Letters to the Editor
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Mistakes in the House review + my take
I'm a fan of House, have really enjoyed this season, and was a bit disappointed in the finale too, but I have to point out a couple of inaccuracies.
First of all, the show takes place in New Jersey, not Seattle--that was even mentioned in this episode, so no excuse for that. Also, that guitar at the end was surely a gift from himself--he knew exactly what was in that box, and no one who's watched the show would guess that the other characters got together and bought him a guitar. Only something private would produce such an un-self-conscious reaction in the character, and only he could have picked out something as personal as an instrument. It's a familiar process on the show, as anyone who's watched it knows--he's publicly chastised for a flaw and then goes off on his own, in secret, and challenges it; a sort of private growth process.
That said, this was an interesting finale, even if it didn't really satisfy. Unlike many season-ending cliffhangers where you're left thinking, "what happens next?", with this one I was thinking, "what the heck happened?" Even by House standards, a lot of the action here seemed arbitrary. It did play out like a cast turnover, but as far as I know all of the cast is signed on for next year, so a false wrapup for them would explain the lack of "pomp and circumstance". It almost felt as though the audience was being brought into House's world, put through the ringer, and left hanging without an explanation, the character's classic M.O.
But we've already seen other seemingly impossible situations--House cut by Vogler, shot, having his leg pain go away, looking at inescapable jail time, going into rehab--turn disorientingly quickly back into the normal routine, so perhaps this is just another one of those mini-dramas that will evaporate. I kind of hope not--how quickly the show buries its major crises sometimes seems more like a cop-out than a natural flow.
But with performances like those on display here, I'll keep watching. Hopefully, next season we'll be shown something past the harrowed, lowered glare from House that ends so many scenes and dialogues. Hard to see where else the show can go at this point but further into his psyche.