Cane & Able

Season 3, Episode 2, Aired
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Episode Summary

House and the team treat a young boy who claims there is a tracking device in his neck and believes he has been the subject of alien experimentation. Cameron is outraged when she learns Cuddy and Wilson have been lying to House about the diagnosis on his previous case.moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (45)

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  • A missed opportunity for a season long sub-plot/arc.

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By bmoshier, Jan 25, 2011 Report Abuse
    The writers/producers missed an outstanding opportunity for a season long sub-plot revolving around House's confidence.

    This episode winds up the story line started last season about House's confidence and leg pain. This aspect of House, while painful to watch, is interesting and allows the character and show to develop beyond the same cookie cutter storylines. Yet, we see the same House and possibility of the same storylines when House picks up his cane.

    A season long arc/plot would allow for some serious changes, multiple cliff hangers, and unique excitement during the season. The plot could be in three parts:

    1) During the first half of the season, Wilson and Cuddy allow House's confidence to fall. While getting dangerously low, they tell themselves it is for his best. They ignore and suppress the warnings of House's staff.

    Through out all these episodes one of his staff members keeps trying to raise his confidence.

    2) Half way through the season, a two part episode occurs where House decides to retire. These episodes give the show a chance to take a short break for (say) the winter holidays.

    At the end of the first part, House begins his retirement. We see him leave the hospital and see his first days of retirement are fun.

    In the second part, Wilson and Cuddy call on an old mentor of House to help them get House back to work. The mentor gives us additional House character development opportunities, now and in parts three of the arc. Appalled by Wilson and Cuddy's action, but keeping it to himself, he agrees to help. He turns to House for help in a case that has been stumping him for awhile and isn't made up just for House. Cuddy and Wilson aren't sure because House might fail to find the cure. The mentor says House would see through that trick and he won't trick House.

    House agrees to help as a favor and because he feels obligated. The mentor has the patient come to House's hospital and the saving of two lives begins.

    His mentor gets the old House to come back to life through an interesting case, his own codgity teaching, and getting House to hear the truth from Wilson and Cuddy.

    At the end of the second part, House comes back to medicine with a renewed vigor and confidence. He asks his mentor, though, for a job as he won't work at this place again. He leaves and only takes the staff member who was trying to tell him the truth.

    3) The remainder of the season is House working somewhere else. The mentor agrees to help Wilson and Cuddy to get House to come back as long as they agree to always support House. They must change their own character or he won't help. Showing remorse and a willingness to change, they agree.

    The "old" gang and his mentor find ways to involve House and show him he wants to be "the big fish in the big pond." Over time House realizes he needs to get out from under his mentor's wing again.

    At the end of the season House announces he is taking a job with the Mayo Clinic or John Hopkins as the chief of diagnostic medicine. Wilson, Cuddy, his old staff, and his mentor come up with a proposal so he'll come back to the old gang. House realizes what they are up to and decides to extract his pound of flesh and quart of blood (interest) from Wilson and Cuddy. Not announcing his decision at the end of season, House leaves the viewers with another cliff hanger. There would be clues, though, that House will return to his home (for a price see above). Vice-chairman of the board House has a good ring to it doesn't it? He asks his mentor as they walk into House's home. Fade to black and next season.moreless

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    3 4

  • this was a good ep

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By cube2k8, Sep 17, 2010 Report Abuse
    in this ep of the show house cuddie and willson are tring to keep the lie to themselves about the case doctor house worked on last and they get a boy that thinks aliens have been in his system and installed a tracking device and they working on the case and they come a cross a metal in his neck and then come cross strange dna she finds out that they lied to house and she wants them to tell him and turns out about the case the kid had a second person inside him and they got rid of it this was a good epmoreless

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  • House and co. take on the case of Clancy, a young boy who is certain that he is being watched by aliens. Although the team are certain that these sightings are just hallucinations, they can find no explanation for them.moreless

    9.8
    "Superb"
    By shaken-angel, Jun 23, 2010 Report Abuse
    This episode was, in my opinion, absolutely fantastic. The writers dared to stray away from what was expected in terms of plot line, and it really paid off. In this episode, we see House and his team take on the case of a young boy who believes he is being watched by aliens and apparently 'sees' them constantly. Whilst House is determined to find some rational explanation for what the boy is seeing, Chase can't help but think there may be some truth to the story. When we finally discover what is causing the hallucinations, it is a shocking and wonderful diagnosis. A few scenes really stuck out for me, for example: where Chase finds Clancy in the bathroom gouging a hole in his neck. Even though you knew that there were no aliens, when they found that chip... *shudders*. I was very impressed with Cameron's performance, because I like seeing her stick up for what she believes in and this was no different. Although it is true that sometimes her emotions and believes can hinder her ability as a doctor, she used this to her advantage in the episode and it made her, for me, thoroughly likeable.

