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House Season 6 Episode 16

Black Hole

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AIRED: Mar 15, 2010

8.5

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Episode Summary

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House and team tries to diagnose a high school senior suffering from blackouts and hallucinations, and are forced to take a controversial approach. Meanwhile, Wilson attempts to furnish his new condo, and Taub brings his personal life into the workplace.

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Fan Episode Reviews (9)

Dennis Boutsikaris, "Artie" in Black Hole

8.0

By rbrown205, Apr 02, 2013

One could fully expect that most of the great actors included in House would be also found in other series and movies. When they show up in series after their appearance in House, it could be assumed that their exposure on this series positively affected their careers.

A few days ago, I was catching up on episodes of "Elementary" and found a familiar face playing a central role in one of the cases - a multimillionaire who believes that he was poisoned with a manufactured genetic disease.

Turns out that the actor is Dennis Boutsikaris, who also just happened to play the father of the POTW's boyfriend in the visually and musically stunning episode "The Black Hole". That moving scene when House confronted him with his guilt and thereby solved the medical case hinted to me that he wasn't just a casting side thought.

Boutsikaris won two Obie awards (New York Off Broadway Theater awards) and was the first to play Mozart in Amadeus, which, at the time, was a play before it became the 1984 Tom Hulce movie. I would have loved to have seen that performance!!

People who are experienced and celebrated in the theatre (like Robert Sean Leonard) tend to be strongly aware of the importance of physical and voice expression in a role, and thus they learn how to put themselves in the center of a scene. In that confrontation scene in The Black Hole, for several seconds, Dennis very effectively moved the focus of the scene onto himself and his character - and that is VERY hard to do when one is sharing a scene with Hugh Laurie.

In the short but important scenes that he played in Elementary, he seemed to have not forgotten how to do that focus thing, which made this episode (called "Possibility Two") a good deal better than most.

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I don't know if it was fun, but it sure was funny

9.5

By noelveiga, May 07, 2011

Comedy is something House uses as a tool. It is not the kind of comedy that is intended to make you laugh, but rather a characterization tool. It is given to House (the character) and him alone for the purpose of making him sound inappropriate as he wisecracks in tense situations and gets nothing but stern looks from friends and patients in return.

That is why when the rest of the cast is allowed to get a laugh or two I count that as a victory. From Foreman's impatience to science fiction diagnostic tools to Wilson's hilarious shopping trip, the lighthearted tone changed the feeling of this slightly without losing the core of the characters.

The episode reminded me of seasons 1 and 2, and I mean that as a compliment. There was a patient, whose disease was actually the point, rather than background noise, as they so often are lately, and there was fun to be had with House's personality, but also with the rest of the cast. Taub's life is typically makes for the most boring episodes, and his painfully bland relationship with his wife was not the highlight here, either, but at this point I'm perfectly fine with hanging out with this cast when they feel like getting playful, and that was exactly what happened here.

So, hey, I'm sorry if your soap opera-driven approach to House was not met with enough material (remember when House used to mock doctor soaps? I guess they couldn't keep that up with a straight face after the last two seasons...), but I'm more than happy with this version of the show.moreless
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House thinks Wilson's condo is empty of furniture because Wilson is empty on the inside.

10

By CUL8TRBY, Mar 18, 2011

Wow. Less than 15 minutes into the show and the patient is in the ER with her heart exposed. A seventeen year old smart girl with foam coming out of her mouth when she drinks liquor on a fieldtrip. First they think it's an allergic reaction to her boyfriend's semen. Then we go to a hole in the brain. Patient thinks she's in a black hole. Meanwhile, Wilson buy's furniture and House sends it back because he didn't go pick it out. Smart girl's boyfriend wants to marry her, but she can't understand what he's saying. But she sees a younger version of herself telling herself that she can tell him her secret. Confused? What's real, what isn't? Then they hook the girl up to this really cool machine and have her to think about one thing. They can see what she is thinking. Photo wise, distorted but recongnizable, so cool. Wilson goes to pick out a dinning room table but can't find himself inside the furniture, or furniture that reflects his insides? Confusing episode, but good none the less. House always is The Wizard after all.moreless
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Visually nauseating

1.0

By jetgraphics, Mar 18, 2011

What is wrong with modern camera techs? Or should we blame the directors? The producers? In this age of pristine high definition, what [expletive deleted] is driving them to degrade the image with hand held SHAKY shots that are nauseating. Tripods can't be that expensive. And the actors are talented enough to eliminate the need for ever shifting backgrounds, angles and zooms.

