House (2004–2012): Season 5, Episode 4 - Birthmarks - full transcript

(LILTING MUSIC PLAYING)

NICOLE: Do you
see them anywhere?

Why don't we go back to their house,
wait for them there?

Yeah, because they'll
probably answer the door

the 16th time I knock.

There they are.

Hi. I'm sorry
I followed you here.

I just really wish you could give me
a few minutes of your time.

(SPEAKING CANTONESE)

I know you never agreed
to make it an open adoption,

but I just figured
maybe you never had a choice.



I mean, it's China, right?

(SPEAKING CANTONESE)

(SPEAKING CANTONESE)

- What did he say?
- He wants you to leave them alone.

Please.

(SPEAKING CANTONESE)

I just want 10 minutes.

Learn what you're like,
tell you about my life.

(SPITS)

(SPEAKING CANTONESE)

He said
they have no daughter.

I am sorry
you wasted a trip.

I know that's them.

How does that work?



How do I pray?

You make a wish
and lift the Buddha.

I wish they could understand
how badly I need this.

Now make the wish again.

If you cannot lift the Buddha this time,
your wish will be granted.

(GRUNTS)

Are you okay?

(GROANING)

(SPEAKING CANTONESE)

Picked Cameron's pocket down in the ER.
Came up with a doozy.

Your mother called.
Twice.

But she's still healthy. This
25-year-old woman, on the other hand...

Her messages sounded
kind of urgent.

Well, that's the way women sound
when their spouse of 50 years dies.

Your dad died? Are you...

Yep, fine.
Our patient,

who's been known to take
a few drinks on non-occasions,

vomits blood and collapses
on a trip to China.

Chinese surgeons cut
out a foot of bowel,

but the pain is worse
now than it was before.

House, call your mom.

What are you, my mom?

We can continue
this differential in five minutes.

Are those bags under your eyes?
You were up all night.

You told her, didn't you?

I don't know what your daddy issues are,
but don't deflect them on me.

Told his wife
he's been getting some strange.

She kicked
his adulterous tuchus to the curb.

Seriously? You told her?

Yes, I told her,

but, no, she did not
kick me to the curb.

We stayed up late talking.
We're going to continue talking.

Much like House should be doing
with his mother right now.

FOREMAN:
Anybody read Chinese?

Otherwise, we have no idea
what these doctors did to her.

Kutner, you're sort of Asian, right?
Get it translated.

What about Meckel's diverticulum?

If the surgeons didn't remove
the diverticulum,

it could cause pain, bleeding.

Too high up for
a colonoscopy.

CT could miss it.
Ultrasound's fastest.

And since I'm the fastest
with the ultrasound...

House.
Let me do the ultrasound.

You need to deal
with your dad and stop...

I'm not deflecting
because I'm avoiding something deep.

I'm deflecting
because I'm avoiding something shallow.

Seriously, I'm fine.
I didn't even like the man.

HOUSE: No Meckel's.

You there for the rice
or the re-education camps?

I was there to track down
my biological parents.

Like a salmon returning
to the stream where it was born.

Did you become whole again
or did you get eaten by bears?

They denied my existence.

(COUGHING)

Four parents and not one of them
taught you to cover your mouth.

My God, it looks like
they cut you in half.

Doctor, we're her parents,
I'm...

I'm just a technician.

Her doctors will be by later,
you can schmooze then.

Can you let them know
that we went by her apartment,

collected all her medications...

I'm a technician
and a doctor.

You went through
my apartment?

We found alcohol.
We thought you'd quit.

- Did her drinking cause this?
- No.

Can you tell her it did?

HOUSE: Licorice root.

No, thanks, I'm good.

I threw it to you
for a reason.

It's what the Chinese doctors gave her.
It contains glycyrrhizin.

They were treating her for SARS?

Not very effectively.
But SARS explains the cough,

causes hypoperfusion, which explains
the ischemic bowel. It's perfect.

Lung involvement
isn't very severe.

Okay, well,
so call it ARS.

Start her on ribavirin
and interferon.

(DOOR OPENS)

I'm sorry about
your father.

I'm not.

Are we done emoting now?

If there's anything
I can do, just...

You know, you're right.
I don't think I can sleep alone tonight.

