Henry Dobson

Henry Dobson was a recurring character on House during the early part of the fourth season. Known to Gregory House as "Ridiculously Old Fraud", "Scooter" or "Bosley" was one of the forty applicants who applied for the three open fellowship positions at the start of Season 4. He survived to the last seven, being eliminated at the end of the episode Guardian Angels.
He was portrayed by Carmen Argenziano.
== Background and role in the competition ==
Henry was, by far, the oldest of the applicants (although many other applicants, such as Chris Taub, were in their forties). He sat at the back of the room and made many diagnostic suggestions to bring attention to himself. He was eventually assigned by House to do an echocardiogram with two other doctors, which proved to be his eventual undoing.
Dobson's first task was to do an environmental scan with Dr. Mason and Dr. Ashka. Originally, the two younger doctors decided to break in through a second-floor window and leave the older Dobson behind. However, Dobson surprised them by opening the window from the inside, telling them he lied to the landlord about being the patient's uncle to gain access.
House was impressed by Henry's medical knowledge, but was intrigued by the fact that when he was assigned a medical procedure, he asked one of the younger doctors to do it for him. At the time, he claimed that he wouldn't improve his chances by showing he could do one of another of the hundreds of echocardiograms he's done in his life. However, by the end of The Right Stuff, House realized that Henry was avoiding doing procedures on patients because he had never done them before - he had never graduated medical school.
Henry admitted he had spent thirty years as an admissions officer at Columbia University's medical school. He had absorbed a great deal of medical knowledge from auditing classes, but never managed to get a degree. Surprisingly, House agreed to keep him on and promised him a consultant job under his supervision if he survived.
Henry thrived even though it was finally revealed he was not a real doctor. Despite the protests and challenges from the other applicants (particularly Taub, with whom Henry had an antagonistic relationship), Henry was usually right, and House usually agreed with and supported him.
However, at the end of Guardian Angels, House decided that Henry had to be the one to be fired. Henry brought an immense knowledge of medicine to the table which House already had. Furthermore, Henry's diagnoses of patients usually agreed with House's, but House's preferred diagnostic method was to have his team members disagree with him. Henry summed up the situation as, "You don't need someone to tell you what you're already thinking”, with which, quite fittingly, House agreed.
Henry took his firing well and promised to call James Wilson if he felt like hanging out with House. Notably, Henry was one of the few people in the series with whom House had expressed a desire to befriend and was the only fellowship candidate other than Amber Volakis toward whom House expressed any remorse upon dismissal.
==Appearances==
== References ==
Henry Dobson character page at IMDB
Henry Dobson fan group at Facebook
Henry Dobson page at Facebook
Henry Dobson quotes
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