Characters / House

Character page for House.

Beware of unmarked spoilers on this page.

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Main Characters

Dr. Gregory House

Played by: Hugh Laurie

Dubbed by: Féodor Atkine (European French)

Head of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, with specialties in both Infectious Disease and Nephrology. House did his undergrad at Johns Hopkins; he also attended medical school there but was expelled for cheating and ultimately got his degree from the University of Michigan. House is a brilliant doctor; unfortunately for everyone around him, he's also a misanthrope and an arrogant jerk to everyone he meets. He walks with a cane as a result of an infarction he suffered in his right thigh and the surgery that tried to correct it; the pain from this drives his Vicodin addiction as well.

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See his page

Dr. James Wilson

Played by: Robert Sean Leonard

Dubbed by: Pierre Tessier (European French)

Head of the Department of Oncology, and House's best (and only) friend. Got his medical degree from Columbia and did his specialty training at the University of Pennsylvania. It's assumed but never stated that he attended McGill University for his bachelor's degree. Wilson is a sensitive and caring man, whose impeccable bedside manner sharply contrasts House's lack of one. As a result of his nature, he's been married three times, two of them failing as a result of his infidelity, and the third because of his partner's. Very much a people-pleaser. He and House frequently play mind games with one another.

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• 10-Minute Retirement: He quits his oncology practice at Princeton-Plainsboro twice throughout the series: once due to pressure from Detective Tritter, then again later on after Amber died, but in both cases, came back.
• All-Loving Hero: Played straight and deconstructed. Wilson is a Nice Guy who genuinely cares about his patients and just about everyone he meets. But that tendency plays havoc with his relationships, because he's continually drawn to damaged people, has trouble prioritizing his own needs, and never runs out of people who need his time and attention. As a result, he can't maintain a romantic relationship for very long (he has three failed marriages under his belt) and his closest friendship is with House, a person who's never going to heal.
  House: [knocks on the door to Wilson's office] I know you're in there; I can hear you caring.
• All Take and No Give: His relationship with House, most of the time, is him helping House without as much as a "thank you" in return. On the other hand, Wilson has said he values his relationship with House because he doesn't have to walk on eggshells or soften the truth with House, which is valuable for someone who has to be nice and compassionate to people all day long. Inverted when he has cancer in Season 8.
• All Men Are Perverts: An authentic example. He can't abstain from dating other women, even when he was married. He even had an affair with a patient. Then he met Amber.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In "The C-Word", the hallucination of a kid who died under his treatment asks "if [he] didn't do nothing wrong, why did [he] die?". The question leaves Wilson devastated.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Whenever he and House are particularly mean-spirited to each other, there's always a brief moment or gesture from one or the other that will make it clear how much they really care.
• Beard of Sorrow: Not as bad as House post-leg, but he seems to shave a lot less after he's diagnosed with cancer.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Despite being a Nice Guy, he has a manipulative streak. See Manipulative Bastard below.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Not only does he state it;
  Wilson: Some doctors have the Messiah Complex - they need to save the world.
  • His love life is a victim of it. He gets into relationships with damaged women, and loses interest once they heal. On three occasions(see Serial Spouse), this happens after he marries them. Upside: at least one of the women was rather flattered by the whole thing - at least enough to chew House out for screwing with him. Downside: Wilson is stuck with House as his most significant other simply because House will never stop needing him.
• Chick Magnet: Can't keep the ladies away, and is particularly... erm... friendly with the nursing staff.
• The Conscience: He reminds House of stuff like the "do unto others" thingie and the "keeping your promises" thingie.
• Consummate Liar: His best friend is House, so Wilson has become increasingly good at lying just to keep some small degree of privacy. House is so good at the Sherlock Scan that no matter how good Wilson gets at this, it never works for very long.
• Deadpan Snarker: Usually in conjunction with House and snarking right back at him, to the point where it consists of about 90% of their dialogue on the show.
• Dead Person Conversation:
  • In "The C-Word", he talks to John Taylor, an 8-year-old who died under his care.
  • In "Brave Heart", it's revealed that Wilson talks to his dead girlfriend Amber. He knows she isn't there, but it helps him cope.
• Death by Irony: He's an oncologist with terminal cancer...
• Expy: Dr. Wilson's name and role echo those of Dr. Watson, corresponding to House being a Sherlock Homage.
• Extreme Doormat: Subverted. He may let House (and everyone else) roll over him most of the time, but when someone pushes him too far he stands his ground.
• Face Death with Dignity: In Season 8, Wilson finds out that he has cancer that gives him, at absolute best, around three years to live. After the first round of chemotherapy is unsuccessful, he refuses any further treatment and decides to just enjoy the roughly 5 months he has left.
• Failure Is the Only Option: His first two marriages ended in divorce before the series started. His 3rd marriage fails in Season 2, leaving his extremely dysfunctional relationship with House as the only one that hasn't fallen apart.
• Finding Judas: Trope Namer and subject - Wilson's the one who sells out House to Tritter in season 3, because doing so will get House sent to rehab instead of prison.
• Good Samaritan: He sacrifices a lot for House on a regular basis, which is often passed over. However in the episode "Wilson", we see how much attention and care he gives his patients on a daily basis, despite constantly dealing with House and the problems that follow him, which culminates when he gives his patient a part of his own liver in order to save him (and it's highly implied that if it came to it he'd probably do something similar again).
