House Season1 EP15

Mob Rules

Episode 115 : 2005-03-22

Young wiseguy Joey Arnello eats in a hotel room. His brother and lawyer, Bill, is trying to talk him out of testifying. Joey stands up and, feeling dizzy, collapses. Bill tries to help him but the federal agents in the room think he's faking.

At the hospital, Vogler presses Cuddy for a budget on House's work. House comes in with a Federal Court Order issuing him to examine their witness. House wants out of it. Cuddy tells him to either see the patient or go to jail for contempt. After House leaves in a huff, Vogler tells Cuddy she needs to get rid of House or else give Vogler one good reason why they should keep him.

House examines the comatose Joey, who is non-responsive to bright lights and pain. He is nearly dead. Bill wants to know what's happening to his brother. House dismisses him, but Bill threatens House that Joey needs to stay in the hospital so that he can talk him out of testifying.

The MRI shows a subdural hematoma. House thinks those are pseudomembranes from an old injury, which wouldn't cause a coma. He asks about the liver, but Chase reports that the LFTs are only slightly elevated. Foreman wants to go into Joey's brain and evacuate the cavity, but Joey awakes and says that he doesn't want to be drilled. With Joey awake, House's team suggests releasing him. House overrules them, asking for hepatitis serologies and an auto-immune panel.

House learns that Vogler called admitting. They contacted the Justice Department, which came and checked out Joey. Cuddy tells Vogler that she can only control House. House demands to know who checked out Joey. Vogler says that he wanted to keep the government off the hospital's back.

However, Joey is rushed back into the hospital. After he's stabilized, the team begins examining his file again. Joey's liver is worse, but with completely different symptoms. Although tests for Hepatitis C came back positive, House doesn't think that explains the sudden onset. House orders a biopsy, but Chase suggests starting Joey on Interferon to treat the Hep C first so that he will improve faster. House tells him to start the treatment but not to credit House for it. He also wants Chase to get a biopsy while he's at it. House then holds Foreman back from the others and announces that he is pulling him off the case because somebody told Vogler that House lied to the transplant committee about House's last patient, Carly. House tells Foreman that he doesn't think he was the culprit, but he wants Vogler, Cuddy and everybody else to think that's what he believes.

Chase is in Joey's room explaining the Hepatitis C diagnosis, but Bill becomes angry. He slaps Chase with the warning not to mention that his brother has Hep C. He demands that Joey will not be treated for it. Meanwhile, Cuddy tries to save House from Vogler's axe. Although she hates House, she still wants to save his job. Vogler thinks that is proof that she does like him. This is bad for business.

Bill corners House about the disrespect shown to Joey over the Hep C diagnosis. House says that, between the jailhouse tattoos and blood tests, he's guessing that Joey was raped in prison. Bill admits that he heard rumors. Yet if this diagnosis gets out, Joey's reputation will be destroyed. House agrees to administer Interferon, but that he won't keep records on it.

Wilson lets House know that Cuddy has been locked up with Vogler for two days arguing about House's job. They notice a gleaming red '65 Corvette parked in House's spot. A note on the windshield indicates that it's a gift from the Arnellos. Foreman rushes in with the news that Joey's blood pressure has dropped and he is bleeding into his liver. House gets the results of Joey's biopsy, which shows lymphocytic infiltrate and no bridging fibrosis. This means that Joey's condition is acute and not a result of Hep C. The other finding is that exposure to toxins has caused this liver failure. He was poisoned.

Joey's liver begins to shut down. Although they have to wait four hours until the next test results arrive, Joey's liver will only last two hours. House has an idea. A pig is brought into the hospital and placed next to Joey. An IV runs between an artery in Joey's leg and the pig's liver. Cameron and Foreman continue the search for toxins. House notices from chest X-rays and white blood cell counts that Joey recently quit smoking. Outside of Joey's room, the two federal marshals in charge of guarding him argue. One of the marshals recently deposited $3,000 in his wife's checking account, and the other marshal questions whether it was a bribe. House interrupts them to announce that Joey took enough smoking cessation candy containing a Chinese herb to poison himself. He should be fine in a couple of hours.

That night, Wilson advises House to let Vogler tell the feds that Joey can be released since it is important to Vogler. This will also help House's cause. The next day, House dons a lab coat and enters Cuddy's office. He gives Vogler the news that Joey is free to go. Cuddy examines the file and wonders how lozenges would cause such liver failure. House points out that it's a toxic match with Interferon. As Cuddy yells at House for altering Joey's medical file, House is paged. Joey has lapsed into another coma.

The team reconvenes to discuss causes. Chase again argues for Hep C, which they never really treated. House again notes that Joey's condition is acute and not chronic. Chase suggests an experimental treatment that's never been tried on humans using a non-nucleoside allosteric inhibitor to change the virus. Foreman phones a hospital in Philadelphia that's currently testing this treatment on dogs.

While seeing another patient, House has an epiphany. Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one. On the team's white board, House crosses out liver and estrogen. A discussion with Chase leads House to start thinking about what's causing the comas. House approaches the federal marshal that made the recent deposit. Bill interrupts, saying they just gave the marshal some money to get Joey some decent food not on the hospital menu. House sees that Joey had a steak before each coma, and he mentions Ornithine Transcarbamylase Deficiency which is a genetic condition. If the condition is in the body and a patient eats a large amount of protein, the symptoms can come out. If House is wrong and they stop treatment, Joey will die. House admits that he could be wrong because of Joey's increased estrogen level. But he has a theory. A product called Male Flame contains estrogen. It is marketed to gay men and sold on the same website that offered Joey's smoking cessation candy.

