Fools for Love
| "Fools for Love" | |
|---|---|
| House episode | |
| Episode no. |
Season 3 Episode 5 |
| Directed by | David Platt |
| Written by | Peter Blake |
| Original air date | October 31, 2006 |
| Guest actors | |
| |
"Fools for Love" is the fifth episode of the third season of House and the fifty-first episode overall.
Plot
A young interracial couple is hospitalized after the husband, Jeremy, attacks robbers who threaten his wife, Tracy. Her airway closes and she collapses, apparently experiencing anaphylaxis. Dr. House, however, is distracted by the sight of Dr. Wilson chatting to an attractive new nurse, Wendy, in the hallway; House is convinced that Wilson is dating her.
Chase suggests that Tracy and Jeremy have smoked marijuana tainted with salmonella, so House orders treatment with fluoroquinolone. Tracy develops a rash in response to this antibiotic, so House extrapolates that the anxiety of being attacked caused Tracy to secrete too much adrenaline and go into an exercise-triggered anaphylaxis. While Foreman tests this hypothesis by having her run on a treadmill, Jeremy becomes angry and begins experiencing chest and stomach pain. The team wonders whether to attribute their common stomach pain to a shared infection or a shared environment. Upon inspecting their small apartment, Chase and Foreman find only a package of condoms.
Meanwhile, House sees a patient named Michael Tritter during his clinic hours. When House refuses to run tests on Tritter's rash, attributing it to dehydration, a confrontation ensues. Tritter trips House, House swabs the rash, and House leaves Tritter with a thermometer inserted in his rectum while House leaves for the day.
While discussing Tracy and Jeremy's case, House breaks into Wendy's locker and guesses that a jazz festival flier in a locker full of novels means that she is indulging Wilson's interest in jazz. He bets Foreman $200 that the nurse and Wilson are in a relationship.
House takes Tracy off the steroids, reasoning that, if she develops a fever, the problem is an infection and that, if she doesn't, the problem is environmental. Tracy experiences a hallucination of Jeremy's late father, who was violently opposed to their relationship; she screams. Foreman arrives to find her lapsing into a dissociative coma. After comparing Tracy's MRI to Jeremy's earlier chest x-ray, House suspects sarcoidosis and tells the team to perform a brainstem biopsy for confirmation. Concerned about the procedure's risks to Tracy and the potential conflict of interest in asking Jeremy to consent on her behalf, Cameron asks Cuddy to have a guardian ad litem represent Tracy. Tracy's condition worsens too quickly so Wilson is asked to present Jeremy with the options. Jeremy requests that they withdraw his treatment so that they can biopsy him, instead.
Cuddy calls House to her office, where clinic patient Michael Tritter (David Morse) is waiting. Tritter demands an apology from House, but House flatly refuses and leaves the office.
Meanwhile, Jeremy's condition has worsened; but, instead of brain swelling, his lactic acid levels are rising, which should mean his intestines have begun to rot. House speculates that he and Tracy do not share the same disease, after all. He orders that Tracy be treated for porphyria and that Jeremy's bowel be biopsied. Foreman discovers that Jeremy's bowels are not rotting at all. House learns that Jeremy and Tracy grew up as neighbors and ran off at age 16 to escape Jeremy's father and his opposition to the relationship. House muses on Tracy's and Jeremy's green eyes and realizes that they share angioedema, a rare hereditary condition that prevents their bodies from producing a vital protein, and that they are probably half-siblings. House orders Foreman to tell them. Reluctantly, Foreman does so. Tracy reacts badly.
Later, Chase (Jesse Spencer) asks Foreman (Omar Epps) to cover some of his weekend on-call hours; but Foreman refuses, saying evasively that he is going out of town. When Foreman admits he is going to a jazz festival with the new nurse, House reluctantly pays him the $200. As Foreman leaves, he sees that Tracy has moved out of the hospital room she shared with Jeremy, so Foreman stays with the devastated young man for a while. Meanwhile, Cuddy is observed with a pregnancy test, which, to her dismay, reads negative.
House speeds home on his motorcycle. He is pulled over by a police officer who turns out to be Michael Tritter. Tritter arrests him for possession of narcotics.
Trivia
After stopping House for speeding, officer Tritter reasons that House is under the influence of narcotics, based on his observation that House's pupils are dilated. House, however, uses Vicodin, a hydrocodone-containing drug which, if anything, would cause pupillary constriction (miosis).[1][2]
Music
- Walter Reed by Michael Penn
