The Greater Good (House)

"The Greater Good" is the fourteenth episode of the fifth season of House and the hundredth episode overall. It aired on February 2, 2009.

Plot

House and the team take on the case of a woman called Dana Miller who collapsed in the middle of a cooking class. When they learn that Dana gave up her career as a highly renowned cancer researcher in order to pursue her own personal happiness, the members of the team question their own happiness (or lack thereof). Dana's belly fills with blood, which turns out to be from her liver. She also develops an itch on her temple. She scratches it even in her sleep. She's scratched through her skull and brain matter starts to ooze out of it. She also starts experiencing spinal shocks. A scan reveals masses in her lungs, spine and pericardium. Later, her heart also stops and she bleeds into her pericardium. They relieve the blood from her heart, but she bleeds out of her nose, mouth, ears and eyes. While talking to Cuddy, House realizes Dana is menstruating as well as bleeding out, indicating that it's not a coincidence. He proposes that during the surgery for her myoma, endometrial cells were dispersed into the bloodstream. These cells attached to various organs, multiplied, and after reaching a critical mass, began bleeding during her menstruation. The team successfully treats Dana's endometriosis by cutting out the small masses of endometrium.

Cuddy retaliates against House for making Cameron quit as Dean of Medicine and therefore making Cuddy have to leave Rachel to work. She gives him a taste of his own medicine, among other things, she steals his cane. Wilson talks to Cuddy and convinces her to stop and she returns his cane as a gesture of peace.

Meanwhile, Thirteen begins to suffer serious and life-threatening reactions to her experimental Huntington's Disease clinical drug trial, becoming blind due to a brain tumor. House and Foreman successfully treat her with radiation, getting rid of the brain tumor, but Foreman faces a moral crisis of whether or not he should inform the drug company and risk losing his medical license. At the end of the episode, Foreman reveals to the clinical trial heads his tampering with trial data. Fortunately, the group does not suspend his medical license; he is simply forbidden from other clinical trials.

The closing montage shows Taub and his wife discussing children amicably, Foreman and Thirteen in bed happily, and Wilson washing a cup with Amber's lipstick print, indicating his willingness to move on.

External links

• "The Greater Good" at Fox.com
• "The Greater Good" at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Greater Good" at TV.com