• Guile Hero: He is the only person in the series who has successfully manipulated the title character multiple times. Not only that, but he's less of an Anti-Hero than almost the entire rest of the cast.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With House. In the second and third seasons, the writers make light of the shipping.
  Stacy: What are you hiding?
  House: I'm gay. [Stacy glares at him] Oh! That's not what you meant. It does explain a lot, though. No girlfriend, always with Wilson, obsession with sneakers...
• Intoxication Ensues: From "Resignation", his infamous "I'm not on antidepressants, I'm on speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!"
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover. He takes in an old cat named Sarah in Season 7 after her owner passed away.
• Last-Name Basis: Like everyone else, he's referred to only by his last name.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Heavily implied in his relationship with House. While their relationship may appear to be of the All Take and No Give variety, it actually goes both ways. Wilson is not as well-adjusted as he seems, and probably needs House just as much as he is needed by him.
• Manipulative Bastard: Wilson remains the only character who can continually lie to House, as well as the only character to one-up House.
  House: You manipulative bastard, did you just invoke the name of your dead girlfriend to play me? You're my hero.
• The McCoy: The one who feels a need to "fix" the vulnerable women he meets.
• Mistaken for Gay: Along with House. In "The Down Low", House pretends he and Wilson are a couple as part of an insanely convoluted plan to sleep with the woman Wilson likes, and keep him from sleeping with her at the same time.
• Nice Guy: A Nice Jewish Boy who's approachable and humanitarian-centered attitude contrasts House's cold cynicism.
• Nice Jewish Boy: He's not necessarily nice all the time, but especially compared to House he generally seems nice. Since a lot of his patients are terminally ill, being nice is a job skill.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: His support of House and attempts to help him repeatedly get him in trouble with it making him a target for both Vogler and Tritter and hurting his relationship with one of his wives.
• Odd Friendship: With House. They have nothing in common personality-wise, he's generally empathic and just plain kind, and House is a sarcastic, narcissistic misanthrope. But all of Wilson's wives have been "damaged". He has a complex about rescuing people.
• Only Friend: House's best friend and the only one who considers House a friend.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: He has big chocolate eyes. Cynical House sometimes laughs at him for it.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The emotional Red Oni to House's hyper-rational and scientifically-minded Blue Oni.
• Secretly Selfish: A sympathetic example; Wilson is generous and compassionate, but has some very selfish moments that's only visible to people who are close to him. His relationships with his wives are the first big clue; he hooks up with women who are going through hard times, then after giving them the emotional support they need to get through it, he loses interest and starts pursuing other women. In season 4 he actually asks House to undergo a procedure that would risk his life for the chance of saving Amber, then when House does so he breaks off all contact and ends their friendship after Amber dies. These moments only serve to make Wilson look more three-dimensional and human, and his relationship with House is apparently fueled by the fact that he can be as selfish as he wants around him without feeling any guilt.
• Serial Spouse: Wilson had been divorced twice at the start of the show. He went through his third divorce in season two. At one point his second wife says "He's just so knight-in-shining armor, you know? Always there to support you, until he's not, but by then you're hooked." He stopped being there for her because he needed to be there for House. It's implied that this is due to his Chronic Hero Syndrome. He's supportive of his girlfriends and spouses until they don't need support anymore, then he loses interest. House never stops needing him.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: An endlessly-compassionate, affectionate, and caring person who seems to have a bottomless well of patience; the perfect Sensitive Guy to House's Manly Man.
• Shipper on Deck: First to House and Cameron (even as he warns her not to hurt him), then to House and Stacy (even as he warns her not to hurt him and reminds House that Stacy's married) then to House and Cuddy. Mostly, he just wants House to be happy.
• Smarter Than You Look: It's hard for anyone to shine when standing next to House, but Wilson is an excellent doctor who continually provides useful insights (that House ignores). His A Day in the Limelight episode in season 6 features him diagnosing a recurrence of cancer because his patient failed to mention how his grandchildren were doing^note not talking about grandkids = depression = possibly a recurrence. A CT shows a tiny dot on his lung anyone else would have ignored, which a biopsy confirms is cancer.
• Stepford Smiler: Amber beats the "I'm always fine, dear" facade out of him.
• Straight Man: A nice and reasonable guy to House's outrageous behavior.
• Tragic Keepsake: The final season reveals that many of the items on the shelf behind the desk in his office are keepsakes of patients who died in spite of high chances of surviving cancer.
• Troubled, but Cute: Good looking and charismatic, but the ups and downs of his lovelife, having a job that constantly puts him around terminal patients, Amber's death, and finally his own terminal cancer diagnosis really weigh heavy on a guy.
• Two First Names: Applies to his actor too.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Decides to induce protective hypothermia in Amber rather than continue with the defibrillator, so House has more time to diagnose her. She was as good as dead when they agreed on this.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With House. Greg House, Dr. Jerk to the extreme, is the only person allowed to openly mock James Wilson's serial marriages and chronic neediness. They'd fall into the first category, except then you realize that Wilson's no doormat and snipes right back at House. There's a reason he and House are friends, as he points out in "Saviors" that normality for them is him manipulating House and House figuring it out. Explicit in the last few episodes, as after his cancer diagnosis, he grows more stubble, takes some Vicodin and House is the one looking after him in "The C Word".
• Your Days Are Numbered: Has about 5 months to live as of the series finale.

