House, M.D. s06e11 Episode Script

How am I supposed to walk into that meeting with no presentation? How the hell did you screw this up? It wasn't me.
She's lying.
No.
We agreed Her team had all the financials.
And we were swamped modeling them, that's why we agreed that you would do the slides.
Well, one of you screwed up.
So please try to figure it out, 'cause when the client dumps me, I need to know who to fire.
I confirmed in the e-mail.
Hold on.
Here.
She did tell you about it, Russ.
I never got this.
Russ, are you okay? Are you drunk? I'm not drunk.
I'm not drunk.
I'm I had no idea he was drinking again.
Well, you should have.
Give me five minutes, I'll go to the business center and print the graphs directly from the spreadsheets.
Run.
And bring me some paper towels.
What? Oh, it hurts.
Don't tell me you were drinking, too.
No.
My ears.
Oh, my God.
Twenty-seven-year-old female, intense intermittent ear pain, saw six doctors Tell her to stop lurking in the front row.
If she wants to hit on musicians, that's what tour buses are for.
Next.
If I ask why we're in Wilson's office, is there any chance I'll get a straight answer? Try it, try it.
Fourteen-year-old boy, joint pain and excess hair growth.
Tell him to masturbate no more than three times daily.
With meals.
Next.
Did I mention that the 27-year-old female is really hot? And her husband is really not.
Wild guess.
He's rich.
Not unless social workers have begun pulling in the big money recently.
Give me.
You're taking the case because she's hot? No, that would be an accident of genetics.
It's because she's hot and her husband is ugly.
That's a fascinating window into the mysteries of human psychology.
Also, she's "really" hot.
Or she, you know, loves her husband.
She loves something about him.
Vitamin deficiency.
She changed her diet a few months ago.
To a healthier diet.
Raw foods, lots of nuts.
It's not the ear, it's the heart.
Her protein was cheese, which can raise cholesterol.
Hers was already elevated, gave her arterial blockages.
Cardiac arrhythmia presenting as ear pain.
Very rare.
Cool.
So Beauty and the Beast.
Who wants to go see? Let's see.
Dr.
Taub, Foreman, Chase and Hadley.
Four for four.
Wow, I can't believe I get all these doctors.
And such good-looking ones, too.
Yeah, it's almost like we don't all need to be here.
Your case presented a very interesting diagnostic challenge.
Oh.
You can't sleep in your own office? Or bedroom, for that matter? Got to avoid my natural habitat.
Some idiot I went to med school with keeps leaving messages, wants to drop by for lunch.
So tell him "no.
" It's complicated.
It's too complicated for you to tell someone you don't like to screw off? That's practically your hobby.
A few months ago, he was sort of part of my therapy.
My shrink told me write a letter of apology to someone I hurt.
And how did you hurt him? We were in a seminar on flatworm genetics.
I switched my final paper with his.
You plagiarized? Doesn't sound like you.
I was testing a theory.
I thought that our professor was biased against me.
I assumed he'd get a high grade with my paper, and I'd get a low grade with his.
Interestingly, I was wrong.
I got an A.
So you're in this mental hospital, delving into your subconscious, and this is who you choose to apologize to? Yep.
Lorenzo Wibberly.
Of all the people in the world you've hurt Not everyone has a name that's so easy to find in the White Pages.
I'm in there.
And so is Cuddy.
Yeah.
Yet I picked him.
It's funny, isn't it? Yes, it's hilarious.
Great to see what a success your therapy was.
We said we'd never to go to sleep angry! We did find an arrhythmia, but it's not from your arteries, they're clean.
Will the pain come back? We'll start her on cardiac meds, that should help.
But we still need to figure out what's causing the arrhythmia.
Hey, Valerie.
Russ.
It's so nice of you to stop by.
I got lots of free time now.
You don't blame me, do you? You were drunk in front of Norris.
No, no, no, no, no.
I'm drunk now.
Then, it was like someone poisoned me or something.
Maybe you should come back later.
Okay.
I just wanna say goodbye.
Okay, Russ.
Thank you for coming by.
Hey, hey, hey, hey! What are you doing? You poor son of a bitch.
She doesn't love you any more than she loved me.
Okay, you need to leave right now.
You're pretending you had an affair with my wife? Yeah, we're all pretending.
