Blowing the Whistle
"Blowing the Whistle" | |
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House episode | |
Episode no. | Season 8 Episode 15 |
Directed by | Julian Higgins |
Written by |
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Original air date | April 2, 2012 |
Guest appearances | |
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"Blowing the Whistle" is the fifteenth episode of the eighth season of House and the 170th overall. It aired on April 2, 2012, on FOX.
Plot
The episode begins with a
The team believe that he was faking to get out of military prison and gives a
The patient tells the team that he got into the Army to find out how his father, also a soldier, actually died. While telling the team this, they notice bleeding from his eyes and hands, blood in his urine, and an enlarged spleen. The team do an emergency operation to release more blood from his spleen but find his spleen to be lumpy. After House makes
During treatment, the patient suffers from cyanosis, for which they give him heparin. House sees the patient and asks him if it was worth it to release the tape of the Army releasing a bomb on a supposed insurgent hideout. The patient tells him he couldn't take the thought of the suffering of the innocent civilians who died. He tells House his hair turned grey in three days, after which he shaved off all his hair. House tells the teams it's Graves' disease; the team suggests otherwise but House tells them to treat with anti-thyroids. The team decide against this due to their belief that House is seriously ill and his mental state is off.
The patient tells the team that he's cold, even though he has a temperature of 104. During a differential diagnosis, Foreman tells House and the team that all further treatments have to go through him unless House is deemed cleared of all possible illness. House also believes that the patient is suffering from malaria. The patient rejects treatment based on the fact the notes haven't arrived yet. His brother then asks Taub to draw up the paperwork to deem his brother mentally unstable to have them treat him. Adams and Taub realize that the file did arrive but the brother hid this from the patient. When Taub confronts the brother, he tells the patient that their father drank a lot and died in a car crash, killing himself along with a civilian, but asked his friends to change the file records to state that he died a hero's death.
Even though they start anti-malarial treatment, the patient is still suffering. House also tells the team, during another differential diagnosis, that he was tricking them all along just so he could find out which of the team he could actually trust. While telling them, he leaves after realizing what's wrong with the patient: typhus, which Chase guessed earlier but House dismissed because the patient has no hair. This came from the fact that the Afghan civilian furniture was infested with rat lice. House also tells them that typhus presents with psychiatric problems, so he can fight his case by claiming that he had suffered from disease-related mental instability. He rejects this on the basis that it proves that what he did wasn't the right thing and that going to prison allows him to keep his honor.
Towards the end of the episode, House confronts Wilson about being the rat. Wilson rejects the notion and House then realizes that Chase was the rat. Chase explains that House's motives were to see who has the sharpest mind for when House's mind does actually begin to go.
Reception
The A.V. Club gave this episode a B+ rating,[1] while Lisa Palmer of TV Fanatic gave it a 4.0/5.0 rating.[2]
References
- ^ Handlen Z. "Blowing the Whistle". The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
- ^ Palmer L. "House Review: (Dis)Honor". TVFanatic.com. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
External links
- "Blowing the Whistle" at IMDb
- "Blowing the Whistle" at Fox.com
- Medical review of "Blowing the Whistle"