House M.D. (TV Series) No Reason (2006) User Reviews

Was It Only A Dream...

[IWishbone · 10/10 · 24 May 2006]

This episode has it all- the usual fascinating patient presenting horrific symptoms, the usual angst of House versus everyone- including himself, and the challenge to the audience of wondering where reality leaves off and fantasy begins. House takes every encounter, even when he is reading someone else the riot act, and turns it against himself, striving to satiate the ravenous appetite of his sense of self-loathing, run amok.

In this episode, as he falls victim to a seemingly senseless act of violence, we see more clearly than ever before the depth of his true compassion as a healer and a human. He grapples with the fact that no matter how he struggles to isolate himself emotionally from those around him, he is woven inextricably in a web of humanity that will not allow him to escape into an emotionally safe place of impersonal detachment from the lives of those who depend upon him- personally and professionally.

In the end, the wrestling match he has endured over the course of the episode, as he grapples with giving up the crutch of his physical disability and the excuse it provides for emotional isolation, and removing that infirmity as a means of punishing himself, is resolved in the most elegant fashion in the last moments of the episode.

This was the most excellent episode of House to date, with elements to fascinate and titillate every aspect of the audience's interests, from the physical and brutish, to the erotic, to the intensely intellectual and moral dimension as he contemplates his true responsibilities to his fellow physicians and patients alike.

People you are missing the point

[p147852369000 · 10/10 · 31 August 2007]

The point of the whole episode are not the hallucinations. I saw the episode 4 times or more here in Portugal. And lately I figured it out. At least I think I have.

House's attacker says this thru the episode: You think that the only truth that matters is the truth that can be measured. Good intentions don't count, what's in your heart doesn't count, caring doesn't count. A man's life can't be measured by how many tears are shed when he dies. It's because you can't measure them, just because you don't want to measure them, doesn't mean it's not real. Andeven if i'm wrong, you're still miserable. Did you really think that your only purpose as to sacrifice yourself and get nothing in return? No. You believe there is no purpose... to anything. Even the lives you save you dismiss. You turn the one decent thing in your life and you taint it, strip it of all meaning. You're miserable for nothing. I don't know why you'd want to live. You pretend to buck the system, pretend to be a rebel, claim to hate rules. But all you do is substitute your own rules for society's. 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. And everyone else is a coward. But you're wrong. It's not cowardly to not call someone an idiot. People aren't tactful or polite just because it's nice. They do it because they've got an ounce of humility. 'Cause they know that they will make mistakes. They know that their actions have consequences. And they know that those consequences are their fault. Why do you want so bad not to be human, House? ----------------------

Then, right at the end, House says "You don't thin that! You KNOW it because you're in my head!". There. The fact that everything is inside his head. House never got to know Jack. He can't know how he actually acts. I'm starting to think these are his own opinions. Those so buried in his mind that he no longer remembers them.

Also, Dr.Wilson talks about the "not wanting an healthy leg". But that on,e well, House and Wilson know each other for a long time. He knows how Wilson acts.

So, I think this reveals a lot about House. And is it just me or after the "I don't know why you'd want to live.", when House turns around, he's crying? That shows us that House is STILL an human. He is still affected by things we all are. he ain't just a robot with an extreme logic and medical knowledge.

And that is all. My own little opinion.

The best episode of the 2nd season!

[Marco88 · 10/10 · 23 November 2006]

This is (without a doubt) the best episode of the second season. The writers have done a good job, and they cheated us! House is injured by a man: he's House's patient's husband, who killed herself after being cured by House. After being operated, House tries to resolve the problem of a patient whose tongue became bigger. House can't distinguish the reality from the dream and several times he do something who doesn't remember. At the same time he notices that the leg pain has disappeared after the operation, but now he can't make diagnosis. The ending is superb! I'm looking forward to see the third season!

Horrifying!!

[blah_bloo_blah · 10/10 · 15 August 2006]

This would have to be the best thing I have ever seen on TV!! All through the episode I thought it was confusing, and I was a little concerned at first because it was the final episode of the season and wanted it to be good, and it really was! All through the episode House has numerous hallucinations which is what made it confusing, but it was extremely necessary for the terrifying ending.

