I really can't add anything new to what's already been said...I just can't believe how the writers/producers/actors/director/et al were able to pull off such an exciting and fascinating season ending (I've never cared for season finales until now) while maintaining the whole show structure (in other words, it was still a plain awesome episode with the medical mystery, but also moved the characters along to a whole new place). It was a while back that this show did another, "hallucination," episode and again I'm left wondering how much was real and how much was the convolutions of a troubled mind. The case must have been, "Real," since it began in that restaurant without any of the series regulars, but the medical issue meshed so well with House's personal issues...just brilliant. When the patient slapped his girlfriend without even knowing it, I announced how the medical issue was so much like was House was doing to people he cared about. I'd just watched a Science Channel documentary about someone with that Phantom Hand Syndrome and thought about how that could be explored on a symbolic level. Like the first person who commented on this episode, I was enjoying the episode while clicking away on the computer (the sparring between House and Cuddy, although possibly imagined, was a blast! When that old man delivered the stool sample to Cuddy we were all just hysterical), but this whole house (no pun intended) was RIVETED by those last few scenes. I wasn't the only one here who stopped everything when Kutner reappeared (he must be so proud of Harold's, 'Star Trek,' performance). Then every jaw dropped when suddenly we were back to that scene from last week. Just when we thought we had a handle on what was happening, our theories and understanding slipped from our grasp like a squirming eel and we were bitch-slapped to another thought/idea about what was going on (sorry...mixed metaphors). House had that self-awareness to realize he was on the verge of problems when Wilson's girl-friend appeared, but - like him - all of our awareness disintegrated. They could have done a whole SEASON based on those last ten-fifteen minutes. I'm kind of bummed that he's getting help since it was so much fun to have that Greek chorus of people that House semi-indirectly had killed. I'm curious to hear everyone's theories as our discussions haven't stopped... BUH-RILLIANT!!!
Review of Both Sides Now