Dr. Lisa Cuddy

Played by: Lisa Edelstein

Dean of Medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro, an endocrinologist, and House and Wilson's boss. The frequent target of House's insults and innuendos, Cuddy tries her hardest to rein in her star doctor. Unfortunately, House usually ends up gaining the upper hand.

She resigned after Season 7. House's last act was not pretty.

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• Abusive Mom: Her mother makes several appearances in season 7, and she seems to do her utmost best to make her daughter feel like shit.
• The Alleged Boss: She's House's direct superior in the hospital's hierarchy and she tries to put a leash on him... Not that it helps.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: A composed female character with dark hair.
• Beleaguered Bureaucrat: Cuddy constantly gives the impression that she has far too much on her plate, and in her A Day in the Limelight episode "5 to 9", this impression is confirmed with a vengeance. House, for all the antagonism he gives Cuddy, is only about 50% of her problems.
• Benevolent Boss: To House. Being loyal to him and consistently protecting him from the wrath of the hospital's board of directors.
• The B Grade: She finished second best in her graduating class and was disappointed with the result.
• Brainy Brunette: A smart, dark-haired woman.
• Broken Ace: She admits this when talking with a patient who asks her if she has any kids.
  Cuddy: I was good at school, good at work, lousy at life. I screwed up every relationship I ever had. I thought "why would I want to bring a child into this?" But then I got older and...
• Butt-Monkey: Often on the receiving end of a lot of House's antics.
• Characterization Marches On: In the show's pilot episode she's depicted as a Jerkass and Obstructive Bureaucrat who has an outright hostile relationship with House, to the point where she at one point refuses to allow House's patient any treatment or even scans, just because House is behind on his clinic hours, the kind of behavior that would be more commonly seen from someone like Vogler in subsequent episodes.
• Da Chief: In keeping with House being a medical drama crossed with a police procedural, Cuddy takes this role in the show, giving orders to the department, warning about breaches of trust, and manning a desk while the "detectives" solve cases.
• Deadpan Snarker: Especially when talking to or about House, she always has snarky comebacks to House's comments and most of their interactions are Snark-to-Snark Combat.
• Hidden Depths: The show may like to imply that House runs circles around her, but she does have a keen manipulative streak that allows her to dominate anyone else who isn't House. Take Foreman (a.k.a. the second smartest guy on the team) for instance, whom she rehires after he proves to be an unemployable maverick and rescinding her previous offer to increase his salary. You could also extrapolate that House is not more out of control because of her methods.
• Hospital Hottie: The show doesn't miss a chance to show her in various states of undress, including nothing.
• Hot for Teacher: She and House attended the same med school and she tracked him down at the endocrinology seminar he was leading after an intriguing encounter at the bookstore.
• Last-Name Basis: Like everyone else, she's referred to only by her last name.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: Desperately wants a child, but is unable to conceive; in Season 3 she tells Wilson that she has made three attempts at implantation, two of which never took and the last of which miscarried. In Season 5, her first attempt at adoption falls through when the biological mother changes her mind about giving up her child. It takes until the middle of Season 5 for her to adopt finally successfully.
• Love Makes You Stupid: Despite her claims to the contrary, it's pretty much implied her feelings for House is why she hired him, when no other doctor would, and why she puts up with his antics.
• Male Gaze: House (and a few others, but mostly House) make constant references to the size and tightness of Cuddy's ass, which the show also draw attention to.
• Mama Bear: The younger a patient is, the more Cuddy will try to shield them from House's insanity. In an early episode, she went nuts running about trying to solve the crisis of an unexplained contaminant in the maternity ward.
• Ms. Fanservice: Let's see... low-cut tops, tight skirts and a stripper scene in House's mind. Invoked in-universe, as half of House's comments on Cuddy's clothes point out how completely inappropriate they are in a professional environment.
• Only Sane Employee: Cuddy is technically Dean of Medicine and chief administrator of the hospital. Her real job is keeping House and his increasingly House-like fellows under some measure of control.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: It's one big part of her characterization: she's a brilliant doctor who's constantly living in House's shadow despite being his superior.
• Put on a Bus: Resigns the day after the season 7 finale and is never seen or heard from again. A sedan crashing through her living room was enough for her to call it quits.
• The Quisling: House accuses Cuddy of being this for Vogler in Season 1, even name-dropping the original. Vogler buys his way into the hospital board's chair with a $100,000,000 donation. When he starts using his position for ethically questionable practices, the board (and Cuddy) adopt a policy of appeasement so as not to lose the money. Cuddy eventually comes around when Vogler starts firing board members for voting against his motions.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Much more levelheaded and reasonable than House.
• Retired Badass: More or less; as an administrator of the hospital, she doesn't often get involved in individual cases. When she actually does get involved, we see why she's the best doctor in PPTH after House himself.
• Satellite Love Interest: Subverted. It initially seems that way from her interactions with House, but she has a character arc outside of him.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: When arguing for Vogler's removal as hospital chairman, she states the hospital's principles mean more than Volger's "donation".
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: With House. House maintains that the reason Cuddy will eventually give him whatever he asks for is because they had a one-night stand prior to the start of the series.
• Team Mom: Generally behaves as an annoyed, unamused mother in a sitcom when House is tormenting his team. Becomes even more pronounced with she and House officially form a relationship.
• The Tease: House frequently teased her for dressing inappropriately. She doesn't really seem to mind.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Poor woman seems to lose some brain cells when she becomes a mother.
• The Unfavorite: A downplayed example. Cuddy's mother loves both of her daughters, but since Lisa and her mother often butt heads, her mother admits that she prefers her older sister.
• Tsundere: A borderline type A to House, in their Slap-Slap-Kiss relationship.
• Vetinari Job Security: As much as she would love to spend more time with Rachel, Cameron points out that, if she hires someone who knows House to replace her, they'll think he's infalible and always say 'yes' to his requests (which can be dangerous), and, if she hires someone who doesn't know House to replace her, they'll think he's just an insane jerk and always say 'no' to his requests (even though they save lives). She is the only one who can maintain that balance. Luckily, Foreman is able to step into her shoes in the final season.
• Will They or Won't They?: Throughout the show, there is a lot of sexual tension between House and Cuddy, and they get on and off a relationship throughout the series. Ultimately, the story definitely settles on "won't". House driving his car into her house was enough for her to resign from the hospital, leaving the show for the rest of the series.