I'm usually not knocked by blood and guts and stuff, but this had the most unwatchable moments ever! If the tongue wasn't bad enough, then the guy's eyeball popping out, and then even worse with his testicle exploding! I was wanting to look away so much, but I just had to see more! The ending was the most shocking, tense and horrifying moment (I believe) in TV history! The acting and direction was excellent, the visual effects (of the guys body being ripped apart) were awesome, the editing was great and the music was heart pumping! The most horrifying moment is when you see House realize this isn't another hallucination, and the terror in his eyes! Never before have I been so terrified by a TV programme (or movie either!), then the unbelievable relief when the bullet finally falls from the guy's hand and you realize that the whole time from when he passed out from being shot was all a dream. Even after the credits had finally rolled at the end, I still had a thumping heart.

This episode alone is worth getting the DVD set of the whole season. A perfect episode with twists and intrigue to keep you guessing until the end. David Shore is the man!!!!!!!!!!! and so is Hugh!!!! :)

Great closer for Season 2

[nitratestock35 · 10/10 · 14 July 2008]

Spoiler Alert!!! Not all surprises revealed in detail, but still: please do not read any further if you haven't already seen this episode. ....................

Already from the pre-title opening on I knew that this one was going to be different. Not the usual case of someone suddenly suffering severe pain, seizing, etc. Instead we are in the middle of House and his team discussing a (gross and a little absurd looking - a small hint) case - then something happened which already gave me the clue that this is going to be about "is this real? Is it a dream?": the scene where House is attacked by an intruder. It all plays out in a surrealistic and unusual-for-a-House-episode style.

I think this episode pays in a large part homage to movies like "Jacob's Ladder" and "Fight Club": everything we see during the main story is in one single person's mind. The final revelation (hardly a twist since it is signaled long before) might also be just the writers fooling us again: The case they where discussing (man with swollen tongue) at the very beginning of the episode was perhaps only in House's imagination (at any event the whole treatment-gone-haywire during the dream/hallucination was not real)- and he asks for some medicine being given during surgery because he knows/remembers from his "dream" that it will perhaps heal his leg pain (or maybe not). House without painkillers and cane in Season 3? No way.

Some great philosophy and some great clues about what makes Dr. House really tick (as if we didn't know already). He is like Sherlock Holmes: he tries to be ice cold, arrogant and distant - hiding a heart of gold to protect himself and all others - to be as unbiased as possible, even though House is a modern version with biting sarcasm and great humor thrown in.

I am sure there are lots of in-jokes and movie references thrown in by the writers in this episode. I will look for those on future viewings. Brilliant!

Wow...that's so good!

[perfectly-messy · 10/10 · 18 July 2006]

This episode has got to be the best I've seen! Who would have thought House will fallen victim for once aye...OK, maybe you'll after you watched the episode. And the hallucinations? Totally awesome! It kept me wondering the whole episode which is real and which is not! Trust me, it has gotta be the best episode in the whole series. When house was using the robot thing and cut that guy up and he dies, I was like "holy crap! What is he doing?" It was really really hard to tell because of the seriously good acting! And I was kinda glad that House can walk without his cane, but it all turns out to be a dream? Does that mean the whole episode (after he got shot) actually never happened? Haha Bravo actors! kudos to the writer and director!

great and mind-boggling

[Kiyoko17 · 10/10 · 1 July 2006]

This was a totally brilliant episode of house, the hallucinations really knock you off-guard. I'd say the best part of it would be either when House rips out his stitches and collapses in a pool of blood or when House gets the robot arm and drives it right through the patients abdomen and then nothing happens and you think "uh-oh, whats going to happen to him now?", then the bullet drops out of the patients hand and you go "phew". Hugh's acting in this episode is absolutely phenomenal and hilarious. After Cuddy and Wilson decide to give House Ketamine and he can walk it's very weird to see him do so. My favourite comment in this episode would have to be Cuddy: Stop dialling up your Morphine. That was funny

Brilliant episode

[nbaezavelasco · 11 May 2021]

Enjoyed every second of it. Best written episode so far. Every dialogue is perfect.

