House

House Season 3 Episodes

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Season 3 Episode Guide

Episode 1 - Meaning

House has recovered from multiple gunshot wounds and is back at work, taking on two cases simultaneously: Richard, paralyzed after brain cancer surgery eight years ago, who drove himself on his motorized wheelchair headfirst into a swimming pool; and Caren, a young woman paralyzed from the neck down after a yoga session. As House begins to diagnose and treat them, the team notices a distinct change in his attitude toward the patients, and Cameron even catches Richard's wife thanking House for his sensitivity to her husband's situation. House suspects that Richard could possibly walk again, but he has no specific medical proof to back up his hunch and the various treatment avenues he pursues lead nowhere. Cameron and Foreman refuse to indulge House and his theories, which they feel he's pursuing merely to make the case interesting for himself. Cuddy and Wilson also are convinced House is creating a mystery out of Richard's case to cure his own boredom, but he denies it and becomes more frustrated when his theories do not point to a cure for Richard, forcing House to face an unpleasant truth.

  

Episode 2 - Cane and Able

House's ego has taken quite a blow because he failed to diagnose his last case, and it's affecting him physically. He is obviously in pain again, although he continues to deny it. House's new case is 7-year-old Clancy, a product of in-vitro fertilization, who's been admitted to the hospital with rectal bleeding and proclamations of being tortured by aliens. As the team runs tests on him, they discover the same test is giving conflicting results. When Clancy claims to have a tracking device in the back of his neck and the team discovers an unknown metal object exactly in that spot, they aren't quite sure what to think. Amidst all this weirdness, Cuddy and Wilson decide it would be best not to tell House the truth about his last case, thinking that perhaps he will learn some humility if he believes he's not always right. Cameron discovers the lie and is outraged, but Cuddy convinces her to hold off telling House. When House and the team discover cells with a different type of DNA in Clancy's body, they are forced to give Clancy's alien claims a little more credence, but a frustrated House gives up on his young patient, forcing Cuddy to re-think her desire to hold back the truth she's hiding.

  

Episode 3 - Informed Consent

The ketamine has worn off and House is back to using his cane and doesn't want to talk about it. His new patient is Ezra Powell (guest star Joel Grey), a renowned pioneer in the field of medical research, who collapsed in his lab. House puts Ezra through diagnostic rigors, but the team is unable to come up with a conclusive diagnosis, and Ezra's health continues to deteriorate. Becoming increasingly debilitated, Ezra ultimately demands that the team stop the litany of medical tests and help him end his life. The team members have divergent opinions on the morality of helping Ezra die, especially since the possibility of a cure is still in question. The moral dilemma of whether to assist in his suicide and abide by Ezra's wishes, or to ignore what their patient wants drives the team in very different directions. Meanwhile, the teenage daughter of a clinic patient has developed a crush on Dr. House.

  

Episode 4 - Lines In the Sand

House takes the case of Adam, a 10-year-old severely autistic boy who screams loudly for no apparent reason, at least not a reason his three previous doctors could diagnose. The team wonders why House is taking the case – the boy's not sick; his symptoms seem to be a product of his autism. House claims he just wants a patient who can't lie, but it seems he relates to this kid: the social aloofness, the obsession with detail, the lack of social graces. In fact, House actually envies him; living in a shell has its advantages. But when Cuddy makes a minor change to House's office and House refuses to use the office until it's returned to its original state, he finds himself wandering the hospital in need of a temporary home, crashing in Cuddy and Wilson's offices. Meanwhile, teenager Ali from the previous episode still has a crush on House and is becoming a nuisance around the hospital. As Adam becomes more ill and the torturous diagnostic procedures yield nothing, House realizes he needs an answer, and his patient just might be the only one who can give him one. House finds he has to break through the very shell he admires in order to get anything out of the boy.