Dr. Eric Foreman

Played by: Omar Epps

Neurologist and one of the original fellows serving under House. Foreman is a black man who comes from an underprivileged background. House hired him because he was a thief and a carjacker in his youth. He is the last of the three original fellows to be hired, having only joined the team three days before the start of the series. House seems to favor him above the other fellows as, and Foreman serves as something of a foil to House himself, being the fellow most likely to challenge House's authority or question his actions. He serves as a fellow for House from Seasons 1 - 7 and becomes Dean of Medicine in Season 8.

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• 10-Minute Retirement: In Season 4, Foreman quits from Princeton Plainsboro because he fears becoming like House. He eventually has little choice but to return to House's team because he ignored protocol at the hospital he started working at, got fired, and became virtually unhireable at any hospital except Princeton Plainsboro.
• Ambition is Evil: Downplayed. Foreman isn't evil, but almost all of his dodgier decisions are driven by attempts to advance his career. It's telling that just about any point in the series where he isn't trying to push or advance his own agenda in some way is seen as an Out-of-Character Moment by the rest of his colleagues.
  • In Season 2, he steals Cameron's article concept and uses House's inattention to get it published, dismissing her justified irritation and refusing her attempts to smooth things over between the two of them. He only apologizes to her for it when he's actively on the verge of dying.
  • Also in Season 2 is given temporary control over House's department after a court ruling, and spends a decent chunk of it overruling just about every one of House's decisions and trying to weasel up to Cuddy to make it permanant.
• The Atoner: The only reason he still spends time with his father is guilt over not spending more time with his mother, who died in Season 6 and had Alzheimer's in her final years.
• Authority in Name Only: Is given control over House multiple times but it always ends up being this Trope. Averted in the final season, when he officially becomes Chief Of Medicine and gets total control of House's job.
• Bald of Authority: In the final season, when he's promoted to Dean of Medicine.
• Benevolent Boss: In the final season, when he's promoted to Dean of Medicine, and is more affable than House.
• Better the Devil You Know: Apparently subscribes to this, which is why whenever House is untrusting of an outside influence (Vogler or Tritter) he knows he can count on Foreman not to betray him. No matter how badly House treats him, Foreman's got no guarantee strangers will be any more trustworthy.
  House: You wouldn't jump ship unless you knew what was in the water.
• Brutal Honesty: Can be like this at times, such as when he coldly tells Cameron that they're not friends and never will be when she attempts to smooth things over between the two of them in the aftermath of him stealing an article concept of hers that wound up published.
• Custom Uniform: Starting in Season 4, like House he stops wearing a lab coat. Lampshaded by Chase in the episode "Games". However unlike House, he dresses professionally wearing a dress shirt and vest, so it's less noticeable.
• The Dandy: Foreman has a sharp dress sense—much sharper than the other male main cast, with the occasional exception of Wilson. His suits are always perfectly tailored, and the color combinations and patterns on his shirts and ties are always interesting but tasteful. He also usually dresses in bright and bold colors (e.g. the light-blue-tie-on-light-blue-shirt combo he’s so fond of in the early seasons), which work well for him both aesthetically (setting off his dark skin color) and personalitywise (identifying him as a sophisticated man who cares about his appearance).
• Dr. Jerk: Depending on which point you're at in the series, or how he's feeling that day, he's either one to dethrone House himself or barely a point above snarky. It's telling that in the episode "Histories" that when Wilson brings a case involving a homeless woman to the crew, uncharacteristically begging them to take it, that House willingly accepts it after a few halfhearted insults (for House tantamount to nice) while Foreman spends roughly half the episode insulting the woman whenever she's out of earshot and trying to get her ousted from the hospital so that he doesn't have to deal with her.
• Foil: To Cuddy as Dean of Medicine. He's not the pushover Cuddy was, and he makes it abundantly clear he won't hesitate to send House back to prison if he refuses to toe the line.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Eric grew up to be a hard-working and (mostly) law-abiding person, while his older brother, Marcus, has drug problems and has been in and out of prison throughout his adult life.
• Irony: After Season 2 and the aftermath of the "Euphoria" two-parter, he's a brain-damaged neurologist.
• Lack of Empathy: Seems to struggle with this somewhat, often failing to understand why something inconsiderate or mean he's done to a colleague that cares about him is being taken so hard or has pissed someone off. He's decent enough at patient interaction that continued engagement is usually allowed, but rest assured that if it isn't House that's managed to piss a patient off, it's probably Foreman.
• The Lancer: From Season 4 onwards as the foil of House. He's also the de facto Number Two of House's team, being the second smartest person on the team.
• Last-Name Basis: Like everyone else, he's referred to only by his last name.
• Mirror Character: To House, a fact he deeply resents both personally and professionally, because he used to see himself as being more compassionate until House wore his facade down, and because he was fired from another job due to a House-like maneuver, which gave the reputation of being "House Lite" in the medical community and more or less ensured that he'd be unable to work anywhere but Princeton.
• Morality Chain: Invoked. This is why Cuddy rehired him; she needed someone to keep House's worst tendencies in check.
• Mr. Fanservice: He gets a good Shirtless Scene in the season 6 episode "Epic Fail".
• Noodle Incident: In the episode "Moving the Chains", House embarrasses Foreman by mentioning an incident where Foreman wet the bed at a friend's house during a sleepover when he was young.
  Foreman: I did not wet the bed. I spilled a drink.
  House: We're not buying it Eric, we never did.
• Number Two: Unofficially in command of Dr. House's diagnostic teams when House himself isn't around.
• Only Sane Man: Everyone but House is this to some extent, but sometimes he seems to be only one with common sense from the entire group.
• Perpetual Frowner: He rarely smiles.
• Pet the Dog: On occasion such as when he comforts an overweight girl who is mercilessly bullied that everything will be okay when she's older.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Gets promoted to Dean of Medicine in Season 8 following Cuddy's resignation, and seems to be putting his years of working under House to use.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to House's Red. Both of them are more interested in solving their cases than making their patients comfortable, but House tends to charge forward with any outlandish treatment. In contrast, Foreman tends to be more cautious.
• Secret-Keeper: Foreman becomes this as a result of the events in the series finale; House leaves behind evidence that clues Foreman in that House faked his death.
• The Stoic: He was referred to as "boring" and in "The Softer Side" Taub mocks him for having a robotic manner.
• The Straight Man: Fits this dynamic with House, often watching his antics with stone-faced unamusement. When Foreman chuckles at one of House's more insane exploits, it clues House in that he's caught an infectious disease that first presents with euphoria.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Is described in-universe as a "lite" version of House.
• Token Minority: For all of Seasons 1-3, parts of 4 and 5 and all of 6 and 7. Something House always jokes about.
• The Usurper: In Season Two he was briefly given supervision over House's team as part of a disciplinary ruling from the state medical board — he liked being in charge well enough that he actually tried to convince Cuddy to make it permanent. From that point onward he asserts himself as team leader whenever House isn't around.

