House (2004–2012): Season 7, Episode 23 - Moving On - full transcript

Well-known performance artist Afsoun Hamidi is admitted to the hospital, but when the team learns that her symptoms may have been self-inflicted as part of a documentary for her latest ...

Are we almost done here?

I have to call my mother, get
my daughter, call the hospital.

So he didn't threaten you?

No.

No fight?
Not really.

Sounds like a yes.

Was there any indication
that something would happen?

Yeah.

Every moment
I've spent with him.

I was always waiting
for something to happen.

But this?



And no idea where he is?

No.

These domestic situations, it's
not uncommon to get cold feet.

You're asking me
to file charges?

Just give me the paperwork.

If Greg House steps foot
in my hospital again,

comes anywhere near me,

I want him thrown in jail.

So, we can use any of these?

Yeah.

And just do
whatever we want to her?

That's what they're there for.

Hey! We're just getting
to the good part.

Is there a good part?
It's performance art.



That's Afsoun Hamidi.
She's a genius.

She just won the MacArthur,
legally proving it.

Just had a retrospective
at the Tate Modern.

Nobody reads The New Yorker?

No, but I subscribed
to her patient file.

House, you should relax.
You had surgery this morning.

Minor surgery,
removing a drain.

Put there during major surgery.

My doctor says it's okay as long
as I don't leave my hospital bed.

Which doctor was that,
Seuss or J?

Nurse!

Dr. Hourani wrote
it in his chart.

I'm surprised he approved it.

I'm more surprised
you actually asked.

I do things like that now.

I'm making some changes.

Like skipping ahead
to minute 37.

What is that, paint thinner?

I'm not gonna watch a
woman get set on fire.

Philistine.

Who's the guy with the notebook
who can't decide what to do?

Her assistant.
He's been instructed not to intervene.

Spoiler alert, he does.

For her, it is, literally,
heartbreaking.

Let the games begin.

Arrhythmia,
high hematocrit

and inconsistent
RR variability.

You forgot about the fourth symptom,
"being completely crazy."

One man's crazy is
another woman's art.

Her work explores things like
gender politics and self-image.

And the pressing issue of
shaving your entire body in public

while wearing a monkey mask.

She saw her
mom commit suicide

and was abused by
her stepdad for years.

Didn't say the crazy
wasn't motivated.

Well, she took that pain
and transformed it into art.

That's better than a lot
of the alternatives.

I still vote for nuts.

We should run a resting
state functional MRI

to look for increased
activity in the dorsal nexus.

She's not nuts.

The monkey mask shaving
medium really speaks to you?

What speaks to me is she's
elevated being full of crap

to a genuine art form.

And made a fortune doing it.

People who pay 20 grand for
one of her video stills,

on the other hand,

really do need their
dorsal nexi checked.

Maybe the paint thinner set
off an allergic reaction.

Not without bronchospasm.

There was a space heater
next to her in the gallery.

Carbon monoxide poisoning.

It fits.

Put her in
a hyperbaric chamber.

Lisa?

You're Lisa Cuddy.

What's this about?

I'm sorry.
I'm Jerry Barrett.

I recognized you
from the photos.

They barely do you justice.

The usual.

I'm friends with your sister.

She showed me your photos.

I work at the bank
across the street.

Julia's my client.
She wanted to set us up.

I'm afraid you have me mixed
up with somebody else.

No, I don't think so.
I've seen many pictures of you, several times.

That didn't sound the way I...

I guess I just have
one of those faces.

Nice to meet you.

Yeah. Say hi to Lisa Cuddy when you
meet her in the office you share.

Oh, thank God!

The ICU isn't being attacked
by giant radioactive spiders.

Did I text you that?
That was meant for my dream journal.

I wanted to return your stuff.

Don't worry, I didn't go AWOL.

I had my wife-maid
bring it over.

My sweater, a coffee mug,

half used bottle of lotion
and a DVD of Marley & Me.

Given your thing
for Owen Wilson,

I thought you might want
those last two back ASAP.

I don't get it.
You masturbate to Owen Wilson.

I meant the box.

Oh.

It's a symbolic gesture.

I want things to go back to the way
they were before we started dating.

No more bad feelings, no more issues.
Just work.

Thanks for coming.

I haven't even spoken to you
since you hurt yourself.

I was self-destructive.

It won't happen again.

I'm making changes.
I'm gonna stop doing stupid things.

Great.

The smart thing to do would be
to talk about why you did it.

If you don't understand...

I think I can avoid putting
another hole in my leg

without talking
about my mother.

I don't wanna
find out you're wrong

by getting another phone call
from you in a bloody bathtub.