  

Episode 5 - Fools for Love

House takes on the case of 20-year-old female patient Tracy Dawson, who is rushed to Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital with breathing difficulties and unexplained intense abdominal pain after she and her husband, Jeremy, are victims of a robbery. During Tracy's stress test, Jeremy collapses in the hospital viewing room, with test results leading the team to believe the couple's illnesses are related. Their strained relationship with Jeremy's father causes Tracy to hallucinate about a past incident when her father-in-law tried to hurt Jeremy for seeing her. The traumatic dream leaves Tracy in a coma and House wants to conduct a very risky biopsy on her brain stem, but Jeremy refuses to consent. House enlists Wilson's help to explain the potentially dangerous procedure and secure Jeremy's consent, but all does not go as planned; House discovers a new symptom that takes the case down a shocking new path and changes the course of the couples' lives forever. Meanwhile, House and clinic patient Michael Tritter (guest star David Morse) have a touchy altercation, leaving Tritter appalled and furious at the way House treated him.

  

Episode 6 - Que Sera Sera

A 600-pound man, George Hagel, is admitted to the hospital after he is found in his apartment in a coma. While they conduct the necessary tests, the team runs into several obstacles due to the sheer mass of the patient, and while sedated and undergoing an MRI, George suddenly awakes in a panic and struggles to get free. Upon awakening, George decides that he is fine and requests a discharge. Afraid that George's problem is bigger than he believes, Cameron takes extreme measures to stop him from leaving. George believes his problems are unrelated to his weight and instructs the team to come up with other theories. Unconvinced by George's reasoning, House discovers the root of his illness during a physical altercation. Meanwhile, House has spent the night in jail after being arrested by Officer Michael Tritter for a number of violations, including resisting arrest. Tritter, putting the squeeze on House, searches his home to find more evidence of his drug abuse and puts House's team on the spot when he questions each of them about House and his relationship with Vicodin, and it becomes evident that House may need to get a lawyer.

  

Episode 7 - Son of Coma Guy

Kyle comes to the hospital regularly to visit his father, Gabe, who has been in a coma for 10 years. Noticing something "off" about Kyle, House conducts a mini-experiment that leaves the boy unconscious. When symptoms point to a possible genetic condition, House and his team must glean a family history from Kyle's only living relative – his comatose father. Meanwhile, Wilson confronts House about stealing his prescription pad, and Tritter (guest star David Morse) questions Cameron, Foreman and Chase, dividing the team and revealing where their individual loyalties lie.

  

Episode 8 - Whac-A-Mole

House's newest patient is 18-year-old Jack (guest star Patrick Fugit, "Almost Famous"), brought to the hospital after experiencing a heart attack and massive vomiting. Barely an adult himself, Jack has been the parent to his younger brother and sister since their parents died. After a brief perusal of Jack's file, House thinks he's got the diagnosis, seals it in an envelope and turns the process into a game, challenging Cameron, Foreman and Chase to figure it out on their own. When Jack is given an option that would lead to a possible reprieve from his worsening illness, he's faced with a decision that could break up his little family forever. Meanwhile, in an attempt to extract a confession, Tritter (guest star David Morse) makes it almost impossible for Wilson to practice medicine, driving a friendship-ruining wedge between House and Wilson.

  

Episode 9 - Finding Judas

House and the team take on the case of Alice, a young girl with pancreatitis. Since her divorced parents can't agree on how to proceed with her treatment and won't let House bully them into making a decision, House's only option is to take them to court and let a judge rule on the matter. When Alice's condition continues to worsen, House is forced to take her parents to court again, but in a surprising ruling, the judge awards guardianship of Alice to Dr. Cuddy, leaving her to determine the young girl's medical care. Meanwhile, House's reduced access to Vicodin is beginning to take its toll and he hits Cuddy up for more of the medication, but instead of writing a prescription, she strictly rations his pills. Detective Tritter wants House to find a non-addictive way to cope with his pain before House kills somebody. As part of his strategy to get one of House's team members to crack, Tritter freezes Cameron and Foreman's bank accounts, and ultimately offers Foreman a deal to come clean about House's drug use.