Bill adamantly declares that his brother isn't gay, but House thinks this is an overreaction. If he's so sure, they will continue Joey's treatment. Bill finally relents and Chase shuts off Joey's IV. Bill still can't believe that his brother might be gay. House points out that the only way a mob guy could come out of the closet is to change his name and move to another town. This is what happens after one testifies for the government.

After a few hours, Joey pulls out of his coma. He and Bill have a last conversation about the decision to run away. Bill calls the feds to announce that they are ready to make a deal. Even though they danced around the issue, Joey smiles at his brother's reluctant acceptance of his lifestyle.

Cuddy and House have another conversation. Cuddy says that Vogler threatened to fire her, but she told him that she was the only one who knows about the secret stuff that isn't in the books. So Vogler needs her. She wants changes. House has to do six more clinic hours a month and he must fire someone from his team. He has to choose between Chase, Cameron or Foreman.

第15集（EP15:Mob Rules）
1.麻風病
Vogler在這集討論House的問題的時候，說道House“把新澤西從麻風病中拯救出來...”，這裏指的是在13集中House救了一個得了麻風病的小孩。

2.證人保護程式
在本集的病人Joey Arnello因為是重要證人的原因，所以在住院時登記的是名字是John Smith。他的朋友Bill在片頭（18秒的樣子）就提到了這個他擔心無法保護Joey的聯邦證人保護程式。美國聯邦證人保護程式（The United States Federal Witness Protection Program）於上世紀60年代末設立，旨在保護聯邦證人，尤其是那些對犯罪組織團夥不利的證人。證人一般被轉移並被安排新的身份，甚至對其家人保密。

3.銀河戰士：獵人
為了讓Joey從昏迷中蘇醒過來，House在他耳朵邊上玩遊戲...-_-
大叔這裏玩的遊戲是任天堂一款經典的NDS遊戲《銀行戰士：獵人》（Metroid Prime: Hunters）

4.邪惡軸心
House的手下建議讓Joey離開，House不同意“But unless I’ve been named as the fourth part of the Axis of Evil, invaded and occupied, this is still not a democracy. He’s staying.”（除非我被認為是邪惡軸心的第四國，被侵略並被佔領。我這可不搞什麼民主，他要留下來。）
邪惡軸心（Axis of Evil）是美國總統小布希在2002年第一次提出的一個概念，包括伊朗，伊拉克和朝鮮。一年後，美國在2003年就出兵伊拉克推翻了薩達姆政權，獨裁政府被推翻，而在伊拉克的駐軍目前正在幫助建立一個民主政府。大叔說的就是這事。

5.HOUSE: So, your junior G-man badge isn’t looking so good.
House: 你的那G-man新人獎章看起來並不怎麼樣。
12分17秒處，Vogler為了幫助聯邦探員而擅自讓Joey出院了，結果在Joey兩小時後返回醫院時，House挖苦到“這麼看來，你那G-man新人獎章估計要泡湯了”。G-man新人獎章（Junior G-Man Badge）是由FBI頒發給對調查有重大貢獻的人員的獎勵。與徽章同時辦法的還有一張印有FBI著名探員，曾殺死惡名昭著的銀行劫匪和殺人犯John Dillinger的Melvin Purvis簽名和照片的證書。在美國的很多作品裏都有用這個徽章來調侃那些賣命幫政府工作的人或者行為。比如在《盜火線》裏，: That’s right.
Vincent Hanna在問Richard Torena的時候就說過“你想要什麼？G-man新人獎章麼？”

6.FOREMAN: You thought he was being poisoned by hemlock? Dr. Euripides tell you to check for that?
Foreman: 你曾認為那是芹葉鉤吻毒？歐裏庇得斯讓你去檢查的麼？
24分15秒的時候，Cameron說她排除了芹葉鉤吻毒的可能，Foreman很驚訝Cameron居然曾經懷疑是芹葉鉤吻毒的可能。他問道“歐裏庇得斯讓你去檢查的麼？”這裏的Euripides可不是這個醫院裏的另一個什麼醫生，而是古希臘著名的悲劇詩人和劇作家歐裏庇得斯，其代表作有

《美狄亞》（Medea，就是希臘神話中幫助伊阿宋偷到金羊毛的那個公主）
《依萊克夏》（Electra，Electra是特洛伊戰中希臘統帥阿伽門農的女兒，阿伽門農凱旋後被妻子所殺，Electra讓弟弟把母親的姦夫殺死，造成了母親的自殺，後來Electra情結也可以理解為女兒的戀父厭母情結，對應的自然就是著名的男孩戀母的俄狄浦斯（Oedipus）情結了）
《特洛伊女人》（[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Women"The Trojan Women[/url]，描述的是特洛伊戰爭後，特洛伊的女人們在喪失丈夫兒子後的悲慘命運。）
《被縛的普羅米修士》（這個就不用介紹了吧...）

等等。
Foreman在這稱其為Dr. Euripides（歐裏庇得斯醫生）很顯然是在調侃Cameron。歐裏庇得斯傳說是被天上掉下來的烏龜砸死的（也太扯了吧-_-），不過後來據說是被判死刑後用芹葉鉤吻毒毒死的。同時代被判死刑的還有著名的希臘哲學家蘇格拉底。

7.HOUSE: Our friend Babe helped with that one.
House: 我們的朋友Babe幫助我們排除了那種可能。
28分48秒的時候，Joey的血液已經通過豬的肝臟過濾掉毒素了，但是卻陷入再次昏迷，並且情況比之前還糟。House在分析病情的時候因此排除了中毒的可能性，原因就是這句話。這裏暗指的是1995年奧斯卡獲獎電影《豬寶貝》，裏面的主角就是一頭叫Babe的可愛小豬。