Dr. Allison Cameron

Played by: Jennifer Morrison

An immunologist, and one of House's original fellows. Cameron is often at odds with House over patient care — she is more concerned about the patient, while House is more focused on the puzzle. Cameron is a widow, having married a man who she knew was dying of cancer when she was 21. She serves as a fellow during season 1-3 and the first few episodes of season 6. Starting in Season 4, she transfers from the Department of Diagnostic Medicine to the ER, working as a Senior Attending Physician.

In Season 6, she leaves the hospital and divorces Chase, having become disgusted with both him and House. She moves to Chicago and becomes the Dean of Emergency Medicine. She returned in the series finale.

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• 10-Minute Retirement: A couple times. She first quits in Season 1 as a result of House's ongoing hostilities with Vogler, but returns early in Season 2. She quits House's team again at the end of Season 4, but continues to work at Princeton Plainsboro in the emergency room and eventually rejoins the diagnostics team. She quits for good in Season 6 after her marriage with Chase collapses following the Dibala case.
• Actual Pacifist: Always lays down her life and works as hard as possible to help people, even in cases where patients intentionally stab her with infected needles. In one case a patient tried to goad her into killing him to see if she could live up to this Trope.
• Advertised Extra: In season 4 and 5, she's regularly credited in the opening but she's mostly Out of Focus, especially compared to Taub, Kutner, and Thirteen, whose actors are not mentioned in the opening.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Played With in her crush on House. When she temporarily resigns from his department during the Vogler arc, she claims that he does what he does "because it's right", which suggests that, whatever his abrasive qualities, she's mainly drawn to the Hidden Heart of Gold that she sees beneath them.
• Black-and-White Morality: She believes very strictly in a set moral system. Whether or not this chimes with her willingness to euthanize a patient in season three, or with her condemning Chase as "no longer valuing the sanctity of human life" for killing a mass-murdering tyrant who told Chase that as soon as he got out of the hospital he was going to commit an act of genocide, thereby saving the lives of thousands of people, is debatable.
• Brainy Brunette: Initially she was a woman with brown hair and a doctorate. See Expository Hair Style Change.
• Break the Cutie: Before the series even started, she married a man whom she knew was dying of cancer. Her three years working for House, which, if anything, have strengthened her quite a bit.
• Commuting on a Bus: When she works in the ER in seasons 4, 5, and the early part of season 6.
• Condescending Compassion: Cameron takes steps to be loving and courteous to all her patients, trying to be an All-Loving Hero but House gleefully points out she winds up as this trope instead. Her heart's in the right place but Cameron's love is always intertwined with her pity.
• Expository Hair Style Change: Initially a brunette, she goes blonde from season four onward, at the point when she resigns from House's department.
• The Face: She goes out of her way to get to know the patients, as opposed to the other members of her department, who more or less don't care and just ask them about symptoms.
• The Heart: The moral center, if they would listen to her more often.
• Hired for Their Looks: In his words, House hired Cameron because "it's like having a nice piece of art in the lobby", though she had impressive medical credentials to go with them. He quickly elaborates on this: with her looks, Cameron could easily have become a model, a Trophy Wife, or even just slept her way through med school - instead, she earned a degree the hard way. He then states that he thought of her as "damaged" and was curious as to the exact nature thus, but that was after he pointed out that she worked her "stunning little ass off" to get where she is; he thus knew he'd found a Determinator.