You got nothing to worry about.
Tell them where you were six months ago, Russ.
I had a breakdown.
I had some paranoid tendencies, as they say.
But it turns out, I had a right to be paranoid.
You need help.
Get him out of here.
Okay.
Okay.
Oh, my God.
Are you okay? You okay? Yeah, I'm okay.
We'll keep an eye out.
He's not getting back in the hospital.
He's making all that up.
You know that, right? Yeah, of course.
Where are you? Undisclosed location.
Who are you hiding from? Wilson.
And the lunch date that Wilson is, no doubt, right now, trying to sic on me.
But in the great game of chess that is our relationship, Wilson sees only one move ahead, I see dozens.
That is why he will never mate me.
That's a chess term.
That's great.
A co-worker confronted our patient.
Altered mental status.
Basically accused her of poisoning him.
We think he was projecting.
So he's poisoning her.
What could he get his hands on to cause supraventricular tachycardia? Does he have dry skin, thin eyebrows? If you're sharing an amazed look, please do it louder.
He might have.
How did you know that? He has hypothyroidism, he dumped his meds in her coffee, that would make her heart go boom, in a bad way.
We'll treat with beta blockers.
I'm sorry, but I totally disagree.
With what? - With everything.
Why are we assuming he's lying and she's telling the truth? Because she's a successful, happily married consultant, and he's a crazy, drunk weirdo who we just tossed out of the hospital.
And she's hot.
Maybe she picked him because he's vulnerable.
There's something off about her, I can feel it.
If you had any evidence Why didn't she tell us a co-worker puked on her shoes right before she collapsed? Because it's medically irrelevant.
He was drunk, she was sick.
You don't think it's suspicious she didn't mention it to her husband? Yeah, Foreman, why did you break up with Thirteen? Oh, no, wait, the non-subtextual thing she was saying, why that? This is about the case, not some imaginary issue that you think Foreman and I have.
Great.
Start her on beta blockers.
You'll do it? I don't think he was talking to me.
Well, I am.
I'm the only one who thinks you're wrong.
Maybe that's why I'm asking you to do it.
Greg? Lorenzo Wibberly.
Dr.
Wilson said you'd be here.
How you been? Check and mate.
Look, I'm sorry this is awkward or whatever.
I just thought it was nice of you to write that letter, and I wanted to tell you that you don't have to feel bad.
Thanks.
So, where you working these days? You got your own practice or you at a hospital? I thought you knew.
Dani's, the organic supermarket chain.
As an in-house doctor? I actually never got licensed.
I didn't graduate med school.
I planned on going back, and then my father got sick and I had to take care of him, and I had some bad luck.
Why didn't you graduate? I was one credit short.
And I was sort of already on academic probation, so Which credit? I got a He failed me on that paper you switched.
I thought you knew.
So I'm guessing you're the CEO of this supermarket chain.
I bag groceries.
Life works out weird sometimes.
We were going to do it in Santa Barbara because of his parents, but then I found this beautiful hotel in Montauk and You're testing her for a brain tumor? That's what I told her.
You can chastise me after you look at the monitor.
Look what's lighting up.
Lateral frontal cortex, Broca's area.
So what? I told her it was customary to talk during MRIs, to relax.
I spent the last 30 minutes asking her about everything in life that she loves, then hates, then feels any emotion about at all.
There's nothing in the paralimbic system, amygdala.
Because she's using the language part of her brain and bypassing the emotional.
She can understand love and pain and empathy, but she can't feel them at all.
She's a psychopath.
Why do you want to meet her so badly? Psychopaths always fascinate me.
I think it's their cultural literacy and strong family values.
Or is that Jews? We're not gonna be able to get an honest read on her unless we figure out a way to get the husband out of there.
Hmm.
I got an idea.
Can you get out of here? Thanks.
It was the "thanks" that did it.
Hi, I'm Dr.
House.
How long have you been a psychopath? Are you kidding? He's not.
Are you saying I'm like Ted Bundy or something? Psychopathy can get a bad rap.
Doesn't necessarily mean you're violent.
Just that you're completely without conscience, you lack any normal emotion, you manipulate everyone around you, you're promiscuous, you lie pathologically.
Any of this ringing bells? Is that why you were asking me all those weird questions? Yeah.
