Allison Cameron

Allison Cameron, M.D., is a fictional character on the Fox medical drama House, portrayed by American actress Jennifer Morrison. An immunologist, Cameron was a member of Dr. Gregory House's team of handpicked specialists at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital's Department of Diagnostic Medicine. She returned for the final episode of the series, "Everybody Dies".

Fictional character biography

Prior to working at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, Cameron was a medical intern at the Mayo Clinic and was one of the top students in her class in medical school.^[1] She hails from the Midwestern United States and has a sibling, an unnamed older brother.^[2][3] In "Lockdown", Chase mentions admiring how strong she was when she stood up to her father after he yelled at her mother during their holiday visit. Cameron worked for House under a medical fellowship alongside Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps) for three years.^[4]

At the age of 21, Cameron fell in love with a man, knowing that he had been diagnosed with terminal thyroid cancer.^[5][6] They got married, and six months later her husband died because the cancer had metastasized to his brain.^[6]

In House's first season, Cameron has a crush on House.^[7] She resigns in "Role Model", after Edward Vogler forced House to fire one of his team members.^[8] When she is asked to return, Cameron only agrees if House will go out on a date with her.^[9] The two go on a date in "Love Hurts". Afterward, when they are asked if they will do it again, House replies "I don't think so", while Cameron says she does not know.^[10] After seeing House's behaviour when he and his ex-girlfriend Stacy (Sela Ward) reunite, Cameron tells House, "I thought you were too screwed up to love anyone. I was wrong. You just couldn't love me. It's good. I'm happy for you."^[11]

Cameron sleeps with Chase in season 2 episode 7 ("Hunting") while high on methamphetamine, and then begins a "friends with benefits" relationship with him in season 3 at the end of the episode "Insensitive".^[12] However, she ends their relationship when Chase informs her that he wants to take their relationship to the next level. Despite Cameron's refusal to reconcile, Chase starts to ask her out every Tuesday.^[13][14] When she becomes the lone fellow of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine after Chase is fired and Foreman resigns from his post, in the third season finale, Cameron resigns too.^[4] Afterward, she goes to Chase's house on a Monday, telling him, "I just didn't feel like waiting."^[4]

In season four, Cameron has become a senior attending physician in the emergency room.^[15] Chase and Foreman both notice that, despite having resigned from House's team, she is "remarkably involved with his team".^[16] Cameron later confides in Foreman that what she misses about her old job is "people doing whatever it takes to get the job done", although she has stated on multiple occasions that she does not want her old job back.^[16] Cameron's relationship with Chase moves forward during the fifth season; in the episode "Saviors", after having a little argument with Chase about their canceled vacation, the two get engaged.^[17] In "Both Sides Now", the season 5 finale, the two get married.^[18]

In season six Chase and Cameron return to the Department of Diagnostics under Foreman. However, Chase murders a patient, Dibala, a brutal African dictator, in the episode "The Tyrant".^[19] He confesses this to Cameron in the episode "Known Unknowns".^[20] In the following episode, "Teamwork", Cameron and Chase were supposed to leave House's team and the hospital because of Dibala's death and to save their relationship but House tells Chase his theory on Cameron's weird acting. He believes Cameron feels it was his fault that Chase did what he did, as he would have created the foul climate for it to happen. After an outburst of his wife, the doctor realizes she was indeed mad at House but not him. He says he did it, and won't leave the hospital just because she wants to pretend he didn't. Cameron confronts House by saying he ruined Chase's life making him "unable to see right or wrong and not to see the sanctity of human life". She admits her former love for Dr. House, which has disappeared as a result of recent events, along with her love for Chase. The episode ends with Cameron parting with Chase and leaving their apartment in tears.^[21] In the episode "Lockdown", she returns to the hospital to get Chase's signature on divorce papers. After initial hesitation and argument, Chase signs the divorce papers, but while in "Lockdown" they end up dancing and then sleeping together one last time.^[22]

In the season 8 episode "Post Mortem", it was revealed by Dr. Chase that she had become head of emergency medicine at Chicago's Mercy Hospital and Medical Center.

At the last episode of the show ("Everybody Dies"), she is shown with who is supposed to be her new husband and a baby, but she has still kept a photo of House's original team as her desktop background.

Personality

Cameron was the only woman on House's initial diagnostic team.^[23] She is known for her honesty, sincerity, idealism and strong ethical center. Even so, she is not out of her depth teasing others, as she does when alone with Chase, telling him that women can have hour-long orgasms (in response to Foreman telling her Chase is interested but shy); but, when Foreman enters, she acts completely deadpan.^[24] She is a deist, claiming "I believe in a higher order that's in control of what happens, but not in one anthropomorphic entity called 'God' that's concerned with the everyday workings of you and me", but expresses a feeling of respect for people with religious beliefs, unlike House, who openly and mercilessly taunts religious people.^[25][26][27] Joyce Millman of The New York Times has stated she plays "Jane Eyre to House's Edward Rochester."^[23] Millman stated that House's description of Cameron in "Love Hurts" (see box on the right) "[...] cut to the core of Cameron's motivation and personality".^[23] Morrison has said that Cameron hates herself for being in love with House, "but she can't help but find him desirable".^[28] Cameron objects to House's reliance on deceiving their patients and has gone head-to-head with him several times on the issue.^[29][30] She has also been reluctant to deliver bad news to patients or their families.^[31]

Cameron's interest in House supposedly subsided as she began a relationship with Chase, although it resurfaces occasionally with flirtations and Freudian slips; in the season 4 episode "Ugly", Cameron lets slip to a documentary team that she loves House. In "No More Mr. Nice Guy", when House is believed to have neurosyphillis, Chase asks her directly in front of Foreman and the other fellows if she has slept with House, to which she ambiguously replies "It's none of your business". Chase thinks she did; however, later, when they are in private, she says she did not. In season 4, Cameron also dyes her hair blonde. Early in season 4, House, who was told by Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) that Cameron and Chase moved to Arizona, finds her in the ER after finally discovering that they were still working at the hospital. House tells her that she was an "idiot". When Cameron asks if it was either the hair or where she was working, he said where she was working, stating that her hair made her look like a hooker and that he liked it.

In the season 5 episode "Big Baby", Cameron temporarily moves up to Acting Dean of Medicine and Hospital Administrator, after Cuddy decides to spend more time being a mother. However, she soon quits, stating that she can never say no to House after studying under him for three years.

Reception

Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune reported that many fans were disappointed the character received less airtime in season 4.^[32] David Shore and producer Katie Jacobs stated that Chase and Cameron would be getting sufficient screentime and storylines soon throughout the series when many of the show's fans complained and took action.^[33]

Departure

Fox Broadcasting announced in September 2009 that Cameron would be written out of the series in the middle of season 6.^[34] This was a decision on the part of the writers and producers, and not Morrison's.

Before her final episode aired on November 16, 2009, Morrison commented on the announcement of her departure, stating that it was not definite. "I don't think anyone really knows...they're always just a couple of episodes ahead, and [executive producer] David Shore has always been very true to the writing of the characters and what he believes them to be." Morrison says that Shore is currently trying to figure out the truth of where Cameron's supposed to be right now, and "if she fits into the hospital...and as far as I know, they don't know. So that's what I know," Morrison said at the Star Trek home video premiere party.^[35] Cameron returned in the season 6 episode, Lockdown as well as in the series finale, Everybody Dies, as a hallucination. Cameron was also present at House's funeral, telling everyone that "somewhere... he knew how to love."

References

External links

• Allison Cameron on TVIV
• Allison Cameron at the Internet Movie Database
• Dr. Allison Cameron on House M.D. Guide