I'm a big believer that the
best way to get past the past

is to shoot it in the head,

bury it in a deep pit
and pour lye on it.

I'm just asking you
to talk about it.

You owe me.

Forget about saving your life,

you exposed my daughter to
that obnoxious pirate cartoon.

Bring me lunch tomorrow
and we can plumb my depths.

I should have known the gallery
wasn't ventilated enough.

Hey, if it wasn't for you,

we'd be treating her for
third-degree burns, too.

That was a mistake.

He shouldn't have interfered.

I told you I'm sorry.

I want to share
your commitment,

but it's hard for me sometimes.

Like when she read
your love letters

in the middle of
the New Museum?

Yes, I read The New Yorker.

That was a year ago, and
we're not together anymore.

Seriously, you weren't really gonna
let that guy set you on fire?

He was just a plant to get
the crowd going, right?

If that's your interpretation,
I welcome it.

Afsoun believes explaining her
work limits its potential.

But between us, he was real.
And a total dick.

No sane person
would let themselves

be burned alive
for the sake of art.

My work is meant to force the
audience to break with the rational

and see things in a new way.

Fine. No sane person would let
themselves be burned alive

to break with the rational.

I feel...

Luca, hand me the
oxygen mask behind you.

Luca!

Congratulations,
it's a gestational sac.

You can't see anything this early.
I know.

I just figured this would help
me process what's happening.

There's a lot
we gotta figure out.

We have almost eight months.

You're not having doubts,
are you?

No. Are you?

Definitely not.

A nice, cozy home
for little Ruben.

It's a family name.
It's a sandwich.

Named for my family.

It's just House.

I swear to God, stay out
of my personal life.

Where's the downside here?

Huh? Jerry is cute,

he's a Senior VP,

he kite-surfs in Costa Rica every
winter, and he loves his mother.

Seasonally?

Or is that just
the kite-surfing?

Is this about House?

What?

Like, I secretly wish I could
alter the laws of the universe,

change who we are and
magically make it work out?

Yes, that's exactly
what I'm asking.

And my sarcasm
indicated "no."

No. Your sarcasm
indicated you wanted

to avoid actually
saying anything.

Look, Lisa...

All I know is you seem stuck.

And I don't like
seeing you like that.

She got worse in the hyperbaric
chamber, it's not CO poisoning.

I think we should consider
infection and test the assistant.

I couldn't get his attention,
he was in a daze.

- You think that's a symptom?
- He's in love with her.

He's probably just overwhelmed
and couldn't decide what to do.

What's he been doing
since she was admitted?

Did he bring anything from the patient
room into the treatment room?

Few things. A handbag,
flowers, a stuffed elephant.

Does she seem like the kind of
woman who needs a stuffed animal?

Who are you calling?

Oh. Of course.

What are you wearing?

Oh. I can see what you're wearing.
Go to her room.

Now go address
the elephant in the room.

This is a nanny cam.

The reason Luca couldn't decide

what to do in
the treatment room

is the same as in the gallery.

He's been told
not to intervene.

Congratulations.
We've become her latest work of art.

It shouldn't
have surprised us.

All her work is based
on personal traumas.

She's had Luca taking notes,
videotape her treatments,

collect things, like
sharps and bandages.

It'll all go into
a gallery installation.

Well, then, I guess as long as the
exploitation is properly motivated,

it's all okay.

Ultrasound showed a cyst on her pancreas.
We drained it...

Why are we even
discussing this case?

She lied to us, it's opening
us up to malpractice...

Our practice opens
us up to malpractice.

How do we know
she's actually sick?

Her being sick is a clue.

She would have let that guy set her
on fire for the sake of her work.

You think she's scared
of a little arrhythmia?

She probably
huffed paint thinner.

She would have let
him set her on fire

because of the honesty
of her work.

Faking an illness doesn't fit.
Thirteen's right.

At least her conclusion was.

Everything else
was laughably wrong.

If the patient
induced pancreatitis

and a heart attack,
she'd be suicidal.

Exactly. She's risking
her life all the time.

Exactly.
If she wanted to be dead,

she'd be dead a long time ago.

Pretending to cheat death
pays better than watercolors.

Coxsackie B fits.
But do a spiral CT

of her biliary tree
to rule out gallstones.

Fine. I'll get the CT.

Sure, I'd be
happy to come with you.

Thanks for asking.

You're supposed to stay in bed.
Doctor's orders.

If you really cared about me,

you wouldn't be so obvious when
you scheme to prove me wrong.

You volunteered because
you want to CT her lungs,

not her biliary tree.

You want to find fibrosis and
prove your paint thinner theory.