• Has a Type: She was previously married to a man who only had six months to live from terminal cancer. House suspects she's attracted to damaged people, observing that she has a bit of a crush on him and he's not even nice. Considering she eventually marries Chase, who has his own Dark and Troubled Past, maybe House was onto something.
• Hospital Hottie: In the first few seasons, House speculated aloud at least once on why Cameron became a doctor, since she was pretty enough to get by on her looks alone. (He concluded she must feel she had something to prove).
• Last-Name Basis: Like everyone else, she's referred to only by her last name.
• The Medic: In a cast full of doctors, she's got the medic's personality of caring.
• Morality Chain: Tries keep House from being a Mad Scientist with occasional, if mild, success.
• Naïve Everygirl: A bit older than most examples but fits. She's idealistic, to the point of being too naive and trusting.
• The McCoy: Forms a close, personal connection with the patients and looks at their cases from a loved one's perspective.
• Only Sane Woman: Quite often proves to be this among House's initial line-up, particularly at one point during Season 1 when Edward Vogler demands that House fire one of his team members to cut costs. Whereas Chase and Foreman immediately fall over themselves trying to stab each other in the back, Cameron refuses to get involved for one minute, and instead suggests that House Take a Third Option and just cut his own and his team's pay, which is the suggestion he goes with, and only fails because Vogler actually never intended to get rid of any of them, and was just pulling a Batman Gambit on House to get him to endorse a new drug.
• Out of Focus: Was Demoted to Extra during seasons 4 and 5, and eventually Put on a Bus in mid-Season 6.
• Plucky Girl: Always tries to look on the bright side and hold on no matter what life (or House) dumps on her.
• Politeness Judo: Her usual way of dealing with difficult patients or adversarial outside authorities is being evasively polite.
• The Pollyanna: Idealistic and positive, always looking at things with the brightest angle and hoping for the best.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Though she can also give an effective Death Glare when she sets her mind to it, she's more likely to use a softer approach.
• Put on a Bus: Resigns in mid-Season 6.
• Silk Hiding Steel: She's a nice girl and The Ingenue, but can stand up for herself.
• The Smurfette Principle: The only woman on House's four-person team for the first few seasons and tries to be The Heart of the group.
• Token Good Teammate: The nicest member of the staff.
• Two First Names: "Allison" and "Cameron" are commonly used first names.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Always looks on the bright side of things, and House takes plenty of joy ripping this trope out of her. Regardless of House's negative feelings toward this as a personal philosophy, it does turn out to be a major hindrance to her as a doctor. For the first part of the show, Cameron is unwilling to break bad news to patients, preferring to hope that things will just turn out okay for everyone and they won't need to be told.

Dr. Robert Chase

Played by: Jesse Spencer

An intensivist (intensive care specialist) and surgeon, and another of the original fellows. Chase is an Australian of Czech descent, and was originally a seminary student before becoming a doctor. He has a strained relationship with his father, largely due to his father's emotional distance and his mother's alcoholism following their divorce. Early on in the series, he is treated as House's "yes man", often agreeing with him and standing by his side no matter what. He gradually learns the hard way that he can't please his boss all of the time. Nonetheless, Chase is a brilliant doctor in his own right, and has solved the case a few times when House couldn't. He serves as a fellow under House during seasons 1-3 and seasons 6-8. Chase becomes a member of the surgical staff at Princeton-Plainsboro and becomes House's go-to-guy for surgery during seasons 4 and 5. He finds himself practicing under House again as member of his team in the 3rd episode of Season 6.

He leaves yet again near the end of Season 8 to pursue his own career as a diagnostician and step out of House's shadow. When House fakes his death in the series finale he ultimately replaces House as Head of Diagnostic Medicine at PPTH.

