"Mob Rules" is the fifteenth episode from the opening season of "House M. D." and this premiered in March 2005, so it is almost 20 years old now. It is the only episode from the show directed by Tim Hunter, but among the three writers here, you will find names that are more attached to the project like creator David Shore and writer David Foster, who was in charge of over 60 episodes, so more than one third of the show. The running time is the usual at around 44 minutes including credits and the title is pretty telling as this takes us a bit into the world of organized crime when we have an important Mob fella falling into a coma and his brother, a successful lawyer with his own Mafia connection, makes sure that treatment comes the way he wants it to. In his very masculine world, there is not really any space for people being homosexual, but at the ed we understand that he accepts his brother nonetheless, even if he is not particularly in favor and what got the man sick eventually was nothing than a more serious food allergy. As for the smaller cases, we only get one this time and this includes a boy apparently shoving small toys up his nose. Entertaining too, especially with the solution then, but a second one would have been fine for me too.
This story is maybe most interesting because of the characters and their interactions. Vogler has pretty much moved into Cuddy's office now apparently as you don't see him elsewhere, probably so he can keep an eye on what she is doing and also how she deals with situations that maybe help in firing House, which she would not do on her own. So her own job is at risk now too. Vogler is surely not spending all this time with Cuddy for romantic reasons, but Cameron would love to do so when it comes to House. Her two male colleagues mock her a bit for this. Especially Foreman's comment there was entertaining. However, the most entertaining moment from the episode was maybe a play on words coming from Wilson that had to do with reincarnation. I mean I am not a car enthusiast at all, but that was one nice vehicle. Not gonna deny it. House and Wilson loved it too. Another elaboration came on the question who is the mole (if you can already call him/her that) who sides with Vogler and not with House. From another episode, we can already be pretty sure it is Chase, but not 100% yet. However, House also has him on top of the list now and he knows it is not Foreman. Foreman does not play along this game though House had in store for him. So ironically with the Mafia background I this episode, we have a pig and a rat here. The pig was led in on a leash for medical reasons. Interesting inclusion, but I love pigs, so not gonna complain and if it does make sense from a medical perspective, then even better. Chase's comment about the barn in the basement made it even more worth it.
The episode then ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, if we can call it that too if the season is not over yet, because we understand House has to fire one from his team. Later on, during the show, there is pretty much a casting situation for new positions and here it is the exact opposite. But it also shows that nobody except maybe Cuddy and Wilson and of course House himself were never guaranteed to stay on the show for long. This surely makes you curious what is going to happen next, who it is that needs to go, although the obvious answer at this point is surely Chase if House succeeds in identifying him as the mole. Or rat. This surely interests me more than what will be going on with the House-Cameron potential love story plot inclusion. The moments when he came close to her or when he called her cute or cuter than somebody else were already not really up my alley too much. So I hope they let this go soon. We will see. In any case, even if I maybe did not like this episode as much as I did when I saw it first, this is a show that has aged pretty nicely and if you like hospital-themed drama shows, then it is also certainly worth taking a look at almost two decades later. Well, for the later episode, the time gap is of course much smaller. Or just as big if you come here a little later to read this review of mine. Good news, at least for me, is also that there are moments every episode that will make you smile. Maybe people who are into super-series drama will not appreciate it as much as I did, but as long as it does not turn into almost full comedy on Scrubs level (no negative statement there either, it's a fine show in its own right), I will not disapprove. "Mob Rules" gets a thumbs-up from me and it was indeed nice to see House in a lab coat for once. Cuddy is right.
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