House - House vs God

02-06-2006 13:27

Thursday May 25th 9pm

Charismatic 15-year old Boyd Mullins is brought into the hospital after he collapses in church, having apparently given an old woman the power to walk unaided. Foreman and Cameron examine him, and Boyd thanks them, claiming God told him Cameron was kind. Boyd’s father, Walter, helpfully explains that God speaks to Boyd quite often. When the team present the case to House, he seems more interested in these conversations than the fact that they have no idea what’s causing Boyd’s painful stomach cramps. The only thing they can find wrong with him is that he has low sodium levels.

House orders preliminary treatment and announces he is going to see this faith healer for himself. “You’re going to talk to a patient?” asks a shocked Chase. “God talks to him,” replies House. “It’d be arrogant of me to assume I’m better than God.” House asks Boyd why he is in hospital if he thinks people can be cured with faith, and wonders aloud if he has been doing drugs. He notices a bottle of water by the bed and concludes that since Boyd claims God told him to purify his body, he was probably drinking water non-stop. Such a massive fluid intake would lead to the low sodium levels, which would in turn cause Boyd’s cramps.

Meanwhile, Wilson meets Grace, a terminal cancer patient who seems resigned to the fact that she’s now dying. Wilson comforts her and tells her he can make sure she will not have to suffer. Later that day, Boyd slowly shuffles through the halls, singing a gospel hymn. He stumbles across Grace, puts his hand on her head and calls upon the Lord to heal her. Wilson angrily intervenes and orders Chase to get Boyd back to his room. Back in the diagnostics lab, the team wonder if Boyd was having a psychotic episode, or whether this was normal behaviour for him. “Isn’t it interesting that religious behaviour is so close to being crazy we can’t tell it apart?” notes House.

Chase suggests that Boyd was having a seizure, upon which Wilson barges in, furious that they let Boyd roam the hallways to taunt Grace with false cures. Although she claims to be feeling a little better, he says that he’ll have to pick up the pieces when the placebo effect wears off and she realises she’s still dying.
Later, House passes the whiteboard in his office and notices a scoreboard has mysteriously appeared, putting the tally at “God 2, House 1.” Boyd comes in and notes the score, but House points out that the game isn’t over. Boyd wonders if God is in the lead because he healed Grace.

House scoffs at the notion, and it seems that his sceptism is proved right when Boyd’s MRI scan reveals an abnormal area, which House declares to be tuberous sclerosis – a disease which causes small tumours to grow throughout the body. It explains all Boyd’s symptoms, including the chats with God, so House awards himself one more point on the scoreboard. Foreman and Chase tell Boyd that he will need brain surgery to remove the tumours, which will cure his chemical imbalance, the seizures and his auditory hallucinations.

However, Boyd is afraid he will lose his connection to God, and refuses the surgery. House asks Wilson to use his superior bedside manner to convince Boyd to have the operation, and – after extracting a promise he will finally be invited to House’s poker game – Wilson persuades Boyd to consider it. He then shows House some scans of Grace’s cancer, hoping to prove that Boyd didn’t heal her. But the images show that Grace’s tumour has decreased in size. When House learns that Boyd is still resolved against the surgery, he orders his team to prove that Grace is still dying. Will he be able to prove that Boyd is a fraud and talk him into the surgery? Or – with the scoreboard at “God 3, House 2” – is he fighting a losing battle?