Adverse Events

"Adverse Events" is the third episode of the fifth season of House and the eighty-ninth episode overall. It first aired on September 30, 2008. Breckin Meyer guest starred as an artist who has an unexplained visual problem.

Plot

The episode begins with Brandon (Breckin Meyer), an artist, painting a portrait of a nude woman (Sarah Knowlton). Upon seeing the finished product however, the woman's husband (Drew Powell) becomes angry and punches him, and it is revealed that the painting is horribly distorted, but the artist is seeing it as perfectly normal.

At the hospital, House and his team looks at the artist's work trying to determine his diagnosis. However, Brandon protests that he is getting better and shows some quick sketches that he has done, which look normal. Kutner and Taub search his house for toxins and drugs, but find nothing significant. When Thirteen points out Brandon's reluctance to submit to tests, House deduces that the patient knows he's fine, and Brandon admits that he volunteered for clinical trials to make money. Although he should be getting better as he stopped the experimental drugs, he suffers a seizure and his condition worsens. Foreman believes it is impossible to determine the interactions between the different drugs and suggests dialysis to clear out Brandon's blood. However, it appears that the drugs were not responsible for the symptoms, since Brandon suffers another seizure with facial swelling even after the dialysis is completed.

Brandon continues to present an odd collection of symptoms, including abnormal hormone levels (causing him to assault Thirteen) and hair color change. House orders a heart surgery to deal with Brandon's abnormal heart rhythm, but Taub begins to suspect lingering toxins when Brandon presents distorted vision again. After investigating the storage room where Brandon's unsold paintings have been kept, Taub finds that his paintings show distortion every other month. House discovers that whenever Brandon took the experimental antacid, undigested food caused a bezoar to grow bigger and absorb the pills. Even after his admission into the hospital, the drugs have been slowly released into his system and have caused the symptoms. The heart surgery is cancelled and the bezoar is surgically removed.

During the diagnosis, House is constantly fed information concerning his team from Lucas (Michael Weston), the private investigator he hired with hospital money (much to Cuddy's annoyance). House uses the trivia mostly to embarrass his team members, but Taub is disturbed when he learns from House of a secret bank account that his wife set up. Although he is angry with House's meddling, he begins to avoid returning home to his wife. Brandon, the patient, is also having difficulties with his girlfriend, Heather (Marika Dominczyk), afraid that she might leave him when she learns about his financial difficulties and experimental drugs. Taub advises him not to tell her if he wants to continue their relationship. Taub finally confronts his wife (Jennifer Crystal Foley), but she reveals that she had been saving to buy him a new car, much to Taub's relief as well as guilt. Before his surgery, Brandon overcomes his fears and confesses to his girlfriend about how he became sick, to which she replies she would not leave him. When Taub's wife shows up at the hospital with the new car, Taub decides to have a talk with her first. It is implied that he confesses to his wife about his affair in the past and asks for forgiveness.

Meanwhile, Lucas continues his investigation on those around House. Cuddy catches Lucas in her office sorting through her desk for 'research'. Lucas explains he wants to 'know more about her'; he appears to be attracted to her and asks her out. Cuddy points out this is not romantic, but creepy. As he is leaving, he offers to give her embarrassing information on House, in exchange for 'technically' hiring him and going out with him. However, it is revealed that Cuddy is being set up by House; House has hired him to find information that he can use against her, even though Lucas confesses he actually likes Cuddy. The next day, Lucas is having lunch with Cuddy and finds out Cuddy knows that she is being set up. Cuddy shows that she is nonetheless interested in Lucas. Lucas later reports to House that Cuddy didn't fall for their trap. The two argue that using a photo-shopped picture of a younger House on the cheerleader team wasn't the best idea, before Lucas confesses he found out that the picture is real; House had joined the team for a girl. Lucas states that it is too bad Cuddy didn't see him in a different light, even worse that she didn't even believe it is possible. House replies 'people hate people who have theories about people', and the episode ends with House on the guitar and Lucas on the piano playing a blues song together.

References

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