If I don't come with,
when you fail,

you'll pretend you never tried.

I don't really have
a choice now, do I?

Since I've seen your pay check,
I probably shouldn't...

But canned beans aren't so bad.

Once they're cooked
over an oil drum fire

under a bridge with
the king of the hobos...

I feel dizzy.

Pale, diaphoretic, tachycardic.

BP 80 over 40.

Internal bleeding?

Get her out of here
and scope her.

- I'm sorry.

The colonoscopy
didn't find the bleed,

so we gotta look by your liver.

Luca, please.
We need to document everything.

Hold this.

I'm just below
the celiac artery.

No blood.

Could it be leaking
into her thighs?

No swelling, no asymmetry...

So where's the blood going?

Why are you looking down there?

Because I don't like beans.

You stood me up.
Sorry.

I should have scheduled my patient's
internal bleeding for Thursday.

You're still playing the same
petty passive-aggressive games.

Got you to go all the
way to the second floor

of the building you work in.

Boy, did I screw with you.

You said you were
going to change.

Check the sign.

It says you got to treat
me with intensive care.

I'm expressing my anger.
You should try it.

Right now.
Let's finally have our fight.

All we do is fight.

No, all you've done
is pull pranks,

or have temper tantrums
with Wilson, never me,

marry mail-order
prostitutes,

make me go to your wedding...

Dominika is
a licensed esthetician.

You cut open your own leg!

So all this was about you?

You don't think it
was even related?

House, we've never even had a
conversation about our breakup.

You are obviously
still angry at me,

and it's hurting both of us.

Wow. I didn't realize the
incredible healing power of lunch.

I know one conversation
isn't gonna solve everything,

but it is a start.

It's a privacy curtain.

It wasn't working.

Lunch at 1:00, tomorrow in the cafeteria.
You happy?

How many of those
have you had today?

I don't know.
Is "your mother" a number?

The patient is a fraud.

I found a puncture in the
dorsal vein of her left foot.

Shooting up heroin
wouldn't explain...

Not heroin,

she was injecting herself
with her own red blood cells.

It caused her heart issues,

and when her
hematocrit evened out,

we mistook it for
internal bleeding.

That must've been
a very distinctively shaped,

and awfully talkative puncture

for you to get all of that.

The browser history
on her laptop helped.

She was researching blood
doping, among other things.

She was researching me?

For months.

This isn't about creating
art in the moment.

It's about you.

She set you up.

We sent a uni over to his
apartment and the hospital.

Yeah, he won't be there.

Any ideas?

When you find him,
you're gonna arrest him?

Is there some reason
you think I shouldn't?

Knowing him, he'll be in a bar.

He'll find one that matches
how he feels inside.

It'll be the most dark,
depressing hole

you can find in New Jersey.

Now you're just pissing me off.

- I'm really sorry.
- I didn't know she researched you,

- I had no idea she...
- You don't know anything?

Then why are you talking?

Please,
don't take it out on Luca.

I'll take it out on whoever I
think will irritate you the most.

I thought you would
understand someone

who uses their work
to deal with pain.

I didn't realize that search engines
could look within the soul.

You're standing in front
of me in a hospital gown.

What the hell is
the point of this?

What personal trauma
are you exploiting...

Sorry. Mining for
its artistic potential?

My illness.

I did the blood doping to intrigue
you, but I was already ill.

Wait. You're really sick?

- Why me?
- Do you know what you have?

Yes.
So tell him.

If I do, there won't
be any game for him.

And then, there won't
be any art for us.

Why me?

I don't answer those questions.

You know, there's a lot
of games I could play

that don't involve dealing with
narcissistic, manipulative posers.

But this is a puzzle
tailor-made for you.

You don't know which
of my symptoms are real,

which are fake, which ones I'm
not even telling you about.

I know that intrigues you.

Do you really want
to end it now?

No.

You want us to
waste a bed on her?

You took an oath,

an oath to be cool.

At least that was the one
I mumbled under my breath

while everyone else
was doing the boring one.

Even if she is sick,
which I don't believe,

she also says
she has a diagnosis.

So, it's either just a
lie or it's just a game.

So what?
I like the game, it's fun.

Go get a blood culture.
Check for parasites and bacteria.

This is
the new House?

Half the leg power,
twice the irresponsibility?

The new House is about
making my life healthier.

I never said
anything about yours.

Go get her blood.

I'll do it.

He's going through
a tough patch right now.

If this is
the distraction he needs

to keep him
in his hospital bed,

I'm sure it's better than
any of the alternatives.

That was incredibly condescending.
Did it work?

Why do you keep
ducking your wife's calls?

Ex-wife.

