Last Resort (House)

"Last Resort" is the ninth episode of the fifth season of House and the ninety-fifth episode overall. It aired on November 25, 2008. This episode is an "extended episode" as it runs for an extra seven minutes (excluding ads), taking the total episode's length without ads to 50 minutes.

Plot

A gun-wielding man named Jason (Željko Ivanek) from the waiting room at the Princeton-Plainsboro clinic takes House, Thirteen, a nurse, and several patients from the waiting room hostage in Cuddy's office. The man claims to be sick with a long undiagnosed illness and demands medical attention from the best doctor in the hospital, threatening to kill any hostages necessary along the way. With a room full of already sick patients, House must use them as guinea pigs to assure the hostage-taker that the medications he is administering to him are legitimate.

As Cuddy and the rest of House's team communicate with House over the phone to run tests and offer possible diagnoses, they ponder the possibility that Jason has nothing physically wrong with him and that everyone in Cuddy's office could wind up dead. With one hostage already shot, Thirteen wagers her own already diminished health as she simultaneously receives the experimental treatments the hostage-taker patient is receiving as he wants to make sure they are not sedatives. Her life lies in danger as House's own determination to diagnose the hostage-taker threatens to thwart the SWAT team's plan to put an end to the standoff in the "Last Resort" fire.

At one point, House gets the gun in order to do an CT, but gives it back afterwards in order to continue the standoff and the search. After receiving medicine for Cushing's Syndrome, Thirteen develops kidney failure. This actually gives House a clue as Jason's kidneys are not failing and the team realizes that some of the drugs he'd previously taken must be protecting his kidneys and perhaps saved his life.

Next the team believes that its Melioidosis but Jason says he's not been to tropical climates having never traveled farther south than Florida. Realizing that Florida is warm enough for the diagnosis to fit, House calls for drugs to treat the disease. Jason sends House out in exchange for the drugs and demands that Thirteen take the injection first to make sure it's the real thing, despite knowing it would kill her in her current state. Although up until this point she has displayed reckless and risky behaviour in response to her disease, at this point Thirteen refuses, tearfully realising "I don't want to die." He prepares to fire at Thirteen, but at the last second grabs the drugs and injects them into himself as the SWAT team blows the wall down and storms the room.

Jason is taken down, and House reenters the room to find Thirteen still alive. When he asks her why she's alive, she responds, "he didn't make me take it." Outside, as Jason is arrested, House signals him to take a deep breath and let it out, and as he is able to do it, the diagnosis of Melioidosis is confirmed. According to House, the disease was easy to miss on various tests, and the fact that Jason never mentioned his trip to Florida prevented the diagnosis earlier. After nearly dying, Thirteen asks Foreman to admit her in to a clinical trial for Huntington's.

At the end of the episode, Cuddy is looking around at her destroyed office when House enters. They argue over who is to blame, him for being so obsessed with solving the case that he gave the man back the gun, or her for doing everything he told her. Cuddy abruptly ends the conversation, saying 'this' is why they wouldn't work in a relationship. House tells her that he's not sure how to help her then, since as they are not in a relationship now the only way to change would be to be together. Shocked, Cuddy asks if he wants a relationship with her. He hesitates, before sarcastically saying that he was just trying to follow her logic.

It is also revealed that the reason House was in Cuddy's office in the beginning of the episode was to pull a prank in which he turned a drawer in her desk upside down so when she opens it the contents all fall out, which ends the episode.

Music

This episode featured the song "Between The Lines" (feat. Bajka) by British musician, producer and DJ, Bonobo, "Herzog" by Chris Clark, as well as "Glue of the World" by Four Tet, "It's Not The Same" by Yppah and "A Chronicle of Early Failures Pt. One" by The Dead Texan.

See also

• Chvostek sign

External links