TV Review: House 8.10, 'Runaways'
The theme for tonight’s episode is: “Do people ever change?”.
rating: 4
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The theme for tonights episode is: Do people ever change? The story ignores the obvious answer of, Yes, of course they do, constantly, because change is a part of existence, but still manages to provide a decent outing. We start with a homeless teenage girl (Bridget Mendler), who shows up at the clinic. Shes having problems breathing and while House (Hugh Laurie), is examining her, she starts bleeding from the ear, indicating that perhaps something nasty is afoot. After shes admitted to the hospital, House meets with his team and does so at a restaurant far from work. This is handwaved by him until Foreman (Omar Epps), shows up with his new girlfriend in tow. His new married girlfriend. Naturally. Anyhow, as the team talks, Doctor Adams (Odette Annable), says that she wants to call social services, since clearly the girl is under eighteen. Actually, when I first saw her, I thought she was clearly over 18, and since the actress is, I win. But moving on. Her desire to contact social services becomes her arc for this episode. Back at the hospital, House treats a Civil War reenactor who is having what I shall politely describe as the flux. Thats the American Civil War, by the way. Not the English one. Though an English Civil War recreation society in the USA could be pretty interesting! As the plot thickens, we learn that the girl has been squatting in a foreclosed house where, among other things, the team finds a supply of Budweiser beer, which has to be one of the odder product placements Ive seen in some times. Meantime, Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), notices that House seems to be acting protective toward the girl because she reminds him of her. House dismisses this, but then, true to Wilsons predictions, goes out of his way to keep the girl away from social services. That problem eventually reaches a bit of a climax at one point when Adams wins a bet with House and is allowed to call social services. House deals with this in the way weve come to expect from him; he hires a hooker to pose as a social worker. Eventually a real social worker shows up and brings along the girls mother who, it turns out, is a drug addict. Their reunion is less than sweet, as the girl has no interest in having her mother around. Her physical condition continues to worsen, and she starts coughing up blood from a bleeding ulcer in her esophagus. Soon two camps form as to what the problem is. Adams contends that the girl is an alcoholic while House thinks she has a brain aneurism thats about to go. These two things could, of course, both be happening, but that doesnt seem to attract anyones attention. The final diagnosis iswell, not pleasant. Especially the visuals. Oh, also Taub (Peter Jacobson), finds his children boring, but so was that subplot, so this is all the mention it gets. I liked this episode overall. It played to the series strength, which is House learning things about himself that he prefers to not know (ie: that he can be as predictable as anyone else). I also liked the resolution with Foremans storyline, and the bit with Taub was kind of cute. I havent any real complaints about the story, in fact, other than that it seemed a bit by-the-numbers for the series, but at least it was in a good way, as opposed to the ones where it just seemed to follow a checklist.