What is that expresssion on House’s face at the end?? The tumor hasn’t shrank? It wasn’t a tumor in the first place? I can’t believe the show resorted to cliffhanger, this late in the day. They’ve never done this before, have they? Come on, House writers, if the viewers are still invested in anything on the show these days, it’s the House-Wilson relationship, you don’t need to milk it for all it’s worth like this. Cancer, bucket-list road trip, and now a cliff-hanger? How low can they go? But of course I have to admit I was manipulated into tearing up, especially in the bus scene with Wilson’s monologue. (Extra poignancy point for the conversation taking place on a bus, with the Amber-bus-accident thingy). You know, I’m starting to think they WILL kill Wilson after all.
Edited to add Wilson’s lovely, sad, heartbreaking monologue on the bus:
Wilson: (Sighing) I blew it.
House: Oh god! Here it comes.
Wilson: As always. All I wanted was some meaningless fun, but I couldn’t even last 3 days.
House: Sound asleep. But I’m sleeptalking.
Wilson: I had the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream.
House: I swear, I will jump out of this moving bus if you don’t shut up.
Wilson: But instead, I sat with a sad old woman for an hour and a half who forgot I existed three seconds after she left. And the stupidest thing? I never even had a crush on Julie Christie.
(House turns to look at Wilson)
Wilson: In 12th grade, I was madly in love with Melanie Roberts, who happens to look exactly like Julie Christie in Dr Zhivago. And she really liked me, played spades every lunch period in Mr Charlton’s classroom. But of course, there was this other guy. A great guy, very popular. He had a car, he had a band, mustache.
House: Kyle Callaway.
Wilson: (Sad smile) I assumed that … I hoped, that we’d go to the senior prom together. But she asked me for a favor, she asked … (laugh) … if I minded if she went with him. She asked me, if I minded. And I said I didn’t. And that was it. And I just did it again. I let it go, just like I let everything go. And here I am, sitting on a bus, with tickets I bought with my watch, heading back home, so a CT scan can decide my fate. My fate. (Pause) I don’t wanna go back, House. I just … I just wanna keep being Kyle.
House: Kyle, would have ditched that sad old woman from the bus stop. Probably would have ditched me, too. I can live without Kyle.
Good to see that unlike other doctors leaving PPTH, Chase at least has the sense to look for another job before quitting, heh. I like that Park is the one he talked to about leavng (and about calling other hospitals), that’s a nice bit of continuity with the previous episodes touching on their friendship. Sad to see Chase leaving before the series finale, but this is a pretty good exit for a secondary character, by this show’s standard (certainly miles better than Cuddy and Cameron’s exit). Yes, there wasn’t really a build-up to this, but it feels organic rather than forced, and fits the character well. Like a lot of things in this show, there’s not really one motivation for Chase leaving House’s team, it’s a mixture of things. I’m sure part of it is pride and bruised ego – how far other people like Cameron and Foreman have moved up, and moved on. But also the realization that he can stand on his own now, that “it’s time to step out of the shadow”. Foreman was being a friend and not a boss in their last scene together, the friend who says “it’s about time” instead of trying to convince Chase to stay. Have these two ever hugged before?
I still find the whole “Chase’s father the famous doctor made a phone call, so House hired him” stuff really weird. House of all people is not going to be influenced by stuff like that! But maybe House hired Chase initially just to screw with him. “Who is this spoiled brat whose daddy made a phone call to get him a job? I’m going to make his life hell!”
House: Did you come here so I can talk you out of it?
Chase: I came to say thank you.
House: It’s been fun.
Chase: Fun?
House: Sounded pithier than “we’ve shared a variety of situations”.
Chase: Let me know about Wilson.
Did House seem surprised when Chase said he came to say thank you? Can’t blame him I guess, usually his minions leave with a torrent of “you’ve ruined me!” or “you poisoned my husband so he dooesn’t know right from wrong!” or “I don’t want to be like you!” etc etc. A heartfelt “thank you” and a simple handshake must feel earth-shatteringly weird to House. “We’ve shared a variety of situations”. I like that. It’s typically acerbic House, but also honest and understated.
verityjes 
I knew you were right about Chase not being in the last two episodes! And I think you might also be right when you say “It wasn’t a tumor in the first place?”. That would really be the best twist after all House and Wilson went through thinking it was cancer…Re. Chase- I like the ending he got, that is the best possible one for him so he could start somewhere again and rebuild his life. I think after all House is all about fun and not death… Thank you for you thorough insights, I really enjoyed reading them 🙂
You’re welcome, I’m glad to have someone to discuss and speculate with, hehe 🙂 Maybe it turns out to be a mysterious disease House has to diagnose. I like Chase’s ending too, it’s a shock, but not really a shock. Feels like the whole season has been bulding up to Chase making this decision, but in a subtle, non-overt way. I like when he said he’s been thinking that it’s time to leave and he’s ready for a while now, but never made the decision.
