Games

Games is a fourth season episode of House which first aired on November 27, 2007. When Cuddy delivers an ultimatum that House must fire all but two of his remaining applicants, he starts searching for a mysterious case to work on. However, the only patient available is a burned out punk rocker who Foreman thinks is merely suffering from years of drug and alcohol abuse. When House tells the applicants the rocker is the final exam, they fall over each other trying to come up with new ideas while House asks for advice on who to keep. In the end, House finds the rocker does have a real illness, and the only way he could have found out was through the help of all four of his new hires. However, Cuddy remains unmoved and House has to finally pull the trigger.
==Recap==
Some punk musicians are hanging around outside a gig, when they get into an argument about one of their instruments. They break it up to go on stage. However, Jimmy Quidd starts coughing up blood and then collapses.
House is watching Prescription Passion when Cuddy comes in to bug him about which fellows he plans to keep. She demands that he decide or the pay cost overruns out of his salary and have his parking space moved.
Realizing that Cuddy's not messing around, House goes to Cameron for the sickest patient she has. They come across the punk rocker, but Cameron thinks it's just drug and alcohol abuse. House takes him on as a patient and presents him to the remaining applicants. However, even Foreman thinks it's drugs and booze. Despite Foreman's objections, the applicants pick up when House tells them this is the final test, the one that will decide the lucky two that will be picked for his team and who will get the axe. House orders tests, but Foreman quickly overrules him because he believes the tests will be invasive and dangerous. House agrees to one test at a time and starts rating the applicants on a point system. Kutner falls behind early and Amber is given the first opportunity to test and treat, suspecting a lung problem from years of smoking.
Foreman challenges House about making the diagnosis a game. House tells Foreman he doesn't need him. House asks Wilson about Amber, but Wilson is worried about a diagnosis he screwed up - a biopsy was a false positive and the patient is actually fine; House doesn't care.
Thirteen asks Amber why she left the patient (a smoker) alone with an oxygen tank. Suddenly, there is an explosion - the patient snuck a cigarette and was smoking near the tank while in the bathroom.
Wilson tells his patient that he doesn't have cancer, which confuses him. He has sold his house and will be out money he doesn't have for the realtor commission. House is astounded by the patient's reaction, but doesn't think it's about money.
Amber drops in last place with 17/100 for blowing up part of the building. The applicants are hiding from Foreman, when Amber and Thirteen begin arguing about who gets to do the next test. House orders a nicotine patch and allows Amber to do an open-lung biopsy.
Chase and Foreman meet - Foreman notes that House is hiding from him. Foreman is following Taub in an attempt to stop the game. Chase notices Foreman has stopped wearing a lab coat. Taub and Amber are struggling with the patient when Foreman comes in and finds that this is because the patient has put all of his nicotine patches on his left arm and doesn't want them to know. Taub notices that the patient has blood clots. Amber realizes her diagnosis was wrong.
If a clot reaches a vital organ, the patient will die. House has waylaid Taub to keep Foreman away. Thirteen is leading with 100 and thinks it's malaria. Amber thinks it's drugs, but is trailing badly at -6. House passes the testing and treatment orb to Thirteen. House asks Amber into his office, where he confronts her about her problem against drug addicts, and her fear of losing. She says that winners are happy and the patient is a loser throwing his life away. House counters that the patient is happy, which contradicts Amber's worldview. Amber tires of the psychoanalysis, and asks how her willingness to do anything for the right answer can be bad for her patients.
Thirteen and Taub argue about whether Taub should care about the patient. He won't say why he wants the job. They find the patient is missing.
Wilson finds House in his office listening to the patient's music. House wants to know why Wilson has a release and a checkbook - he thinks that Wilson is going to pay back his patient's lost money, despite having done nothing wrong. Taub and Thirteen come in and report the patient is lost. House talks to Thirteen about why she likes drug addicts; she says he's worth saving. After further discussion, Thirteen leaves, but House increases her score to 102 and secures her in first place.
Taub asks Thirteen why she wants the job, since she likes patients and House couldn't care less. They find the patient in the pediatric ward entertaining the kids. However, he soon collapses. Thirteen checks his vital signs, which are still strong.
Cuddy finds House playing the piano and tells him to control his patient. House asks Cuddy if she has a preference for fellows, admitting that she makes good personnel decisions, despite her shortcomings. She thinks Taub will stand up to House, and Kutner shares House's medical philosophy and would make a good match. Kutner and Thirteen come in and report the patient was negative for malaria, but that they found blood fragments. House goes to see the patient, but finds the patient's band mates. He sees one with a needle mark and finds a hypodermic syringe, and realizes they have been sharing needles, which explains the blood fragments. He orders all the tests redone. The patient collapses again with respiratory failure, but House realizes it can't be from drugs.
House realizes the clots were drug related, but the coughing up blood and respiratory arrest weren't. Foreman finally catches up with them. The lumbar puncture was clear - Thirteen secretly did one as she thought it was bacterial meningitis. Kutner thinks it is an embolism. House authorizes Kutner to run tests, but Amber points out that Kutner knows it can't be an embolism, and only wants to run tests to come up with a guess, like Thirteen did. House gives Amber points and asks Foreman to do the tests, but Foreman doesn't want to encourage the game and walks away.
