HOUSE {HOUSE, M.D.}: INFORMED CONSENT (TV)
Summary
One in this series about Dr. Gregory House, an acerbic maverick with a limp, who uses his Sherlockian powers of reasoning to solve difficult infectious disease cases. In this episode, a 71-year-old cancer researcher, Dr. Ezra Powell, becomes short of breath and collapses in his lab while studying rats. When House presents his team with the case, they are distracted by the fact that he is using his cane once again, his ketamine treatment having apparently worn off. He dismisses the discussion, however, and orders them to do a stress test on Ezra to determine whether the problem is his heart or his lungs. The test fails when Ezra is unable to exert himself enough to raise his heart rate, but House just orders them to retry. In the clinic, he treats a man with a cold and an attractive teenaged daughter, Ali, who flirts with House. When the second test fails, House raises Ezra’s heart rate with a chemical, and the problem is determined to be in his lungs. In pain, Ezra begs Cameron to euthanize him, saying he cannot live like this. House dismisses the request, saying that they can cure him, Chase supports his right to die, Foreman refuses and Cameron seems torn. Ezra tries to suffocate himself and refuses any more tests, but House strikes a deal with him: if they cannot diagnose him within 24 hours, they will help him die.
The team conducts a barrage of new tests, and Cameron heads to Ezra’s lab to test the environment, including his rats, but nothing is conclusive. House fields calls from Ali and orders a head CT for Ezra, suspecting memory problems, but it is clear. Wilson assists and reports that Ezra does not have leukemia or a fungus, and the time runs out. House requests more time, but Ezra refuses and asks House to keep up his end of the bargain. House orders his team to leave in order to avoid culpability, but Chase stays behind as House injects Ezra with a lethal dose of morphine—or so he claims. He actually puts Ezra into a coma to allow for further testing, which shocks Foreman and Cameron, and Cameron leaves in indignation. The others notice scarring on his lungs and speculate that he has an autoimmune disease, possibly the oft-guessed lupus. Cuddy confronts House about his actions, but he points out that they have done nothing technically wrong. Wilson tells House that he has not opposed euthanasia in the past, but is refusing this time out of a desire to solve the puzzle. House directs Cameron to a medical article published many years ago by Ezra in which he details a dangerous experiment he performed on babies without the parents’ consent, but she says it changes nothing.
Lupus having been disproved, House observes that Ezra is experiencing a lack of sensation on certain parts of his body, and is forced to wake him up. Ezra is angry at being deceived, but House says they are not legally allowed to assist his suicide. The team continues speculating diagnoses, and House demands Cameron’s help in getting a skin sample from Ezra. When she goes to him, she asks about his experiment, and he argues that informed consent can hold back research that could benefit the greater good, which angers her. Ali returns to the clinic and greets House suggestively, but he tells her she is too young for him, although she says it is a mere six months until her eighteenth birthday. Inspired by Ali’s choice of attire, House then gets an idea and runs a different kind of test on Ezra, which reveals that he has an illness called amyloidosis, which in this case is terminal. Ezra struggles painfully for breath overnight, and in the morning, Cuddy tells House that Ezra died suddenly at 2:30 AM, despite being stable at 2:00. House finds Cameron in the chapel in tears, implying that she helped Ezra die, and he uncharacteristically comforts her, telling her he is proud of her. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: FOX
- DATE: September 19, 2005 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:59:44
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 101104
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, medical
- SERIES RUN: Fox - TV series, 2004-2012
- COMMERCIALS:
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- TV - Promos - "'Til Death"
- TV - Promos - "All the King's Men" motion picture
- TV - Promos - "Bones"
- TV - Promos - "Geraldo at Large"
- TV - Promos - "House" upcoming episode
- TV - Promos - "Justice"
- TV - Promos - "School For Scoundrels" motion picture
- TV - Promos - "Standoff"
- TV - Promos - "The Guardian" motion picture
- TV - Promos - "The Prestige" motion picture
- TV - Promos - Fox News
CREDITS
- Bryan Singer … Executive Producer
- Daniel Sackheim … Executive Producer
- Paul Attanasio … Executive Producer
- Katie Jacobs … Executive Producer
- Thomas L. Moran … Co-Executive Producer
- Doris Egan … Co-Executive Producer
- Garrett Lerner … Co-Executive Producer
- Russel Friend … Co-Executive Producer
- Leonard Dick … Supervising Producer
- Steven Heth … Co-Producer
- Lawrence Kaplow … Producer
- Gerrit van der Meer … Producer
- Liz Friedman … Co-Producer
- Marcy G. Kaplan … Co-Producer
- Allen Marshall Palmer … Associate Producer
- Peter Blake … Consulting Producer
- David Foster … Writer
- Laura Innes … Director
- Jon Ehrlich … Music by
- Jason Derlatka … Music by
- Massive Attack … Theme Music by
- Hugh Laurie … Cast, Dr. Gregory House
- Lisa Edelstein … Cast, Dr. Lisa Cuddy
- Omar Epps … Cast, Dr. Eric Foreman
- Robert Sean Leonard … Cast, Dr. James Wilson
- Jennifer Morrison … Cast, Dr. Allison Cameron
- Jesse Spencer … Cast, Dr. Robert Chase
- David Shore … Executive Producer, Created by
- Joel Grey … Cast, Dr. Ezra Powell
- Leighton Meester … Cast, Ali
- Stephanie Venditto … Cast, Nurse Brenda Previn
- William Charlton … Cast, Mark
- Bobbin Bergstrom … Cast, Nurse