I agree, some misterious disease House gets to find and treat would be such a spectacular ending… I also think that since episode 11 onwards Chase’s departure has been gradually built and somehow I’m not surprised at all…Specially knowing that Jesse went to Chicago to film Chicago File pilot the last two weeks in April…
I wonder if they always meant for Chase’s arc to end this way (leaving House’s team and PPTH) from the beginning of the season. Maybe they just had to bring it forward a few episodes because Jesse Spencer is not available for the last two episodes. But I like this better, since the focus of this episode is just on Chase, and the House-Wilson story. If he leaves during the finale, the finale would (and should) be about all the characters, so we probably won’t get this much focus on Chase’s decision.
I don’t think they meant at the beginning of season 8 for Chase to leave that way (or maybe not at all for that matter), but then few things happened – the show got cancelled at the beginning of Feb and soon after that Jesse got a lead in Chicago Fire (at the beginning of March)…Never the less, it turned out great so we got one more great Chase story (in addition to House-Wilson one) 🙂 I like how they reacted quickly to find a nice and meaningful ending for Chase and I bet the show finale will be great too;) I have total faith in D.Shore..
Yeah, I completely forgot they only found out the show was cancelled in February.
And I remember they were very honest and made a timely decision so the cast could have enough time to start looking for other roles in the pilot season. At the time that made a strong impression on me as a really rare and nice thing to do in today’s world. HL is really a great guy.
is it possible to get in writing, a copy of wilson’s monologue on the bus?
Here it is 🙂 I’m not sure about the spelling of the names though, just guessing.
Wilson: (Sighing) I blew it.
House: Oh god! Here it comes.
Wilson: As always. All I wanted was some meaningless fun, but I couldn’t even last 3 days.
House: Sound asleep. But I’m sleeptalking.
Wilson: I had the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream.
House: I swear, I will jump out of this moving bus if you don’t shut up.
Wilson: But instead, I sat with a sad old woman for an hour and a half who forgot I existed three seconds after she left. And the stupidest thing? I never even had a crush on Julie Christie.
(House turns to look at Wilson)
Wilson: In 12th grade, I was madly in love with Melanie Roberts, who happens to look exactly like Julie Christie in Dr Zhivago. And she really liked me, played spades every lunch period in Mr Charlton’s classroom. But of course, there was this other guy. A great guy, very popular. He had a car, he had a band, mustache.
House: Kyle Callaway.
Wilson: (Sad smile) I assumed that … I hoped, that we’d go to the senior prom together. But she asked me for a favor, she asked … (laugh) … if I minded if she went with him. She asked me, if I minded. And I said I didn’t. And that was it. And I just did it again. I let it go, just like I let everything go. And here I am, sitting on a bus, with tickets I bought with my watch, heading back home, so a CT scan can decide my fate. My fate. (Pause) I don’t wanna go back, House. I just … I just wanna keep being Kyle.
House: Kyle, would have ditched that sad old woman from the bus stop. Probably would have ditched me, too. I can live without Kyle.
Re. Foreman and Chase – I don’t remember they ever hugged before. I can recall that Foreman said to Chase in series s3e22 Resignation: “I don’t like you. Never have, never will. You want me to share some more?” However it seems that over the years they developed a true friendship which is nice as I do like both characters very much. Though they used to be “boring” and “bimbo” they are now much more interesting and colourful personalities and that is one of the reasons I’m going to miss this show so much.
I’m trying to remember if they hugged when Foreman was supposed to leave at the end of Season 3 (but turns out to be the only one staying on House’s team, weirdly). Probably not, Foreman is still in the “hating everyone” mode at the time, heh.
He did hug Cameron…I have to re-watch that episode to be sure 🙂 Each episode is so wonderful that I can watch it over and over again and never get bored 🙂
I’d like to see Hugh Laurie finally get an Emmy, I think he totally deserves it 🙂 What are your thoughts about that?
Oh definitely! He’s so great, and the show depends so much on his performance. But the Emmy has a bias for “prestigious” cable shows lately, I think, the Mad Men and Breaking Bad of the world, network show hasn’t done so well.
Hmm, that is so sad… But that’s life I guess… Not always fair. It is almost midnight here Down Under. It was a pleasure chatting with you tonight! Bye for now 🙂
It was a pleasure for me too 🙂 Good night.
I new Jesse Spencer (Chase) as Billy from Neighbours (Australian soap). Both Billy and Chase could were very similar and could have been the same character – with Chase being the grown-up version as a doctor. It’s sad to finally see him leave after 2 decades of watching him!
We can see him in another show as a firefghter soon 🙂 I’ve read some stories about him coming back for a short appearance in Neighbours, do you think that will happen?