Sermon sur le montagne) although the use of "heureux ceux qui" instead of "heureux les" would be a better translation
*Spain & Latin America – Bendita ignorancia (Eng. Blissful ignorance)
==Links==
*Episode page at IMDB
*A review of the medicine at Polite Dissent
*Episode page at housemdguide
*Episode transcript at Clinic Duty
*A list of the music tracks at TuneFind
*Episode review at Blogcritics
*Episode page at sidereel
*Episode guide at aceshowbiz
*Episode page at TV.com
*A list of the music tracks at heardontv
*Episode transcript at springfieldspringfield
*A list of the music tracks at what-song
*Episode review at What's Alan Watching?
*A list of quotes at RAABAD
*Episode quotes at TV Fanatic
*Episode review at IGN
*Technical information at shotonwhat
*Episode summary at Super Forty
*More about the song Games People Play in the episode at the James Taylor web site
*A review of the medicine at Performance Review (for three episodes)
==Video==
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Category:Episodes
Category:Season 6
Category:Featured articles