Well, you have Darwin to thank for that.
She got the creeps around you.
Which, oddly, is an actual medical phenomenon around psychopaths, probably an evolved response to predators.
I'm sorry.
You're really freaking me out.
I have no idea what Relax.
We have a duty of confidentiality.
And you have an undiagnosed heart problem that could kill you at any moment.
We believe that your mental abnormality is related to your physical one.
So if you want to keep on "predating" What do you want to know? Your co-worker's story was true.
You poisoned him.
No.
I gave him a little Valium and an emetic.
You sure you understand what the word "no" means? I've had them both before, why can't he? So you were just helping him out? I assume he was cool with the whole seducing and firing part, too.
Russ knew what he was getting into.
He got sex every Thursday night, and I got to take credit for his best ideas.
And what are you getting out of your marriage? Same thing you get out of your job.
Bill has a trust fund, and I have a prenup his parents made me sign.
Told you he was rich.
She's not that weird.
I'm not so different than anybody else.
Everyone I've ever known, my family, my classmates, the people I work with, they're all out for themselves.
Difference is, I can admit it to myself.
She kind of reminds me of someone I know.
Tell me about it.
Some of my co-workers will insult people right to their faces.
How long have you been this way? Just how I am.
Are you gonna cure my heart problems now? So, psychopathy plus cardiac arrhythmia.
Go.
I thought you were bluffing to get information.
You really think they're connected? Two rare conditions in one patient, it's a fair assumption they are.
Psychopathy is generally just genetic, nothing you can do about it.
Something that hits going to be connected.
There are diseases that could lie dormant that long, hit her heart, warp her brain.
Maybe a handful of diseases.
It'll be super awesome when we find it.
Tertiary syphilis can cause pseudopsychopathic syndrome and cardiomyopathy.
Fits best.
Start her on penicillin, rule out Wilson's and Hashimoto's.
There's your handful.
Wasn't so hard, was it? You gotta do something about Thirteen.
She flouted both my authority and yours.
Yes.
And she got it right and you got it wrong.
Which just aggravates the problem.
She'll do it again.
Next time, it won't work out so well.
You got to punish her.
You're her boss, in some vague, never to be usefully defined way.
You punish her.
I'm also her ex, which, as you know, makes it a little complicated.
The fact that you also fired her takes it from a little complicated to a little moronic.
It was the only way I It wasn't because you were too in love with her, it was because you were too in love with your career.
We're almost at my floor, so I'll summarize.
Your problem, not mine.
You cut up my only copy of that photo.
That rare daguerreotype? You can charge me for the effort it takes to search your hard drive for a new copy.
Not the one of me and Lucas, the one from Ecuador.
Right, I'd forgotten about your deep emotional attachment to lemurs.
To my dad.
You got his tail.
He was holding the camera.
That was the last trip we ever took together.
And I don't have a digital copy.
Well, I could stand here all day apologizing, but I'd rather expiate my sins with good, clean work.
You ignoring my texts? The crazy ones you sent, trying to get me to make you feel better about destroying your classmate's life? No, I never got those.
Wibberly's got some agenda.
Probably trying to guilt me into getting him a better job.
How pissed was he? Not at all.
That's how I know he's got an agenda.
If you feel guilty, you should do something to help.
You are responsible.
Thanks.
What? All I'm responsible for is the foreseeable consequences of switching papers.
A bad grade or a sleepless night.
Worst case, a retest.
There was no way to know that one seminar paper was gonna destroy this idiot's life.
If there's any karma in all this, he's probably happier than you are.
Good point.
If he is happier, there's no harm done.
I'll go find out.
That is absolutely not what I said.
Always with the modesty, this one.
You want something to eat? I'm cool.
How's work? You happy with it? You know, it's a job.
I don't need to take any work home with me at least.
Free time.
Wouldn't have any of that if you were a doctor.
Yeah.
True.
You like chili? I could reheat some.
Is that your yard? That's nice.
Yeah.
That sugar maple, The most beautiful leaves in the fall.
Sit underneath on the bench, it's like paradise.
I don't have a yard, myself.
You got a good thing going.
I know.
So, what are the boxes for? I'm moving.
From paradise? Well, with my dad's medical bills, and me being one of those idiots that got an adjustable mortgage, so You're losing your home.
