hi! this is hailey ( @sylviedonnas ) and welcome to my house md rewatch sideblog :)
i first watched the show a few years back, starting in november 2021 and finishing in april 2022. i’ve rewatched clips and random episodes since then, but i haven’t actually gone back and rewatched the whole show. i love all my fandoms and fandom friends lots, but i have a soft spot for the house fandom here because i’ve met some great people through it especially over the last few months. reading everyone’s fics and opinions on the characters has been great!!! that and seeing a rise in rewatch reblogs has inspired me to start my own rewatch and chronicle it on this blog.
pretty sure you can tell who my favourite character is (who could it possibly be? idk guys….).
excited to get going LET THE CHASEBLOGGING COMMENCE ❤️
WILSON: You won’t talk to patients because they lie, but give you a patient with no concept of reality…
HOUSE: If it wasn’t for Socrates, that raving untreated schizophrenic, we wouldn’t have the Socratic method – the best way of teaching everything, apart from juggling chainsaws. Without Isaac Newton, we’d be floating on the ceiling.
after a few months away and after the entire last season of stranger things dropped, chaseblogging is finally back in business 😎 sorry it took so long for me to come back, i promise i wasn't planning on abandoning this project!! embarking on a rewatch with friends pulled me back in and this is a great episode to return with. the socratic method has always been one of my favourite season 1 episodes and revisiting it solidified my love for it.
an interesting tidbit i learned recently is that while this is the sixth episode of the show, it was originally written as the second. i'm glad they switched things around because i think paternity works much better as the second episode. we learn more about the characters and how they interact with each other. not to say that the socratic method doesn't do that, because it does (more on that later), but i think paternity just gives off second episode vibes. it's a nice followup to the pilot.
this episode, the all too important relationship between a mother and son is centre stage. i was really touched by the connection between luke and lucy in this episode. they both don't want to hurt each other. luke doesn't want to push his mother too far, and lucy thinks she's caused so much pain and suffering to her son and doesn't want him to go through any more. it's really just a mother and son trying their best, at the end of the day.
and yes, we're going to talk about chase. of course. this is chaseblogging, after all. i've talked before about how slowly chase actually gets integrated into the story of this show, and although we're not quite there yet, we're getting there. this is where the dam starts to break for him, albeit very slowly. he has some very real, very serious baggage, but at this point in the show, we don't exactly know what that is. i think this is the first case where chase really takes an interest in it because, as we'll learn in cursed, it mirrors his teenage years and what he dealt with growing up. you can clearly see it in his face towards the end of the episode, when he sees luke and lucy hugging.
also wanted to highlight one interaction between foreman and wilson that i have a new appreciation for after rewatching because i think it does a good job not only describing house as a character, but the show in general.
FOREMAN: I thought he liked rationality.
WILSON: He likes puzzles.
FOREMAN: Patients are puzzles?
WILSON: You don’t think so?
FOREMAN: I think they’re people.
WILSON: Yeah. Well, he hates them, and he’s fascinated by them. Tell me you can’t relate to that symptom.
patients really are puzzles in this show, and over the course of an episode the doctors (and viewers) piece them together. sometimes the pieces don't fit, and then they do. this episode is a great example of that - house and the team spend the whole episode thinking she's schizophrenic and only after putting the puzzle pieces together do they realize that she wasn't schizophrenic at all.
this was a great episode to reignite the rewatch, even though it's apparently house's birthday which gets changed like three times over the course of the series. then again, they also retconned chase's age and gave him a random sister eight seasons in, so am i surprised? not really. but the bit of house playing happy birthday on the piano was a nice touch nonetheless <3
AUGUSTINE: You told me your favorite passage. Would you like to hear mine? “Celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again.”
CHASE: The prodigal son.
AUGUSTINE: He’ll be waiting for you when you’re ready.
it's a christmas episode (in october) and it's time to chaseblog for real!!!! as in this is literally just going to be a chase post with some other characters thrown in.
five episodes into the show and chase has been more of a background character than a main character. he's just sort of...there. cameron, who has been working for house for half of chase's tenure, and foreman, who's still new to the team, both seem to have deeper connections to house and to the department than he does and the writers have sort of emphasized them as the leads. the pilot is through foreman's eyes, maternity is through cameron's, and finally we get an episode through chase's with damned if you do.
by this point in the show, we don't know much about the personal lives of the ducklings. we get bits and pieces. we know about foreman's teenage years, that cameron lost someone important to her, and that chase got his job because his dad made a phone call. we're still a few episodes away from cursed, the big chase trauma/lore dump episode (and i'm already looking forward to recapping that) but damned if you do still does a great job at giving us a little insight into his background, more specifically his religious background.