  

Episode 10 - Merry Little Christmas

It's Christmas at Princeton-Plainsboro and Wilson has a present for House – he and Detective Tritter have struck a deal and House has three days to accept it. Wilson will testify that he didn't sign the prescriptions House used to illegally obtain Vicodin, and House will receive two months in a rehab clinic for pleading guilty, avoiding jail time. Even though the deal apparently would make the whole nightmare go away, House is furious at Wilson, will not admit he did anything wrong and immediately goes looking for Cuddy. Barging in on Cuddy in an examining room, he meets her patient, Abigail, and Abigail's mom, Maddy, both dwarfs. Abigail has a number of symptoms and is recovering from a recently collapsed lung, but Cuddy doesn't recognize the gravity of her illness and House takes on the case. As House and the team get to work, Cuddy finds out about the deal offered to House, pulls him from the case, suspends his treatment privileges and refuses to dole out any more Vicodin until he takes the deal. As Abigail's condition worsens, House begins to detox and the team tries unsuccessfully to solve the case without him. When Abigail reaches a critical point, Cuddy begs House for help one last time, but they play a game of chicken to see who will flinch first as he holds out for his pain medication before he'll offer any more of his insights into the case. Cuddy is forced to make a difficult and potentially life-threatening choice between her patient's life and House's life.

  

Episode 11 - Words and Deeds

House is forced to respond in court to the criminal charges against him regarding illegal possession of narcotics, and the judge sets a date for a preliminary hearing. Enough is enough for Cuddy, who insists that House apologize to Detective Tritter as a final attempt to stay out of jail, since he refused to respond to Tritter's previous deal by the deadline. Meanwhile, the case of Derek Hoyt, a firefighter suffering from extreme body temperatures and disorientation, leads the team to believe their patient is suffering from an extreme hormone imbalance, but Derek has a violent reaction to their course of treatment, potentially causing serious bodily harm to Cameron in the process. Clearly distracted from Derek's case, House stuns the team when he makes a shocking revelation in an attempt to save himself from jail time. As Derek's condition worsens, the team must try to solve the mystery of his illness without House's help, but information from Derek sends them in the wrong direction and leads Derek to choose a risky, radical treatment on his brain which, if he survives it, will kill the person he currently is in order to hide a secret he's not willing to reveal.

  

Episode 12 - One Day, One Room

House has beaten the drug charges and is back at the hospital after a short stint in rehab. Cuddy comes to collect on House's debt for perjuring herself on the stand and keeping him out of jail. She forces House to pay off the debt in clinic hours, requiring him to carry out a series of less-than-desirable patient exams in the clinic. Tired of House's incessant whining about his disdain for the patients, Cuddy turns his clinic duty into a game, with the stakes raised to a level that speaks to House – money. At the clinic, House encounters patient Eve, who has tested positive for an STD and admits she’s very recently been raped. Knowing he can't do anything more for Eve medically, House refers her to a psychiatrist, but she refuses to talk to the doctor and will only be treated by House. He repeatedly tries to dismiss himself from her case, but finds himself forced to unravel a very different puzzle than the sort he's used to – and compelled to come to terms with events in his own life in order to help Eve make sense of her own. Meanwhile, at the clinic Cameron encounters a homeless man with terminal cancer who, in spite of her pleas to let her ease his suffering, admits to her his basis for refusing pain medication during his final hours.

  

Episode 13 - Needle In a Haystack

Sixteen-year-old Stevie Lipa is admitted to Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital with a serious respiratory condition and internal bleeding. Oddities of his case land him under House and the team's care, but at the moment, House is irritated to learn that new hospital researcher Dr. Julie Whitner has been assigned his handicapped parking spot by the hospital entrance. Since she's in a motorized wheelchair (and he has to walk), he asks her to give up the parking spot, but she refuses. House, determined to get a parking spot closer to the hospital entrance, appeals to Cuddy, who dares him to prove how much he wants the spot by spending one week in a wheelchair � a bet House takes on. As the team tries to get personal history information from Stevie, they can't seem to get a straight answer out of him, and it's revealed he's from a family of gypsies. Stevie's parents arrive with homeopathic remedies; they won't consent to House and the team's suggested course of action, and refuse all modern medical treatment. As Stevie's body continues to bleed internally, Foreman makes the risky decision to sidestep Stevie�s parents and appeals directly to the teenage patient, putting his medical license on the line while asking Stevie to lie to his parents.

