Favorite quote: "You can have all the faith you want in spirits, and the afterlife, and heaven and hell, but when it comes to this world, don't be an idiot. 'Cause you can tell me you put your faith in God to put you through the day, but when it comes time to cross the road, I know you look both ways."
1x21 "Three Stories" I knew this would be on the list of favorite episodes when I started this - in this episode, House explores three patients with a lecture hall full of med students. As it turns out, House was actually describing what happened to his own leg, and by the time he got around to that, the rest of his team was in the lecture, too. It was a really cool episode with awesome transitions, and will definitely be in contention for the top spot.
Favorite quote: "You find it more comforting to believe that this is it?" "I find it more comforting to believe that this simply isn't a test."
2x02 "Autopsy" This was another "knew it was going to be on this list" episodes. House performs an operation on a 9-year-old cancer patient that renders her technically dead, while blood is profused to check for a clot in her brain. House has never been as edge-of-your-seat as it was in this episode, because it was such a dangerous procedure, and this episode really sets the precedent for really, really good House episodes.
2x17 "All In" Being that the prevailing metaphor was poker, I was all over this episode, and it's always remained a favorite of mine. It's an awesome glimpse into House's character and his unwavering desire, need even, to solve cases. And House playing piano at the end is just awesome.
2x20, 21 "Euphoria, Pt. 1 & 2" The first two-parter in House was, as expected, really epic. As someone who completely despises Foreman, this was very fun for me to watch. I don't think I would have been so excited the first time around, because I didn't really loathe Foreman until the fourth season or so. But this was a really interesting case that forced the team to do things they never had before.
2x24 "No Reason" The Season Two finale was one of my favorites of the entire series. For starters, the person who shot House was named Jack Moriarty, a direct reference to Sherlock Holmes, which people say that House (and House) was based off of. This is one of those awesome, philosophic episodes with lots of monologues and conversations and cool scenes. It's also insanely cool to go through House's hallucinations as he's realizing them. The whole "How can I tell what's real?" part meant something for the entire episode, not just the one scene House said it.
Favorite quote: "And it's a nice, simple rule - tell the blunt, honest truth in the starkest, darkest way. And what will be, will be. What will be, should be."
3x07 "Son of Coma Guy" This episode has my absolute favorite scene from all of House, where House tells his patient's father (Coma Guy) why he became a doctor. It's a really neat episode in and of itself, but this one scene is definitely the reason that this is on the list, and the story seems to be a perfect analogy for House himself and his methods as a doctor.
Favorite quote: "Because he was right. Which meant that nothing else mattered. They had to listen to him."
3x12 "One Day, One Room" This was the second-most watched House episode in history, and is obviously the name for my blog here. There's really no medicine involved, but instead the episode is filled with philosophical questions and debates - the meaning of life, the existence (or lack thereof) of the afterlife, what our legacies are when we die. I know that it looks like a cop out to use the quote for my blog as my favorite quote here, but there's a reason for it.
Favorite quote: "I'm gonna base this moment on who I'm stuck in a room with. It's what life is. It's a series of rooms. And who we get stuck in those rooms with adds up to what our lives are."
3x15 "Half-Wit" Dave Matthews stars in this episode as a savant with severe brain damage after an accident as a child. He is insanely good at playing piano, but during a concert, something goes wrong. House takes him in and the episode is filled with awesome piano stuff from there. By this point in the series, the episodes have a lot of opportunity for doctor/patient interaction - by which I mean that we've learned about the team of doctors as such in the first couple of seasons, but in Season Three, it really gets to who they are as people, and the patients play a huge role in that.
4x03 "97 Seconds" Season Four has some of the best patients in the show, and is by far the coolest season of House there is. Not necessarily the best, but it's top two, for sure. What's cool about it is that it introduces a bunch of new characters and ideas into the show, and talks about truth a lot in the first half of the season. In this episode, House tries to find out what the white light before death really is, and a patient forced to live in his wheelchair comes to terms with his life as he knows it.
Favorite quote: "Last night, I got into a car crash...the paramedics said I was technically dead for 97 seconds. It was the best 97 seconds of my life."
