Lucas Douglas

Lucas Douglas was a recurring character on House during the fifth and sixth season. He was a private investigator hired by House in Season 5 to keep track of Wilson. In Season 6, he became Lisa Cuddy's boyfriend. He briefly became her fiancé until she ended the relationship and she went to be with House at the end of the season.
At first glance, Lucas seems ill suited to be a private investigator. He has difficulty disguising himself and can be easily spotted as an impostor in many situations. He cannot follow people without being spotted. He cannot pick appropriate places for carrying out surveillance.
However, these weaknesses often made people underestimate him. He is capable of great feats of deduction, very little escapes his attention, he can gather information quickly when given a chance, he finds out the most interesting facts about everyone, and he is almost always right about his conclusions about people. He correctly surmised that House wanted him to keep an eye on Wilson before House even mentioned his name.
As the series progresses from Season 5 to Season 6, Lucas' investigative skills become even more impressive. He woos Cuddy and there is talk of marriage as he bonds to Rachel Cuddy as well.
In 2008, there was a rumor that Lucas would be spun off into his own show, but no pilot based on the idea was ever developed.
He was portrayed by actor Michael Weston.
==The Series==
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S5=
Not Cancer
Lucas first appears in Not Cancer. He was in House's conference room pretending to be the coffee maker repair man. However, Kutner spotted that Lucas was wearing argyle socks with construction boots. House told his team that Lucas was a private eye. Taub hoped that this meant that they wouldn't have to break into peoples houses anymore. However, Lucas quickly showed his worth by finding out that one of the dead patients had been cheating on his spouse and he also managed to get additional amateur footage of the MMA bout where one of the other patients died (from three different angles).
House ostensibly hires Lucas to check out Dr. O'Shea, but Lucas impresses House by telling him that he knows he's really concerned about Wilson. He uses several forms of surveillance and finds out that Cameron and Cuddy have been visiting Wilson and that he had been going to group therapy to deal with the loss of Amber Volakis. Lucas managed to disguise himself effectively in the same group because his own mother had recently passed away. However, he has to tell House that Wilson hasn't mentioned him once during all the time Lucas listened to him.
Lucas does show more ineptitudue when he tries to discreetly follow an attractive girl out of a book store but she quicky notices him following her and tells him to stop.
:House: How many friends do you have?
:Lucas: Seventeen.
:House: Seriously? Do you keep a list or something?
:Lucas:No, I knew this conversation was really about you, so I gave you an answer so you could get back to your train of thought.
Lucas' fees soon start to pile up and House keeps putting him off as the bill continues to climb. House tries to pass off the bills as legitimate hospital expenses, but Cuddy immediately catches on to things like a $2,300 bill to fix a coffee machine.
House goes to see Wilson, who tries to turf him out. House admits that he hired Lucas to spy on him, and Wilson just gets upset and demands House leave.
After the confrontation, House turns back to Lucas and admits Wilson was his only friend. House and Lucas start to bond as a result.
When House thinks his patient has stem cell cancer, he can't convince Cuddy to let him open the patient's skull to look for it. Instead, he cons Lucas into switching out the patient's medication, which makes her crash. Lucas meets House when they do surgery on the patient and confronts House about saying that nothing bad would happen. House assures him that the patient will be fine and House's diagnosis is confirmed.
At the end of the episode, House calls Lucas and asks to put him on retainer.
Adverse Events
Lucas reappears in the next episode, Adverse Events. He meets House in the cafeteria when he realizes House has continued to pass off his bills as hospital expenses. Cuddy confronts them and accidentally rejects a legitimate expense. Lucas pays Cuddy a compliment and admits to House that he finds her attractive.
House had put Lucas to work digging up dirt on his team. Lucas couldn't find anything bad about Foreman but finds out that Thirteen had paid an obscene amount of interest on a car loan and that Kutner holds the world's record for longest distance crawling. He also finds out that Taub's wife has a large secret bank account. House starts to tease Taub about it, but Lucas warns House that if he breaks up Taub's marriage, he's probably going to lose Taub.