  

Episode 14 - Insensitive

It’s Valentine's Day at Princeton-Plainsboro and the ER is short-staffed due to a snowstorm. House encounters Foreman's latest patient, Hannah, who has sustained injuries from a car accident with her mother, Abby. House notices that despite her best efforts to act injured, Hannah is not feeling a bit of pain. House determines that Hannah has an incredibly rare condition that makes her completely insensitive to pain, and he takes a special interest in her case. He orders further testing to see if Hannah has any serious injuries from the car accident that she may not be able to feel, including an unnecessary procedure that causes Cuddy and Wilson to question his motives. Meanwhile, Abby undergoes surgery for her own injuries sustained in the car accident. Hannah refuses further examination and demands to see her mother, but House has little sympathy. She and House argue about which of their lives is worse, Hannah who is impervious to pain or House who suffers from pain constantly. When Hannah passes out and her temperature spikes, the doctors realize that Hannah is much sicker than they had thought. The team takes drastic measures in an attempt to inflict pain on Hannah to measure her pain threshold, but her condition only worsens. House adamantly pushes for a spinal nerve biopsy that could leave her paralyzed, a risky procedure in which few see the benefit, especially Cuddy and Wilson, who accuse House of pushing the test to get information that may benefit his own pain management. As Hannah's body deteriorates without her so much as flinching, House works through his own chronic pain to find out why this young woman cannot feel any pain at all.

  

Episode 15 - Half-Wit

Patrick Obyedkov (guest star Dave Matthews), a 35-year-old musical savant, is in the middle of playing a piano concert when he suffers a painful involuntary muscle contraction in his left hand. After Patrick is admitted to Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital with a rare movement disorder, his case attracts the attention of Dr. House. House learns from Patrick's father, Dr. Obyedkov (guest star Kurtwood Smith), that Patrick suffered severe brain damage at age 10 from a bus accident that also killed his mother. House is intrigued as to why Patrick, who was a healthy 10-year-old at the time of his accident with no prior musical training, could suddenly play the piano flawlessly after suffering a severe injury. He pushes for further testing on Patrick's brain even though the team has diagnosed him with a simple muscle-contraction problem. While trying to deduce the origin of the brain rewiring responsible for Patrick's mysterious gift of music, House and his team must stop the deadly bleeding that is quickly threatening his life. Patrick's condition worsens as he suffers an onset of seizures, and as the team attempts to stabilize him, House presents a very difficult option to Patrick's father – a neurological procedure that would change Patrick's life forever. In the meantime, Cameron discovers that House has been in contact with a hospital in Massachusetts and suspects that House may be looking to take a new job there. When Cuddy contacts the hospital, she learns that House has been in contact with a brain cancer specialist – not as a job applicant, but as a patient for a clinical trial. When confronted by his team, House denies the gravity of the situation and resents their interference, and they are forced to contend with the possibility his condition may be more serious than he's letting on.

  

Episode 16 - Top Secret

House is bewildered yet intrigued when he meets his newest patient, John Kelley, an ex-Marine who had saved House's life in a very realistic dream the night before. House is puzzled about how this man could have appeared in his dream before he met him. Recently returned from a two-year deployment in Iraq, Kelley is complaining of fatigue, pain and other non-specific ailments he thinks are the result of Gulf War Syndrome. Just like the V.A. doctors before them, the team is wary about the validity of Kelley's symptoms, but since his uncle is an important benefactor to the hospital, they continue to investigate his case. Meanwhile, House is suffering from ailments of his own – he is unable to urinate, most likely a side effect of his Vicodin abuse, and is sleep-deprived. Unable to concentrate on the case, he eventually turns to Wilson for an under-the-table prescription. While administering tests in the sleep lab, Cameron and Chase forego their clinical duties when they find each other (and a bed in the sleep lab) much more exciting. A foul infection shows up in Kelley’s mouth while Cameron and Chase were supposed to have been on the clock, and his condition only worsens as he begins to lose his hearing, sight and mobility. A brain scan reveals tumors in Kelly's brain that were not there a week earlier when the government doctors at the V.A. examined him. When traces of uranium show up in Kelley's test results, the team wonders if the government had something to hide.

