Do you believe House would really have spoiled that book?
Asked by
Jeruba (
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1 week ago
Q for people who know the old TV series House:
I watched the first three seasons of House earlier in this century and then stopped. Recently picked it up again at season 4 on Prime Video. Season 6 ends when House & Cuddy finally get together romantically.
Just before that, House gives Cuddy a valuable collector’s item, a rare book on surgery written by her great-grandfather. House inscribed it on the flyleaf in ink to Cuddy and her boyfriend Lucas.
Does anyone really believe that he would have mutilated this valuable volume by writing in it—and shown the bad judgment (and poor observance of wise social custom) to inscribe something to an unmarried couple?
House may not be much for social convention, but surely he would not take such a destructive liberty with this treasure of medical history—or stick Cuddy with a permanent reminder of a temporary relationship.
I think this was a horrible lapse of House’s character, scripting an act that I think he never would have done, and I wonder if anyone else agrees with me.
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6 Answers
Hmmm. We watched it religiously. Hmmm.
I don’t remember this particular episode, but I agree that House would know better. He was very smart and in various episodes displayed that he was cultured, even though his character was usually quite brash.
I very much doubt he would put any value on keeping old books pristine. Of course he would write in it. Would not surprise me if he sketched something pornographic on page 69, either.
This is House we are talking about here, after all.
Also, did you just call that series “old”?
He was arrogant about himself.
Yes, definitely. He’s completely destructive with much more valuable things. He shoots a corpse, breaks an MRI machine, leaves a dog home alone with no veterinary care despite earlier having him overdose on Vicodin, tells a bulimic patient “You look cute that thin”, and bends a patient’s broken finger. When someone dies by suicide, he blames the parents. He purposefully electrocutes himself. In the hostage situation, he returns a gun to a violent man who at that point has already shot people.
On the value of books, specifically: He has shelves of valuable (medical) books at his house, but he lets random strangers finish a poker game in there and leaves them with “Don’t steal the piano”. At a different time, he purposefully leaves his front door open for the whole workday. I think it’s pretty clear that with his reputation, he’s making much more money than he needs.
And it’s clear from his general abrasive nature that he doesn’t care at all about old social norms. To be honest, this particular one seems pretty silly to me, too. I wouldn’t write in a valuable book, but I don’t think relationships necessarily get stronger with marriage.
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