Bombshells (House)

"Bombshells" is the fifteenth episode of the seventh season of the American medical drama series House. It aired on March 7, 2011.

Plot

A teenager is admitted to the hospital after spitting up blood. Taub also discovers that the boy has been depressed and appears to have been cutting himself. More concern arises when the team breaks into the boy's house and finds his school yearbook with his classmates' faces crossed out and threatening words written about the school, and when Taub checks the contents of the boy's flash drive, he finds disturbing videos of him blowing up homemade pipe bombs and appearing to show misanthropic and sociopathic tendencies.

It is discovered that a piece of one of the bombs ended up lodged in his system, and the foreign material is what has caused his various medical maladies. Taub, however, is torn between sending the videos to the authorities throughout the case, but in the end, decides to mail the flash drive to the police.

Meanwhile, Cuddy finds blood in her urine and undergoes tests for possible kidney cancer, while House grapples with emotionally supporting her, avoiding her, and denying that she is actually sick. Cuddy goes through several dreams while hospitalized before her kidney problems were found to be a benign tumor.

After speaking with her sister, Cuddy realizes that when House came to see her during her illness, he was under the influence of Vicodin. Realizing that he is unable to open up completely and share the pain that she considers to be part of any meaningful relationship, she ends their relationship.

The episode is concluded with a scene that echoes the last scene of the previous season's finale ("Help Me"): House is sitting on his bathroom floor with a bottle of Vicodin in his hand. He expectantly looks at the doorway. Resigned, and with no Cuddy to save him, he takes the pills.

Popular culture references

Cuddy's dream sequences includy a parody of the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men,^[1] while another recreates the final scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with House and Cuddy in the roles of Butch and Sundance. The final dream is a stylized version of "Get Happy" starring House in a large musical production.

Critical response

Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave this episode a B+ rating, praising "Bombshells" despite the campy dream sequences.^[2]

References

External links

• "Bombshells" at Fox.com
• "Bombshells" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Bombshells" at TV.com