chase's initial reaction to finding out that augustine is a nun is interesting in its own right. he hates nuns. this is our first clue that something is connecting chase to this case whether he wants it to or not. something personal and real. his first interaction with her without any of the other doctors present is incredibly revealing. she asks if he always wanted to be a doctor. he says yes, always, but without a hint of conviction in his voice, and house proves that right during his own conversation with chase. he did what his dad wanted him to do. be a doctor. augustine views the church and her sisters as the family she wished she had growing up. this is something that this episode doesn't really touch on, but it does come up later in the show that chase also felt the same way when he was in seminary. first time viewers back in 2004 probably didn't have chase connecting with a nun on their bingo cards but hey. this isn't the craziest thing to happen on this show. him praying with her despite struggling with his own beliefs and OF COURSE the insane prodigal son line that we all go insane over. this is a great episode for the chasenators.
in terms of other characters, i really love the conversation between foreman and cameron about faith and belief and the idea that cameron doesn't believe in god but she believes in house. and the foreman and house relationship is the gift that keeps on giving in this first season in a variety of ways, but notably when house praises foreman in front of cameron. be like foreman. stand up for what you believe in.
damned if you do isn't really a classic chase centric episode, but with all the focus and the revelations we get, it certainly feels like one. it unknowingly sets up some interesting storylines for him later on in the show. and, of course, the ending with house and wilson having dinner as silent night plays will forever be iconic <3
FOREMAN: Look, I realize it’s tough to break bad news to family –
CAMERON: Not as tough as hearing it.
FOREMAN: And I guess being the poor guy dying is toughest of all?
CAMERON: No. It’s easier to die than to watch someone die.
as sheryl crow once famously sang, the first cut is the deepest, and maternity is the first truly emotional episode of house. not that the other patients and their cases didn't matter, because they did, but this is the first episode that makes us truly feel bad for the patients, and for the team having to treat them. this is the first episode that cuts deep. simply put, it's a very sad episode. the patients aren't adults, they're babies, and one of them dies. it's one of season 1's best, and one of my favourite episodes of the season when i was watching this show for the first time. i know what happens and yet i was tearing up watching it.
not that there isn't much to say about the other characters in this episode, because there is, but i can't stop thinking about cameron in particular because her arc in this episode was just so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
oh cam my girl...jennifer morrison was so amazing in this episode. she did some incredible work and sometimes it was just through expressions and not by speaking. by this point in the show, we've established that she cares, and is kind and goodnatured, but it's in this episode where we really see that on display. she doesn't know how to tell judy and kim that their baby is sick. she snaps when foreman and wilson confront her for not being honest with them. when their baby dies, and it's cameron's job to break the news to them, she takes one look at them and just freezes up. she can't do it. it's too much for her. she freezes, because she's been here before. she's been on the other side watching her world fall apart in real time. not that we know anything about that just yet. i absolutely love what the writers did with her in this episode. for the duration of it, we can tell that there's something about this case that makes it difficult for her for handle, that makes it personal and real in a way. by the end of it, we still don't know what it is. it's all a mystery. true to form with this show.
and let's not forget the wilsoncameron of it all. watching their scenes in this episode made me wish we got more of them in the show as a whole. they finally paired up a fellow with wilson for the first time, at least for a little while, and of course it's cameron. the two people who care. more than anything else in the world, they care. and wilson cares enough about cameron to do the hardest part of her job for her.
the scene where house performs the autopsy on judy and kim's baby is very brief, and yet it's one of the most haunting scenes in the show. the image of house and the baby in a dark room alone is just. agh. it still sticks with me.
this is very much a cameron case as i've established but chase's little moments with the infant patients are VERY MUCH on my mind. the little "all done" when he's finished the bloodwork and the little "hi" to maxine's mom as he's wheeling maxine in what if i cried!!!!!! never want to see anyone say he doesn't care ever again he is so sweet......
maternity is dark and emotional but it's still an enjoyable episode because the case hooks you from the first frame. i love what it showed us about cameron, how much she cares, how much she wears her heart on her sleeve. hey, people on reddit who think she's evil and heartless and awful, how does it feel to be so wrong?
DAD: You’re the one [Brandon] hasn’t met. How can you treat someone without meeting them?
