House

Two women are playing tennis when one of them collapses, clutching at her chest. On a construction site, a crane worker dies in his seat. A kickboxer dies in the middle of a match. A tuba player starts vomiting blood in the middle of a rehearsal and expires. Thirteen arrives at a college class and informs the math teacher, Apple, that she had a corneal transplant five years ago, and four other people who received a transplant from the same donor died.



Apple is taken to the hospital where they determine four of the victims are dead and one more, an elderly man named Frank, is on the verge of death. The team is unable to determine a common denominator and House is more concerned about Wilson's absence. Finally House goes with a diagnosis of cancer and orders them to run more tests. He then heads for the cafeteria where he approaches Dr. O'Shea as a possible Wilson-replacement. Things look potentially promising until O'Shea refuses to go home with House to watch TV that night. Foreman arrives to inform House that Apple's eye is failing and they have to remove it. Apple starts hallucinating that House plans to decapitate her, indicating something is wrong with her brain.



House goes over video of the kickboxer looking for signs of brain damage. The janitor interrupts to berate Taub and Kutner for being idiots, but they soon notice that he's wearing the wrong type of socks. They conclude he's a private investigator and House admits he hired him. The detective, Lucas, has already put together the information about the dead individuals that they need. Even House is impressed at his thoroughness.



They need to do a biopsy and appeal to Frank's wife for approval, and Apple adds her urging, lying that she has a family. Taub reluctantly tells Frank's wife the truth. Frank stops breathing and dies despite Taub's efforts. House orders him to save the brain so they can do an autopsy. They determine Frank's brain is clean and House still suspects cancer. Foreman accuses House of suggesting cancer so he has a reason to call in Wilson. Kutner suggest a perforated intestine and bacterial infection that spread through the blood and infected all the organs. Houses a DNA check via a colonoscopy on the donor's daughter.



House meets with Lucas, who figures that House wants him to hire him to check out Wilson and see if there's something House can use to get Wilson to come back. House asks if there is something, and Lucas admits there isn't. House returns to the hospital where Kutner and Foreman improve him the colonoscopy proved clean. House still believes in cancer and Kutner suggests they use a high-pressure water jet to apply pressure to Frank's colon. There are no leaks but Foreman spots what appears to be a core lesion. Kutner increases the pressure and Frank's intestines and body wastes spray out on Foreman.



Apple's heart starts racing but there's no indication her colon is leaking. The team has nothing new and House orders chemo for the cancer he suspects she has. He goes to her room and signals an emergency when he can't find the medical records on Apple's bed. He then asks Apple to sign a consent form to receive chemotherapy, noting that he can't tell her she has cancer because then she might think the treatment is working. Nonetheless, he hints she has cancer. As she signs, Apple talks about how she was an architect but gave it up after her corneal transplant. She notes that she thought her life would be better once she saw, but nothing improved and her parents were still dead. Apple notes that House doesn't seem much different, and he notes that at least he hasn't given up.



Lucas reports in to tell House that Wilson has a new job. He points a woman out that he's following because he likes her, then informs House that Wilson is attending grief counseling and Cameron and Cuddy have been at his house several times. Lucas starts following the girl and House has to trail along. The girl finally confronts them and says they're making her uncomfortable. After she leaves, Lucas notes that Wilson hasn't said anything about House. House gets a page and heads to the hospital where Apple is vomiting from the chemo but her system is stabilizing. Foreman is surprised House was right, but House concludes that it isn't cancer.



Back in differential, House notes he never thought it was cancer but thought it acted like cancer. Now he wants to find something that is similar to cancer, and notes the last patient was using an anti-cancer medicine for his arthritis and it didn't save him. He goes to Wilson and asks for an epiphany, wanting to bounce ideas off of him. Wilson tries to shut him out and House asks how he's doing. Wilson begs him not to do this so he can move on, and House accuses him of talking to the others. House admits he hired a private detective to watch Wilson because they're not friends any more, then tries to run a diagnosis. Wilson refuses and warns he won't answer the door the next time House knocks.



Lucas is outside and tries to advise House on friendship and gives House an idea. He goes to see Cuddy and shows her Apple's CAT scan. It indicates something is in there that her brain isn't compensating for. House believes that the donor had cancer stem cells that attached themselves to the donor's various organs, and when transplanted eventually gave out and stopped working. He wants to open up Apple's skull before it's too late for her, and Cuddy wonders if House is going to do something to make Apple crash prematurely. She puts guards on Apple's room and House calls Lucas to have him sneak in and tamper with Apple's IV. She crashes and goes into surgery where they have to open up her skull. House suggests they check her IV and Chase figures he switched the meds but has little choice but to continue. They attach a neural net while Lucas comes into the observation gallery and realizes that House lied to him about how dangerous it was for Apple to switch the meds. The neural net will detect her nerve impulses and show them the problem. They spot the defective brain cells and remove them.



Later, House goes to visit Apple and explains that the world is ugly but not as ugly as she thought. Her brain wasn't working properly and the transplanted brain cells were making things dull and unattractive to her. He takes off the bandages and Apple sees the world for what it is and notes that House looks sad.



House is in his office and calls to put Lucas on retainer.