His interest in Cuddy leads him to search her office and Cuddy catches him going through her desk. However, he says that all he found out was routine things like she has a sister, she still keeps in touch with her mother and went to the University of Michigan. On his way out, he gives her some roses and offers to spy on House for her. When Cuddy says she can't afford it, Lucas agrees to take whatever she can afford.
However, this is all a plot cooked up by House. House plans to use the information provided by Lucas to get Cuddy to reveal something about herself to Lucas and pass it on to House. However, Lucas also quickly murmises that, despite House's protests and denials to the contrary, that House was also interested in Cuddy. He challenges House to see "who gets there first".
Lucas presents an embarrassing photo to Cuddy - a picture of House cheerleading at Johns Hopkins University. Lucas says that although House says he played Lacrosse there, he was only on the cheer squad. However, Lucas admits it was all a deception to get her to reveal something personal. However, Cuddy says she knew it was a fake all along and that Lucas was working for House. Lucas says if that's the case, why she agreed to meet him. He intimates she's interested in him too.
However, later back at 221B Baker Street Lucas and House discuss that the cheerleader photo was real. House doesn't want to discuss it except to say that there was a woman involved.
Lucky Thirteen
When Wilson takes a donut from House after claiming to have had a heavy breakfast, House doubts that he was actually at the diner he claimed to be at. Lucas thinks House is just worried, but agrees to help. He also steals Thirteen's apartment key so House can use it to do an environmental scan.
While House and Lucas stake out Wilson's apartment, they see a woman who appears to be a prostitute heading towards Wilson's building. House is astounded when she winds up in Wilson's apartment. House confronts Wilson, who says that she's his new girlfriend and is giving up prostitution to go to law school. House and Lucas meet later and discuss what to do about it.
However, when Lucas comes to House with drug paraphernalia from Wilson's trash, House realizes that Wilson is deliberately misleading him into thinking he's in a downward spiral. 
|-|
S6=
When Cuddy suspected someone was stealing from Accounting, she hired Lucas as he was the only detective that she knew. This time, Cuddy started to like him because of his dependability so she started a relationship with him. Lucas and Rachel also seemed to bond quickly and he often babysat with her. However, they both kept the relationship secret from House.
Known Unknowns
House has just acknowledged his feelings for Cuddy, and follows her to a medical conference to try to get closer to her. However, when he goes to offer to babysit Rachel, Cuddy answered the door and told him it wasn't a problem. House wonders why Rachel isn't making any noise because she usually fusses when Cuddy isn't holding her, and Cuddy tells him that she had taken her downstairs to daycare. However, House hears Rachel and he enters the hotel suite. There, he found Rachel in the arms of Lucas. Lucas noted that the situation was awkward, House agreed so he left the room.
Cuddy, Lucas, House and Wilson eventually go to dinner together. House asked how the two of them met, so Cuddy told them the story about the accounting theft. Lucas said that they would have announced their relationship earlier, but Cuddy had told Lucas about House's hallucination about sleeping with her and how he had entered rehab. He realizes that he's babbling and offers to buy House a ginger ale, which House accepts.
Teamwork
Wilson confronts Cuddy about her relationship with Lucas, saying that she should have told him before he gave House advice on how to get close to her.
When Cuddy speaks to Lucas about it, Lucas tells her that House and Wilson are getting in the way of their relationship. Cuddy realized that he was right and she apologized.
The episode also shows Lucas making another remarkable observation. Chase found Lucas in the doctor's lounge and asked why he was there. Lucas told him that it seemed like a good place to read doctors charts. From there unfolds one of the most remarkable uses of dramatic irony in the series where the audience is aware that this is the time of the events in The Tyrant where Chase had taken steps to hasten President Dibala's death, but Lucas is not. Lucas tells Chase he had noticed that Chase's charts were much more precise than any of the other doctors charts, but sometime over the past four weeks, he had stopped being so exact. Lucas knew that Chase was planning on leaving the hospital and told him that it was wrong to run away from his problems. As Chase left the room, Lucas showed his opportunism by asking for dirt on the other members of House's team.
When House gets reckless with his patient, Cuddy accuses him of doing it because he's upset with her relationship with Lucas. However, unbeknownst to her, it's only a ploy to get Taub and Thirteen to return to his team. However, House's feelings show when he sees Cuddy and Lucas leaving the hospital together at the end of the day.