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• Abusive Parents: Took care of his sister and mother after his father left them. His mother turned to drinking after the divorce and died from the DTs while he was in the 12th grade, and his father dies of lung cancer in Season 2 without even telling Chase he was sick. His motivation for becoming a doctor? His mother would lock him in the study as punishment; once he stopped crying he read the medical books in there to kill time.
• The Ace: He is handsome, charming, intelligent and a brilliant doctor.
• Advertised Extra: In Seasons 4 and 5, he's regularly credited in the opening but he's mostly Out of Focus, especially compared to Taub, Kutner, and Thirteen, whose actors are not mentioned in the opening.
• Agent Mulder: Sometimes he believes far-fetched things in relation to the patients, such as the boy who thought aliens were contacting him in "Cane & Able".
• Awesome Aussie: Downplayed example as he's pretty cool, great with women, and loves to surf. The "great with women" part is due to him knowingly playing up this Trope.
• Brains and Bondage: A brilliant surgeon who turns out to know the dominatrix whom one patient has been seeing - they used to hang out at the same BDSM club.
• Butt-Monkey: Sad enough to the extent that House attempted to fire him twice (the first time didn't count as Foreman became House's superior by order of the medical board and Cuddy once, the second time he was fired for real).
• The Casanova: After divorcing Cameron, Chase rebounded by sleeping with seemingly half the women in New Jersey.
• Casual Kink: He's admitted to hanging out at BDSM clubs, and is implied to have a thing for high heels.
• Chick Magnet: It becomes a plot point in the episode "Private Lives" where he fails to deliberately turn women off (pretending to be stupid and obnoxious). All women still want to date him, only because of his good looks.
• Dr. Jerk: To a lesser degree than Foreman; Foreman at one point criticizes Chase for acting nice to patients and then talking smack about them later. Chase is more apathetic than an outright asshole, and will ignore things about patients if it makes his life less of a hassle.
• Even the Guys Want Him: According to House and Wilson, Chase is prettier than Cameron, and a male patient openly flirts with him in "Hunting".
• Expository Hair Style Change: Cuts his hair short and develops a Perma-Stubble after divorcing Cameron.
• Fake American: In-Universe. Puts on a fake (and very convincing) American accent while speed-dating with House and Wilson.
• Foot-Dragging Divorcee: In Season 6, he drags his feet regarding the paperwork after Cameron divorces him. It came up in "Lockdown".
• Friend to All Children: Gets along great with kids and often interacts the most with child patients.
• Hospital Hottie: The most conventionally attractive guy on the show. A patient manipulated him into kissing her because he was the most handsome doctor. House and Wilson like teasing him about being "dreamy." The former page-namer for this trope.
• If Jesus, Then Aliens: He was raised Catholic and still maintains some level of belief in just about everything. Naturally, House mocks him for this. He is the other half of the trope which doesn't believe in anything.
• Last-Name Basis: Like everyone else, he's referred to only by his last name.
• Lonely Rich Kid: He comes from a wealthy family, and had a rough relationship with his absent father and alcoholic mother.
• The Mole: He provides Vogler with information in Season 1.
• Mr. Fanservice: One of the most attractive in the main cast. He gets more than one Shirtless Scene over the years and even walks around in his underwear at some point. (Needless to say, he looks good while doing it.)
• Nepotism: According to House in the pilot episode, Chase got into the team because his father called.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: To his father, who died from disease without telling Chase about the disease.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: All doctors on the show get this to some degree, but Chase goes from intensivist to someone who can perform every kind of surgery under the sun.
• Out of Focus: Demoted to Extra during Seasons 4 and 5, but becomes prominent again in Season 6.
• Perma-Stubble: In later seasons, Dr. Chase got Perma-Stubble too, causing many in-universe women as well as fangirls to go "squee..."
• Plot Allergy: He's allergic to strawberries and nearly died from it during the episode "House Divided", season 5. House knew of Chase's allergy and he knew that the stripper he hired to Chase's bachelor party uses strawberry body butter, realizing that his subconscious was trying to kill Chase because of his happiness.
• The Pornomancer: Has no trouble picking up multiple women, in one episode managing to sleep with three at a single party.
• Pretty Boy: A fair-haired and baby-faced doctor. Several characters, including House, have made quite a few quips about his good looks and his prettiness sometimes becomes a plot point. For instance, a Littlest Cancer Patient develops a crush on him and manipulates him into kissing her.
  Dr. Foreman: Chase, you're a pretty boy. Works well with the ladies, not so much with the patients. No one wants an underwear model performing their splenectomy.
• Really Gets Around: Sleeps with 4-8 women a month after his divorce from Cameron, and again after his brush with death in "Nobody's Fault", apparently as a coping mechanism.
• Riches to Rags: House is puzzled by the rich boy on his team working so many shifts in the ER. It turns out that Chase isn't rich, since his father cut him out of his will.
• Shoot the Dog: "The Tyrant", and earlier in "Informed Consent" when he thinks he's helping House put a suffering, terminal patient to death.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: He goes through this phase after he fails to turn women off while Speed Dating deliberately. House bets Chase gets more dates on speeding date night than him, and House stays a medical doctor while Chase takes on the personality of a lazy jobless moron.
• Teeny Weenie: In one episode, a woman takes a naked photo of Chase at a wedding and alters the image to give him—apparently— a comically small penis before posting it on his Facebook. One of his conquests from the wedding later does an As You Know with Chase ("that is not you"), confirming that the photo's a fake.
• Token Minority: As far as we know, the only member of the PPTH staff who wasn't born & raised in the United States.
• Token Religious Teammate: Within the original diagnostic team, he's explicitly Catholic, as opposed to Foreman (an atheist), Cameron (who's a Deist but doesn't subscribe to a particular organized faith), and House (who's agnostic). Subverted when adding on Cuddy and Wilson (both Jewish), and later Taub (also Jewish).
• Two First Names: Applies to his actor, too.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Had a feeble relationship with his Dad, which eventually resulted in a Never Got to Say Goodbye situation. Wound up viewing House as a substitute father-figure and fell into this Trope with him, hence why he spent much of the show acting like a Yes-man.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Zig-zagged in his relationship with Foreman. When the show first started they genuinely didn't like each other and would regularly throw barbs, with and the "Best Buds" aspect of their relationship just being the fact that they were professional enough to put their feelings aside and work together. After they both left House's team and didn't have to work in direct proximity to each other they both cooled off and became more cordial. By the time they were both on the team again they'd become close friends (being the two who'd known each other the longest) but still open fire on each other (since they know exactly how to torment the other).
• Yes-Man: To House, at first. Chase usually follows House's instructions, and rarely disagrees with anything House has to say.

