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House: 97 Seconds

Episode score 9.3 Superb

97 Seconds

  • 73.
  • Season: 4
  • Episode: 3
  • First Aired: 10/9/2007
  • Prod Code: HOU-403

EPISODE RECAP

45 Reviews | 611 Votes

A guy in a wheelchair, Stark, gets out of his van and with his helper dog goes to the local ice cream store. Stark passes out in the middle of a crosswalk and a woman driver narrowly avoids hitting him.

House presents the case to the remaining applicants and splits them up into two teams, men versus women. Amber wants to be on the men’s team but the men aren’t thrilled. The two teams pit off against each other while Amber goes to Cameron and tries to get some insight into House. While the teams compete over the patient, House visits a clinic patient, Almore, who pulls out a knife and tries to electrocute himself by sticking it into a socket. House goes to Cuddy and wonders about the knife-wielder, while she wonders if House knows what’s wrong with Stark.

In New York, Foreman runs a differential with his team and everything works out. Foreman seems… distracted. Meanwhile, House ponders the suicidal man’s case with Wilson, who tells him to talk to the patient.

Amber goes to the men’s team and admits they’re idiots so she can help them and get the smarter women out of the competition. They agree and she gives them a diagnosis that Cameron suggested: having bugs bite him. Stark starts to choke as his dog barks.

House meets with both teams for a differential and they suggest it relates to his trip to Thailand. The women’s team finally comes up with suggesting a stress test, while House penalizes the men’s team for wasting time doing tests and suggests one of them isn’t a doctor.

It turns out that Foreman’s team is wrong with their diagnosis, and he snaps at them briefly before considering the new symptoms of liver failure. House, meanwhile, goes back to his suicidal patient and the man admits he was in a car crash a week earlier and had a near-death experience during the 97 seconds he was dead. He insists it was the best 97 seconds of his life. House provides the clinical explanation but the patient asserts he’s done drugs and there actually something out there.

The men’s team wonder which one of them isn’t a doctor, while Amber insists they work out a differential and Henry suggests that he might have cancer that is putting pressure on the esophagus and causing the symptoms. Amber slips underneath the camera, out the window, and through Wilson’s office.

The women’s team conclude they’ve cured the patient when he doesn’t react to the stress. Amber gets in and applies even more stress but nothing happens. One of the applicants, Thirteen, reports to House but he’s more interested in whatever it is she’s hiding. House then holds a Tribal Council to fire the men’s team, but Amber comes in and ran a CT scan, and reveals that Stark needs steroids. House says she’s wrong but comes up with the correct solution as it relates to his spinal problems and orders the women to administer treatment and release him.

Amber still believes her diagnosis was correct and goes to Chase, suggesting he help make House’s life miserable. Chase is impressed enough with her scheming that he agrees to run the tests Amber goes to test for the tumor. She takes a blood sample… and it’s green.

It’s back to differential with both teams and they determine his kidneys aren’t working. House goes into differential for real, since he agreed with the women team’s diagnosis but now they’re all wrong. They order a full range of tests and then House complains to Chase for running the tests for Amber. Chase dismisses him and even Cameron is impressed. They confirm that Stark now has pneumonia but House suspects cancer. Meanwhile, Foreman goes to his boss with their diagnosis of cancer but she thinks he’s projecting.

House plans to remove Stark’s eye and Cuddy suggests he do a biopsy, but House insists the surgery is necessary and that Stark has melanoma cancer. He takes Wilson along to explain that it is spreading through his system, but if they remove the eye which contains the tumor, it could delay the spread. Stark isn’t thrilled at the idea but wants to believe in a better place, but House derides his beliefs and says there’s no afterlife. Wilson is furious and House asserts he doesn’t need to die to know there’s no afterlife. He considers the patient’s knife, while Foreman considers his white board then sneaks the patient into treatment.

The applicants start draining fluid from Stark’s lungs but there’s no blood, indicating it’s not cancer. Amber gets a page from House and goes into his office just as he electrocutes himself using the knife and an electrical socket.

The applicants wonder why House tried to kill himself, but Wilson comes in and says that he was dead for nearly a minute but Amber managed to resuscitate him. House is still unconscious and Wilson has them go over the case. He then considers House as he finally wakes up and explains that he needed to know if there was an afterlife. House wants to talk to Almore… but he died several hours ago. House suggests Stark needs a stronger dosage but Wilson has already ordered it. Stark is having more trouble breathing and asks them to bring his dog over. He admits he isn’t scared… and then dies. Amber tells House that Stark is dead, but he insists on seeing the patient to make a diagnosis. She wonders why he called Amber and he claims that she’s the only one who would have wanted him to stay alive so they could get the job. House ducks answering.

House considers Stark’s corpse but notices that Stark’s dog is dead. House asks if Thirteen, who was administering the medicine, saw him take the pills. She doesn’t remember, but House realizes that Stark didn’t take the pills, but fed them to the dog. That way he could die peacefully instead of go through months of suffering.

Cuddy berates for trying to kill himself while his patient was dying. Meanwhile, Schaffer confronts Foreman on his patient, who is recovering. She isn’t happy with the fact he took a gamble and fires him.

Thirteen is considering Stark’s body when House comes to see her. He gives her a lecture... and refuses to fire her, figuring she won’t let it happen again. After she leaves, House thinks over his near-death experience… and tells Stark’s corpse that “I told you so.”

Writers:
Garrett LernerRussel Friend
Director:
David Platt
Stars:
Lisa Edelstein (Dr. Lisa Cuddy)
Omar Epps (Dr. Eric Foreman)
Hugh Laurie (Dr. Gregory House)
Robert Sean Leonard (Dr. James Wilson)
Jennifer Morrison (Dr. Allison Cameron)
Jesse Spencer (Dr. Robert Chase)
Recurring Role:
Kal Penn (Kutner)
Peter Jacobson (Taub)
Olivia Wilde (Thirteen)
Anne Dudek (Amber)
Carmen Argenziano (Henry)
Edi Gathegi (Cole)
Bobbin Bergstrom (Nurse)
Andy Comeau (Brennan)
Guest Star:
Brian Klugman (Stark)
Douglas Spain (Latino Fellow)
Reynaldo Rosales (Handsome Fellow)
Mary Kate Schellhardt (Female Fellow)
Kathleen York (Dr. Schaffer)
Charlie Hofheimer (Almore)
Caitlin Dahl (Twin)
Melinda Dahl (Twin)
Meera Simhan (Jody)
Show Score 9.3 superb
  • Show Statistics
  • 143 of 17,754 Rating Rank
  • 1,308 Reviews
  • 37,600 Tracked by
  • 24,386 Votes
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