Simply one of the best in quite a while. Really gripping and hard hitting stuff. It's hard to believe so much was packed into the 45 minute format. Just goes to show what can be done when the bar is high. Take the House story arc alone. He finds out that he's risked his life with experimental rat medicine. He opts to perform life threatening surgery on himself. This is filmed so viscerally, it's genuinely hard to watch. You know he's stoned himself to handle the pain, but he can't be so stoned that he passes out or cuts an artery. It doesn't get much more messed up than this, even for House. You feel like you're there with him, in the bath tub, alone, rat poison in the veins, a set of tumors in a withered leg, a scalpel and a bunch of drugs. When it starts to go wrong and he starts calling all his "friends", you sense his aloneness. It makes you reflect on who you could call in such a situation. And that it would wind up to be Cuddy who answers his calls, coming with child in toe, was quite poetic. The family united! So dysfunctional and yet so very poignant... The story arcs for Taub, 13, Foreman and Chase are equally strong, and only space forbids me to comment on their dramas. This probably should have been extended into a double episode and been the season finale... On a side note, this one reminded me of a great Stephen King short story, entitled "Survivor Type", about another junkie doctor who also performs major surgery on himself. Brief, gripping and well worth a read, a good accompaniment to this episode. Some things just stay with you.
Review of After Hours
