"Wilson's Heart" Part 2 of 2.
Directed by: Katie Jacobs
Written by: Peter Blake and David Foster
Dr. House continues dealing with the bus accident. Amber is unresponsive. Dr. House wants to restart Amber's heart, but Dr. Wilson is concerned that a heart restart might be the wrong course of action.
House agrees to a dangerous direct brain stimulation procedure to remember what happened. The bartender took House's keys. When House called Wilson to get a ride, Amber instead went to the bar to pick him up. They got on the bus. Amber took two amantadine pills. Wilson thinks it's a simple matter of putting her on dialysis to flush out the amantadine. But House points out that amantadine binds to proteins, so dialysis would accomplish nothing.
Amber is awakened so that Wilson and the others can say goodbye to her.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Afterlife Antechamber: An unconscious House dreams of the bus as being this. Amber staying on the bus is Going Into the Light.
- Downer Ending: Amber does not survive the episode's events; it's heavily implied that House and Wilson's friendship is severely damaged if not outright destroyed; Thirteen tests positive for Huntington's disease.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: None of the team got along particularly well with Amber; regardless, they're all crushed by the episode's events. Darkly lampshaded when the team is discussing whether they should say goodbye to Amber. Taub asks if they even liked Amber; Foreman's response is, "We do now."
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: In death, Dr. Amber Volakis is no longer "Cutthroat Bitch," but a "young do-gooder in love." Of course, it would be exceedingly ungrateful of Dr. House to continue to insult someone who paid his bar tab and died helping him get home.
- Previously on… House: The opening of the episode briefly recaps "House's Head".
- Ripped from the Headlines: Dr. House goes into the women's restroom where Dr. Hadley is in a stall. House gets into the next stall and taps his foot on Hadley's foot, explaining that he has a "wide stance." About a year prior to the original airing of this episode, then-Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested for allegedly soliciting sex in a men's restroom at an airport. Craig never said the words "wide stance," but those words became closely associated with the him.
- Waxing Lyrical: Amber talks a reluctant House into getting off the bus with a song lyric from the pilot episode.House: Because... Because it doesn't hurt here. Because... I don't wanna be in pain. I don't wanna be miserable. And I don't want him to hate me.Amber: Well, you can't always get what you want.
- Wham Episode: Amber ultimately doesn't survive her illness, and Thirteen finally tests herself for Huntington's and comes up positive.
- You Are Already Dead: Tragically, it turns out that there was never anything the team could have done for Amber; once her heart stopped in the ambulance, she was as good as dead.