House goes to perform the tests on the patient. The patient says he only plays music for himself, but House asks why he plays on stage. He admits some people like the music, but most can't stand it. What he can't take is people who tell him he's wasting his life. House finds some curious masses near the patient's heart. He realizes the patient doesn't care if he lives, but does care if people appreciate his music.
Wilson is apologizing to his patient about the lost broker fee and gives him a check. However, the patient is looking for more money because the diagnosis that he didn't have cancer has taken away the happiness he got knowing that he was going to die.
Kutner is now leading with 87 points. Taub thinks the echocardiogram is blurry because the patient's in withdrawal and is shaking. Kutner wants to give the patient a sedative and repeat the test, but House thinks that might be fatal. Taub wants to test to see if a blood vessel has wrapped around the patient's trachea, but keeps losing points because he can't suggest a way to test for it. House suggests exploratory surgery, which they try to talk Chase into doing. House asks Chase whom to hire. Taub tells Chase to do the surgery; if the patient dies, people will blame him. Chase prefers Taub and Amber as they'll help House get things done, and agrees to the surgery. They find abnormally large lymph nodes, but the patient's vital signs go into distress during the surgery.
Kutner leads with 72, but House agrees to stop the game. However, Foreman knows whoever gets the right answer will stay. He tells House to fire someone - it's the only way to end the game. House tries to fire Kutner and Thirteen, but they come up with more ideas. They think that the enlarged lymph nodes are due to impurities in street drugs. They think the patient might have heavy metal poisoning from tainted drugs, and House orders treatment, telling Foreman that competition works.
The patient won't tell Amber who sells him drugs, not caring if he dies. He says he never wanted to be an adult, or grow old. Amber is astounded that he has no regrets about the drugs, drinking, and fighting, just everything else. Amber admits she hates the patient, but he says he doesn't care. She asks what it's like. He says it means having no regrets.
House continues to listen to the patient's music despite the fact he hates it. Wilson tells House about the cancer patient wanting more money and he thinks House may have told the patient to ask for more money so that he wouldn't take the $6,000 Wilson offered. House admits that he did it to keep Wilson in funds and teach him a lesson. They start arguing and Wilson finally blurts that House is like his patient - he's afraid to live. Kutner comes in and says that the treatment isn't working, but points out that despite his reputation, the patient works with orphans (explaining why he was entertaining the kids in Pediatrics). House doesn't think it is medically relevant.
House "fires" Taub and Amber to get more ideas. When they don't play along, he fires the other two. Foreman still thinks it's drugs. House asks who will tell the patient he's dying. When no-one volunteers, he suggests a little kid do it, the patient gets along with little kids. Suddenly, House believes the fact the patient works with orphans might be medically relevant. He goes to Cuddy to ask for a brain biopsy. Cuddy refuses unless he can show neurological symptoms that would justify it. Cuddy wonders why he brought along the applicants. House says he wouldn't be where he is now unless he had all of them: Amber thinks the patient is a loser, Thirteen thinks he is a regular guy with problems, Taub thinks the patient will be fine once he matures, and Kutner thinks it is an autoimmune disease. However, they were all wrong and House realized why - the patient just has measles from the kids he is always hanging around. He's not having normal symptoms because the patient's immune system is shot from drug abuse. Cuddy is intrigued, but needs a neurological symptom. Amber has noticed that the patient keeps swallowing and thinks it might be a partial seizure. Cuddy tells them they can to the biopsy if they can induce a seizure. House tries playing the patient his own music, and it works. They schedule the biopsy and a meeting back in the lecture hall.
House comes in with the results. He start playing back a mellow vinyl record, recorded by the patient before he became a punk rocker. He tells Amber she played a good game, but for the wrong reasons. He tells her that results don't always count - to work for him she would have to be willing to lose. He fires her. He turns to Thirteen next and fires her too. He tells her he would keep her if he had three spots.
Amber goes to tell the patient he has measles and will live a long life. She tells the patient she got fired. She's with the patient trying not to care about it. He admits having no regrets isn't easy.
Cuddy comes in and tells House he screwed up and he can't have three male fellows. She told him to hire Taub and Kutner because she thought House would do the opposite and instead hire Thirteen and Amber. Cuddy needs him to hire one of the women and urges that he hires the one that actually cares about people. House says they both do but she suggests Thirteen, to which House agrees. Suddenly, she turns back to confront him because she realizes House planned it that way. He knew if he stacked his team with male employees she would be forced to have him hire a third applicant instead of just two. Cuddy is glad the game is over, with House suggesting otherwise by asking her, "How long have you known me?".
Once she's left, House gets up from the desk and heads for the other door, taking one final look at the lecture hall before he shuts off the lights and leaves, the hall now shrouded in darkness.
==Eliminations and Saves==
* Amber's the last person to be eliminated. She's fired by House for not caring about her patients, giving an oxygen tank to a smoking addict leading to an explosion, and for being unwilling to lose. Amber is allowed to stay and works with Wilson until the end of Season 4.