Tell me that is
liquid Vicodin.

We're giving IG shots
to everyone

who came in contact
with your patient.

Shockingly, none of the nurses
volunteered to administer yours.

It goes better
in a large muscle.

Drop your pants.

You know, I usually pay
tens of dollars to hear that.

The funeral's tomorrow.

My mom called you?

There is a 3:40 flight
out of Newark.

If you leave now,
you can be in Lexington tonight.

Your mother wants you
to deliver a eulogy.

Eulogy, from the Greek
for "good word."

Now if she'd asked me to deliver
a bastardogy, I'd be happy to...

Then be a grownup.
Call your mother back

and tell her
you're sick with grief,

but you're too busy
to be there.

She knows when I'm lying.

Then start writing.

NICOLE: I yanked my
brother and sister out of college?

Can you please tell them
I'm not dying?

You have SARS.
I'm wearing a mask.

It's a big deal.
Cut them some slack.

But I am going
to be okay, right?

That's what all
this stuff is for.

We're gonna need
the names and numbers

of everyone you came
in contact with

here and in China.
Flight numbers, dates.

That doctor that I coughed all over,
is he gonna be all right?

So far, he's fine.

(GROANS) It's back.
This is where the pain all started.

She's tachycardia.
Get a crash cart in here!

(MACHINE BEEPING)

What's going on?

I need to know what's going on.
That's my daughter.

(YELLING)

Her liver's failing.
It's not SARS.

I am not doing this
because I care.

Cuddy drugged me. She...

My mom didn't call Cuddy.
She called you.

I knew you couldn't stay away.
I knew you loved me too much.

I'm doing this
for your mom.

I'm not doing this at all.

If there was something
to be done,

I would have done it
in the year he spent dying.

You took my Vicodin?

I'm in pain.

One?

So the Vicodin is my leash.
One will take the edge off,

but it won't give me
enough relief

for an escape
back to Plainsboro.

(CELL PHONE RINGTONE
PLAYING MMMBOP)

Where's my phone?

It's the team,
it's their ring tone.

Forget it.
The patient's blood is on your hands.

(RINGING CONTINUES)

FOREMAN: House? You there?

I'm being held against my will.
Call the police.

Nicole had a clot
in the hepatic vein.

Chase sucked it out,
saved her liver.

No signs of a tumor
or venous malformations,

- nothing that could cause...
- She's an addict.

- Drugs and alcohol wouldn't...
- She's a smoker.

Combine smoking with
any one of a dozen genetic disorders

and she's a clotting machine.

Multiple blood clots
would tie together

bowel ischemia,
lungs and the liver.

FOREMAN: We need to pinpoint
which defect she has

so we can start her
on the right anti-coagulant.

Draw blood.

Let's find out which genetic gift
her genetic parents gave her.

Thanks for calling.

My ring tone for you
is Dancing Queen by Abba.

Nicole?

I need to pee.
Pull over at the next stop.

I'll just pee
on the floor.

You bought used floor mats?
That is brilliant.

(UNZIPS)

There's a rest stop
in five miles.

(ZIPS)

- Cane.
- The restroom's right there.

You can make it
on your own.

I suppose I could
talk about the summer

he decided
he wasn't speaking to me.

Two months. Not one word.

Anything he wanted to say,
he typed up

and slipped under
my bedroom door.

You don't want to say anything,
don't say anything, but go.

Tell your mom you're sad.
For her.

Just by being there
I'd be lying.

She wants to think, for a moment,
that she had a happy family.

So give her a gift. Lie.

Give me my cane,
I'll go to the damn funeral.

(WILSON GROANS)

(CLINKING)

I said I'd go to the funeral.
I didn't say when.

We have these two categories,
inside and outside.

Patients stay inside,
then, when they're better,

we let them go outside.

Thanks, but they don't
let you smoke inside.

So why don't you
go back there

and give me five minutes outside?

Make a fist.

Such a beautiful day, we thought
we'd do all our doctoring outside.

People stare at me
any time I'm out with my family.

It's like a puzzle. Which one
of these things doesn't belong?

Belonging is overrated.

I was adopted by a white family
when I was nine.

I like being different. The view's
better from the outside looking in.

Must be easier to be different
when you're a success.

