If there was to be a Cameron whump episode--similar to Euphoria and Nobody's fault-- where do you think it would be best placed in the show and what do you think it should be about?
This is such a fun question, because she deserves a whump episode.
I think when it should happen is pretty easy: mid-season three, after Tritter but before the FWB arc. Sometime around One Day One Room. I think this makes sense for a few reasons, mostly that it sets up her actions in the rest of the season: not just the Chase thing, but also her decision to quit Diagnostics in the finale.
There was something of a running theme in S2 episodes of Cameron growing more cynical and less happy with Diagnostics/House: there are two early episodes (TB or Not TB and Hunting) that ask her and make the case that she isn't particularly happy with her life or the job, and she has several additional episodes where the cases take real tolls on her: the couple she admires in Clueless is actually a poisoning case; Sleeping Dogs Lie and Spin are both episodes where despite her hopes, the "bad guy" is rewarded. Foreman stabs her with a needle because he doesn't believe she'd help him otherwise (probably the bigger insult); her article is "stolen," her career stagnant, she is passed over for leadership in favor of Foreman. Cameron isn't miserable, but she isn't getting any wins, she keeps having her faith shaken and taken advantage of.
This only gets worse in S3: she bends her own morals in Informed Consent, and then more or less kills the patient in Words and Deeds by wiping his memories by mistake. Her morals might not exactly be slipping, but she's making compromises she never has before: she lies to Tritter and covers for House's drug use, where a year before she was furious at the patient in Spin for just that.
Speaking of House, Cameron isn't doing great here either: while she gave up on him after their date and seems to have largely moved on, she has always sort of idealized him and wanted to not just imagine the best in him, but see him as and acting nobly. Cameron defends and is protective of House in moments where he is vulnerable or trying to be a better person, but tends to be very angry and act betrayed when he doesn't "live up to" these ideals.
I think it's a bit simplistic to say as House does that she "wants a project," someone to fix, but it's clear that Cameron in S1 idealizes House in a way she never does again: she sees him as "someone who always does what's right," she denies the possibility of him being a drug addict entirely and seems to view him with a kind of nobility. This never quite goes away -- she has high expectations for House -- but she grows more and more frustrated that he isn't that person, too. She's certainly never that vulnerable with House again after S1. All this paints a picture of S3 Cameron as someone kind of primed to quit, right? She's not particularly happy even if she's not miserable; she doesn't have a lot to keep her in Diagnostics. House isn't wrong when he later says she "quit because of Chase:" with Chase gone, her reasons for staying are no longer compelling enough to keep her around.
(From another perspective, too, this is why it makes sense she went to and in her own words fell for Chase in S3: he is the only person in that office who hasn't hurt her. She cares about House and Foreman, but they have both recently said and done things that prove Cameron does not matter to them as much as their own desires. Chase, at least, offers to hang out when she's upset.)
This is why I think mid-S3 is Prime Whump Timing: Cameron is already looking to make a change (she is about to fake date herself with Chase), already not super pleased with her life, and a Big Incident would propel her to act and maybe even articulate those feelings.
As for what... IDK. Cameron has already had a health scare in Hunting, and I almost think her Whump Episode is better served as psychological, since she's always been much more affected by the emotions of others. Maybe she almost kills another patient, someone she likes, cares about, in her desperation to save them. Maybe we get the patient from Better Half, five years too early. Cameron does something Morally Dubious, she throws aside her ethics, almost lets the husband die to save the miserable wife.
She spirals. She hates this. She did the wrong thing. House, meanwhile, loves this. He's egging her on: she's finally becoming effective, a 'better doctor.' Cameron is torn: she wants to help, to save the day, but not change. She wants to change, but she wants things to stay the same. House is proud of her for being cynical and cold, and she realizes she doesn't want that, that she has crossed from no longer seeking his approval to actively viewing his approval as a bad sign (as is her eventual argument in S6: House makes people worse). So then what's the point? What has she gotten out of the last three years? Five? Ten? Can she succeed and be a good doctor (and person) without throwing all her values away?
House says: no, because your values are rigid and incorrect and based on the idea that the world is made of kittens and rainbows.
Foreman says: no, because you have to be pragmatic and logical like me (three episodes before his own idealism breakdown begins).
Chase says: why not? House complains about your opinions but he usually listens. Who cares? (She's like, that's rich coming from someone with no opinions) He doesn't see what she's panicking about.
Cameron starts acting out, a bit like Hunting. Okay, she's unhappy; she has to address this. She doesn't know how, what exactly she wants to change. Sleeping with Chase helped last time (maybe we kick that arc an episode early). House finds this annoying: she's only unhappy because she's refusing to let herself be happy; he thinks the new cynical Cameron is an improvement. He doesn't understand that this is the problem: not just that she acted cynically, but that she now understands he's sincere.
It kind of resolves itself. It doesn't go anywhere; Cameron gets the last word but sticks around. House cracks jokes about her mid-life crisis and "boy-toy." But then at the end of S3, she quits, because House will be fine without her -- and she's better off without him.