A spring in his step

[xredgarnetx · 8/10 · 10 September 2006]

A disgruntled individual, played by Elias Koteas of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," shoots House, is himself shot, and they end up as bunk mates in ICU where Koteas gets to play House's conscience. To his amazement, House finds his leg pain gone, but being the suspicious type, he begins to seek an answer. Meanwhile, his team is treating a man whose tongue has swollen to alarming size. House has a delicious bit as he demonstrates robotic surgery on Cameron by tickling her navel and neatly slicing off a button on her shirt. Cameron and House play up the sexual angle to the hilt and clearly, Cameron ain't over the big lug yet. Somewhere along the way, House starts hallucinating and having memory lapses, and finding himself in odd places. What exactly is going on? Could House be climbing Jacob's Ladder? Or wandering through the Carnival of Souls? This second season closer is every bit as good as the first season closer. And that's saying something.

Good but could be better

[james6677 · 7/10 · 12 December 2020]

Not a bad episode, but ends up being pointless. You could literally watch the first 5 minutes of the episode and last 10 and you got all you need from this episode.

Worst episode

[flo-268-439841 · 3/10 · 21 January 2022]

The weakest episode of house in the first two seasons. Apparently the writers had no idea at all for the last episode and needed to come up with some kind of filler. Ridiculous storyline, and in the and completely imaginary anyway, just skip it, you'll miss absolutely nothing.

Am I the only one not thrilled?

[marin1977 · 6/10 · 13 August 2007]

I read all other comments on this episode and was shocked by everyone's enthusiasm...

This episode shows some really disturbing symptoms of a decline of a TV series: - incredibly confusing script, in "style over substance" kind of way - unnecessarily excessive amount of gore, probably the worst I have even seen from non-horror piece of entertainment

I do have to agree that the scene immediately after House cuts the patient open is superbly acted (for 30-40 seconds), although it was obvious that the team didn't really try to stop him (a clear early sign that all scene was an illusion).

Yet another "what is real" TV episode

[zachariestp · 1/10 · 26 September 2023]

I HATE shows which fall back on the old unreliable narrator trope. Sometimes, when done well it can add some suspense to a scene, but this was not a well handled episode.

"It was all in your head", "when was anything real", "how can we tell if what we feel, see, and touch is actually there", episodes which buld their entire structure around this kind of overdone shlock don't feel like a suspenseful masterpiece but a slap on the face by taking the implicit trust the viewer gives to the creators to suspend their disbelief and immerse themselves into the shows world and plot.

The moment house told cuddy his leg didn't hurt, I knew something was up since it went against the whole establishment of the world reality. Then when cuddy just bursts out the reason the leg was better, it didn't feel like something she would know or do. Then when Wilson was confronted about it and he also knew about it, like they had planned for it, I wondered "why were they planning on doing the procedure on house if he wasn't shot".

Too many logical inconsistencies, too many red herrings, and your show comes off as poorly written, and overly pretentious.

Mind games

[Cristi_Ciopron · 7/10 · 9 March 2010]

What if House is attacked and wounded by a revengeful guy played with some gusto by the De Niro impersonator of box—office fame, Koteas? Now Koteas enjoys full fame for his De Niro impersonation in Scorsese' trailer.

The medical case of the patient whose tongue protrudes is a mere pretext. House has long talks with himself.

The Elias Koteas episode is a pretty screwed one, a weird fantasy about one prolonged hallucination of House's, detailing the possible consequences of an induced dissociate coma; now Koteas knows his hour of fame as a De Niro look—alike and resourceful impersonator in a Scorsese box—office hit. It makes a nice pair with the one about the daughter of the nonfiction writer and Edelstein's choice of sperm and lifting her skirt and baring her ass in front of House.

Absolute poop!

[nytol1-798-466578 · 2/10 · 18 September 2021]

What a load of pretentious pointless nonsense!

This episode was so bad it genuinely made me angry I'd wasted an hour watching it.