Is that a problem?

This is why
we prefer inside.

You actually keep
a flashlight

that doesn't need batteries
in the trunk?

Next to the jacket,
emergency water,

nail clippers,
toothbrush, space blanket.

When things go wrong,
I like to be ready.

Will you please hold the flashlight
for a minute?

(CLANKING)

(SIGHS)

You know, those aren't
just my car keys.

My house keys
are on there, too.

Amber gave me
that key chain.

No, she didn't.

Not unless your pet name
for her was "Volvo."

A man who would lie about a gift
from his dead girlfriend...

ls probably responding to a childish,
pointless act of petulance.

The struggle to resist one's captors
is never pointless.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

Well, I hate to break it to you, Che,
but simple delay won't work.

Your mother will hold the funeral
till we get there.

My father was a punctual man,
beholden to time.

Two minutes late for dinner,
you didn't eat.

My mother would never disrespect him
by starting the funeral late.

Yeah, you clearly have no issues
to work through.

Come on, forget the keys.
Call a locksmith.

We'll go inside
and play Guess that Smell

with the truckers
while we're waiting.

Join me on the dark side.

Dark side's done, House.

I'm delivering you to your mother,
and that's it.

I've moved on.

What do you think
House would send?

The Gentle Comfort arrangement
or the Warm Thoughts bouquet?

I mean,
if he wasn't an ass.

Send one of those giant cookies
shaped like a coffin.

His mom would believe
it was from him.

I didn't tell you
so you could send anything.

Just wanted you to know
the extent

to which the man is disconnected
from the human race.

Took a six pack of FFP
to stop the oozing.

She's bleeding
and clotting?

Plus schistocytes on her smear
means it's DIC,

which means
she's got cancer.

She's young.
It could be leukemia.

Normal WBC
makes that less likely.

Belly pain points
toward a GI tumor.

House already
did an ultrasound.

He wasn't looking for a tumor.
Go run a CT.

CHASE: I don't buy it.

CT can find small intestinal cancers
that an ultrasound...

I don't buy House.

When my father died, I wound up
killing a patient. And I hated the man.

Whatever House says or doesn't say,
I'm sure the guy's a mess.

So he was a bastard.
He was still your father.

You're biologically programmed
to have feelings for him.

No, I'm not.

Feelings aren't rational.

I know you have trouble
with anything

that can't be
quantified and counted.

He's not my
biological father.

I figured it out
when I was 12.

Of course. You're a brilliant,
socially-isolated 12-year-old,

and you create
a parallel universe

in which your life
doesn't suck.

I looked at the facts.

First of all, he was deployed
on training exercises off Okinawa

during the time
I had to be conceived.

And since you're 150 years old,
air travel was impossible.

His second toe was
longer than his big toe.

Mine isn't.

This is sad. You don't believe
your mother screwed around.

I have a distinctive
red birthmark on my scalp

that matches a certain
friend of the family.

If you believed this story, you wouldn't
be telling me about his birthmarks,

you'd be telling me
about the genetic testing you had done.

And since you haven't mentioned it,
obviously, you didn't do it,

because you don't want to...
House, what are you doing?

Get your... Get off the...
There's a cop.

(SIREN BLARING)

Uh-oh!

Nicole, lie still.
This will only take a few seconds.

TAUB: One-millimeter cut
through upper abdomen.

She was adopted when the parents
thought they couldn't have kids.

Then they had three more.

She took the message as,
"Thanks for playing,

"but we have our
real children now."

And the real children
probably think they were accidents

while she was hand-picked.

Everybody's got problems
with their parents.

She's an addict.
Something went wrong.

And it has to be the parents?
Magnifying pancreas.

I'm not saying
the parents screwed up.

You're saying you like her, so you
don't want her faults to be her fault.

But they're someone's fault, and
the only other people you know are...

(BEEPING)

I think we may need
to call House again.

HOUSE: You lost track
of your speed?

I think that was Hitler's excuse,
"Lost track of the Jews."

No one held him
responsible.

I'm not playing, House.

You were protecting me.

Anybody in their right mind
would have ratted me out.

I'm just trying
to speed things along.

You are going
to this funeral.

