"Maternity" is the fourth episode from the first season of "House M. D." starring Hugh Laurie. As you can see from my rating, I once again think that the quality here was really high and these over 40 minutes among the very best the television year 2004 had to offer as 2005 was not too far away anymore when this aired. The director was Newton Thomas Sigel, a man you usually find in charge of the cinematography department, also when it comes to really big blockbuster films like "Bohemian Rhapsody" for which he scored a BAFTA nomination. Anyway, this House episode here is now almost 20 years old and there is a lot of interesting to find. I will just go on with a little brainstorming. For once, you find out which areas House and Chase are specialized in if you listen closely enough. But on a bigger scale this was the first episode from the series I think where we had patients dying. Maybe you did not really make a connection with those, but seeing the dead baby's mother(s) was still heartbreaking enough the moment when they are about to be informed about the infant's death and maybe one of the saddest moments from the entire series and this means quite something as you know that it was on for a really long time. Cameron plays a special role in all that. Obviously, she struggles with finding the right words towards the patients and is too nice and optimistic instead of telling them about the way things really are, namely that their child is sick to the point where it might very well die. We see how it is done when Foreman talks to the other couple. This episode works very much in favor of him you can say. The baby of "his" parents makes it, even if his initial diagnosis is also not correct and he also mentions the virus that turns out to be what is killing those babies. The mothers' antibodies are the key to the solution and cure then. Usually, the idea is that the team does not know what is killing the patient and struggle to come up with options. Here, it is that they just have to find the right one from too many options.
As for Cameron, there is even talk about her not being in the right department and there seems to be something with her past that maybe she lost her own child at some point, but there is no exact explanation (yet). It is just implied by House looking at the way she behaves. Towards the end there is still to solve what it was that got all these babies sick and turns out teddy bears are a deadly force this time or rather the woman carrying them through the hospital to bring joy to the babies. She rather should have stayed home and called in sick. Apart from that, there is a massive moral question as on one occasion it seems as if House is really to let one of two babies die, basically sacrifice it in order to know which one it is and that the treatment with the other was successful. The clinic's lawyer obviously does not like it, but Cuddy in a way has the last word and supports him in this decision. I was still wondering if they could not go with one solution and oof both babies live, they also know that it helps them and if it doesn't, then they know it might be the other therapy that helps. Nonetheless, there was the revelation that both therapies were unsuccessful, so it was in fact not the 50-50 idea they were selling us there. But surprises are always in store of course. There is only one supporting case, if we call it that, this time that brings in some comic relief and actually it brings in some heart as well as we understand that House in a way likes the young woman despite (or maybe because of) her cheating on her man and this heart may also have been fueled by him seeing the couple we see first with their healthy baby again.
Back to the other two, then again, maybe it wasn't even cheating because the two weren't even together at that point because of the argument and the baby is after all her man's the way I understood it, so all is well. The other doctors at the very end are not too happy about this twist. But there we see some heart in House. Also of course when he asks Foreman how Cameron is doing. Nice moment elaborating on trivialities for once. The man kinda does it right, we all should care less about those. As for Chase, there is not too much this episode. We see how he maybe struggles the most with the idea of a baby dying as he keeps trying to bring the infant back to life when it is clearly too late. Everybody knows and House tells him. Oh yeah, we also find out the exact day the episode takes place. Funniest moment was maybe when House tells the female patient in the subplot about the parasite she is carrying. Another thing I wanna mention here is that I quite like the entire scene when the camera moves atop the hospital complex. We see that during every episode, but now seems like a good occasion to say it. This is pretty much it then. Given the sick characters, you will see dummies or dolls being used here on a few occasions, but we also have some baby actors. I wonder when the people who are now 20 will think of this episode and seeing them at that young age. Actually, I wonder if they did watch it or even know they were in this episode. I hope so. Makes for a nice memory I assume. Overall, just like I stated at the beginning of my review, this is an episode that has aged really well and definitely deserves to be seen. Big thumbs-up and also pay attention to how this episode never leaves the hospital the way it usually happens in the opening segment for example.
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