It's bad enough when an action / adventure film substitutes blurry shaky cam in place of well choreographed sequences by talented stunt men. But when a simple marital argument is recorded in shake mode - well - I had to turn it OFF.

Which makes it a pretty rancid episode.moreless
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Are you kidding me!? This was horrible!

1.0

By AmelioRate567, Mar 18, 2011

Wow!! This is not only the worst episode of House, it's one of the worst episodes of any TV show I've ever watched. Hooking up a TV monitor to a person's brain to "watch" their dreams/subconscious -- are you kidding me!? I couldn't believe they were doing this. I'm barely old enough to have watched The Fonz jump the shark -- I didn't know then that the show died that day, but I know now when a show dies, and this was that day. This was, and is, the last episode I'll ever watch of House. Too bad -- it used to be great.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Hugh Laurie	Dr. Gregory House
Lisa Edelstein	Dr. Lisa Cuddy
Omar Epps	Dr. Eric Foreman
Robert Sean Leonard	Dr. James Wilson
Jesse Spencer	Dr. Robert Chase

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Cali Frederichs	Abby Nash	Guest Star
Nick Eversman	Nick	Guest Star
Dennis Boutsikaris	Artie	Guest Star
Peter Jacobson	Dr. Chris Taub	Recurring Role
Olivia Wilde	Thirteen	Recurring Role
Jennifer Crystal Foley	Rachel Taub	Recurring Role

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Episode Photos

Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Taub (Peter Ja...

© 2010 Fox Broadcasting Company
House (Hugh Laurie) is surprised by how ...

© 2010 Fox Broadcasting Company
House (Hugh Laurie) and the team analyze...

© 2010 Fox Broadcasting Company
House (Hugh Laurie) and the team monitor...

© 2010 Fox Broadcasting Company

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (0)
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- ADD TRIVIA from this episode.
QUOTES (3)
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- Dr. Wilson: Would you mind at least putting a napkin under your jelly toast?
  House: Get a table, and I won't eat on the couch.
  Dr. Wilson: Yeah, you will.
  House: But I won't have a good excuse.
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- Thirteen: Cuddy has a soft spot for smart girls, and they don't start drinking until second semester, senior year.
  House: So either you think that smart women look out for each other, which means you're an idiot, or you think Cuddy's not smart, which means... well, I guess it's the same both ways.
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- Dr. Foreman: Well, it's taken us just over an hour to prove that she has a very boring subconscious.
  House: Anyone ever tell you you can be a real buzzkill?
  Chase, Taub, and Thirteen: Yes.
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NOTES (3)
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- Music: Toccata & Fugue in D-Minor (Johann Sebastian Bach; performed by Hugh Laurie), Overture (Phantom of the Opera) (Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart & Richard Stilgoe; performed by Hugh Laurie), A Whiter Shade of Pale (Procol Harum; instrumental by Hugh Laurie)
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- Jennifer Morrison is credited but doesn't appear.
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- International Airdates:
  Canada: March 15, 2010 on Global
  UK: April 11, 2010 on Sky One
  Australia: May 30, 2010 on Channel Ten
  Israel: October 6, 2010 on HOT3
  Czech Republic: November 10, 2010 on TV Nova
  Germany: November 16, 2010 on RTL
  Poland: December 23, 2010 on TVP2
  Slovakia: January 11, 2011 on STV1
  Sweden: April 26, 2011 on TV4
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- Dr. Wilson: You know, they don't actually come to life when you put a knob off a bedpost on them.
  Referencing the 1971 Disney movie, Bedknobs & Broomsticks, based on Mary Norton's novels The Magic Bedknob and Bonfires and Broomsticks. The movie chronicles the adventures of three World War II children evacuees placed under the care of an aspiring witch. The bedknob in question is enchanted so that when it is attached to a bed belonging to the witch's late father, it can fly anywhere.
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