Hey, could be worse, right? How? Even if the tests are positive, you don't have to worry.
You're testing for syphilis, not a cold.
Honey At this stage, it's probably not communicable.
You think I'm worried about myself? I just want my wife to get better.
She might have caught it at birth, so it doesn't prove she was cheating.
If you were worried about that.
Of course not.
How many weeks am I gonna have to You okay? Why is she coughing? - I don't know.
You want some water? Are you threatened by me? Not at all.
Well, you should be.
You let him know what I told you, I will not only have your license pulled, I will sue you for everything I lose in the divorce.
So the fun you get out of making those snotty little comments, is it worth $90 million? Oh, wait.
Will you hold that look? I'm really bad at showing emotions.
How's this? Thanks, baby.
Can I have your arm, please? My arm! You broke it! I don't know what happened.
- Neither do I.
But I know what happened after.
She called Cuddy and demanded I kick you off the case.
I backed you up because I trust you, but you're gonna have to earn that trust now.
Thanks.
Actually, he backed you up because of the new BU N creatinine numbers.
Brittle bones were from kidney failure.
There is that.
So heart and kidneys.
And brain.
Nope.
The psychopathy is not a symptom.
It was yesterday.
In the meantime, kidney failure ruled out syphilis, and testing ruled out the other ideas that would have fit.
Protein levels, kidneys, arrhythmia.
Could be paraneoplastic.
I'd say lymphoma.
Get her to radiotherapy.
We can't start radiation without immunoassays in her urine.
Great.
So, you cast a spell and magically fix her kidneys, she can give us some urine to test.
We have some left from admission.
Not enough for a completely accurate reading.
Then how about partially accurate? Those of you who haven't slept together, you can go.
Everyone else, stay behind.
Oh, sorry, that was our secret.
Right.
Go have sex.
No, thanks.
Fine, I'll cover the Viagra and the lubricants, just get me a receipt.
We have zero feelings for each other.
That's too bad, 'cause things worked much better when you did.
Would it help if I slept with her? We were getting to a diagnosis.
No, we were already at the diagnosis.
You were creating a fake argument about an irrelevant treatment issue 'cause you can't stand to be around each other.
So have sex, fight, or quit, I don't care.
Whatever you're doing now isn't working.
You okay? Yeah.
Look, I get that you gotta act fast, but radiation? You definitely ruled out everything else? I'm sorry, but We could still check for environmental toxins.
Where does she spend most of her time? Mostly at work, at home.
Hobbies? Recurring activities outside the home? No.
Not really.
She took a landscaping class at the Y.
When did it meet? Every Thursday night this summer.
You dig in soil, you can be exposed to pesticides, heavy metals, lots of bad things.
Can you find out all about her landscaping class, where it was, details like that? Yeah.
I'll do it now.
So when you watch Star Wars, which side do you root for? Dr.
House, what are you doing? Just checking in on your radiotherapy.
From what I hear, you never visit patients.
And now you've come to chat with me twice.
I wanna know how you like being a management consultant.
I'm thinking of getting into it.
That or psychopathy, maybe.
Which pays better? I think you're already into one of them.
Dr.
Hadley made a joke yesterday.
She said I sound like you.
You sure you understand what "joke" means? So you're not just out for yourself? For example, you would never interrupt a sick woman's treatment just because of some personal obsession? Of course I'm self-interested.
We all are, we're born that way.
The rest of us are born with consciences.
Which is something you just sound ecstatic about.
I'm not saying it's logical, I'm just saying it's human.
So if you know your conscience is just an animal instinct, you don't need to follow it.
I think you realize that.
That's why you're talking to me.
You lied about your landscaping class.
Dr.
Hadley thought the soils might be poisoned.
You told him that? I just thought Russ said you were having an affair.
Was that your cover? Every Thursday night, you'd I'm so sorry.
Oh, God.
It's not what you think.
Do you remember that telecom case I said that we didn't get last year? In fact, we did.
And I was swamped.
Every Friday morning, we had a conference call with London, so the night before I would That's your excuse? You expect me to believe that you were at the office? What's the biggest argument we've ever had? You said I spend too much time away from home, that I don't need a job, that you would take care of me.
Yeah.
That's all true.
You yelled at me.
You made me feel like you didn't value anything that I did.