    I really have to applaud both the writers and the actors for handling the sci-fi aspect so well. I was worried that it was just going to look cheesy and compeltely unrealistic, but although it was a more fantastical storyline, it still kept the foundations that make House such an amazing medical drama. Some brilliant lines from both Chase and House, with particular mention going to Chase's pathetic attempt at back talk: "Hey Foreman, yo mamma's so fat, when her beeper goes off people think she's backin off." Truly terrible but it still made me burst out laughing. Also, House's line: "I could smell what the Rock was cooking." ended me. It was so random, and yet it just fitted so well! Kudos Hugh Laurie. All in all, an episode that stands out on it's own because it dares to be different. It was good to see the medical drama do something which could be risky, and still pull it off. Well done.moreless

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    4 0

  • Classic House.

    10
    "Perfect"
    By DonStants2, Jun 13, 2009 Report Abuse
    This episode was brilliant. The case, although a little weird, was interesting enough with the theories of false DNA and the twin living inside of him. I guess it was pretty obvious he WASN'T being abducted, but the twists and turns of the case made it more believable.

    I thought Chase's reactions to the whole episode were hilarious, especially with House's quip "You are believer, aren't you?". I think Chase has begun really growing into his own character now, and he always seems to get on with the younger parents.

    The case was balanced out with good drama as House's leg pain begins to worsen. When Cameron discovers he actually cured his last patient, we see her show her affection for House by confronting Wilson and Cuddy. Cameron's character can be annoying at times, but in this episode she was quite noble. I loved House and Wilson's discussion at the end, and to get more explanation into why Wilson did what he did- he was trying to protect his friend. It was so sad seeing House pick up his cain again after a brief glimpse of life without it.

    Overall, a very decent episode, much better than the occasionally slow Season premiere- brilliant.moreless

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    2 0

  • "You're a believer, aren't you?"....

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By uk6strings, Jun 01, 2009 Report Abuse
    Plot: A young boy named Clancy hallucinates and is convinced that he has alien implants and that they are permanently out to get him.

    Why you need to see this episode: The writing team really did a number on "Cane & Able" - the episode has one of the most interesting cases of season three and the entire House M.D. series. Aliens are not usually a cause of someone's disease in the show but, because of the nature of the unexplainable illness and Chase's own belief in UFOs, even the audience begins to wonder if aliens are behind what is killing Clancy.

    Also making this episode great and interesting is the story arcs continued from the previous episode "Meaning" that deal with the state of House's leg and the secret that Cuddy and Wilson are hiding from House - and the struggles House goes through because of both of those things.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

    ADD TRIVIA
    • Cameron suggests they make an antibody to a protein on the surface of the "alien" cells so that they can tag them for the PET scan. No problem there, monoclonal antibodies are widely used for purposes such as these ... but generating, screening, purifying and labeling a new antibody is a process that takes around six months at the very least. The show seems to suggest this only took days at most. Edit
    • When House asks Cameron to put her diagnosis in the form of a metaphor she talks about making nerves 'light up like lightbulbs'. This is a simile not a metaphor. Edit
    • When he goes into the machine that looks for the tagged proteins, Clancy goes in head-first. However, the computer shows Clancy's results feet-first. Edit

  • Notes

    ADD NOTES
    • International Air Dates: The Netherlands: June 28, 2007 on SBS 6 The Czech Republic: November 19, 2007 on TV Nova Belgium: December 13, 2007 on KanaalTwee Sweden: February 12, 2008 on TV4 Norway: Thursday, July 24, 2008 on NRK1 Edit
    • Music: Beautiful by Snoop Dogg featuring Pharrell, Flying High by Jem Edit
    • The song playing at the end of the episode is "Gravity" by John Mayer. Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • House: Unfortunately, his brother is... like a bad doubles partner. Guy just takes up space, gets in the way. Clancy's body thinks he's gonna put away the easy winners; his brother just keeps swinging balls into the net. We have to get him off the court. Stephanie: So does that mean you can find the bad cells in his brain or not? House: Sure, abandon the metaphor, fine. Edit
    • House: Either you screwed up the test, or I screwed up my analysis of this case. If you screwed up I don't have to cry myself to sleep. Edit
    • Dr. Cameron: Maybe he cheated. Dr. Chase: Right. Kids always cheat on their bleeding time tests. House: She was being metaphorical. Trying to sound like me. I have no idea what you meant, but I could smell what the Rock was cooking. Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • Dr. Cuddy: I gave him one shot of Cortisol and he woke up like Rip Van Winkle. This is a reference to the 1819 short story Rip Van Winkle, published by Washington Irving. In the story a man falls asleep, only to wake up 20 years later, not knowing what's been going on for all this time. Edit
    • Title Refers to the biblical story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1 through 4:16). They are two brothers, each of whom offers a sacrifice to God. Abel's sacrifice is favored because he gave the best part of what he had and Cain only gave what he had left. Subsequently Cain murders Abel, presumably out of jealousy. Cain is then cursed by God to wander the earth. Cain beseeches God's help, because he is afraid of his fellow people's vengeance. God then puts the Mark of Cain upon him, so that he shall not be killed, for "whomsoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be upon him sevenfold." Edit
    • Wilson: More that if we told you the truth, that you'd solved a case based on absolutely no medical proof, you'd think you were God. And...I was worried your wings would melt. This is in reference to the Greek myth about the death of Icarus. His father Daedalus created wax wings so they could escape imprisonment in King Minos' tower. Because of his hubris, Icarus ignored his father's warning about flying too close to the sun, and he fell into the sea when the wax melted. Edit

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