D.B. Sweeney of FIRE FROM THE SKY fame plays an old schoolchum of House's who suddenly turns up with a teenage daughter suffering from hallucinations and assorted other scary symptoms. From the get-go, House is convinced the "daughter" is no daughter at all, but a grifter putting one over on his easily conned friend. A paternity test will clear things up, if Sweeney will only agree to one. To House's dismay, his old roommate declares himself to be a man of faith and blind trust. House prefers to call him gullible. A test of wills ensues. A bone marrow transplant may be required, and House warns his old friend of the dangers of such a procedure. By now, we know that Cuddy's "date" with Wilson was all in the name of finding a sperm donor. She now seeks House's help in finding the perfect match. In a funny way, the two draw closer. In fact, Cuddy sort of bares her soul to House. Only it's not exactly her soul she bares.
2 Reviews
Exposition galore
bungulahouwagadou23 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
An African-American teenager has hallucinations during a flight. When he learns that the girl didn't have a cardiac arrest, House, about to inject himself with morphine on his day off, goes to work instead.
In the hospital he meets the girl's father, Crandall, an old acquaintance, and immediately suspects that the girl is not really his daughter but is scamming him. However, Crandall refuses a paternity test.
Who's Your Daddy is the worst episode of House at this point, if not the first bad episode ever. First, the patient and her father offer little of interest. Although Crandall calls House "G-man" and they apparently know each other from before, the friendship between them never seems believable. At one point, House claims they were just friends because Crandall had a car back when he was 20. House later tells Wilson that Crandall's then-girlfriend wanted to leave him and Crandall asked House to straighten things out, but instead House had sex with her. Without this backstory, the episode wouldn't be any weaker. T he relationship between Crandall and his daughter Leona also offers little that is new. Little is made of the premise of a girl pretending someone is her father. The fact that House withholds the negative paternity test in the end and lies to Leona that Crandall is her actual father has no resonance because no dramaturgical significance has ever been established.
Leona is simply uninteresting. Previous House episodes have always established conflicts that the patients have with the outside world and with their parents (or partners, respectively), but that's not really the case this time. Instead, a lot of time and dialogue is needed to establish the backstory. Leona was affected by Katrina in New Orleans and is also the granddaughter of a musician. Neither ultimately has any relevance to the story, but takes time to be established; time that is ultimately missing to weave the supporting characters into the plot. At one point, House hears a recording of the musician, and viewers might expect him to get clues relevant to the case. There was once an episode in Columbo where a musician makes a mistake, which gives Columbo a clue. But this is not the case here. The episode wastes its potential.
Second, the conflicts from the previous episodes are no longer continued. Cameron, Foreman and Chase are relegated to cue givers who help with the diagnosis. In the previous episode, Foreman had a character change as a result of almost dying, and Chase worked in the ER because he needed a break from working with House. This time both are back at it as if nothing had happened. The episode doesn't take any time for either of them at any moment. Wilson is allowed to interpret that House is helping Crandall out of guilt, and apart from that he has nothing new to report.
Only Cuddy's relationship with House is developed further. She wants to be artificially inseminated and asks House to give her injections, which he does in an unusually taciturn and respectful manner. Instead of clinic duty, this time the meeting with a sperm donor offers comic relief, although the humor does not come close to the level of previous episodes.
Third, the episode never challenges House and his abilities. At no point does he cross the boundaries of what is legal, which would alarm Cuddy. He doesn't do anything unethical or immoral that would cause a conflict with Cameron. The patient's father doesn't object to House when he wants to do something dangerous, unusual, or outside the box. The patient does not have to choose between her life and a lie on which her entire life is based. I don't recall her having any dialogue, anyway.
Ultimately, it looks as if the creators of the series didn't really know what to do with the case and therefore placed it between the double episode Euphoria and the season finale. The dynamics between the characters and the medical case don't come into play here, so you can see particularly well how the good episodes of the series work - and this one doesn't.
In the hospital he meets the girl's father, Crandall, an old acquaintance, and immediately suspects that the girl is not really his daughter but is scamming him. However, Crandall refuses a paternity test.
Who's Your Daddy is the worst episode of House at this point, if not the first bad episode ever. First, the patient and her father offer little of interest. Although Crandall calls House "G-man" and they apparently know each other from before, the friendship between them never seems believable. At one point, House claims they were just friends because Crandall had a car back when he was 20. House later tells Wilson that Crandall's then-girlfriend wanted to leave him and Crandall asked House to straighten things out, but instead House had sex with her. Without this backstory, the episode wouldn't be any weaker. T he relationship between Crandall and his daughter Leona also offers little that is new. Little is made of the premise of a girl pretending someone is her father. The fact that House withholds the negative paternity test in the end and lies to Leona that Crandall is her actual father has no resonance because no dramaturgical significance has ever been established.
Leona is simply uninteresting. Previous House episodes have always established conflicts that the patients have with the outside world and with their parents (or partners, respectively), but that's not really the case this time. Instead, a lot of time and dialogue is needed to establish the backstory. Leona was affected by Katrina in New Orleans and is also the granddaughter of a musician. Neither ultimately has any relevance to the story, but takes time to be established; time that is ultimately missing to weave the supporting characters into the plot. At one point, House hears a recording of the musician, and viewers might expect him to get clues relevant to the case. There was once an episode in Columbo where a musician makes a mistake, which gives Columbo a clue. But this is not the case here. The episode wastes its potential.
Second, the conflicts from the previous episodes are no longer continued. Cameron, Foreman and Chase are relegated to cue givers who help with the diagnosis. In the previous episode, Foreman had a character change as a result of almost dying, and Chase worked in the ER because he needed a break from working with House. This time both are back at it as if nothing had happened. The episode doesn't take any time for either of them at any moment. Wilson is allowed to interpret that House is helping Crandall out of guilt, and apart from that he has nothing new to report.
Only Cuddy's relationship with House is developed further. She wants to be artificially inseminated and asks House to give her injections, which he does in an unusually taciturn and respectful manner. Instead of clinic duty, this time the meeting with a sperm donor offers comic relief, although the humor does not come close to the level of previous episodes.
Third, the episode never challenges House and his abilities. At no point does he cross the boundaries of what is legal, which would alarm Cuddy. He doesn't do anything unethical or immoral that would cause a conflict with Cameron. The patient's father doesn't object to House when he wants to do something dangerous, unusual, or outside the box. The patient does not have to choose between her life and a lie on which her entire life is based. I don't recall her having any dialogue, anyway.
Ultimately, it looks as if the creators of the series didn't really know what to do with the case and therefore placed it between the double episode Euphoria and the season finale. The dynamics between the characters and the medical case don't come into play here, so you can see particularly well how the good episodes of the series work - and this one doesn't.
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