House, which ended this week after eight seasons, has been a remarkable show with smart writing, acting and directing. While it was critically acclaimed during the first three seasons, the shake-up in season four wasn’t for the best, some say, and the show has been declining since then. But it had a pretty good run, and Hugh Laurie is one of the best actors on television today.
Here’s how this week’s finale — “Everybody Dies” — went down…
The show starts with House (Hugh Laurie) waking up in a burning building with Kutner. For those who didn’t know Kutner (Kal Penn), he was a sports medicine specialist who took his own life during season five. The show then backtracks to the final medical case dealing with House’s arrest.
House tries to get Foreman (Omar Epps) to lie to the police, but this time, Foreman doesn’t want to lie. He thinks House has gone too far, and he’s tired of lying for him. House then goes to his best friend Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), but Wilson isn’t falling for it either. He has also been suckered too many times and always takes the fall for his friend. After many failed options, House’s patient insists on taking the blame for it, because he’s not going to live anyway. So House is off the hook, right?
We now go real-time, and House is hallucinating Amber (Anne Dudek), a.k.a. “Cutthroat B***h” and Wilson’s girlfriend, who died tragically in a bus accident. House also gets his ex wife (Sela Ward) and Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) to see the error in his ways. He can change. But will House ever really change?
Foreman and Wilson suspect that something is wrong and try to find House, but he’s nowhere to be found. The duo finally realize where he is, but the house is engulfed in flames, and it appears that House didn’t make it outside fast enough.
The next morning, the coroners remove a body and learn that it matches House’s identification. He’s pronounced dead, and his funeral soon follows, with coworkers saying a few words on his behalf. Wilson approaches the podium, starts out saying nice things, and then really gives it to him. Suddenly, his phone rings and a text says, “Shut up, you idiot.” Could House be alive?
SPOILER ALERT: Turns out that House is indeed alive. Apparently, he snuck out of the burning house and falsified the dental records, leaving him free to start a whole new life. At least he’s with Wilson, his true partner in the defining “bromance.”
In the last couple of scenes, we see Foreman realizing that House may be alive, thanks to his name badge underneath a table leg, which was referenced at the beginning of the episode. Cameron is looking at her picture with the original team back in the day. Chase finally gets to be Head of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine — House’s old position — and he’s leading the current team.
As for Dr. Wilson … well, he has a motorcycle buddy to ride with — the new Dr. House — and the two ride off into the sunset. THE END.
SIDE NOTE: In the retrospective preceding the finale, “Swan Song,” David Shore mentioned an homage to Sherlock Holmes with the names House/Holmes and Wilson/Watson, as well as Holmes faking his own death and only Watson knowing about it. As a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, this little in-joke is why I do appreciate House.
Thoughts on the series finale? Was it a satisfying end?
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