HOUSE: It’s easy if you don’t give a crap about them. That’s a good thing. If emotions made you act rationally, then they wouldn’t be called emotions, would they? That’s why we have this nice division of labor. You hold his hand, I get him better. If I start tucking him in at night, well, that’s not fair to you guys, and if you start prescribing medicine, that’s not fair to me. So what I want to know is: who stepped on my side of the med? Who cared enough to get stupid enough to give him his cough medicine?
occam's razor is such an interesting episode to me because, while rewatching it, i was much more interested in our ppth pals than the actual patient. i think a couple of people have pointed this out already in their own recaps of this episode but it's something i really thought about as i watched this episode so i'm just going to bring it up again- with rebecca and dan, both of their cases were either directly or indirectly tied to house, whether it was to him personally or to a discovery he made about a clinic patient. brandon doesn't really...fit any of that criteria! it's not to say that his case bored me, but let's just say i can think of more interesting ones.
i'm admittedly not much of a chameron fan (i don't hate them trust that i'm not a hater and i will always be seated for a good chameron fic though shoutout helen) but their scenes in this episode are so insane especially thinking about how their relationship progresses throughout the show. this ep wasn't about them but it sort of was in a way. we got a little look into their dynamic and i love it. i know we as a fandom always make jokes about foreman being sick of them and their shit and OH IS HE EVER IN THIS EPISODE. him telling chase it's a bad idea to pursue cameron because they work together....oh foreman let's flash forward a few years because you're gonna hate it. can you just imagine what those two were like on their own before foreman came into the picture and started clocking their shit? and i absolutely adore cam's "no <3" when chase asks her out at the end. that's right queen you tell him!!!!
the huddy banter really stood out to me this episode and i loved it. hugh and lisa have amazing chemistry (and we're only on episode 3!!!) and they play off of each other so well. you can absolutely tell that these two have a history outside the hospital (even though that hasn't been revealed quite yet at this point in the show) and their scenes were absolutely some of my faves in this episode.
i've talked about this at length in my previous two recaps but once again i loved foreman and his relationship with house in this episode and their banter was top tier too ("i think your argument is specious" "i think your tie is ugly" #1 exchange in this episode. amazing 100/10 no notes). the little moment where house applauds foreman for reading the book and researching the symptoms!!! honestly, this rewatch is really making me appreciate their relationship more because it's so insane and important especially in this first season. not that i wasn't already, but rewatching this show (and this episode in particular) in full for the first time in four years is really making me realize how important it really is to both characters and their development.
I love what we see of house this episode. his little exchange with brandon's parents and fiance, when they note that he's the only doctor from diagnostics that they haven't seen, and with one of his clinic patients, the MP3 player teen (we all know the one. hah) is a great insight into his character. what would you want, a doctor who holds your hand while you die, or a doctor who ignores you while you get better?
occam's razor is still a good episode despite the patient's case sort of...falling flat for me. as i said above, i really loved the insight we got into the dynamics within the core group of characters (house, wilson, cuddy, chase, cameron & foreman) and the banter we got. and that ending shot of house with the pills!!! this show always has the most insane ending shots. we also got leather jacket chase for the first time and. hey. i'm not complaining about that either :)
DAD: Look, you want us to consent to this? I don’t even understand what you’re talking about.
FOREMAN: Well, the antiviral.. Look, I’m sorry, I can explain this as best I can, but the notion that you’re gonna fully understand your son’s treatment and make an informed decision is..it’s kind of insane. Now, here’s what you need to know. It’s dangerous, it could kill him, you should do it.
it’s never lupus, but it’s also never orange after the pilot. i love the fact that we get actually good colourization this episode. haha.
a little tidbit i noticed right off the bat is that they actually used part of one of the unaired pilot scenes at the beginning of this episode. there are two deleted scenes from the pilot, one with house and wilson, and one with the ducklings where they talk about their specialities. the little bit they used cuts cameron's part out entirely and only shows foreman and chase bored (crossword lover chase!!) in house's office, so we get to see a little bit of the foremanchase dynamic and it's funny, especially since the show, at this point, gives foreman and cameron's dynamic way more attention than chase's dynamic with either of them. i'm glad they used at least a little bit of that scene in the show.
house says everybody lies, and oh man does paternity hit that square on the head. as much as i love the pilot, i feel like this episode does a better job at diving into that aspect. in paternity, the lie almost kills dan, and it's not just any lie, it's a lie from his parents of all people. it's revealed at the end of the episode that he knew from a young age, but regardless, them lying to house and the team could've very well killed their son. not to get too dark but...lies can kill. and this one could've killed dan. i love how house's interaction with the anti-vax mom ties back to dan. her choices affected her child, and the choices that dan's biological mother made affected her son, even if she didn't know it.
as i said in my pilot recap, that episode does a great job of establishing connections and introducing us to the characters. this episode does a great job of expanding further on those connections. we get more huddy banter, hilson banter, foremanchase banter, even a chameron scene! foreman and house also have their moments, of course. he's still learning the ropes, still learning how house operates, and so are we! love that we're going on this journey with you foreman. i also love the continued focus on foreman and cameron as the duo at the centre of it all. love chase, but we haven't reached his moment in the spotlight just yet. he's getting there though...he got more screen time and participated in the ddx more. we're getting somewhere, chasenators.
this is such a strong second episode and i honestly forgot how much i loved it when i first watched it. the ending with house on the lacrosse field, walking out alone, is one of the best ending shots in the whole show. still love it <3
REBECCA: I just want to die with a little dignity.
