Risky Business Episode Review

That there is some serious business of varying levels of risk goes without saying, but wow, I was not expecting as many references as this. Okay, so those that I picked up on:
POTW moving his business to China and causing Americans to lose their jobs, House blackmailing the patient for money to pay for the team, Park's bet with House that she won't get fired, House's deal with Adams for money to put on the stock market, House's one upmanship with the ortho doctor, drunk Neurosurgeon supervising Park which leads to Park trying to blackmail Foreman, Park using her diagnosis and sending the patient into a coma (which is what House wanted anyway).

As the two new doctors get to know House better they will learn NEVER to bet against him. He will go to the ends of the Earth to win.

Now the use of the gentle, happy song (Morning Has Broken) both at the beginning and end not only creates a cyclical feeling of repetition and continuity but contrasts absolutely wonderfully with what's actually happening. It gives the scenes a sense of absurdism. Music is often used to emphasize content by taking it to the next level by using harmony, but this contrast of gentle and tense (at the beginning) and smashing fury (at the end) works perfectly. Bookstaver did an incredible job capturing the final scenes. The slow motion/ normal speed also gives the end a "trip" feeling. The references to Alice in Wonderland (and time)add even more depth to this.

The sense of the hangman we see at the beginning plays throughout the episode, with Park potentially getting fired, House going back to jail if he continues to provoke the ortho doctor, and of course, the business man going bankrupt if he stays in America. Everything however is reversed, and all the situations resolve themselves. The POTW does sacrifice his relationship with his daughter in order to keep his honour, another parallel theme that runs with House (Wilson talking to Park).

The disciplinary hearing is also a mirror to House in jail, we see that Park is becoming like House, revolting against "the (Fore)man" and House himself (despite being what he wanted). She manipulates the board into letting her stay. The other parallel to House's situation is Adams who has been separated from her ex husband for a year (similar to House/Cuddy). She symbolically smashes him when she lets loose with the baseball bat, as House did with Cuddy's house (to break from a smothering situation and to move on). What's even more interesting is that she shatters "medicine" as in a medical room, which is what began to happen to House himself during his relationship with Cuddy.

House does the very rare and helps both Park (making it so the board hires her if only to go against him) and Adams (by helping her move on). Grief is another theme: and we see how Adams (and thus House), and the patient deal with the loss of their spouses.

The thing that always gets me about House is the level of intricacy in each episode, the wheel within the wheel...It's worth watching each episode more than once as new details seem to emerge with each viewing. All in all an interesting episode, more so because of the relationships than the disease itself. I can't wait to have Taub and Chase back and get the old foundations and new dynamics.

Ps. I loved the "no spoilers, they ruin everything" and "OMFG". So Twitter.