Finding Judas

House (TV series) episode
episode_name = Finding Judas
episode_no = HOU-309
airdate = November 28, 2006
writer = Sara Hess
director = Deran Sarafian
guest_star = Alyssa Shafer as Alice, Christopher Gartin as Rob, Paula Cale as Edie


season = 3
diagnosis = Erythropoietic protoporphyria

"Finding Judas" is the ninth episode of the third season of "House" and the fifty-fifth episode overall.

Plot

6-year-old girl Alice (Alyssa Shafer), is enjoying herself at an amusement park with her dad. When they go on a ride, Alice starts screaming uncontrollably. House's team checks her and finds pancreatitis. It turns out that her parents (Christopher Gartin and Paula Cale) are divorced, and argue all the time. Each time the doctors perform a test on Alice, her skin reacts as if she has allergies to everything. House thinks it's impossible for her to be allergic to everything, so he suspects infection. However, Alice's parents can't agree on whether to trust House's judgment, so her guardianship is awarded to Cuddy. House recommends broad-spectrum antibiotics, but Cuddy fears this will cause systemic shock, so she just administers one antibiotic. Alice keeps getting worse, including muscle rigidity and liver failure. Without answers, Cuddy runs a charcoal hemoperfusion during which Alice gets a blood clot on her arm. Foreman and Cuddy operate on her and remove the clot, but her temperature rises dangerously. Cuddy cools her off by placing her under a shower. House concludes she has necrotizing fasciitis, even though he has no evidence, for which her only chance for survival is amputation of the infected limbs (left arm and leg). The team doesn't agree on such a radical measure, but House scolds them for being too cautious. The surgery is prepared while the team hang out in the Diagnostics office. Chase is playing with a laser pointer and gets an epiphany. He stops House in the hospital hall and says that he thinks Alice has erythropoietic protoporphyria which makes her allergic to light. House rejects the explanation. When Chase tries to stop him, House punches him in the face. House, shocked at his outburst, realizes that Chase is right, and calls the OR to stop the surgery.

Detective Tritter is in an unused office in the hospital, reading files and papers. All the characters except House talk to him. He scolds Cuddy for being permissive, offers Foreman to let his imprisoned brother go in exchange for info, taunts Cameron about her false crush on House and tries to frame Chase into looking like he squealed on House. Tritter also freezes the team's bank accounts only to release them three days later, in order to create animosity and distrust among them. All the while House is distracted by his lack of Vicodin, which Cuddy is administering in meager doses. He gets furious and yells at everyone, including insulting Cuddy for her inability to take care of Alice and tells her that "its a good thing you failed to become a mom, because you suck at it." Cuddy is destroyed by this comment, since she has already tried three times to get pregnant. Wilson talks to her and tries to calm her. After Chase is punched, he talks to Wilson, who is working clinic duty. Chase tells Wilson that he can't stand the situation anymore, and that he's through waiting for House's approval. Wilson then goes to Tritter and says "I'm gonna need thirty pieces of silver".

Behind the scenes

Foreman scoffs at House for hiding his Vicodin in a lupus textbook, to which House replies "It's never lupus." Lupus is a disease that House's team often cite as a possible cause of a patient's problem during the early diagnosis phase, which is usually refuted. The Season 2 DVD boxset had an extra titled "It Could Be Lupus" which compiled examples of the disease being suggested from the first and second seasons, also as a reference to how often the disease is mentioned in the series.

Awards

Lisa Edelstein and David Morse submitted this episode for consideration on their respective behalves in the categories of "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series" and "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series" for the 2007 Emmy Awards.cite web|title = 2007 Emmys CONFIRMED Episode Submissions|url = http://goldderbyforums.latimes.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1106078764/m/53610293|publisher = The Envelope Forum, Los Angeles Times|accessdate = 2007-06-18]

References

External links

* [http://www.fox.com/house/ FOX.com-"House" official site]
* [http://televisionwithoutpity.com/show.cgi?show=151/ Television Without Pity-"House" recaps]
* [http://epguides.com/House/ House Episode Guide at epguides.com]
* [http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/house/100213/ TVGuide's Page: Full list of House Episodes]
* [http://www.housemd-guide.com/ House M.D. Guide]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412142/ "House M.D." IMDB Profile]
* [http://politedissent.com/archives/1464 Medical review of "Finding Judas"]