I need this job to feel like I'm accomplishing something on my own.
That's why I lied to you.
If I call your office tomorrow and I check Call my office, call my secretary, call my clients, interrupt their dinner, wake them up, I don't care.
I just want you to know the truth.
You know I love you.
Come here.
Please.
It's okay.
Fire her.
What for? You seem to have lied your way out of any trouble.
Until Bill checks up on my cover, and I have to create a whole new one to cover that one up.
I've done it before, but it's a pain, and I would like Dr.
Hadley to share that pain.
She didn't reveal any confidences, and she had a valid medical reason to ask about your landscaping class.
We can see what a jury says about that.
And admit to your husband the truth? You're not going to sue us.
We will remove Dr.
Hadley from all patient contact.
What? But it's for Dr.
Hadley's benefit, not yours.
We have no obligation to inflict you on her.
Fine.
But just so you know, this is not for your benefit.
Dr.
Cuddy is furious that you put her hospital at risk.
She just knows it's a bad idea to admit it in front of me.
Think what you want.
By the way, your orderly's outside.
But I'd wait about another 10 minutes if you really want your husband to think you're having radiation treatments.
Dr.
Hadley? Are you, by chance, gonna cry? 'Cause that's the one I just can't do.
Hello? This is Dr.
Hadley.
What? You called the medical board? What is she talking about? "Accusations of sexual harassment.
" You don't think I know it's you? Thirteen, come on.
You already got me fired from the case, what else do you want? Dr.
Hadley, get out here now.
You're acting like an idiot.
She's trying to make me lose my license! She'll fail, unless you're stupid enough to go in there and scream at her.
Sexual harassment accusations are incredibly serious.
If she made them anonymously, the case goes away.
If she used her name, we all back you up, it goes away.
You're completely overreacting.
You'd be pissed off, too, if you were me.
Or maybe not, I don't know.
You're just about as emotional as she is.
I'm doing you a favor.
I know.
And even when you try to do something nice, you sound like a jerk.
I'm sorry.
For what? For firing you.
Don't do that.
That's not what this is about.
Then I'll apologize anyway.
I did it for me, not for you.
I realized that right after I fired you, but I couldn't admit it.
I screwed everything up.
I hope that we can still work together.
Something's wrong with her liver.
Blood flow's backing up, spilling into her esophagus.
From the cancer? This isn't lymphoma.
We don't know what it is.
We can wrap bands around the veins, but the bleed is so bad, that might not work.
We want to try something called the TIPS, a shunt that makes the blood bypass the liver.
That'll save her? It should help preserve her liver and heart.
But the liver cleans out toxins, so bypass it too long, she'll get brain damage, eventually die.
But that's still probably less dangerous than bleeding out now.
Probably? Valerie usually makes the decisions You gotta step up now.
Was she cheating on me? I can't discuss Just tell me she wasn't lying.
Just tell me that.
I'm supposed to make this decision? I don't even know who she is any more.
Either way, you gotta do it right now.
Do whatever you think is right.
I'd give her a day, two days at the most.
Great.
You be the clock, everyone else will be the doctors.
Heart, kidneys, now liver.
Amyloidosis.
No speckles on the MRI.
Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency? Too much kidney failure.
Primary hepatic fibrosis.
It's our best guess.
Start her on steroids.
Even if we're right, the liver's probably too scarred.
We got to list her for a new one.
With an unconfirmed diagnosis? Not gonna happen.
- How about a family member? I don't think the husband's the right blood type.
Even if he was, he's not going to give his liver now.
He left her, I assume? Not yet.
He says he won't abandon her while she's sick.
She have any other family members? No one's going to risk their life to save hers.
Man, one false accusation from a psychopath, and you turn out to be a real bummer.
I'm gonna go see if Wilson has any liver left.
What are you doing? Paying Wibberly's mortgage for a few months.
Congratulations on another successful round of hectoring.
Wait a minute.
Is that actually a check for him? No, it's a giant novelty item for winning the lottery, you're just standing really far away.
Of all the people to go the extra mile for, why this guy? I don't know, he just kind of smells good and makes me laugh.
Why not Cuddy? You never apologized after you defaced her photo.
Maybe because I recognize that sending someone to the poorhouse is a little more serious than editing a snapshot.
