Spoilers after the jump.
While this episode tries its very hardest to emphasize the bridges House has burnt over the course of the year he has spent locked up, it all seems a little too easy for him in the end. Two months pass in show between the premiere and this, the second episode of the season and not a lot seems to have happened in that time. The first thing that seems far too easy is how Foreman sprung House from jail. He doesn't really go into elaborate detail but the parole board had indicated the prison was overcrowded. All the same... a fellow inmate intimated that House did not feel sufficiently punished. With his early release now, does that still hold true?
Foreman has always understood House a little better than everyone else, having long established that he saw a little too much of himself in the enigmatic diagnostician. He relished in the opportunity to lord it over House when he returned after being institutionalized and there's a sense he is enjoying himself a little too much now he has in that position of power over him once more. House's favorite dig at Cuddy was that she was too at home in her office and had allowed her medical skills to atrophy, but Foreman figures to be more hands on and with a more recent and prominent history in the trenches, will he respect the decisions Foreman makes or will he succesfully manipulate him as he did Cameron when she had the acting role?
Critical research failure on my part last week. I failed to realize the Charlyne Yi was all of fifteen-years-old before pegging her as the new dean. Instead, she shows up here as meek, dorky intern Park who lands in the employ of House after punching out her supervisor for groping her, a scenario I can't quite seem to visualize any part of. I envision Park taking up a role similar to the one Masters played last season - rather than the reluctant 'M-Cubed' though, it seems Park is already under the thrall of House, much like Dr. Adams last week.
The attitude of Wilson is a hardened heart modification of his reponse in the early part of season 5 as he attempt to shut the bad influence of House out of his life. Wilson sees House's attempts to weedle his way back into his affections as a selfish ploy, a game to keep himself occupied and entertained, and perhaps he is not so far off the mark. However, when faced with the full force of House and his usual antics, he can't help but crack a smile and ultimately, after some (horribly fake) violent retribution for the car-through-wall debacle and various other pent-up aggressions, they have fallen back into their same old routine by the end of the episode.
As I said, it's all a little too easy for House to reclaim his old way of life - his office and freedom restored to him by Foreman, the adoring attention of an impressed underling in Park and an enabling relationship with Wilson. If this, the expected final season, is where we see a change for House, this is not where it starts. Chase, Taub and Thirteen have all moved on - for how long? The last time, he was able to reel them in rather quickly but Foreman indicates that finances at the hospital are not quite as rosy as they once were. Considering all that we've been through with House, this episode felt too much like a regular episode - under normal circumstances, that would be great, but at this point it's a little disappointing.
"House" airs Mondays on Fox at 8pm EST.
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