Ignorance is Bliss
House starts plotting to actively break up Cuddy and Lucas' budding relationship. His plan is to crash their Thanksgiving dinner and drive them apart. However, he has no idea where Julia Cuddy lives and starts calling around to try to find out. In order to try to ingratiate himself to Cuddy, House works extra clinic duty. The strategy appears to work and Cuddy invites him to dinner. Wilson warns House that it may be a trick because the address is three hours away, but House has already checked and has found the address is legitimate.
However, when House arrives at the address he's been given, he finds only a housesitter, who offers him a sandwich. The home belongs to one of Cuddy's other relatives who is on vacation. Meanwhile, Lucas enjoys dinner with Cuddy's family at Julia's house.
When Lucas returned home, he finds a drunk House on his sofa, admitting that Cuddy gave him lots of chances and he ruined every one of them, Lucas offers House a coffee, but instead House tries to stand up, says he's too pathetic for Cuddy, then collapses on the floor. Just before he passes out, he says that he loves Cuddy.
The next day, Cuddy confronts House and asks what he said to Lucas because Lucas has broken up with her because he says he didn't know how much there was between House and Cuddy. However, House says he's too drunk to remember what he said to Lucas. She tells him she originally felt bad for sending him to the wrong address for dinner, but now realizes he doesn't deserve her sympathy. She also makes it clear there was never anything between them.
However, a jubilant House rushes into Wilson's office saying his plan to break them up worked. However, Wilson also thinks Lucas was stupid for falling for it. House tries to ask Cuddy out, but she's not in the mood for it.
House starts to think something is up. He offers Cuddy a pair of tickets to a carnival so she can go with Rachel. When Cuddy turns them down, House realizes she's feeling guilty about something and realizes the breakup with Lucas was a fake. House tells Wilson he's giving up his plan to break them up. 
Cuddy meets up with Lucas and tells him House knows that they are still together. When he asks how she knows, she says she just does. They both wonder if House isn't actually nicer than he seems to be.
Wilson
Cuddy asks Wilson if his ex-wife Bonnie Wilson is still selling real estate, then tells Wilson she's thinking of moving into a loft with Lucas. Wilson realizes that the reason she asked about Bonnie is to get Wilson's blessing for the relationship. Wilson breaks the news to House who immediately starts overanalyzing why they're moving into a loft.
Cuddy finds a loft that she likes, but Wilson wants to get back at her for hurting House so he goes behind her back to buy it. He and House move in together.
Remorse
In Remorse, Lucas is seen briefly in Cuddy's office at the end of the episode as she gets ready to leave for the day.
Moving the Chains
House and Wilson become the victims of an increasingly severe series of pranks. They first blame each other. However, House realizes that Wilson didn't have the right type of screwdriver to loosen his assist bar. He convinces Wilson to lay in wait for the real prankster. After being up for several hours, Wilson believes that House is just playing another prank on him, but when the sprinklers go off and their big screen television is destroyed, Wilson realizes that House would never hurt the television.
As House and Wilson are talking about the issue in the cafeteria, House trips. He turns around to find Lucas giving an insincere apology for the "accident". He admits he played the pranks on House and Wilson to get revenge for moving into the loft that Cuddy liked. House threatens to retaliate, but Lucas warns him that if they do, he will tell Cuddy that it was Wilson and House who outbid her for the loft. Wilson and House find themselves backing down. At the end of the episode Cuddy asks Lucas about the pranks, but doesn't believe him when he denies involvement. In another great moment of dramatic irony, Cuddy reveals she already knew it was Wilson who bought the loft.
5 to 9
This episode, which focuses on Cuddy, also manages to help develop Lucas' character and the relationship between the two.
Just prior to the episode, House and Lucas are together staking out someone Lucas is investigating for possible insurance fraud. Lucas brags that he and Cuddy have sex every morning, and House takes the opportunity to bet that he can interrupt their lovemaking by sending an emergency page.
