TV Review: House, M.D. - "You Don't Want to Know"

TV Review: House, M.D. - "You Don't Want to Know" 

Written by CindyC
Published November 24, 2007

Part of HouseWork

"You Don't Want to Know" is another fast-paced, character-driven episode that reveals that sometimes knowing it all can destroy the illusions that keep life worth living. Each of the three storylines deal with revealing secrets that will have a profound impact on the careers and lives of the characters involved.

The patient of the week, a magician who has a heart attack while performing a water tank trick a la Harry Houdini, needs to keep his professional secrets to keep the magic alive. Thirteen has kept all personal details about herself secret from House since she came on staff. And the winner of House's latest team challenge has to keep his methods and motivations secret to keep his job.

In yet another demonstration of being a doctor without boundaries, House challenges the five remaining fellows to bring him the thong of Dr. Lisa Cuddy. The purpose of the exercise is to see who can do it without being caught. Kutner would rather treat the magician, so House lets him go run tests while the other team members try to come up with ways to rid Dr. Cuddy of her panties. On the way, they stop as they pass Foreman, questioning this new assignment. Foreman jokingly tells them, "That's how I got the job."

Kutner seems disappointed when all the tests come back negative. While this is good news for the patient, it's not so good for Kutner because, as Thirteen points out, if there is nothing wrong with the patient, Kutner will be fired. The magician, Flynn, starts joking with the two of them, doing tricks to ease the tension. He asks Thirteen to do a card trick. When Thirteen asks why Flynn is not worried, he replies, "Either I'm dying or I'm not. I don't want the ride to be over, but unless worrying is some new form of treatment..." The sentence is never completed, as Flynn reveals her card in Kutner's burning wallet. Dying or not, Flynn is one cool magician.

House notices that Thirteen appears upset after she drops a file. This further sparks his curiosity about her. He becomes concerned when he notices her hand trembling and asks if she is hiding some illness, not out of concern for her, but because he needs to know that his staff will be healthy enough to function. Thirteen makes light of her clumsiness, and assures House that there is nothing wrong.

Foreman suggests that Kutner give Flynn an MRI to see if there is a problem with his lungs. When he gets into the MRI machine, Flynn starts screaming. Pulling him out and loosening the hospital gown, Kutner sees that Flynn has internal bleeding in the abdominal area. Thirteen and Kutner rush to tell House of this new development. House knows exactly why the MRI failed, and rushes into the OR, digging into Flynn's abdomen to reveal the key that would have gotten him out of the water tank, which he accidentily swallowed when the trick when awry.

House visits Flynn after finding the key. He still thinks Flynn faked his illness. Flynn argues that he is not a hack magician and does another cool card trick with House to prove it. House asks how he did it, but Flynn will not give up his secrets, arguing that people want to experience illusion and believe in magic. House refuses to believe in magic, as always, looking for a logical solution to all problems. When Flynn starts bleeding profusely from the nose, House realizes that there really is something wrong with him.

House gathers the team to diagnose Flynn and temporarily tables the thong challenge. Cole reveals that he already won the challenge and presents the prize thong. A jealous-sounding House asks how Cole did it, but Cole keeps his methods secret. He amusingly tells House that he prayed for the panties. That's payback for House belittling Cole's religion for all these weeks. Because Cole won the challenge, he now gets to nominate two of his fellow doctors. One of his nominees will be fired.

Unfortunately, the firing ceremony will have to wait. Despite the surgery and the blood transfusions, Flynn is still bleeding all over. Kutner thinks all of the bleeding could be a result of getting a bad blood transfusion. Unfortunately they cannot stick Flynn with any more needles because he will bleed to death. House doesn't believe it was bad blood that is causing Flynn's problems and decides to risk his own life by getting a transfusion from the supposedly bad batch to prove his point.

While Thirteen helps House with the transfusion, House tells her that he did some snooping and learned that her mother passed away at a young age. He asks if she had Parkinson's. Thirteen says that it was Huntington's Disease. Because of her hand trembling, Thirteen tells House that she will leave when the case is over. House tells her not to because her trembling was caused by his switching her decaf coffee for regular. Although she has a 50% chance of getting Huntington's, Thirteen has not been tested for it. She says not knowing has inspired her to do things that she would normally have been afraid to do, like working for House. She echoes Flynn's sentiment that unless worrying is some kind of treatment, she doesn't want to know.

House does get sick from the transfusion, and passes out. The team uses House as the test donor, and tests his organs to discover what is wrong with Flynn. When House comes to, he accuses Thirteen of dosing him with narcotics to make him pass out. She sticks a large needle into him to extract a liver sample and admits to the charge, rationalizing that they are even because he drugged her and made her think that she was dying. When she leaves the room, House swipes her water bottle, to test for Huntington's.

Wilson reproaches House for risking his life, yet again, by having the transfusion of potentially lethal blood. In their discussion of bad blood, House realizes that it wasn't a bad batch of blood that caused Flynn's symptoms, but the wrong blood type. He asks Flynn what his blood type is, and Flynn says A, but the blood they both received was AB. An autoimmune disease caused Flynn's blood to appear to be AB. For the first time, the correct diagnosis was actually lupus.

Cole nominates Amber and Kutner to be fired. Kutner is a surprising choice because Cole and he are friends. House questions this decision but Cole offers no explanation. House deduces that the reason he nominated Kutner is because Kutner is a liability to the hospital, and Cuddy and Cole struck a deal. Since the object of the challenge was not to get caught, this collusion was against House's rules. House does not want anyone to give Cuddy power over House's team, so he fires Cole. Not only did this deal cost Cole his job, it also cost him his friendship with Kutner. While the other doctors say goodbye to Cole, Kutner walks away.

Thirteen angrily approaches House with the results of the Huntington's test in a sealed envelope. Like he did with Cameron when she was afraid to have her HIV test, House did an unauthorized test on Thirteen. Thirteen yelled at him, saying he had no right to test her and to reassert the fact that she does not want to know. She tells House that he is obsessed with questions because he hopes that the answers will help make him less miserable. If he runs out of questions, he'll run out of chances for a better life. In a realistic portrayal of someone faced with a life or death diagnosis, she explains that a positive test will only result in her losing hope.

The end of the episode reveals a surprising development in House's personal journey. House lets Thirteen walk away. Even more surprising is that he threw the envelope in the trash without looking at the results. Could it be that House likes Thirteen enough to respect her boundaries? Could he be developing a sense of empathy? Or could her arguments about his motivations be so dead on that he relinquishes his need to know?

It is a perfect teaser ending to this episode about secrets. As a House fan, I know I need to know.