History Main / CodeSilver

** "[[HouseS2E24NoReason No Reason]]" subverts this, as the gunman shoots the title character and leaves, with the other characters completely ineffectual. [[spoiler: He's never caught and we never even discover his motive. House was treating the guy's wife/girlfriend during some case before the show started. House found out that the Guy had cheated on the woman and told her, even though it was completely unrelated to her illness. After getting discharged, the woman was so distraught she killed herself.]] Of course, considering how rare it is for House to follow up on patients after they leave his care, it's unlikely he actually knew that; more likely was that all of this was [[spoiler: part of the fantasy/dream/hallucination he was constructing, and therefore not real. This fits with the running theme of the episode, and the title; "No Reason"]].

** "No Reason" subverts this, as the gunman shoots the title character and leaves, with the other characters completely ineffectual. [[spoiler: He's never caught and we never even discover his motive. House was treating the guy's wife/girlfriend during some case before the show started. House found out that the Guy had cheated on the woman and told her, even though it was completely unrelated to her illness. After getting discharged, the woman was so distraught she killed herself.]] Of course, considering how rare it is for House to follow up on patients after they leave his care, it's unlikely he actually knew that; more likely was that all of this was [[spoiler: part of the fantasy/dream/hallucination he was constructing, and therefore not real. This fits with the running theme of the episode, and the title; "No Reason"]].
** A later episode, "Last Resort", plays it straight, with a man taking House, Thirteen, and several patients hostage in order to force House to diagnose his unknown illness. After hours of stand-off and letting hostages go, [[spoiler:they succeed in diagnosing him, and he injects himself with the cure just as the SWAT team breaks through the wall. At the end of it, it turns out [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot the whole mess could have been avoided anyway]] and the hostage taker could have spared himself a decade or four in prison if he had told his previous doctors he'd been to a tropical region, namely Florida.]]

** A later episode plays it straight, with a man taking House, Thirteen, and several patients hostage in order to force House to diagnose his unknown illness. After hours of stand-off and letting hostages go, [[spoiler:they succeed in diagnosing him, and he injects himself with the cure just as the SWAT team breaks through the wall.]]

Television writers have considerable experience at creating dramatic stories out of the lives of lawyers, surgeons, school teachers, and many other professions whose real-life work is somewhat less dramatic. But occasionally they tire of making lawsuits and surgeries exciting. That's when [[ChandlersLaw an armed man bursts into the law office or hospital]] and takes hostages from the cast.. This is similar to PerpAndWeapon, but none of the characters are police officers and the violence is completely unexpected in the setting.

Television writers have considerable experience at creating dramatic stories out of the lives of lawyers, surgeons, school teachers, and many other professions whose real-life work is somewhat less dramatic. But occasionally they tire of making lawsuits and surgeries exciting. That's when [[ChandlersLaw an armed man bursts into the law office or hospital]] and we get a HostageSituation. This is similar to PerpAndWeapon, but none of the characters are police officers and the violence is completely unexpected in the setting.

Hostage situations like this occur in real life; the trope name comes from the real code used for "combative person with weapon" in many hospitals on America's west coast. Where the trope diverges from reality is in the motivation of the hostage taker and the way the situation is resolved.

Television writers have considerable experience at creating dramatic stories out of the lives of lawyers, surgeons, school teachers, and many other professions whose real-life work is somewhat less dramatic. But occasionally they tire of making lawsuits and surgeries exciting. That's when [[ChandlersLaw an armed man bursts into the law office or hospital]] and takes hostages from the cast. This is similar to PerpAndWeapon, but none of the characters are police officers and the violence is completely unexpected in the setting.

Not related to a “silver alert”, a code used to give information to the pubLic in some areas for a missing endangered adult.