House

Brandon, an artist, is doing a nude portrait of a woman as her husband looks on. He completes the painting and the couple look at it… and draw back in horror. Brandon doesn't see what's wrong with the portrait, but the husband punches him. Brandon's wife Heather comes downstairs as the couple leaves and shows Brandon the portrait: the wife's face is distorted.



House meets with Lucas in the cafeteria to get his report on the staff when Cuddy comes in and wants to meet the person House is paying out of the hospital funds. Cuddy refuses to pay for House's detective. In the staff room, the team goes over Brandon's recent work which shows no other distorted portraits. Foreman suspects visual agnosia and Thirteen believes drugs are involved. House is more interested in revealing what he's learned about Kutner and Thirteen. He admits he doesn't have anything on Taub, but he does have info on Taub's wife. House refuses to say what and goes with the diagnosis of a tumor and prepare tests. Brandon is nervous at having them do tests and insists he's feeling better, but reluctantly gives in. Meanwhile, Kutner and Taub check Brandon's apartment but don't find any toxins or drugs. Taub says he doesn't care what his wife is doing.



The tests prove clean and House hears that Brandon is worried about the tests. He concludes that Brandon is enrolled in drug testing to make money to keep up appearances for his wife, since he can't sell his paintings. Brandon admits that he's enrolled in the three drug trials but his system should be clean now. He tells Thirteen to find out what the drugs are and goes back to his office, where Taub is there and finally asks what House knows. House says that Taub's wife Rachel is putting $83,000 in a secret bank account, but Taub says he knows and it's going into renovations for their home. House is skeptical, but they're interrupted when they get a page that Brandon is having a seizure.



None of the drugs cause seizure but House assumes that some mix of the drugs are responsible. House orders dialysis to clear Brandon's system for sure. Taub administers it and Brandon is worried that Heather might suspect something and wants to cover up the dialysis. Thirteen realizes that Taub is lying, but Taub doesn't see a reason to bring it up with his wife.



The next morning, Taub reports that the dialysis is apparently working and House wants to know if Taub has told his wife. House then checks in with Lucas via a hidden radio headset. Lucas is camped out in the lobby and Cuddy notices him. The detective wonders why House is so interested, and if Taub's marital problems will make him work harder, or quit. Meanwhile , Brandon's throat and face swell up and Foreman has to do an exploratory tracheotomy. They administer steroids and cream to reduce the swelling without success. House still believes the mix of trial drugs is responsible and the new symptoms are from withdrawal. House suggests they detox him more effectively by readministering the drugs and then weaning him off them slowly.



Cuddy confronts Lucas in the lobby, only to find out that the detective has paid someone who looks like him to sit there. She finds Lucas in her office, going through her drawers. He says he's doing it for free because he's interested in her but hasn't found anything. As he leave, he offers to give her interesting information about House in return for the chance to talk to her.



At home, Taub and wife are having supper when he finally confronts her about the bank account. Embarrassed, she admits that she bought him the car he always wanted. Meanwhile, Thirteen monitors the drugs in Brandon's systems… and he grabs her and yanks her onto the bed. She punches him to get free .



Now that the drugs are cleared out of Brandon's system, the team goes back to differential to find new theories. Taub admits that he asked his wife what was going on and demands an apology to House. House kind of apologizes… and then wonders why Rachel would give Taub a car. House goes orders Taub to stay the night and conduct tests. Then House goes home and finds Lucas in his closet trying to find something embarrassing to give Cuddy. House wants Lucas to find something on Cuddy for future negotiations and Lucas agrees.



Kutner and Taub find narrow blood vessels and Taub believes that Brandon recently acquired a heart arrhythmia due to the drugs, and the narrowed blood vessels are causing the symptoms. House tells them to test Brandon's heart for arrhythmia. As they proceed, Taub tells Brandon he shouldn't confess to Heather if he's doing it to make himself feel better. They test the heart while Taub wonders when House will let him go home. Brandon's heart goes into overdrive and they're forced to stabilize it, but House is more interested in the fact that Brandon's hair is growing in red.



The new symptoms suggest Romano-Ward Syndrome… except for the melanin change. They need to do a cardiac sympathectomy but they're not sure if Brandon's heart is stable enough to handle the operation.



Lucas goes to Cuddy with a photo showing that House was a cheerleader in college. In return he gets to answer her personal questions. However, he realizes that she knows it's a fake photo. He admits he likes her because she's hot and smart, but he wonders why she isn't suspicious of the photo. He figures she must know it's a doctored photo, which means she knows it's a game. He apologizes and starts to leave, then concludes that since she knew he wasn't going to give her anything worthwhile, she must really be interested in him. Satisfied, he sits back down with her.



Thirteen and Taub explain the procedure to Brandon, but he suffers from vision agnosia and mistakes them for someone else. House believes the agnosia is irrelevant and they still need to do a sympathectomy. Taub wonders if Brandon is suffering from a toxin from contaminated paint a year ago that got into his fat cells, and is being released as he loses weight at the hospital. House gives Taub an hour to prove his theory. Taub goes to Brandon and tries to talk to him alone, but Heather realizes something is wrong and insists on hearing the truth. Brandon tells her how he's been making money from drug trials, then concealed it from her to maintain her image of him. She insists that she loves him for who he is, and he tells Taub where the unsold paintings are.



As Chase prepares to perform the sympathectomy, Taub finds the paintings and determines that Brandon suffer from agnosia while painting only some of them: on the odd months. Those were the months Brandon was on the trial, but can't account for the symptoms now. House realizes that Brandon was taking antacid before he took the drugs. He calls the operating room and tells them to conduct abdominal surgery to remove a bezoar. Taub explains to Heather that there was a buildup of food that formed in Brandon's stomach and absorbed the drugs, then started releasing them. With the bezoar removed, Brandon is fine. Taub asks Heather if she's happier knowing the truth, but before she can answer Rachel arrives to show Taub his car. He sees it… and then says they need to talk.



Lucas is playing the piano at House's apartment when House arrives. The detective explains that Cuddy didn't accept the photo, and he didn't get anything on Cuddy. Lucas has checked out House's college on the Internet and discovered that the photo was real. He figures House to see Cuddy differently, and she didn't believe it and couldn't even conceive it was possible. As they play a duet, Lucas suggests he back off from romancing Cuddy and House jokingly asks if he would.