Cane and Able (12 Sep. 2006)

House is affected by the fact that he thinks he didn't solve the last case while a young boy, who believes aliens tortured him, is brought in.

Director:

Daniel Sackheim

Writers:

David Shore (creator), Russel Friend (teleplay),

Stars:

Hugh Laurie, Lisa Edelstein, Omar Epps

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Hugh Laurie	...	Dr. Gregory House
Lisa Edelstein	...	Dr. Lisa Cuddy
Omar Epps	...	Dr. Eric Foreman
Robert Sean Leonard	...	Dr. James Wilson
Jennifer Morrison	...	Dr. Allison Cameron
Jesse Spencer	...	Dr. Robert Chase
Sheryl Lee	...	Stephanie
Skyler Gisondo	...	Clancy Green
Johnny Sneed	...	Todd
Edward Edwards	...	Richard McNeil
Stephanie Venditto	...	Nurse Brenda Previn
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bobbin Bergstrom	...	Nurse

Storyline

Clancy, a 7 year old boy, who believes he is being tortured by aliens comes to the hospital because of rectal bleeding. When House, who thinks he did not solve his last case and it's affecting him physically, finds a metal object in his neck where Clancy claims a chip has been planted and when a cell with different DNA is found, the team has to give his alien theory more credit. But House's humiliation from his last case and worsening leg pain cause him to back out, forcing Cuddy, who lied to House about curing his last patient, to rethink her decision to withhold the information.

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Plot Keywords:

boy | dna | sick child | aerial shot | nightmare | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 September 2006 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Stage 10, 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Hat Harry Productions, Heel & Toe Films, NBC Universal Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Dr. Cameron explains that they will need "a cunning plan" to help House. This was Baldrick's catchphrase in all four seasons of Blackadder. Hugh Laurie was a series regular in the series Black Adder the Third and in Blackadder Goes Forth and he also appeared in two episodes of Black-Adder II.

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Goofs

When comparing the DNA of the healthy and unhealthy parts of Clancy's heart, the title of both images contains a misspelled common word: "DNA Specimin [sic]..."

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Quotes

Dr. Allison Cameron: [after finding out Cuddy lied to House about his last patient] It's completely unethical.
Dr. Lisa Cuddy: He was reckless with a patient.
Dr. Allison Cameron: He was right.
Dr. Lisa Cuddy: But he didn't know that. He needs at least some glimmer of humility.
Dr. Allison Cameron: Why does he need that? Because other people have that? Why does he need to be like other people?

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Connections

Features The Jerry Springer Show (1991)

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Soundtracks

"Gravity"
Written & Performed by John Mayer
Courtesy of Aware/Columbia Records

User Reviews

Worst House episode ever

I really love watching House. It's usually clever, subtle, intriguing, informative and goddamn funny. But this episode is just stupid. A kid who has alien abduction fantasies turns out to have absorbed his twin brother during their intrauterine state and some of the brother's cells are now growing in the kid's brain giving him the fantasies. So far so good. But the treatment is that the doctors scare him and so trigger the hallucinations while Foreman sees the twin brother's cells lighting up on a screen and kills them cell by cell. That is just utter crap. How can he reach every cell? How do they make sure to hit the right cells? What if they grow back? Is this a standard procedure?

This is just pure fiction. Of course, most of the medicine is exaggerated in other episodes but it always bases on a realistic ground and that is what makes House MD. This episode however breaks with the high standard of all the others, it just doesn't fit in. It's more like X Files or some other of these crappy "mystery" series around today.

The only thing I liked about it was that the parents of the kid were so annoying and unloving - really bad parents. That's what I like about House: Many of the characters have huge flaws just like in real live. Especially parents in American TV/movies are usually shown as some pure entities who might have mistakes but always mean good and therefore - at least at the end - are to be worshiped. These parents however were real ugly and cold hearted. This is the only thing that made this episode watchable (besides of the story about House and his leg and Wilson lying to him).