TV Review: House 8.15, 'Blowing the Whistle'

By Chris Swanson / April 5, 2012

rating 3

So apparently someone at the House writing team has heard of Bradley Manning and his situation. If you haven€™t, do go look it up, and reflect on the way he€™s currently being treated. Normally this statement would be a bit of a digression on my part, but here it isn€™t, since this story is clearly based, at least in part, on Manning€™s story. We begin with a family meeting a returning Army soldier at the airport. He€™s the brother/uncle/brother-in-law of everyone there. The brother is especially excited, though his son less so, since the brother is about to go off to Afghanistan. When the soldier in question finally appears, he€™s in handcuffs and being led by a group of MPs. Shockingly, the family apparently wasn€™t told anything about this ahead of time. As the soldier is lead off, he suddenly collapses and goes from being the soldier to being the patient. We go to the hospital where we find House (Hugh Laurie) and company looking at an internet video. It seems to show several civilians being killed by US soldiers in a botched raid. Turns out that this video was leaked by the patient, which is why he€™s in serious legal doo-doo. Park (Charlyne Yi) asks the logical question of why the patient wasn€™t taken to a military hospital, but I don€™t recall hearing anyone give an answer. It€™s a good thing to ask, though. Meantime, Adams (Odette Annable) has noticed that House is acting out of character. She begins to become more and more convinced that he€™s suffering from liver problems caused by extensive over-use of Vicodin. No one else seems to buy into this, but she talks with Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and soon he€™s forming his own suspicions. Back with the patient, Park is dissing him and his sense of honor while they try to diagnose him. She believes he€™s faking, something which no one else believes. Any doubts about him faking go away when massive abdominal bruises begin to appear. Adams continues her quest to prove that House is sick, and soon has everyone else roped into believing her to various degrees, something which leads to a rather unpleasant image after a scene in a bathroom. House, when confronted, says he isn€™t sick and implies that everyone who thinks he is, is an idiot. So, usual House. The patient continues to deteriorate and then begins to bleed extensively. He€™s rushed into the OR where it turns out that he has massive heart problems and a failing spleen, something which is more than a little awkward. Things get quite a bit more awkward when, after recovering from the surgery, the patient refuses any further treatment until he€™s given a TV interview. The military is not keen on this, understandably, and so instead offers a compromise: they€™ll let him see the file on how his father, a former soldier, died. This is something very much of interest to the patient, so he agrees, but soon learns all is not as it appears. And as for House, he continues to reject any notions that he might be ill despite the fact that all indications are that he is very ill indeed. Wilson tries to get him to move on starting some sort of treatment and House refuses, setting the stage for all sorts of problems€ This was an ok episode, but I had higher hopes. House€™s medical situation wasn€™t nearly as interesting as it could have been, and I think the outcome of what it was should have been the opposite, because with only a few episodes left, that might have made for some interesting drama. As for the main medical situation, eh. The outcome of it was a little interesting, I suppose, and the discussions of honor and honorable conduct were very interesting. But I just feel like there could have been a lot more there. Ultimately this was a serviceable episode that did a good job of entertaining me until something else came on. I suppose there€™s higher bars, but at least that€™s an acceptable one.