(CELL PHONE RINGTONE
PLAYING MMMBOP)

Make it fast. I don't want to miss
the anal cavity search.

Looks like a mass
in the pancreas.

Not to me. This is radio.

And I want a full
play-by-play.

It's fluid-filled.

Could you get out of the car,
please, sir?

Officer, if you want to give me
a ticket, I totally understand.

Just get out
of the car, sir.

- Cyst?
- FOREMAN: Large cyst.

Something going on there?

Wilson's getting arrested.
How large?

SUV-sized
or mid range-sedan?

Seriously? What did you do?

I'm obviously joking.

If Wilson was getting handcuffed
on the hood of his car,

would I be carrying
on a differential?

Diameter's at least
eight centimeters.

(WHISTLES)

Is it in the tail
or the head?

The head.

You, too, sir,
out of the car.

We've got
a construction site.

A steamroller is plowing...

Out, now.

No cane.

James Evan Wilson. There's a warrant
for your arrest in Louisiana.

(HANDCUFFS CLICKING)

(SIGHS)

What are the traits
of a steamroller?

Powerful.
Maybe pancreatic cancer.

Great idea.
Except the only symptom

it matches up with
is being steamroller-ish.

You don't think House
is onto something?

I think he thought
he had an idea.

I also think his metaphors are tough
enough to decipher after he's said them.

We need to be focusing
on the medicine.

No answer.

There's not going to be an answer.
They've been arrested.

He was joking.

He reacted to
the size and location.

That's what we should be focusing on,
not playing Madlibs

while our patient's exploding "noun"
destroys her life-sustaining "noun."

I'll try to get Wilson
on the line.

What if it's not how
a steamroller works, but what it does?

Clears things.

It's a waste of time.

(CELL PHONE RINGTONE
PLAYING MMMBOP)

I need that phone call.

I'm a doctor.

When someone tries to call you
three times, it's code for

"Pick up the damn phone
before someone dies."

I'm sure there's other
smart doctors.

You'd be surprised.

You told me you'd
taken care of this.

I did.

The first words
you ever said to me.

I took care of it.

You must have
screwed up somehow.

Sir? Not to hurry you,
but we need to be at a funeral in...

Nobody is going anywhere
or taking any phone calls

till I hear back
from Louisiana.

It's a really old warrant.

Isn't there a statute of limitations
on this kind of thing?

It's suspended
when you flee the state.

I didn't flee the state,
I left the state,

because I don't
live in the state.

And the charges were
just so minor...

"Vandalism,
destruction of property, assault..."

There is a simple explanation.

There was a medical convention
in New Orleans.

You don't need
to explain to me.

I was fresh out
of med school.

I didn't know anybody
at the convention.

You heard the man, Wilson.
You don't have to explain.

I am not going to sit here
wasting time

just so you can avoid
your father's funeral.

He's my father.

I have the right
to avoid his funeral.

Not if your mother's alive,
you don't.

Okay. Explain.

CHASE: Did House react
to the eight centimeters?

He whistled. It's huge.
Anyone would think so.

House doesn't whistle
because he's impressed.

Means he wasn't
expecting it.

Means he changed his mind
at that point.

A single super-sized cyst
ruled out a diffuse process,

like scleroderma or lupus.

Rule out diffuse process,
you're stuck with single process,

affecting just the pancreas.

Gallstones
or pancreatic divisum.

Whatever he asked next
would have narrowed that down.

He asked about location.

Heads, it's gallstones.
Tails, it's divisum.

It's at the head.
She's got gallstones.

The steamroller means
potholes, means...

Relax. We got it.

You figured out
she's got gallstones?

I was at the hotel bar,
trying to unwind with a drink.

There was this guy
who kept playing

Billy Joel's Leave
a Tender Moment Alone on the jukebox.

Leave a Tender Moment
is a good song.

It's a great song.
He was out of line.

Not as good as Scenes
from an Italian Restaurant or...

So I asked the man to stop.
Politely.

Yeah, you yelled politely.

I was polite
the first couple of times.

But courtesy made no impression
on this ass.

So I threw a bottle
into the mirror,

which successfully
conveyed my message.

And smashed
a 10-foot antique mirror.

And set an example for two
other patrons, who threw shot glasses...

WILSON: I had nothing
to do with that fight.