No, it's because Cuddy actually means something to you, which makes it much harder to apologize.
If it'll make you shut up, I will tell her I'm sorry about the photo.
Forget the photo.
House, she was in love with you.
And all she got in return was abuse.
For years, you toyed with her emotions.
She wasn't in love with me.
The fact that you still can't admit it just proves my point.
What do you want? Helping the guy was your idea.
No, help the guy, whatever.
I'm just pointing out that it's much easier to soothe your guilt by throwing money at a stranger than by making amends to a person you actually care about.
You had me at "much easier.
" I'm going to pretend to go to work now.
Ping.
Sarah? I'm Dr.
Hadley.
I'm sorry to bother you, but I was told that you're Valerie's sister.
Mmm.
I was just surprised you came to visit.
So is the rest of my family.
I was even more surprised you got tested as a donor.
Wrong blood type.
But why? I mean, you know what she's like.
She's not that bad.
Yes.
She is.
Our dad was a mean drunk.
I was the older sister.
I was supposed to stand up for her, not the other way around.
She protected you when you were kids? Yeah.
And then all of a sudden, all of his crap and all his abuse, it just changed her.
It made her cold.
When? We were wrong.
Psychopathy is a symptom.
I spoke to her sister.
She wasn't always like this.
She changed, and right around adolescence.
So, liver, heart, brain lie dormant, and it starts at puberty.
The raw food diet made it go fulminant.
Nuts are high in copper.
It's Wilson's disease.
We ruled that out.
No Keyser-Fleischer rings.
There is one other sign.
I know there are lipstick lesbians.
Are there nail-polish-remover bisexuals? She's not supposed to be here.
As a doctor.
You didn't say anything about her capacity as a beautician's assistant.
Her fingernail's blue? Yep.
Start her on chelation.
What just happened? You're gonna get better.
Your body has an inability to process copper.
It caused all of your problems.
Even what's wrong with your brain.
That's going to change, too? It's probably rewired her neurons permanently by now.
But it's possible? Maybe.
I have to go get the chelation equipment.
Bill, I need you to sign some forms.
You don't see what she's doing? She's laying the groundwork to get her treatment, wake up a completely different person so that you and all of your money stay with her.
It's a lie.
You said there was a chance.
Okay, there's a teeny chance.
But even if it cures her, it's not going to make her love you.
I was happy before.
I know, and I'm sorry, but it wasn't real.
It felt real.
I don't know Maybe that can be enough.
You're really doing this for me? Tax shelter.
I'll take some of that chili now.
I can't accept this.
Fine, forget the chili.
Bye, Wibberly.
I got an A plus with your paper.
I was an orthopedic surgeon for 10 years at New York Mercy.
I had a gambling problem.
I tried to cover it by overbilling some Medicare patients.
Lost my license.
That's why I'm here.
Not because of you.
Why are you telling me this now? Because I thought you'd be the same bastard you were in med school, but Keep it.
No.
I can get another place.
Just take it.
I screwed you over.
You got me an A plus.
Take it.
No.
Do I have to shove it down your throat? Take the damn check! Your vitals are up.
Treatment's working.
I'm not sure we can fix your liver, but we can definitely list you for a new one.
When you're better, we're gonna take a long vacation.
You want to go to Vietnam, one of the beaches? We're gonna get a hut, just you and me, nothing to worry about.
You're pathetic.
What? I mean, when you had a suspicion, fine, but you know now.
How can you be this pitiful? You don't mean this.
You're sick.
I'm not sick.
I almost died, and I still might.
And who knows, maybe it's focusing my mind because the idea of spending the rest of my life with you Valerie Why'd you do that? Because he's pathetic.
He hasn't changed.
But you have.
The treatment actually worked on your brain.
If you were still a psychopath, you would have just kept draining him dry.
What do you want? You're feeling something.
What is it? What do you feel? I don't know.
It hurts.
It will.
Heard about the diagnosis.
Nice job.
Thanks.
Why are you here so late? Discharge summary.
Taub's handwriting isn't helping much.
Apparently on the third day of admission, the patient underwent "rabbit thumping.
" "Radiotherapy.
" Ah.
"Third day after admission, "patient underwent radiotherapy "including external beam radiation "to treat B-cell lymphomas.
"First treatment was "full-mantle therapy"