4x05 "Mirror Mirror" If there's an episode in this season that radically accelerates character development, it's this one. The patient has mirror syndrome, and is effectively a shell of whoever is in the room with him. So we get to learn a lot about each of the characters (and interestingly, not that much about House in this episode) and it's a pretty cool episode. The end has House and Cuddy in the room with the patient to try and see who is more dominant (who the patient will mimic), and it's quite a show when House wins. (Editor's Note: Please excuse the online TV screen shot.)4x08 "You Don't Want to Know" This episode has what might be my favorite patient ever on House. It's a magician, which automatically makes the episode about truth and mystery and how to determine what is real and what you believe. It also has a bunch of cool tricks (magic tricks, card tricks, whatever you want to call them) and illusions and the like. It's just a really neat episode, one that's on here for no other reason than such. This episodes defines Season Four to me - awesome patient, cool interaction with House, and some underlying discussion of truth.
Favorite quote: "People come to my show because they want a sense of wonder. They want to experience something that they can't explain."
4x15, 16 "House's Head" & "Wilson's Heart" The two-part finale to the fourth season may be the best two episodes in House history. Airing across two weeks, these two episodes seem to bring everything together for the show at the halfway point through its tenure. "House's Head" takes a bunch of different perspectives and views on getting into House's head, and "Wilson's Heart" is the emotional second episode that I can't do justice with words. I'm butchering this paragraph, but if you've seen the show and/or these episodes, you'll understand.
Favorite quote: "It doesn't hurt here...I don't wanna be in pain. I don't wanna be miserable. And I don't want him to hate me." "Well...you can't always get what you want."
5x09, "Last Resort" In possibly the only episode in House history that was extended past the allotted hour (only by a few minutes), a man with a gun takes several patients, Thirteen, and House hostage and demands the answer to his illness. It's an episode that involves the SWAT team, a chess match between House, Cuddy, the patient, and said SWAT team, and a bunch of risks taken by Thirteen that makes me fall in love with her more every time. What the writers of House have always been good at (well, up to Season Eight maybe) is coming up with fresh ideas for episodes and using patients to develop the main characters more. This episode is no exception, and is incredibly exciting. Easy choice to make the list.
5x19 "Locked In" This is one of the best patient episodes ever. The first fifteen or so minutes of the episode is a camera angle entirely from the patient's perspective, a victim of Locked In Syndrome, where everything except the mind is paralyzed. It's one that I always enjoy coming back to watch, and if you're looking to simply watch a good episode, this is a great one to see.5x20 "Simple Explanation" One of the darkest episodes on House. I won't give away any spoilers here, but for anyone who has seen the entire series, you'll know which one I'm talking about. Every time I watch this episode, I'm aware of how dimly lit every scene is, which is wonderfully done by the crew to illustrate of what's going on.
5x24 "Both Sides Now" This is one of the last incredibly good episodes in House, in my opinion. Or at least one of the last episodes that I remember to a T. Awesome patient who has split brain syndrome, but the story here is obviously about much, much more. Between what House has to deal with in terms of Amber and Kutner, and the fact that hallucinations play a role in the third of five season finales at this point in the series, this is one of the most memorable episodes ever. There is a ton going on in these 44 minutes, and every single one of them is vitally important to the episode.
Favorite quote: "If the left brain is the interpreter of reality and the one that tells us the story of who we are, then what's your story? Do you want to be the man with the answers, or do you want to be the man with Cuddy?"
6x01, 02 "Broken, Pt. 1 & 2" This episode felt more like a movie than a continuation of the series. It took place pretty much exclusively at the psychiatric hospital that House was at, and the only appearance from a regularly-recurring character was one scene that Robert Sean Leonard was in. It's a really cool episode (rather, the two-parter) and lets us see a side of House that we haven't in five seasons. It's a heavy episode that leaves you with a nice, deep breath at the end of.
Favorite quote: "You’re not God, House. You’re just another screwed-up human being who needs to move on...let yourself feel better. Then you can learn to let yourself keep feeling better."
6x07 "Known Unknowns" I love episodes that feature the power trio of House/Wilson/Cuddy. The distinction between those three and any other group of characters is so defined, that whenever those three come together, you know there's something larger at stake. I haven't seen this particular episode a half-dozen times like some of the ones in the earlier seasons, but I remember this being a solid episode overall, one that became even better with the dynamics between the Big Three.