The assault charge
was totally bogus.

And I paid
for the mirror.

I think I have
the picture.

I assume you're the guy
who was playing the song.

No, I was the guy
who bailed him out.

That's how we met.
I was in jail.

This guy was a total stranger to you,
and you bailed him out?

It was a boring convention.

I had to have somebody
to drink with.

And there's the foundation
of our entire friendship.

If you hadn't been bored one weekend,
it wouldn't even exist.

Hey, with 3,000 people
at that convention,

you were the one I thought
wasn't boring. That says something.

It also says something that you lied
to me about getting the charges dropped.

I got a lawyer, he cut a deal.
You didn't call the guy?

You have to show up at the arraignment.
Everybody knows that.

Everybody
with your misdemeanor experience.

You can go.

What?

He's a fugitive
from justice.

That whole story was lies.
He stabbed a man.

Louisiana doesn't want to pay
to get you back.

Forget Louisiana.
He was driving recklessly

through your comatose village.

What, do they put lead
in the jelly donuts here?

Stop acting
like such an ingrate

and go pay your respects
to your father.

CT confirmed gallstones.

Normally not dangerous, almost everyone
has them, but sometimes...

They kill you?

Yup.
Unless I take them out.

We do it laparoscopically.

Um...

How long has her urine
been brown?

Kidneys were fine
this afternoon.

CHASE: They're not now.

It's not the gallstones.

HOUSE: Well, of course
it's not gallstones.

Who thought
it was gallstones?

You said "steamroller."

I also said
"construction site."

Gallstones could cause
a pancreatic cyst.

Just turn around.
The thing is two hours over already,

and that's the third time
we've passed that colonial

with the cross
burning out front.

I'm not lost.

I'm not talking about
what caused the cyst.

I'm talking about
what the cyst caused.

Everything-

Cysts are symptoms,
not diagnoses.

Unless it's a multiple cyst
with connections to other organs.

Like a steamroller.

That's a long road
down to the kidneys.

How do we prove it?
Won't be visible on a scan,

Chase isn't gonna go
groping around

when she's got
kidney failure.

Bubbles.

- Is that your new stripper name?
- Yes.

And also, we inject bubbles into
the cyst and follow where they drift.

If they end up in her other organs,

we know you're right,
cut it out, she's fine.

Bubbles is right.
Go echo.

I'm not lost.

(NICOLE SHUDDERING)

Nicole, you gotta stay still.

(STAMMERS) I'm nervous.

You're not nervous.
It's the DTs, isn't it?

I haven't had a drink
since I got here.

Good heavens.
We haven't missed it after all.

It's like the end of
A Christmas Carol.

(SIGHS)

I'm so glad you're here.

It's a load off of my mind
just to see you.

Thank you, James.

Mom, how could you
delay the funeral?

Honey, your dad is dead.
He's not going to care.

Do you know what
you're going to say?

I don't know.
Just let the minister,

or one of his buddies
from the Corps...

You're talking.

I don't care
that you didn't like him.

He was your father
and he loved you.

The war is over, Greg.

Please do this for me.

Stop looking so worried.

I know he's gonna
make me proud.

I'm sure you know him better
than I do.

Her liver's been compromised.

And the DTs
will cause her muscles

to continue to twitch,
even under sedation.

We need to paralyze her
to do this procedure.

I wanted to stop.

A phenobarbital coma
will not only allow us

to inject the cyst,
it'll treat the DTs.

When she wakes up,
she won't be in withdrawal.

We've seen her through
withdrawal before.

We've seen her
through everything.

We've been supportive,
we've been combative.

We've picked her up from bars
in the middle of the night,

we've let her spend
the night in jail.

I used to say it would be okay,
that I'd get it together.

I don't say that anymore.

Let's make you healthy.

Then we'll worry about
making you sober.

The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.

I am not talking.

We were strangers.
We shared some geography 30 years ago.

Right.
He had no influence on you at all.

The father who was compulsive
about punctuality.

His issue, which I deliberately
made not my issue.

Thereby making it
your issue.

Compulsively showing up
four hours late,

ignoring discipline,
ignoring rules...

Oh, God. He's here.

Who's here?

The one you're pretending
is your father?

Nice pick,
he looks like Sean Connery.

