Acceptance (House)

A death row inmate, Clarence started having mysterious hallucinations, he was seeing all the people he killed in the past, and he malfunctioned (WTF - is he a robot???). His heart started pumping air instead of blood and he had trouble breathing. House discovered that he had fluid in his lungs. House liked the mystery and wanted to admit him to the hospital immediately before it was too late. Because Clarence was a dangerous criminal, they had to clear a whole floor to examine and treat him. House got Stacy to get a court order. Cuddy wasn't in favor of this plan and wanted him out as soon as he got better. They had to send him back to death row as soon as he got better to receive his death penalty. House killed him by curing him. The team realizes that the inmate had much acid in his blood and speculated he was taking drugs. The reason for the delay was the doctors not testing for the drug. It was unexpected. House sends Chase back to prison to inspect the cell Clarence was sleeping in, in order to find the cause of all the acid by deduction toner solvent. House tricks Clarence to a whisky slammer session to displace hepatic metabolism of the deadly cocktail.

Meanwhile, Cameron feels that the hospital is spending money on Clarence unnecessarily because he was going to die no matter what the outcome was. She wanted House to focus on those who really needed help. House refused leaving Cameron to deal with it herself. Cameron treats a woman with terminal cancer on her own. She sees a friend in her and shows sympathy toward her, because she is alone. Clarence sees Foreman's tattoo and wonders how he went from a gang to wearing a white coat. Hemorrhagic ischemic enterocolitic ulcerative rupture, or mucosal integrity compromise in the large intestine linked to the phaeochromocytoma, erupts as sudden onset anal haemorrhage during spasmodic fit. Clarence is subject to extended MRI imaging despite significant pain from contra conditions (subdermal inking) in the hunt for the tumour (Waldo). Clarence is diagnosed with phaeochromocytoma, it is surgically removed and he is then sent back to death row to receive his death penalty.

Rivalry is shown between House and Stacy when they start working together, but toward the end of the episode they start to accept each other as co-workers.

This episode looks at the different stages of death. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. House compares these steps to the woman that Cameron is treating. He urges Cameron to tell her patient that she is dying. This can also be compared to the relationship House has with Stacy. At first they refused to work with each other. There was much conflict between them and House tried everything to get her off his case. Eventually they accepted each other as co-workers. In the end we find House contemplating. He walks over to his board and erases the five steps of death, He stops at depression and thinks again. He wonders if he is busy dying (He is depressed: Viewers know that because of his obsession over alcohol and pain killers and that he isn’t able to find happiness in everyday events) and when he will start accepting it.