House Season2 EP11

Need To Know

Episode 211 : 2006-02-07

Back from Baltimore, House jaunts into the hospital. Cuddy and Wilson are immediately suspicious about his good mood. House happily admits to Wilson that he kissed Stacy on the trip. Wilson barges into Stacy's office demanding to know what happened in Baltimore. He angrily reminds her that the last time she left House, Wilson was left picking up the pieces. He has done so for five years.

Margo Dalton, a 30-something, do-everything mother, notices her arm twitching. This causes her to accidentally plow her car through her garage door. Her husband Ted rushes out to find Margo's body flailing wildly.

The team reviews what they already know. Margo has had a year-long fertility regimen, which explains the excess estrogen in her system. House orders a pregnancy test and an MRI. He wants to know if the problem is in her head or in her uterus.

Margo's MRI comes back clear. The problem isn't neurological or pregnancy-related. They will run a genetic test for Huntington's and put her on Tamoxifen to counteract the estrogen. Margo is upset that this will undo all of her fertility treatments.

Foreman reports to House that, with hypervigilance and sudden irritability, the patient is now defining Huntington's. Yet House thinks the progression is too fast to be Huntington's. Chase notes that Huntington's patients don't advance to psychosis so quickly. Suddenly, Foreman gets a page and they rush to Margo's room where she is having a psychotic episode. This is contrary to Chase's statement.

Margo tests positive for Huntington's and the team is stumped. House starts thinking about Margo's packed daily schedule and he wonders whether cocaine might be a possibility. He sends Cameron and Foreman to search Margo's house. House then heads off to discuss Stacy with Wilson. He wants to know what Wilson said to her.

Foreman and Cameron find a bottle of Ritalin in Margo's car. House connects the dots: Ritalin combined with estrogen explains the flailing and psychosis. She was clean when she entered the hospital, which caused all of the symptoms to die out. House wants to discharge her, but Foreman warns that they will need a confirmation before they can do that.

Ted and his daughter, Stella, sit besides Margo's bed. House starts talking to the little girl. Margo tries to deny using drugs, but House waves the tox screen results in front of the family. She admits to Ted that she was taking Stella's Ritalin. Then she sees that House was only waving a cafeteria menu around.

Later that night, House drops by Stacy's office. She announces that she's moving back home now that her husband Mark is improving. House says that he loves her and doesn't want her to leave.

Margo is walking out of the hospital with Ted when she stops. A blood cot moves into her brain and becomes lodged. Margo collapses to the ground.

Cameron calls House at home with news of Margo's stroke. House rolls over in bed and tells Stacy that he has to go back to the hospital. The doctors wait for House because they saw him leave earlier with Stacy. Cameron reports to House that the Ritalin didn't cause the stroke. House wonders if maybe the Ritalin and the fertility meds were competing. Cameron realizes that fertility treatments can cause endometrial cancer, which Chase mentions could cause a stroke. House orders an MRI of Margo's uterus.

While the team runs the test, Stacy and House meet on the hospital roof. She hasn't told Mark, but she doesn't know what she is going to do. House wants her to decide between him and Mark.

The test results come back negative for cancer. House insists that it is in there, and he demands that they find it. Before Chase can start a biopsy, Margo's BP drops and blood starts to pour from her vagina. Chase uses an ultrasound wand to find the internal bleeding as Margo passes out. Chase lets Ted know that the bleeding stemmed from the liver and flowed through the Fallopian tubes. Margo does have a tumor in her liver but more tests will determine if it's cancer.

Foreman tells House that they can't biopsy Margo's tumor because it is vascular. Before House can react, Mark interrupts. He wants to know why Stacy won't talk to him. House just walks off but Mark follows. House tries walking up the stairs to get away, but Mark drags himself out of his wheelchair and pulls himself up the stairs. House calmly walks away.

Back in the office, House is confused by the liver tumor because the symptoms don't add up. House asks the team what they know about Margo as a woman. Why does she want another child in her busy life? The Ritalin caused the psychosis, but only one other thing explains the clot and the tumor: birth control pills.

House wakes up Margo and asks if she wants a hysterectomy. He accuses her of sneaking birth control because she doesn't want a baby even though Ted does. She denies it. House tells Margo that her tumor is benign and will disappear if she goes off birth control. He wants to cancel the surgery and she can explain to her husband why. Margo again denies that she's on the Pill.

House tells Cuddy that he's calling off Margo's surgery but Cuddy won't have it because the surgery is underway. The tumor is benign. Foreman later informs Ted and Margo about the results and, without saying too much, says the symptoms will disappear. When Ted leaves the room, Margo asks Foreman to tell her husband that she can't undergo more fertility treatments. Foreman refuses to lie, so she asks for birth control that won't cause her to be sick. Foreman warns her that the continued lies will eventually kill her.

That night, Stacy slips into House's office. She is planning to tell Mark tonight about their tryst. She wants to stay with House. He advises her not to do it. House will never change his ways, but Mark is willing to do whatever it takes to make their relationship work. House won't and cannot make her happy. House walks out, leaving Stacy in tears.

 

211
House: Peeing on a stick is only 99% accurate. Get a real pregnancy test. You know, the one with the blood and the hormones and the rabbit. Oh, I’m sorry. It’s still your limo. What do you say, Miss Daisy?
House對Foreman說，驗孕棒的準確率只有99%，去做個真正意義上的驗孕檢查，血啊，激素啊，兔子啊。噢，對不起，這輛車還是你的，是不是啊，Daisy小姐？
House說的驗兔子，是指一個很古老的驗孕辦法，女人向一隻兔子撒尿，如果兔子死了，那就是懷孕了，兔子沒死，那就是沒懷孕，當然這種辦法純屬胡說八道了，卻在1920年代西方風行一時，可見哪個地方的老百姓都是善良且容易受騙的。

House叫Daisy，來自1989年的美國電影Driving Miss Daisy《為戴茜小姐開車》，片子很好，獲過奧斯卡獎，推薦一看，摩根.弗裡曼在裡面飾演一位黑人老司機，為猶太富孀戴茜小姐開車。House在這裡反著用，把黑人Foreman叫Daisy，除了賤之外，也找不到別的詞好形容了。

House: It explains the psychosis and the flailing, and the uncanny ability to bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never, ever let Teddy forget that he’s a man.
House說，(可卡因)可以解釋精神紊亂 還有抽搐，還有她那不可思議的能力，每天帶熏肉回家 在平底鍋裡煎一下，卻從來沒有讓Teddy，忘記他是個男人 一家之主。
這集的病人是個超級媽媽，我們看到House說這句話時故意把代詞用反了，用him指代女性，而且用ever代替never。這種用法來自1970年代年美國著名的系列廣告，Enjoli，音昭麗，香水的牌子。這套廣告的主人公就是一位超級女人，撒上點香水，然後什麼都能幹。當然這套廣告帶有很強的時代特色，1970年代美國正在鬧女權運動。

女強人主婦在剛開始的一段和朋友的調侃.
Mom [to a friend]: The secret is the Haas avocados. I can e-mail you the recipe if you want. [cell phone rings, she answers it] Oh, this is the third time they've changed plans since Friday. These idiots think you can just add a 14th floor and the mayor won't notice.
這裡說的14th floor and mayor won't notice說的是2001年的關於克林頓搬辦公室的一則新聞.
簡單說來就是14樓已經租給了市政府,而業主卻在和克林頓談租約.
結果市長知道後就跳出來說話了.