HOUSE: There’s no such thing. Our bodies break down, sometimes when we’re 90, sometimes before we’re even born, but it always happens and there’s never any dignity in it. I don’t care if you can walk, see, wipe your own ass. It’s always ugly. Always. You can live with dignity, we can’t die with it.
pilot episodes are meant to rein us in and keep us hooked and tuning in every week. in recent years, with the rise of streaming and bingewatching, i'm sure i'm not alone in saying that that formula has changed. nowadays, some pilot episodes are crammed with plot details and characters because the people who make these shows know that viewers don't have to wait until next week to watch (for the most part). we can press play as soon as the pilot ends. in the case of television in the early 2000s, no such streaming service existed, and if you liked a show enough to keep tuning in, you'd tune in on a weekly basis. pilots pre-streaming had to keep you guessing and get you hooked enough to want to watch the next episode. you have to like it enough to wait.
when i think about the pilot episodes of shows that i love, i notice they do a great job at establishing connections between characters. those connections obviously grow and evolve over the course of the episode, and eventually the show as a whole, but it's in the first episode that we learn what, and who, connects these characters. when pilots are given room to breathe, those connections are more visible.
in the pilot episode of bones, for example, connections are established between booth, brennan, and her team of 'squints'. more importantly, though, the connection is established between brennan and the bones she examines. to her, the bones aren't just bones. they're still people. in the pilot episode of the x files, the now famous partnership between mulder and scully is born. scully, incredibly skeptical, only knows mulder by reputation, until she opens the door to his basement lab, and over the course of the episode, two strangers begin to trust each other, even if they can't trust anyone else.
everybody lies establishes connections very early on. from the first scene after the teaser, we can tell that house and wilson are friends through their banter alone. we can tell that cameron and chase are doctors who've been here a while, with the way they're not surprised at house's behaviour. they can take what he dishes out. we can tell that there's...something going on with house and cuddy. their banter, too, tells us about their relationship. cuddy's fed up with him not listening to her, but not enough to fire him, as shown towards the end of the episode. he saves lives. he's the best doctor we have.
and then there's foreman. this is foreman's first case, and it's ours too. although i'm not sure this can be classified as a true foreman centric episode, it sort of feels like one. the viewers are seeing everything through foreman's eyes, even if the focus isn't always on him. we're learning about how the diagnostics department works. we're learning about how ruthless and brutally honest house can be. as viewers pick up on the format of the show, foreman picks up on the format of his job. as viewers learn more about house, foreman does as well.
omar epps is a brilliant actor and holds the audience's attention every time he's on screen. he holds his own with hugh laurie, obviously a very talented and accomplished actor in his own right, in particular during the scene where they have lunch in the cafeteria. it's so clear during this exchange that the connection between house and foreman is something bigger than the pilot lets on.
aside from chase, cameron was (and still is) my favourite character from the pilot onward when i first watched this show. we don't learn much about her personal life, but we certainly learn about who she is as a doctor, what kind of role she plays in the diagnostics department. "doctor house doesn't like dealing with patients" is her first line. she knows all. chase has been here for a whole year by this point, cameron only for six months, but it's cameron who gives foreman advice on house and who acts as a leader in a way. she's perfectly put together on the outside, but on the inside, as house alludes to towards the end of the episode, she's damaged, still dealing with the loss of her first husband. not that us viewers know anything about that yet.
there isn't much to say about chase in the pilot. love him dearly, but he's just sort of...there. the argument that chase was always going to succeed house doesn't make much sense now, does it? chase is a main character, but he's sort of...floating in the background. he contributes to the ddx, he eventually helps house correctly diagnose rebecca, but the fact that chase doesn't get an individual scene with house, where foreman and cameron both do, speaks volumes about his presence in this episode, and in house's mind.
hugh laurie is brilliant as always, but his conversation with rebecca is some of his best work in the whole show, and we're only on episode one. house's disability is its own character with how much it drives the plot and story forward in this pilot alone. we first see him with his cane walking down the hall with wilson. we see him swap vicodin for candy to prank a patient. it's here, in this dark room with rebecca having accepted her fate, where house reveals his infarction and tells her that he'd hoped he was dying then just as she hopes to now, that laurie really shines and lets both the audience and rebecca in on what he's dealing with. he respects her. he's going to let her die. she doesn't, in the end, of course.
everybody lies is one of my favourite episodes of the show and it really held up during this rewatch in all its orange glory. it does a great job at introducing us to the characters and to the formula of the show. house's character alone is enough to get you aboard the house md train, if only to see what crazy thing he does next. the ending with the rolling stones is a great finishing touch, a nod to house and cuddy both referencing it in the episode. it sort of serves the thesis to show as a whole in a way. you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need.