So, back when you were devising
this fantasy, did you tell your father?

"Dad, I refuse
to recognize your existence

"because I've chosen
James Bond as my dad?"

I used different words.

What?

Hearing your own son
hates you so much

he's replaced you
in his mind?

That's gotta suck.
How did he take it?

I already told you.

He didn't speak to me
for a summer.

(CLEARS THROAT)

It means more to me
than I can say

to have all of you
here today.

And now our son, Gregory,
would like to say a few words.

Greg?

There's a lot of people
here today,

including some from the Corps.

And I notice
that every one of them

is either my father's rank
or higher,

and that doesn't surprise me,

because if the test of a man is
how he treats those he has power over,

it was a test
my father failed.

This man you're eager
to pay homage to,

he was incapable of admitting
any point of view but his own.

He punished failure, and he
did not accept anything less than...

He loved doing what he did.

He saw his work
as some kind of

sacred calling,

more important
than any personal relationship.

Maybe if he'd been a better father,
I'd be a better son.

But I am what I am because of him.
For better or for worse.

And I just...
I just wish...

(CRYING)

(WHISPERS) Put it back.

Well, he's not gonna miss it.

I'm done enabling. You can't even
let them put him in the ground

without making it
serve your agenda.

HOUSE: You really wanna do this
in front of everybody?

You wanna punish me
or them?

How can I still
feel surprise?

You would take even this,
a moment of real human grief,

and turn it into a farce.

Oh, cut the crap.
You enjoy what I do.

I never had to force you,
you like coming along for the ride.

Yes, that's why
I'm cheering you on now.

This is about you needing
to be prepared for the worst.

So you become
an oncologist.

No surprises there,
the worst happens all the time.

But Amber,
she was young and healthy.

Her death came
out of nowhere.

Don't bring Amber
into this.

And you weren't ready.

That makes you angry.
The world sucks,

and you didn't have time
to brace yourself.

What happened out there
is your show.

You're scared to death
of losing anyone that matters,

so you dump the person
who matters the most to you.

I'm not scared to death,
I'm moving forward.

Because no one can take away from you
what you no longer have.

(LAUGHING)

Your father's death
is about you.

Amber's death
is about you.

I can't imagine why someone
wouldn't want to be your friend.

Admit it. You're angry
and you're scared of losing me.

- I'm not angry, I'm not scared.
- Admit it.

- I'm not afraid.
- Admit it!

- I've lost people. It happens.
- Admit it. Admit it!

What are you, five?
Stop repeating...

Admit it. Admit it. Admit it.
Admit it. Admit it. Admit it.

Come on, admit it!
Admit it!

Still not boring.

Did you know I was
going to do that?

Because I didn't know
I was going to do that.

I know you have trouble
losing people.

In New Orleans,
I saw you carrying

this express package
around the conference,

and you wouldn't let it go,
but you wouldn't open it,

so I peeked at
the return address.

Diamond, Fairbarren.

Divorce attorneys.

Your first wife had just served you
with papers.

Did you know that
when you bailed me out?

Were you doing
something nice for me?

What did I say
about being boring?

We owe your mom
an apology.

(RINGING)

Hello. It's House.

HOUSE: How'd the bubble test go?

The problem wasn't the cyst.
It's advanced dilated cardiomyopathy.

We did a three-dimensional echo,
showed a mass in the left atrium.

KUTNER: Looks like
an atrial myxoma.

But the ultrasound images are
a little grainy, so it's hard to tell.

House?

The images aren't grainy.

They sure look grainy.

I've seen pictures of you
where you looked tall.

It's an iron overload,

creates speckles on the image,
makes it look grainy.

Also makes her pancreas fail,
her blood clot, her intestines...

Atrial myxoma
is more likely.

MRI for a better view.

Then call me back
and tell me you're embarrassed

because my eyesight
is better 500 miles away.

I need a phone number.

(PHONE RINGING)

(SPEAKING CANTONESE)

I'm a doctor in New Jersey,
treating one of your clients.

Young woman looking for
her biological parents.

You know,
you could just wait for the MRI

to have your curiosity satisfied.

What person who is nothing like me
are you saying that to?

Did the parents look tan?

The disease she has is genetic,
which means they should have it, too.