  

Episode 17 - Fetal Position

A famous, 42-year-old, pregnant photographer, Emma Sloan (guest star Anne Ramsay), is brought to the hospital after suffering a stroke in the middle of a high-profile photo shoot with Tyson Ritter (All American Rejects). Although Emma's condition initially stabilizes, her health takes a turn for the worse when her kidneys inexplicably fail. As her health continues to deteriorate, Emma is more concerned about her baby's well-being than her own. With no other viable explanation for the kidney failure, House realizes Emma may have a rare condition called Maternal Mirror Syndrome, in which the mother's health mimics the distress level of her fetus. Meanwhile, Cameron and Chase's secret relationship is exposed to Foreman and Cuddy, and House makes extravagant plans to take a much-needed vacation. House calls Cuddy on the fact she's taken a special interest in the case as she identifies with Emma's struggle to have a child later in life, but her compassion for Emma may be clouding her judgment in the case. When Emma's liver begins to fail, House presents her with the heart-wrenching choice to terminate her fetus or die herself. But with Cuddy on her side, Emma demands they come up with another option – an option that may not exist. With Cuddy and House at odds over how to handle her case, Emma faces a life-and-death situation for both herself and her unborn child.

  

Episode 18 - Airborne

House and Cuddy board a flight back to the United States from Singapore, where they were speakers at an international conference. Shortly after takeoff, a passenger seated next to House becomes violently ill. While House brushes it off as a hangover, Cuddy suspects the man might have a deadly contagious virus and the other passengers could be at risk. Assuming the worst, Cuddy suggests the plane turn back and land, but House dissuades the flight attendant and the flight continues on. As the man's condition worsens, the rest of the passengers on the flight become increasingly uneasy, and so does House when a second passenger falls ill with the exact same rash and debilitating symptoms. Back at Princeton-Plainsboro, Wilson leads the team when they encounter Fran, a middle-aged woman who collapsed at her home and soon goes into seizures. Cameron and Chase investigate Fran's house to look for clues to a diagnosis, but they are distracted by the prospect of an empty house and an inviting bed. When they return empty-handed and Fran's health continues to decline, the team must focus on finding out what is killing Fran without House's help. Back on the flight, with First Class turned into a makeshift isolation area, House calls upon a misfit team of passengers to fill in for his own team, as he bounces questions and theories off of them. When Cuddy collapses and several more passengers fall ill, the situation turns dire as the plane is hours away from any viable landing place. Without the help of his team or even proper medical equipment, House finds himself with Cuddy's life and a plane-full of passengers' lives in his hands.

  

Episode 19 - Act Your Age

The team takes on the case of 6-year-old Lucy, who collapsed at daycare. They discover that the tissues surrounding Lucy's heart have hardened and are strangling her heart, a condition usually found in much older patients. As the team searches for an explanation, Lucy's condition worsens and she suffers a stroke. There's a palpable tension between Cameron and Chase, and House intentionally assigns them tasks to do together, including a trip to Lucy's house to check for any possible environmental explanations for her condition. While there, they discover surprising evidence indicating that Lucy may have been abused. Lucy's 8-year-old brother develops a not-so-innocent crush on Cameron, and as he becomes increasingly aggressive, House suspects that whatever is killing Lucy has begun to affect her brother, too. As they try to narrow down what is causing Lucy's condition before it's too late, House and Cameron clash over how to treat her. Meanwhile, when Wilson takes Cuddy out to see a play, House puts ideas in Wilson's head regarding Cuddy's motivation for going with him.

  

Episode 20 - House Training

The team takes on the case of Lupe, a young female scam artist who passes out while working a card-playing scheme on the streets. Lupe suffers from a lack of blood to the brain which had temporarily paralyzed her ability to make decisions or exercise free will. Measuring from her background, Foreman immediately suspects Lupe's condition stems from drug abuse, while Chase looks for other possibilities, such as toxins, in Lupe's apartment. Lupe senses Foreman's disdain for the decisions she's made in her life, and Foreman grapples with his own humble past when his parents come to visit him. When Lupe's symptoms worsen and her organs begin to shut down, Foreman and the team suspect cancer to be the culprit. Meanwhile, Cuddy and Wilson go out on a date to see an art exhibit together, and House probes Wilson's ex-wife about Wilson and his dating habits. When the team learns some devastating news about Lupe's condition, they realize that their own decisions, rather that Lupe's, may cost Lupe her life.

