8.10 - Runaways - What does it say about House?

[menolly_au]

So i was thinking about the 'message' in Runaways. House sympathizes and covers for Callie (the teenage runaway). According to Wilson because he had a lousy childhood and Callie represents the path he never took, running away, so he admires her for that. So when House tells Callie's mother that she's a lousy mother and Callie is quite right to hate her he's saying what he would like to have said to his Dad I guess, that House thinks he would have been better off without him.

But I was also thinking that he's talking about himself. It reminds me of the scene with Amber on the bus, when 'Amber' tells him he deserves for Wilson to hate him. So is House saying that he's an addict, he can't be trusted, and if he hurt people (Wilson) once he'll do it again? House's philosophy is that 'people don't change' so I assume he also applies that to himself. Or am I reading too much into it?

Personally I think Callie would be better off with her mother than living a life on the streets. She can't go back to the school, or where she was staying, and it's winter in New Jersey. I can't imagine that living with Mom would be worse than the dangers on the streets (and the show was very careful to say that Mom wasn't physically abusive, unlike House's dad)

Also, where was Chase in this story? Callie's story matches his own, surely he would have an opinion on it? Did he use up his quota of angst last week?

Comments

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

NO. She can't go back to her mom. What sucks is that she has no viable alternative - hopefully she can get into some shelter? Sorry, no physical abuse doesn't mean no abuse.
Great point about Chase, BTW.

Your comment about House being both the POTW and her mom is very perceptive.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she's already dismissed alternatives - shelter,foster homes. She can't presumably go back to the house she somehow managed to find or the school without being caught - she's at huge risk on the streets. I just think Mom is a better alternative than the streets, and as she looks to be I don't know 15/16? it wouldn't even have to be for long, long enough to finish high school. I know the show portrayed her as doing wonderfully well living on the streets (without money?) but I have trouble believing that. Callie's reason for leaving isn't that she doesn't want to be with Mom, but that she thinks she'll relapse - which brings me back to my point about House. Relapse is inevitable, people can't change - I guess I'm a bit sick of that 'message'.

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

I see your point; I thought the note was an excuse,and she just couldn't stand being with her, or forgive her. (Not totally unbelievable, viewing that she overruled her choice in an important medical decision and risked her life).

Plus, I somehow find the whole story unbelievable. Where is this girl supposedly going to school? How come no educator tries to contact her mother directly? Or how come the mother can't find her at school? In my opinion, it's as weird 'before' as 'after'.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

I guess if you could enrol in school you could probably hide the fact of no parents, scribble any old signature on notes. They'd only want a parent if you did something wrong. But here when you enrol in a school there's paperwork to be done, and the kid doesn't normally turn up by themselves to do it (maybe she used a homeless person to pretend to be a parent there also). I wondered how she got a house to use by herself - I think it was a very unrealistic portrayal of 'life on the streets'.

Also - does everybody in the House world have only one relative? Where are her grandparents? Uncles/Aunts? If things were intolerable at home couldn't she go to one of them. I know in the US families are apparently fairly scattered around the country but still...

[resm.livejournal.com]

"So is House saying that he's an addict, he can't be trusted, and if he hurt people (Wilson) once he'll do it again?" This is what I took it to mean too. That Wilson puts up with his addiction, but he'd be safer on his own, away from House's self-destruction because he'll inevitably pull him down with him. Again, and again.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

I always feel a bit depressed when I finish watching House these days and I think this is why - there's such hopelessness in the idea that people can never change, never get better, never improve their lives..But on the other hand, House has shown that he will keep hurting people...

[yarroway.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind them harping that people don't change nearly so much if House hadn't.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

House has changed you mean? From the start of the series to now? I think he has too - what do you see?

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

This.
(I would add Wilson and Cuddy to the list of the changed. Especially Cuddy).

[downuptime.livejournal.com]

I think the beauty of the POTW was that so many different parallels could be drawn from it. John House, Cuddy and even House himself. And Chase.

Well, they did show the patient to be managing her own life pretty well - the house was well-stocked and clean, and she even got herself into a school (which is a bit ridiculous, but then again this is House)

I was just happy to see House more emotionally engaged in his POTW for once in this season.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Well, they did show the patient to be managing her own life pretty well - the house was well-stocked and clean, and she even got herself into a school (which is a bit ridiculous, but then again this is House)

I think I just have trouble believing this picture of a runaway living in a nice house, going to school...and she's lost that set-up so now she has to start again.