They don't look more tan
than anyone else.

Discolored teeth?

They're farmers. Their village
doesn't even have a dentist.

Right. Thanks.

But if it matters,
I'm not convinced they were her parents.

Why not?

Because they said
they had no daughter.

The man was adamant, and the woman
seemed confused and frightened.

Thank you.

Differential.

Say you're
a middle-aged Chinese woman.

- Fine.
- Say it.

I'm a middle-aged
Chinese woman.

Girl comes to you,
says that she's your long-lost daughter.

Why would you
be frightened?

I'm frightened because she's a threat,
maybe she knows something.

She hasn't seen you
since she was an infant.

Maybe an inheritance issue.

They're peasants.

Her very presence is a threat.
She...

What year was she born?

'83.

She's not supposed
to be alive.

China introduced
the One Child Policy in 1979.

Say they didn't want a girl.

They tried to kill her.

But maybe the baby
doesn't die,

maybe the father panics,
or regrets it,

takes the baby
to an orphanage,

maybe he doesn't tell his wife.

Who freaks out like
she's seen a ghost 25 years later

when the girl shows up.

But why does attempted murder
from 25 years ago

suddenly become relevant
to her health now?

Maybe they gave her
something toxic.

It would have
to be fat soluble.

This is fun, isn't it?

Let me see the MRI.

We don't have one.

She started vomiting
as soon as we started the scan.

Then let her vomit through the MRI.
That's what nurses are for.

Her parents
tried to kill her.

I don't know how, but I know it
caused her to get sick 25 years later

trying to lift a Buddha.
Explain.

I already had this conversation
with Wilson. Just go with it.

Poison?

Buddha wouldn't make it worse.

Maybe the weight stressed her back,
which...

Makes sense if she's never
lifted anything in her life.

She actually didn't get sick till
she tried lifting it that second time.

I'm guessing
the weight changed.

Anyone have Taub's pager number?

What's up?

Maybe give him a call.

If he tosses that switch on the MRI,
she's dead.

X-ray her brain.

HOUSE: Pins.

Push them through
the soft fontanel of an infant,

you skewer the brain,
and the hair hides the entry wounds.

It's the perfect crime.

She's had them in her
all these years.

What changed
at the temple?

Same thing that changed
in the MRI.

HOUSE: Shockingly,
not all religious leaders are honest.

I'm guessing these particular monks
are bilking the faithful

by pushing a magnet
up Buddha's butt.

There's another one
under the table

that'll repel or attract,
depending on how you shift it.

When she picked up
that magnet,

it moved one of the pins deeper

into the sympathetic nervous center
of her brain.

This sent a signal
through the nerves

to the blood vessels
in her small intestines

that caused the symptoms in China
and in the giant magnet we call an MRI.

She's lucky.

We're all screwed up by our parents,
she's got documentation.

The pins will be removed surgically,
and she'll be fine.

We'll wake her from the coma
after the operation.

Is there any way
you could not tell her?

Please. She's fragile.

She desperately wanted to know
her biological parents.

For her to find out
that they wanted her dead,

I don't know
what that'll do to her.

She may not be
as fragile as you think.

We know our daughter.

See this pin here?

It's been pressing directly
on her addiction center.

It's not her fault,
and it's definitely not your fault.

She's not
who you think she is.

(KNOCKING)

I hear your patient's
going to be all right.

Is that why you're here?
A colleague checking up on a patient?

Something going on?

I'm celebrating.

My mom hated him, too.

Your DNA test showed no match?
That's incredible.

At the age of 12,
you actually figured out

your father
wasn't your birth father?

That's what you wanted,
wasn't it?

Why should it depress you?

It doesn't depress me.

It doesn't make any difference at all.
That's what depresses me.

Well, I guess nobody gets to choose
who their parents are.

I'm not even sure anymore
we get to choose who our friends are.

I spoke with Cuddy.
She hasn't filled my position yet.

If you're coming back
just because you're attracted

to the shine
of my neediness,

I'd be okay with that.

I'm coming back
because you were right.

That strange, annoying trip
we just took

was the most fun I've had
since Amber died.

You hungry?

Wilson.

Yeah?

My dad's dead.

Yeah. My sympathies.