  

Episode 21 - Family

Wilson prepares his 14-year-old leukemia patient, Nick, for a last-resort bone marrow transplant from his younger brother, Matty. With Nick's immune system completely wiped out from chemotherapy, Wilson is extremely cautious about keeping him healthy before the transplant. However, when Matty sneezes during a pre-op visit to his brother, Wilson knows that Matty is not healthy enough to donate. House and the team race to find out what is making Matty sick so that they can treat him quickly and allow him to donate healthy, uninfected bone marrow to his dying brother. With no other matching donors available, the team knows that Matty is their best shot at saving Nick's life, since giving Nick bone marrow from a partial-match donor could lead to an excruciating death if Nick's body rejected it. House decides they must purposefully make Matty sicker and use his developing symptoms as a method of narrowing the diagnosis field. As both brothers' conditions worsen and Nick has only days to live, the team must diagnose and treat Matty before it's too late for both brothers. Meanwhile, Foreman is haunted by his mistake that killed a patient just one week earlier, and House only wishes he could incur similar misfortune upon his new pet and nemesis, Hector.

  

Episode 22 - Resignation

Addie, a 19-year-old college student, is admitted to Princeton Plainsboro after coughing up a mouthful of blood during karate class. Before treating the patient, Foreman unapologetically informs the rest of the team that he is resigning, but will not say why. House strongly believes an infection is to blame for Addie's bleeding, even though her symptoms indicate otherwise. When Addie's lungs suddenly fill with fluid, the team believes that cancer or toxins could be an underlying cause, but House refuses to stray from his initial infection diagnosis. As Addie's condition worsens, House suggests a risky life-or-death treatment to confirm his suspected diagnosis, leaving the team wondering whether he cares more about making a diagnosis than he does about saving Addie's life. Meanwhile, House takes a special interest in a young, attractive nutritionist named Honey, who accompanied her boyfriend to the clinic for treatment. Knowing he will have a position open soon on his team, House has Honey fill out an employment application and sees to it they meet again under more casual circumstances.

  

Episode 23 - The Jerk

Obnoxious 16-year-old chess prodigy Nate is admitted to Princeton-Plainsboro suffering from intense head pain that came on after he attacked his opponent during a speed chess tournament. Nate's mother tells the team that Nate has been having behavior problems ever since he became a teenager, and House suspects the behavior is a symptom of cluster headaches. As House's team carries out further testing to see why he might be having the headaches, Nate manages to offend and annoy each doctor on the team. As Nate's illness progresses, his liver and kidneys begin to fail. To narrow down the list of possible diagnoses, House carries out a series of unconventional and eccentric tests of his own, including engaging Nate in a game of chess to try to beat him at his own game. Meanwhile, Foreman's frustration with House reaches a new level when he believes House sabotaged his job interview with another hospital, and Cuddy makes Foreman an offer she's sure he can't refuse in "The Jerk."

  

Episode 24 - Human Error

Cuban couple Esteban and his sick wife, Marina Hernandez, are pulled from the ocean during a dangerous rescue at sea while en route to the U.S. on a mission to reach Dr. House. Marina's medical records from Cuba were lost in the shipwreck, so the team runs a series of tests to determine the extent of her illness. When Marina's heart stops during a routine cardiac catheterization, the diagnostic mystery deepens. House debates with the team whether it was human error or a still-to-be-determined illness that caused Marina to flat-line, and the team fights to keep Marina alive on a bypass machine long enough for her husband to say goodbye, knowing that nothing short of a miracle can save her. Meanwhile, Foreman prepares for his last day of work at Princeton-Plainsboro, and Chase accuses House of trying to win Foreman over in order to dissuade him from leaving, prompting House to make a very rash decision that affects the whole team in the "Human Error" episode of House.

  



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