Who Died In The Drive-by Shooting?

I hate cliffhangers especially if I have to wait for 3 months before I will see the outcome.  In this season of CSI: NY, the team was blessed with a wedding between Danny & Lindsay and a baby.  We also saw a budding romance between Detectives Jess and Don.  Stella finding her roots and solving the artifact case.  The team facing a budget cut and helping Adam keep his job.

What is most heartbreaking is the season ended with a death of a member of the team, Det. Jess Angel.   She died protecting a witness of a high profile trial.   You can see everyone affected especially Det. Flack.   After solving Jess’ death, the team went to a pub to honor the memory of the fallen detective.  However, the scene ended with a car driving by the pub and shooting at them.   So who died?  I’m not sure.  From what few scenes they’ve shown, it seems like everyone was able to duck.  I hope they don’t kill anyone off anymore.  I kinda fell in love with this group already and they’re like one big family.

That’s IT??

In Season 9 of CSI, it started with the team solving the case of Warrick’s death.  We also saw Sara (Jorja Fox) came back for a few episodes and  Gil Grissom saying goodbye halfway through the season to pursue his love in the forests of South America.  Robert Langston (Laurence Fishburne) joined the team as a CSI giving them a member who’s a doctor in the group.  There was also a comic episode which shows David Hodges flirting with Wendy.

This season’s finale left much to desire as it doesn’t have anything really except it ended like a regular episode.  It doesn’t have a dramatic episode like a terrorist attack or anything nor a cliffhanger which makes you want for more.  It’s not that I’m losing interest with CSI already but I’m growing to love CSI: NY more.

Are You Real??

In this season of House, we saw how Wilson coped with the death of Amber.  We also saw how the friendship between Wilson and House sufferred and became stronger.  The team also seen the death of Kutner and the romance between 13 and Foreman.  Chase and Cameron finally realizing their love for each other ended the season with a sweet note, marriage.  Cuddy realized her dreams and adopted a baby of one of their patient.

The most interesting thing about how they ended the season is you don’t know which is real and which isn’t.  Apparently, House is suffering from vicodine overdose and is hallucinating.  In several episodes, he tried ways to block it but in the finale, it seems that he was just hallucinating everything.  Hopefully, Kutner’s suicide is a hallucination and House will come back better without the drug addiction.

The Patient

The show started with a scene of a guy who has only a few weeks to live and his wife saying their last goodbyes.  However, in a twist of fate, the wife suddenly had difficulty breathing.  Next scene, the team were discussing about the case and the patient wishing to be released to be with her husband.  Taub, with his brilliant idea, brought the husband to her side.  As she found out that they were releasing her, she faked a symptom, which House later found out.   However, when House confronted her, she had a real attack which hit her liver and needs her to have a transplant.  The husband was willing to donate a part of his liver to prolong her life and give enough time to the doctors to find out what’s wrong with her but when they did, it was too late.  The disease was caused by sandflies from her secret trip to Rio.  While conducting the test to check if they’re compatible, they were able to find out a cure to her husband’s sickness.

Dr. Lawrence Kutner

Dr. Kutner is an American-Indian young man who brings weird ideas to the team.  He’s the type of doctor who you’d like to hang out with and exudes life.  He comes out to everyone as a fun-loving man who always seem jolly and happy with his life.  He usually connives with Dr. Taub and helps each other out.

When he didn’t come in at 12nn as Dr. Taub hinted, House asked them to find out what’s taking him a long time to come to work.  Number 13 and Foreman went to his apartment to find a very cold, bloody body of Dr. Kutner.  Lying beside him is a gun and on his temple, a single gunshot wound.  Everyone was shocked about his suicide as nobody had a hint about his plans.

House in his puzzle loving adventures think that Kutner didn’t commit suicide but was murdered.  Taub focused on his job and try to cure the patient.  Foreman closed himself off to deal with his problem and #13 was trying to console herself alone because her boyfriend wants to be by himself.

Everyone went to his funeral except for House and Taub.  House with his puzzle still unsolved stormed his way to Kutner’s apartment trying to find clues but only end up with a picture of Kutner that wasn’t smiling.  Taub, after his patient passed away, was seen in the hallway crying.

My insights

I was shocked with the way the story go.  Kutner killing himself is not something that I would have imagined.  Just like the cast, it wasn’t in his nature to kill himself.  His nature remind me of an old friend of mine during Sunday school.  He was funny, the person who always make people smile but in one of our classes, he admitted that his fun outlook is just a facade.  Hiding behind this facade is a lonely person who uses laughter as an escape to whatever problems he was facing.

People deal with pain in different ways.  Some lashes out, drinks, cries, hide behind a happy facade, broods or the worst, commits suicide.  For me, I deal with pain by hiding behind a happy facade.  I cry behind close doors or write whatever I’m feeling just to let it all out.  I’ve never contemplated suicide as I can’t bring myself to actually cause myself pain.  The best way to deal with pain is to open up with someone.  It’s easier said than done especially for people who tend to be loners.

I try to change but it’s difficult.  Right now, I’m a bit down.  Watching American Idol and Danny Gokey singing Endless Love made me want to cry.  I’ve shared a bit to a friend of mine but it still hurts.  I hope the pain goes away soon.  I hope life goes back to normal.  In any case, for every pain that you’ve experienced, there’s a life lesson learned.

