House, MD: "Babies and Bathwater"
Apr. 19th, 2005 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandolinVery short commentary, just a crucial thought or two.
I need to make a House icon. It's long overdue.
Vogler basically shot himself in the foot in this episode.
He was relying a little too much on his $100 million to get him to do whatever he wanted. In fact, he could probably have managed to get rid of House down the line given the amount of excuses House was giving him.
But his big mistake? When Wilson voted against him, instead of backing off, biding his time and finding another avenue to get rid of House, he went right after Wilson - and in doing so, made it blatantly obvious that his motion was more about his own power trip than the benefit of the hospital. Even using his analogy that it was supposed to be run like a business, this kind of tactic in corporate boardrooms would still alert even the most out-of-it person to the power trip overriding good sense.
The minute he did that, he dropped any pretense of common sense. Sure, any viewer of the show could tell that he wanted to axe House for personal reasons - but he had logical reasons for wanting to do so as well. With Wilson, the only rationale he had was that Wilson disagreed with him.
Hell, if Vogler had backed off and waited until he had a better rationale for firing House - or actually found a real reason to dismiss Wilson from the board - he could have actually pulled it off.
Yeah, $100 million is a lot of money. But people can only be pushed so far, and you can't always buy someone's ability to choose. When he did that, he crossed the line. Had he gotten away with it, that would pretty much negate the use of a voting board of directors.
THAT is essentially why Cuddy stood up to him. It wasn't about House anymore; I'm sure she still felt he wasn't worth the $100 million. What she was protesting was not the loss of House or Wilson, but the inability to choose that Vogler was forcing down their throats. They gave him the chair for that money, but they didn't give him the option to have total and utter control over everything that happened in the hospital.
Other thoughts:
1) Cuddy kicks ass.
2) That dream sequence cracked me up. Perfect way of nodding to the cliche idea of House having to diagnose Vogler without giving into the cliche. Jumbo-sized coffin, hee.
3) "Seven Deadly Sins" by Flogging Molly was on iTunes when the drinking scene came on. So the brain immediately loaded a scene of House, Wilson, Foreman and Chase getting extremely drunk and (trying to) sing along. Then, when I noticed there weren't seven of them, replaced it with "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything." I need to go to bed.
WHY won't they run a repeat of the episodes I missed? I've seen "The Socratic Method" too many times already; is it too much to ask for a repeat of "Damned if you Do" or "Paternity" for once?
I need to make a House icon. It's long overdue.
Vogler basically shot himself in the foot in this episode.
He was relying a little too much on his $100 million to get him to do whatever he wanted. In fact, he could probably have managed to get rid of House down the line given the amount of excuses House was giving him.
But his big mistake? When Wilson voted against him, instead of backing off, biding his time and finding another avenue to get rid of House, he went right after Wilson - and in doing so, made it blatantly obvious that his motion was more about his own power trip than the benefit of the hospital. Even using his analogy that it was supposed to be run like a business, this kind of tactic in corporate boardrooms would still alert even the most out-of-it person to the power trip overriding good sense.
The minute he did that, he dropped any pretense of common sense. Sure, any viewer of the show could tell that he wanted to axe House for personal reasons - but he had logical reasons for wanting to do so as well. With Wilson, the only rationale he had was that Wilson disagreed with him.
Hell, if Vogler had backed off and waited until he had a better rationale for firing House - or actually found a real reason to dismiss Wilson from the board - he could have actually pulled it off.
Yeah, $100 million is a lot of money. But people can only be pushed so far, and you can't always buy someone's ability to choose. When he did that, he crossed the line. Had he gotten away with it, that would pretty much negate the use of a voting board of directors.
THAT is essentially why Cuddy stood up to him. It wasn't about House anymore; I'm sure she still felt he wasn't worth the $100 million. What she was protesting was not the loss of House or Wilson, but the inability to choose that Vogler was forcing down their throats. They gave him the chair for that money, but they didn't give him the option to have total and utter control over everything that happened in the hospital.
Other thoughts:
1) Cuddy kicks ass.
2) That dream sequence cracked me up. Perfect way of nodding to the cliche idea of House having to diagnose Vogler without giving into the cliche. Jumbo-sized coffin, hee.
3) "Seven Deadly Sins" by Flogging Molly was on iTunes when the drinking scene came on. So the brain immediately loaded a scene of House, Wilson, Foreman and Chase getting extremely drunk and (trying to) sing along. Then, when I noticed there weren't seven of them, replaced it with "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything." I need to go to bed.
WHY won't they run a repeat of the episodes I missed? I've seen "The Socratic Method" too many times already; is it too much to ask for a repeat of "Damned if you Do" or "Paternity" for once?
