It was the one where Wilson's going to leave and House starts acting like a controlling, enmeshed, and let's not forget verbally abusive, parent. Actually, no, that's far too mild a description. House starts acting like a stalker.
Part of his threatening, stalker-ish behavior is to walk out on a medical case, holding the survival of a patient hostage until Wilson gets back in line as House's emotional slave.
The patient herself, blissfully unaware that she is being used in this manner, defends the right of talented people to be assholes. She has a mean boss, you see, but the boss is brilliant, which makes her 'better,' so it's okay. "We're not all created equal," she explains to a chastened doctor.
Let me get this straight. People who have a lot of ability in some area...like House...should be allowed to shit all over everyone, because that's just reality. He's better, and that's that. The sooner we accept it and buy some baby wipes, the better everything will be.
I'm sorry, but I thought I lived in the United States of America. You know..."Land of the Free"? "Don't Tread On Me"? That place? I don't know how I ended up in the kind of country where the television tells me I should accept the abuse of my betters. I'd really like to get back to the one I thought I came from.
You see, in that country, people understand what "created equal" means. It does not mean that everyone can do differential equations. It does not mean that everyone can solve complex medical cases. It does not mean that everyone can hit the high C at the Metropolitan Opera. That's not the standard. Therefore, claiming that 'we're not equal after all' because some people can do some things better than others is...what's the word...bullshit.
(Although, if we take that definition seriously, it could lead to some interesting results. We should give it up for our betters? The people more 'equal' than us? Well. I submit to you that there are no people on earth more 'equal' than slaves, who perform difficult, high-pressure tasks for hours on end under backbreaking conditions and mindboggling abuse with no respite. The slaves of the world, both historically and today, are clearly the most elite, awesome, fuck-all individuals on earth to be surviving those conditions.)
But anyhow, this is important: "created equal" does not mean "better at something." It means...well, read 2.1 of the Preamble.
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Yeah, yeah, the "House" episode is not (quite) that simple. The harassed Wilson ends up giving House an overwhelmingly-well-deserved verbal spanking and leaving him exposed and imploded in his wake. (Hugh Laurie played it beautifully too, showing us the full devastation of House's fragile psyche now that his nonconsensual submissive was gone.)
But the fact remains that House's "team"--those hapless doctors he uses as sounding boards on his path to brilliance--can't function without him. That's actually a sign of House's total failure as a leader, by the way, but whatever...These nicer, better people just can't diagnose their patient's problem. They flounder along well-meaningly until the Caped Asshole deigns to saunter in, deliberately torture the patient (stabbing a needle in her violently and without warning), and utter a diagnosis which is so unexpected but so obvious in retrospect that it makes the nice doctors look like idiots.
He does all this quite smugly, I might add.
After that, the patient--who still has no idea how House has used her as a pawn--declares that she's going back to her mean boss. Why? Oh looky here, we've found a new rationalization! "If my boss was reasonable, she'd just be another boss, and I'd just be another worker." The drama, in other words, makes her feel important, so it's all worth it.
The scene ends there, with no rebuttal. The nice doctor has nothing to say anymore. How could she? After House overturns her and the rest of the team's diagnosis, she no longer has any standing or authority. She's been revealed as the ineffectual peon she fears she is. Baby wipes for everyone!
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I did say, earlier, that Wilson objected to all of this.
Let's take a second look at one little fact: His only way to do so...was to leave.
What does that say? Seriously. What does that say?
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As a rebuttal to the staggeringly offensive moral universe of that episode (and indeed show), I offer the words of the American philosopher Spider-Man:
"With great power comes great responsibility."
In other words: No, House-and-his-enablers, a high degree of ability is not a ticket to act like a thirteenth-century despot. It's actually the opposite. Yeah, that's right; the smarter and 'better' you are, the smarter and better you have to act. The more respect you deserve, the more respect you have to show. The more consideration you need, the more consideration you have to provide. The more you have, the more you have to give.
I know, I know, it's such a bummer. Our inner two-year-old is so damn disappointed. But don't worry; there's these people called 'therapists' who you can pay to re-parent you so that you no longer react to intolerable emotions by victimizing others.
An Ubermensch like you should have no problems learning how to do that. Right?
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P.S.: Yeah, I understand...it's fun to watch House act like such a jerk. Arguably, he functions as a kind of id-release figure, discharging tensions in the viewer by acting out their pent-up hostilities and frustrations. Plus, he's a never-ending source of that all-important "conflict." But: still. Actors are going on that show and saying "We're not all created equal." No thank you.