Lucas arrives at Cuddy's house and, although she's in a hurry, she agrees to have sex with Lucas. On cue, House sends her an emergency page. To be fair to the bet, Lucas tells Cuddy she should answer it, but Cuddy ignores it and they head to the bedroom. Unforunately, Lucas has an incident of premature ejaculation and Cuddy leaves harried and sexually frustrated.
Lucas decides to have a nap after staying up all night, but to get his rest he turns off all the phones in the house. However, Cuddy has desperately been trying to get in contact with her housekeeper to see if Rachel Cuddy's fever has broken.
Lucas surprises Cuddy for lunch, but she's still upset about not being able to reach her housekeeper. Lucas tells her about turning off the phones, and the situation doesn't improve when he mentions Rachel no longer has a fever but now has a rash. When Cuddy tries to call her housekeeper again, the phone in Lucas' pocket rings instead. He realizes he's picked up the wrong phone. Cuddy starts talking about her problems with Atlantic Net and Lucas muses that maybe they could dig up something embarrassing about the company president. Cuddy doesn't want to do that, but is intrigued about how Lucas would even find him. Lucas once again shows his acumen by finding out where the company president is having lunch so Cuddy can confront him about the contract. 
Lucas indirectly saves the day again when she uses a gift from Lucas, a recording device disguised as a flower, to get an incriminating statement from Gail.
At the end of the episode, Cuddy enjoys a night at home with Lucas and Rachel.
Knight Fall
House's resentment about the pranks doesn't prevent him from continuing to use Lucas' services. When Sam Carr comes back into Wilson's life, House hires Lucas to dig up dirt on her. Lucas even manages to get copies of Sam's therapy notes, but the only negative information he can find about her is her complete inability to stay married to anyone. House contemplates looking at the therapy notes, but throws them away instead. This was his last appearance in the series.
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At the end of Season 6, it is revealed that Lucas and Cuddy are planning to move in together. After they announce this, they also agree to get engaged. At that point, House gives Cuddy a gift, a copy of her great-grandfather's book, that he had purchased several years before and never felt it was the time to give her. He meant it as a housewarming gift, but Cuddy thought House had learned about her engagement and panicked. When House confronted her about his feelings in Help Me, she first blows him off, but later reveals the engagement and why she was upset instead of pleased about the gift. By the end of the episode, Cuddy realizes she has deeper feelings for House than for Lucas and breaks off the engagement.
===The End===
Lucas doesn't appear again in the series, but his presence continues to be felt until the end of Season 6.
In The Choice, Cuddy invites House to dinner because Lucas is busy, but he declines.
Finally in Help Me, House gives Cuddy a copy of her great-grandfather's book as a housewarming present. However, unbeknownst to him, Cuddy at first believes that House has found out that she and Lucas are now engaged and is giving them an engagement present. She is relieved when he mentions it's only for a housewarming.
However, she finally has to admit to House later in the episode that she and Lucas are engaged.
When House loses his patient, Cuddy realizes she cares more about him than Lucas. She calls Lucas to tell him she's breaking up with him and instead goes to 221B Baker Street to comfort House and start their real relationship.
==The Character==
It can be properly said that Lucas is a bit of a combination of House and Wilson. Had Wilson been as energetic as Lucas, you could see him performing the same sort of work, and Lucas' observational abilities rival House's.
His role in the series changes, but he often acts as a proxy for one of the other characters on the series. At first, he's clearly the temporary replacement for Wilson even as House works to woo Wilson back. As a result, Lucas become House's "other friend". As a detective, he often outshine's House's team in finding information. As early as Not Cancer, he has found three times as much film footage and has outed one of the dead patients as a philanderer.
However, in Season 6, Lucas becomes the proxy for House's desires. The audience becomes more willing to accept that Huddy is going to happen for real this time when, all of a sudden, it's Lucas who has broken the ice. As such, much of the story arc of Season 6 becomes about House's unsuccessful attempts to break them up. Ironically, House manages to get Cuddy to realize how much she really loves him once House has accepted her relationship with Lucas.
==Appearances==
==Links==
*Entry at Wikipedia
*Notable quotes at quotefully
*A pro-Lucas group at Livejournal
*His Facebook page
*"Luddy" - the definition at Urban Dictionary
*Lucas Douglas fan group at Facebook
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