I'm sure she just wants
to congratulate you

about knocking up
a 22-year-old nurse.

I haven't told her yet.

But you have told her
you're not gonna

sleep with her anymore, right?

How are you planning
on letting her know?

Just invite her to the bris?

I'm trying to
let her down easy.

Rachel never
wanted to have kids,

I don't want to
hurt her feelings.

Yeah, you are
all about feelings.

I've loved Rachel for 20 years.

What if she never
speaks to me again?

She's gonna find out.
It better be from you.

You can't cheat your way
out of this one.

What is it?

Just the nausea.

She said her back
was hurting earlier.

What's the pain level
on a scale of one to 10?

Five.

- We know we can't take her word for it.
- We can't.

Fun, huh?

Roll on your side.

Grey-Turner's sign.

We're done playing.

Your pancreas is releasing
corrosive enzymes.

It'll eat away at
the surrounding organs.

But you must know that.

The doctor who diagnosed
you would have said

what will happen if
you don't get treatment.

Just tell them.

If you know
what's wrong with you,

tell them so they can fix it.

How many projects
have we done together?

You're always so worried.

Have you ever gone
wrong trusting me?

That pancreatic cyst
we drained, it's back.

And she doesn't care at all.

You think she actually
is suicidal?

I would.

But how does she give
herself the cysts?

Tox screen was negative, and
there's no sign of trauma.

There is another explanation.

The reason that she didn't react
isn't 'cause she wants to die.

It's 'cause she knows she
can't do anything about it.

Whatever she has, it's fatal.

That should narrow it down.

What are we doing here?

Testing a theory.

It's based on some stuff
you can't understand,

like RR variability.

And some stuff you can,

like the fact
she shaved her head

in an art piece
four months ago.

That was a commentary
on society's...

It was a commentary on the fact

that it was gonna
fall out anyway,

and she wanted to hide why.

Cancer?

Are you sure about that?

See that tumor-ish thingamajig
near her brainamabob?

Are you getting this?

Game's over. I won.

Primary CNS lymphoma with
associated paraneoplastic syndrome.

Is that really what it is?

Yes.

Four months ago, I had some
vision and balance problems

and New York
Mercy diagnosed me.

The tumor was too close to
the brain stem to cut out,

so they did a few
rounds of radiation.

But it didn't work,
and they sent me home.

That was around the time
you broke up with me.

We were having a fling.
It wouldn't have been fair to involve you.

I'm involved now.
You just didn't want to open up.

Luca, my mind was
not clear then.

And then you cleared it.

You realized you could use your
death to make your magnum opus.

Maybe you wanted to show
that no one can cheat death,

even with an entire team of
doctors with unlimited resources.

Or maybe your first doctors

didn't treat you like a person,

just a series of symptoms.

You wanted to recreate
that depersonalization,

and I was the man to see.

If that was what I thought,
I don't any longer.

You spent time with me,

you took this personally.

No, I didn't.

And I don't actually think
your piece is about anything.

I think you just figured
out that you were mortal.

Just a bag of cells and waste

with an expiration date.

You wanted to act out,
you wanted people to notice.

Maybe you even prayed for a
different answer this time.

I got a title for your piece.

"It doesn't mean anything."

You're forging my
name on prescriptions again.

No.

What you just said implies
that I stopped at some point.

Twenty minutes ago, I put a notice
out to all local pharmacies

to require verbal authorization

before filling in
my prescriptions.

You have any idea how much extra
work you've just given yourself?

You're not gonna last a week.

I've been dealing
with this for years,

but it's over.

Your liver, your hearing,

never mind the fact that each scrip
you write is a separate felony.

You will serve time.
So could I.

You've chosen this moment to give
me crap about my Vicodin use?

You filled this three days ago,

now it's almost half gone.

So is my leg.

It's a month's supply.

The amount you're taking has
nothing to do with physical pain.

Okay.

So, maybe I am trying
to numb myself a little.

Because I'm trying to change.

I'm trying to stop
being self-destructive.

So, you can only handle not
self-destructing by being self-destructive?

What do you want from me?

I don't know, House.
But I'm worried about you.

I don't know how many
times I can watch you

cut off pieces of yourself.

Now it's the ICU, next
time it'll be the morgue.

You're miserable
and you're angry.

And I want you to
actually deal with that

and not just try to
medicate the issue away.

No.

You know what I feel right now?

I don't feel miserable or angry.
I don't feel good or bad.

I feel nothing.

Which feels great.

What are you doing?

Moving on.
In the direction of my house,

where I've got some more pills.

You're discharging yourself
against doctor's orders,

you've got to check that box.

I'm a doctor, so technically...

