Son of Coma Guy

Son of Coma Guy is the seventh episode of the third season of House and the fifty-third episode overall.

Plot

Template:Spoiler The episode begins with House eating his lunch in the vegetative state ward and watching a TV show. Wilson walks in and confronts House over the fact that House has stolen a prescription pad from his office and faked his name in order to get more Vicodin, and tells House he's been questioned by Detective Tritter. As they argue, the son of the patient that House is sitting next to walks in the room. He makes a comment about House's eating next to his father, and proceeds to walk to the bed. House tries an experiment on the boy: he first flashes the lights on and off, then throws a bag of chips at the boy, who apparently doesn't see them, and finally walks over to him, but the boy sees House disappear and reappear when he stands next to him. House diagnoses him as being occasionally unable to see things in motion, a condition which is often accompanied by seizures. Just as House is saying this the boy suddenly seizes and is admitted to the hospital, much to House's predictation and excitement.

The team learns that the boy's name is Kyle, but they can't tell what caused his seizure. They find multiple wine bottles in Kyle's backpack, so the team suspects liver failure. However, House shoots down all of their theories, claiming that "it is genetic". Kyle has no living relatives, except one: Gabe (John Larroquette), who is Kyle's father. Gabe is in a vegetative state, however, so he can't be questioned. House proceeds to wake him up using a large dose of L-Dopa and amphetamines. Cuddy is there to stop him, along with the rest of his team, but he proceeds nonetheless. He cites a South African study that shows that comatose patients may be woken up for hours at a time, but Cuddy does not believe him. However, Gabe wakes up, looks around, and asks for a steak.

When Gabe is informed that he only has one day until he lapses back into his coma, he decides that he wants to drive to Atlantic City to get a hoagie from a specific deli. House agrees to go along with him, and asks Wilson if he can use his car. Wilson agrees, but he has to come on the trip. House asks Gabe questions the entire way about his medical and family histories. When Cameron is walking through the hall, Detective Tritter stops her and proceeds to ask her questions about how much Vicodin House has been taking lately. Cameron says six, which is an extreme understatement, and Tritter is about to ask her more questions when she gets paged by the rest of the team. Chase and Foreman ask what Cameron said to Tritter, and they all agree to tell the same story, but not to tell House about it.

Meanwhile, House uncovers that Gabe used to make boats finished with mildew-resistant paint. House concludes that Kyle was painting a boat, forgot to use a facemask, and got mercury poisoning from the paint. House calls the team, and they begin the test. Gabe, annoyed that House's questions are becoming more personal, establishes a quid pro quo style of questioning that forces House to answer a question every time he asks one. House reluctantly agrees.

House, Gabe, and Wilson arrive at Atlantic City, only to find that the hoagie store Gabe was looking for was gone. Gabe wants to go to a casino instead, so House and Wilson get a nearby hotel for the night. House continues the questioning at the hotel, ordering Gabe to give a total recap of how his family members died. Meanwhile Wilson tries desperately to get the hoagie for Gabe. During Gabe's explanation, House notices a common theme with the deaths: all of Gabe's family members on his wife's side died during the night. House diagnoses this as MERRF syndrome and calls Foreman to run the test. Foreman informs him that even if they cure ragged red fibers (MERRF), Kyle has a fatal cardiomyopathy.

House had promised to Gabe that he would answer a big, humiliating question after he had finished questioning Gabe about his family. Gabe asks why House became a doctor. Reluctantly, House reveals that while his family was living in Japan, he saw how a buraku, a disgraced man descendant of gravediggers and murderers who worked as janitor in a hospital was consulted about difficult cases and that no matter his background and social stature, the other doctors listened to him because he was right.

Gabe says he wants to donate his heart to Kyle, given that he will fall into vegetative state pretty soon. Wilson opposes, but House agrees, so he calls Cuddy to schedule the transplant. Cuddy flatly refuses the transplant, since it will equate to murdering Gabe. House orders Wilson to leave the room, saying, "You have lied to the cops enough for me." House then lays out ways to kill oneself that would keep the heart intact to Gabe. While Wilson creates an alibi for himself and House in the casino, Gabe kills himself. House and Wilson return to Princeton with Gabe's dead body, where Kyle successfully undergoes heart transplant surgery. Cuddy suspects that House had something to do with Gabe's death, but soon drops it after House nonchalantly shrugs it off, not wanting to get involved any further.

In the final scene, while House and Wilson talk, Wilson tries to withdraw money from his ATM and learns that his account has been frozen as a part of the ongoing investigation into House's drug use. House seems ashamed by the trouble he's put Wilson in, but is still confident that the case will not escalate.

Quotes

Tritter: "If you had my job as long as I have, you will know one thing: Everybody lies."

House: (answering telephone) "House's House of Whining, state your complaint!"

House: (to Cuddy, who has just walked into the room) "I can outdraw you, mysterious stranger!"

House: (to Wilson) "You don't have to come with Vegetative State and I to get food."
Gabe: (to House and Wilson, holding up an iPod) "What's this? It says Ipp-od."
Wilson: (resignedly) "I'm coming."

House: "There are reports out of South Africa about a pill that'd temporarily revive someone in a vegetative state. We've all seen Awakenings. It made me cry. I wanna cry."

Cuddy: "We don't experiment on helpless patients!"
House: "Be reasonable, there's no way this is gonna work"

"Everything's conditional. You just can't always anticipate the conditions."

"Quick, what's the status? I gotta get back to our sleeper before he goes looking for the Orgasmatron."

"Deep inside, Wilson believes that if he cares enough, he'll never have to die."

References

"House: Son of Coma Guy - TV.com", Copyright 2006 CNET Networks, Inc., November 13, 2006.

External links