6x17 "Lockdown" This is one of the rare episodes that doesn't feature a medical mystery, and one of the even rarer episodes that doesn't feature a medical mystery and is good despite that. Characters get thrown together in circumstances that we've never seen before, and it makes for some crucial character development despite some of the characters being around for all six seasons to this point. You can tell early on that this episode has some important scenes in it.
Favorite quote: "I'm gonna be dead in a few hours. Your secrets couldn't be safer...unless you're keeping them from yourself."
6x21 "Baggage" Something that was really cool in the beginning of Season 6 but went away pretty quickly was the development of the relationship between House and his therapist, Dr. Nolan. Nolan comes back in this episode and works with House to try to figure out what's been eating at him lately...this episode is here because of the phenomenal relationship between the two, and definitely not because of the House/Cuddy thing that starts happening.6x22 "Help Me" I just have a thing for season finales, I guess. I mean they're naturally supposed to be great episodes, and when House is stuck with a patient who has to decide whether or not to amputate her leg, we get a really cool insight into House's past and how he feels about it in the present. Again, the whole House/Cuddy thing continues to get pushed forward, but I will admit, the second time around, it wasn't as miserable as it was seeing it week-to-week.
Favorite quote: "They cut out a chunk of muscle about the size of my fist, and they left me with this mutilated, useless thing. I'm in pain...every day. It changed me. Made me a harder person, a worse person. And now, I'm alone...you don't want to be like me."
7x11 "Family Practice" Another episode that's heavily guided by lighting (or lack thereof), this episode's patient is Cuddy's mother, which brings a really interesting development into the show. We haven't really seen much of her up to this point, but in one episode, a lot gets done in terms of learning about Cuddy and her motivations, and because she's in a relationship with House at this point, we get to see a lot of that unfold, as well. The whole boss/girlfriend thing has been building up to this moment, and a conflict of interest is exactly what makes this episode exciting the entire time.
Favorite quote: "[If] she leaves, she dies. One day, maybe a week from now, maybe a year from now, you're gonna decide that the man sleeping next to you killed your mother. Get me my patient back."
7x15 "Out of the Chute" Two really good songs in this episode. "This Night" by Black Lab in the opening, and "My Body is a Cage" by Peter Gabriel at the end. House isn't back to being fully miserable yet, but now that he and Cuddy are no more, there's definitely that element of him feeling alone in the world. Which is awesome, because that's why we love House. Interesting interplay between House and Wilson (per usual), and there are some very tense moments in the episode, which makes it one of the few in the later seasons that I was excited to get to a second time.
7x22 "After Hours" I'm a big fan of penultimate episodes of seasons - they set the stage for the finale, put all the cards on the table, and what separates them from season finales is that we don't have that resolve yet, that necessary closure to finish a season. In this episode, we see a patient that cannot go to the hospital, House doing some more incredibly stupid things to compensate for a void in his life, and Bon Iver as the outro song. Seems like a solid episode to me. Oh, and that stupid thing House does? He tries to excise three tumors from his leg. In his bathtub.
8x11 "Nobody's Fault" This episode is one of those that has multiple timelines in it, which is always one of my favorite things in House. Other favorite things that are included are very dim lighting, dark music, and one of the main characters almost dying. I've decided that Chase is my favorite character on the show, but I can't really explain why. He always seems to say the right thing at the right time, and acts as a voice of reason without making it seem that he's actually doing so (as opposed to Wilson, who is obviously a voice of reason in the show).
Favorite quote: "Good things usually happen; bad things sometimes happen. The fact that that would-be widow came in just in time to sob all over your soft, mushy heart and the fact that her husband's gonna live does not change whether or not I did the right thing."
"Swan Song" This isn't an actual episode, but was aired an hour before the series finale as kind of a recap kind of deal for the previous eight seasons of House. It was really cool to see what went on behind the scenes, and how so many people contributed to the making of the show. It was pretty reflective (always a bonus), and had lots of really interesting tidbits of hilarity that really makes House what it is. A lot of clips are shown from throughout the years, and a lot of the episodes are ones on this list, which is pretty cool. Definitely a swan song for the show, but it certainly doesn't have the same effect as the series finale.
8x22 "Everybody Dies" Check out this post for some more details about why I love the series finale of House.
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