Wouldn't it be easier if
you just checked the box?

Why are you still here?

I'm going as soon as the nurse
brings me something for my eczema.

I figured it was irritated
by the paint thinner

poured on me in the gallery.

Does this mean something?

It's not eczema.

And it's not cancer.

It's Wegener's
granulomatosis.

The biopsy confirmed that
what you thought was eczema

was actually a swelling of the
blood vessels in your skin.

It also explains the pancreatitis
and the mass in your brain.

And it's treatable.

What's the treatment?

We could do steroids alone,

to shrink the growth
in your brain.

But it's much better to add
another course of radiation.

Radiation? On my brain?

But it made me fuzzy last time.

It was harder to work.

I'm still slowed down from it.

And it'll get worse.

But, you know, dying can also do a
number on your ability to think.

I'm sorry.
I can't do the radiation.

They just said it was
the better treatment.

It could save your life.

My life's not worth anything
if I can't do my art.

You have friends, people
who care about you.

This is my brain, my
work and my life, Luca.

You have more!

This is not some great
performance piece anymore.

This is just crazy.

I'm sorry.

I can't watch you die.

Not when you can save yourself.

Goodbye, Afsoun.

Good for you.

So...
So...

Why did I ever ban alcohol
from the cafeteria?

Before I forget,
there's a brush,

tortoise shell handle,
natural bristles.

It wasn't in the box.
If you could look for it?

Like the Lindbergh baby.

You dating anyone?

We don't have to...

Look, it's just standard
lunch conversation.

Not for us.

Okay, well, if you've gone over

to the "we don't
talk about things" side,

then I got a pot roast
in the oven.

No.

I haven't dated
anyone since you.

You know what they say,
once you go gimp...

We should talk about your leg.

You think I have
unresolved issues,

and you are
the unresolved issues.

Yes.

But I think it's
more than that.

Your life, your choices...

I did it to fix my life.

No, wait.

No, I did it because I am
a deeply unhappy person.

No, I did it to
get sympathy from you.

I did it to piss you off.
I did it because I'm not over you.

Or I was over you
and I was moving on.

I did it because I wanna know

what it's like
not to be in pain.

I did it because
I wanna feel more pain.

Whatever the reason, it was a
bad reason and a bad idea.

That's all that matters.

Good lunch.

House! Talk to me.

I already did.

No, you just parroted back

what Wilson and I have been
saying to you the last few days.

Get out of my way.
No.

You pulled a stitch.

House, please.
Just talk to me.

You want to know how I feel?

I feel hurt.

I know.

I'm sorry.

It's not your fault.

Did I make the wrong choice?

Five years, through every
opening, every installation,

every day and every night,

he was there the whole time.

Except the first time
you were diagnosed.

You broke up with him and you had
to go through all of that alone.

Maybe that's the real reason
you're doing this piece,

so that this time, you
can have him with you.

You still could.

Hi.

Lisa Cuddy.
Nice to meet you.

I'm sorry about the other day.

I... There was some personal
things going on in my life

and I wasn't at my best.

Well, in retrospect,

my approach could've come
off as a little creepy.

No.

On a scale from one to creepy,

you were, maybe,
mildly unnerving.

Rach.

Sorry I ducked your calls.
I keep making the same mistakes,

but at some point...
Chris.

I'm pregnant.

I didn't expect that.

Sorry, I was checking the
stitches on my penis.

Your leg okay?

It's healing.
Good.

Just came to grab
the radiation therapy forms.

What?

Afsoun changed her mind.

Get out.

You made a decision.

I changed my mind.
Why?

Because there are more
important things than...

Than what? Than your brain?
Your abilities?

That's where
everything comes from,

any meaning in your life,
any happiness.

Not all happiness.

He's already left once.

He's gonna leave you again.

You don't need to depend on people
who are gonna let you down.

If you do this,
you're a pathetic hypocrite.

You're saying
that your whole life,

all your work up until
him was a pointless...

Why are you doing this?

House, I can hear
your phone ringing.

You all right?

Did you go to lunch with Cuddy?

Yeah.

How was it?

The pasta arrabiata was cold.

Why don't we get a drink?

We could go to the Sawmill.

Cuddy's is on the way.

I need to return this.

You think she's going to
have an emergency tangle?

It was on my mind.

I want to get it off.

Want me to come?

You think I'm
gonna get in trouble?

I'm delivering a hairbrush.

What just happened?

Get out.

What just happened?

Get out.

House, what are you mad about?

Just let it out,
you'll feel better.

You're right.
I feel much better.

You want another one?

No, I think I've had enough.

What do you think
I should do today?

I don't know, go home?

Not tonight.

Cheers.