Yes, it was nice to see House engaged with a POTW. I really hope that if/when they follow through on the House childhood stuff which they've been foreshadowing all season they do it well.

[barefootpuddles.livejournal.com]

I felt that House was not Callie, as the viewer is supposed to think at first, but rather the mom. The message in the patient parallel was House is not to be trusted. He went off drugs, and when Cuddy gave him a chance, went back on them which led to violence. Maybe there is a warning there for Wilson as well, but I think it is a warning more from the TPTB for Chase and the stuff they have been hinting at.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

I guess we'll just have wait and see how the season develops, it seems inevitable that they won't allow House to change in any significant way. I think House is both Callie, and the Mom and as he doesn't trust the Mom because he doesn't trust himself, he thinks he's bad through and through - which is pretty sad I think.

[barefootpuddles.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it is pretty sad. And the entire "people don't change" is an awful world view. Once a drug addict/alcoholic/anorexic/emotional depressive/criminal/etc ALWAYS one? No one can learn, grow, aspire to be different and succeed? That is a dark world David Shore lives in. I could see House thinking it, but what I would enjoy is for House to be proven wrong on this score. That would be a great twist for a storyline.

[yarroway.livejournal.com]

No, I don't think you are reading too much into it. I thought so as well.

I thought the issue Callie had with her mom was that she was afraid to trust her again. She didn't want to be disappointed again.

Callie did very well on her own, though they carefully avoided telling us how she got money for beer, clothes, etc. and how she managed to be so clean and well groomed--on a regular basis, if she's in school.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

I had trouble with the pollyanna version of life on the streets. Yes, if she can live like that, fine. But she's a young girl, in a vulnerable situation - she's at risk for a lot of things.

[petitecuriosity.livejournal.com]

I agree. I think that there are parallels between both the POTW and the POTW's mother. He likely empathizes with Callie, having dealt with a similar situation in his upbringing.

So is House saying that he's an addict, he can't be trusted, and if he hurt people (Wilson) once he'll do it again? House's philosophy is that 'people don't change' so I assume he also applies that to himself.

I would agree. I think that, in his mind, he's accepted it as an inevitability at this point, with one dead girl girlfriend, stay in a mental hospital, relapse, and girlfriend's destroyed home later.

I have to wonder if Wilson has too, and perhaps Foreman as well, if that's why they haven't been mentioning House's drug use. At least it's somewhat closer to "normal" for House. (Although I'm unsure.)

At the same time, I agree with downuptime, as parallels could have been drawn for other characters as well. (I had trouble telling where TPTB drew the parallels but I definitely agree with your ideas for House.)

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

I have to wonder if Wilson has too, and perhaps Foreman as well, if that's why they haven't been mentioning House's drug use. At least it's somewhat closer to "normal" for House. (Although I'm unsure.)

I think Wilson has to an extent, 'given up', he's just going to take House as he finds him, and stop trying to 'help' him. Maybe that's why he seems less involved this season, like a bystander almost.

[taiga13.livejournal.com]

As barefootpuddles said: I felt that House was not Callie, as the viewer is supposed to think at first, but rather the mom. The message in the patient parallel was House is not to be trusted. He went off drugs, and when Cuddy gave him a chance, went back on them which led to violence.
That's the parallel I took from it too. House is the addict and Cuddy the one better off running away from "home" to get away from him.
I'm sick of having it pounded into my head that PEOPLE DON'T CHANGE too, because David Shore has contradicted himself there. He's shown characters changing for the WORSE, but shouts in every episode that they can't change for the better. Well, either people can change or they can't!
For a diagnostician, House is pretty closed-minded (I'm pretending now that he's a real person and not David Shore's avatar). People can't change, everyone is obsessed with sex so asexuality is impossible, etc. It blinds him sometimes, consistently refusing to believe anything but the worst in people.

[menolly-au.livejournal.com]

Didn't House himself say in em..Detox way back in the first season? Wilson says 'you don't think you've changed?' and House says 'of course I have' (for the worse in the context of their conversation). So yeah, maybe the message is that people only change for the worse - which is pretty bleak and doesn't make sense anyway.

Two doctors going oh LOL 'asexuality' wasn't a great moment for the show I don't think.