In the diagnostic front, Cameron asked House to take a case of a young man who experience pain when he goes out of his house and seizures.  The young man also has inferiority complex and doesn’t like to be in a crowd.  Initially, the reason for his phobia is due to witnessing his girlfriend murdered.  They did an x-ray and found some blockage.  They needed to do surgery but the patient refused to go out of the house.  To solve this dilemma, they did an illegal move but was foiled as Cameron had to do the good thing.  The patient lawyered up so they had to do the surgery at home.  It was actually cool as they cut open one of the blockage fire came out because of gas.  There was no sudden enlightening in this story but the result of the sickness is due to lead poisoning.

In the end, we saw House gave in and drove to Cuddy’s house but didn’t knock as if scared.  The young man muster some confidence and brave the outside world.  Taub’s wife getting lonesome and joined Taub on the couch.  Cameron cleared out a drawer in her apartment for Chase.

The best part: when Wilson asked Cuddy out for a date and Cuddy mentioned if he wanted dinner or sex.  It was so amusing and you can really see Wilson sweating.  Hehehehe… Till my next recap.

The episode started with a father who was drinking coffee after coffee till he’s blacking out and missing time.  Initially, they thought it was caused by drugs as he was caught buying cocaine while he was technically asleep.  However, when they were doing test to support it, they found another symptom which negated it.  It’s a trial and error cycle wherein symptom after symptom came up.  To add it up, the daughter also got whatever the father had.  House had a talk with Wilson and Wilson said something about the baby which Cuddy wanted to adopt which resulted to a realization about something that will assist him in solving the case.  In the end, both father and daughter were saved of their initial sickness and the daughter was able to donate one kidney to her dad.

As for Cuddy, ever since last season, she was trying to have a baby through in-vitro fertilization to the past episode of adopting a baby.  In this episode, it seems like that her dream is about to come true as one lady from the online agency is soon to give birth.  She met up with the lady and had a talk, she noticed a rash on her arm which led her to admit her to the hospital.  The baby was a girl and she initially thought to name her Joy.  However, the baby’s lung is underdeveloped and the mother is suffering from heart ailment.  It was a choice to deliver the baby and risk losing her or continue with plasma transfusion to the mother for a few more weeks till the baby’s lung is developed. The mother chose to deliver the baby and luckily the baby survived.  The look on Cuddy’s face when she was holding the baby was so touching.  You will see scenes where she was painting the crib but when she talked to the mother, the mother changed her mind about having the baby for adoption.  It was a devastating news for Cuddy.  House visited her and complimented her that she would have been a good mother.  This made Cuddy lash out at House and they KISSED! (Ooohh.. sexual frustrations!)  It didn’t go anywhere but I guess it was just spurned because of the frustration and disappointment of the reverse decision.

I can’t wait for the next episode.  I still wish that Cuddy will be able to either adopt a baby or find a partner who would be willing to have a baby with her.  As for House, he should reflect and be sensitive. (Heh! I doubt he’ll change).  Till next week!

From Season 1 to 3, the stories revolve around solving diseases affecting their patients.  However, it ended with Dr. Foreman and Cameron resigning and Dr. Chase fired.  In Season 4, House held a competition like interview process to form a new team.  The new team is composed of plastic surgeon Dr. Taub, Number Thirteen Dr. Hadley and radical thinker Dr. Kutner.  Dr. Foreman returned and join the group as Cuddy’s eyes and ears.  Dr. Chase moved to the surgery department while Dr. Cameron moved to the ER.  Dr. Wilson find a love interest in the form of “cutthroat bitch” Amber.  Amber was part of the 40 doctors who vied to be part of House’s team.  At the end of Season 4, Amber died due to fetching House from a bar as he was drunk.  When Season 5 started, Dr. Wilson quit and severed ties with Dr. House.

Well.. let me tell you about this episode.  House’s “father” died and her mother wants him to attend the funeral and give a eulogy.  House being who he is, doesn’t want to go and is being uncooperative.  The team received a patient who’s Asian and was initially diagnosed as having SARS.  To prevent everyone who had contact with her infected, they needed to be injected with medicine.  Cuddy injected House claiming everyone’s afraid of putting a needle in him.  What House didn’t know was, it’s a ploy to get House into Wilson’s car and be driven to the funeral.

On the way to the funeral, confrontations arose and House admitted that his father is not his real father.  He told of finding out when he was 12 due to a birthmark in his head which matches to one of his father’s friends.  So, when he gave the eulogy and paid his respects, he used a nail clipper to clip a small part of his father’s earlobe.  He had it DNA tested to check if he is really his father.

The patient on the other hand was getting worse and they don’t know what is wrong with her.  Through a conversation after the funeral with Wilson, he learned that the girl must be one of the babies that were unwanted in China at a time when the one child policy was strictly enforced.  The baby was supposed to die as they inserted 3 pins in her brain.  However, the baby lived and was adopted by a US couple.  In the end, they removed the pins on her brain and Wilson came back to the hospital as an oncologist.

So.. what made it special?  We learned several new things about House wherein he has a birthmark on his head, his father is not his real father, how Wilson and House became friends and how it is in China during the 1980s especially if the baby you’re carrying is a girl.

When I first came to China and taught English, I asked this issue to my colleagues.  Before, boys are favored more than girls.  Right now, it doesn’t matter any longer to people in some places.   The government does not allow pregnant women to know the gender of the baby before giving birth.  Culprits will be heavily fined.  It is legal to abort a baby if you already have one or if not yet married.  Having several children will incur a fine for each additional child unless you receive a permit from the government.  It may sound barbaric but that is how they control their population.