* Thirteen's fired by House but Cuddy saves her to prevent a male dominated team.
==Winners and House's New Team==
* Thirteen
* Taub
* Kutner
==Major Events==
*It's revealed that two months have passed since House began searching for new applicants to become members of his diagnostic team.
*When asked who they would pick for House's team, Cuddy suggests Taub and Kutner while Chase's choices are Taub and Amber. Cameron declines to give an opinion figuring House would fire her choices.
*Wilson reveals that he has misdiagnosed a patient. Later House learns of Wilson's intentions to give his patient money to make up for the mistakes he made during the diagnosis process.
*Amber Volakis is fired along with Thirteen.
*Cuddy confronts House over his decision and learns that he was manipulating her all along.
*Thirteen is hired again.
*With the games over, Chris Taub, Lawrence Kutner and Thirteen are hired and as such, officially become the members of House's new diagnostics team, replacing Robert Chase and Allison Cameron while Foreman stays on, having special privileges as Cuddy's "eyes and ears".
==Zebra Factor 4/10==
Measles used to be very common but is getting increasingly rare due to widespread vaccination. It still infects a few thousand people a year, generally children who haven't been vaccinated.
==Trivia==
*Punk Rock is a form of rock music that developed in the 1970s in the United States, England and Australia that stressed simple band setup, lyrics and chord progressions with very little in the way of production values. Elvis Costello and Talking Heads are two still active artists who developed their music during this period of time.
*Titus Flavius Vespanianus was a Roman Emperor in the 1st century AD.
*The reference to the viper head on a staff is a description of the Rod of Asclepius, a symbol of the medical profession that dates back to Ancient Greece.
*One of the rare episodes when House puts on a lab coat, but Chase also notes that Foreman has stopped wearing his lab coat.
*The scoreboard for the Game reads "Bitch Kutner 13 Taub".
*Perry Como was a popular singer in the 1950s and 1960s whose easy listening music and relaxed style were often parodied by later artists.
*House's remark that Cuddy's is "the face that launched a thousand long faces" is a reference to Helen of Troy having "the face that launched a thousand ships" and started the Trojan War.
*Thelonious Monk was a jazz pianist and composer.
*House mentions that the guitar song being played in the background during the final firing process to choose his team was composed by Jim Moskowitz, who later came to be known as Jimmy Quidd, the rock star patient they just diagnosed. In reality, it was Hugh Laurie (Greg House) who composed and played the entire song, Laurie a musician who in addition to singing can also play the guitar, piano, harmonica, drums and saxophone. In addition to demonstrating his talents on various episodes of "House", Laurie regularly sang, played the guitar or piano during various segments of "A Bit of Fry and Laurie", a sketch comedy show he did with his comedy partner, Stephen Fry, the show itself airing in the United Kingdom from January 13, 1989 to April 2, 1995.
* The final song played when House is talking to Cuddy is "Spirit in the Sky" by Norman Greenbaum. The track was cut and pasted so that the intro segued directly into the outro. It was later covered by a band called Doctor and the Medics, a trivial reference to House and his new team.
**Some airings of this episode plays the song more faster than how it usually sounds. This could be a part of the track's cut and pasting in order to have the intro transition directly to the outro.
* Ian says his guitar is a "'64 Teardrop Reissue". Vox released a limited edition run of their classic 1964 Teardrop guitars in 2007, however, Ian's guitar's headstock has the Phantom Guitar Works logo. Phantom makes custom guitars using the Teardrop shape, and they often cost more than the official Teardrops manufactured by Vox. Ian's guitar is also a semi-hollowbody. Vox never manufactured a reissued semi-hollowbody Teardrop. 
==Goofs==
*When House is playing loud music to Jimmy in order to induce a seizure, you can still hear him clearly when he asks Jimmy what his influences are. This is an example of a dramatic convention known as Acoustic License
==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
*Jesse Spencer as Robert Chase
*Anne Dudek as Amber Volakis
*Peter Jacobson as Chris Taub
*Kal Penn as Lawrence Kutner
*Olivia Wilde as Remy Hadley
*Matt DeCaro as McKenna
*Alex Weed as Ian
*Nick McCallum as Fred
*Eli Bildner as Chris
*Jeremy Renner as Jimmy Quidd
*Boris Kievsky as Club Owner
*Darren S. Kim as Parent One
*Tanika Brown McKelvy as Parent Two
*Kes Reed Miller as Kid One
*Olivia Eve Everhard as Kid Two
*Spencir Bridges as Kid Three
*Dina Defterios as Luisa Maria
*Justin Brannock as Rex
*Bobbin Bergstrom as Nurse
*Raf Mauro as Doctor
==Links==
*Episode page at IMDB
*Episode page at House MD Guide
*Quotes at House MD Quotes
*Episode article at Wikipedia
*Episode review at Blogcritics
*A review of the medicine at Polite Dissent
Category:Episodes
Category:Season 4
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Category:Episodes 9