Dr. Chris Taub

Played by: Peter Jacobson

A plastic surgeon. He serves as one of House's fellows during seasons 4-8. Taub is middle aged and Jewish. He was forced out of his successful practice after his partners found out that he was cheating on his wife with one of the nurses. As part of the agreement, he signed a "non-compete" contract, which states that he can no longer pursue a career in his chosen specialty. Taub can be combative, and has tried to undermine House's authority, going so far as to try to get House thrown off of a case.

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• Butt-Monkey: Granted he brings a fair bit of misfortune on himself with his serial philandering, but the guy just can't catch a break.
• Cassandra Truth: Tries to inform a stripper of a potential melanoma. Gets held at gunpoint for his trouble when he can't convince her he's not trying to sleep with her.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Granted, he's no moron, but who would expect a short, meek, balding doctor to be skilled in Krav Maga?
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the requirements to be part of House's staff.
  Kutner: The shortest distance between here and your memory is straight through your prefrontal cortex. All we have to do is access it.
  Taub: Great idea. I'll build the giant submarine. You get the miniaturization gizmo.
• Driven to Suicide: Unsuccessfully, in medical school, he tried to kill himself. This is part of why he takes Kutner's suicide so hard.
• Good Parents: He tries his hardest to be one for his kids; learning how to be one is part of his character arc in the final season.
• Hypocrite: Says in Season 5 that single people shouldn't have kids but in season 8 fought not to let his wife take their daughter to Seattle with her new boyfriend.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Introduced in Season 4, and remains a main character for the rest of the show.
• Ignored Epiphany: Apparently learned nothing from his divorce, as it doesn't stop him from sleeping around without using protection.
• Kavorka Man: He's a magnet for the ladies, despite being short, bald, and middle-aged. House nicknames him "mini-stud". Though his commitment-phobia and serial philandering always end up torpedoing any chance at happiness.
• Laser-Guided Karma: His adultery, as well as his jealousy concerning a friend his wife met in an online support group for victims of unfaithful spouses, blows up his marriage in Season 7, and when he still can't stop sleeping around, becomes a single dad raising his two children from different mothers in Season 8.
• Last-Name Basis: Like everyone else, he's referred to only by his last name.
• Lethal Chef: A meal he cooks ends up giving both him and Foreman food poisoning.
• Only Sane Man: One of the least neurotic and irrational people on the entire show.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: In Season 7.
• Really Gets Around: Cheating on his wife is the new normal as of Season 6.
• Self-Deprecation: Refers to himself at one point as a stooge for House.
• Those Two Guys: Was this with Kutner for a while, then with Foreman. He and Foreman even shared an apartment for a while.
• Token Minority: Zig-zagged. On one hand, the only Jew on House's team. On the other hand, far from the only Jew at PPTH or House's life (considering how large Wilson and Cuddy loom).
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: A strange inversion in which he invokes this on himself:
  Foreman: Just gotta wait until my August review. [Taub gets a funny look] What?
  Taub: Nothing, it's exactly what I would do. But I'm a coward.

Dr. Lawrence Kutner

Played by: Kal Penn

Born as "Lawrence Choudray". A sports and rehabilitation medicine specialist. He's a member of House's fellows during seasons 4 and 5. Of Indian descent, Kutner was orphaned at the age of six, following his parents' shooting in a burglary attempt. He was subsequently adopted by another family, leading to his decisively non-Indian name. Despite this, he is generally cheery, and displays an honest enthusiasm for what he does.

Kutner commits suicide for unknown reasons toward the end of Season 5.

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• Asian and Nerdy: Is a shameless geek whose apartment is littered with nerdy merchandise and uses sci-fi references to explain medicine.
• Back for the Finale: He appears in House's hallucinations.
• Berserk Button: You do not lie to Kutner.
• The Big Guy: He's the go-to-guy for the defibrillator.
• Bollywood Nerd: He's Indian, and a dedicated Trekker and fan of Star Wars.
• Character Death: When Kal Penn, the actor who portrayed him, left the show to work with President Obama, his character was killed off in "Simple Explanation", via suicide. House thought it was murder, but Word of God stated that it was indeed suicide.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He revealed that his parents owned a deli and were shot to death during a robbery when he was six years old.
• Dead Person Conversation: Reappeared as part of House's subconscious in the Season 5 finale, and came back for the series finale.
• Driven to Suicide: In "Simple Explanation" he kills himself. There's no real explanation given, which is sort of the point.
• Happily Adopted: Loved his adopted parents so much he changed his last name to theirs.
• Last-Name Basis: Like everyone else, he's referred to only by his last name.
• Manchild: Acts like an excitable ten-year-old in nearly every scene, giggling happily when given dangerous tasks by House and tripping over himself for the chance to use a defibrillator.
  Taub: If you grow up at sixteen, what happens when you're thirty?
  Thirteen: You turn back into a kid. Like Kutner.
• Nice Guy: He's understanding and kind towards others, particularly patients.
• Not So Stoic: Inverted and playing straight.
  • Kutner is the member of the cast who's the most open with how he feels, and always wears his emotions on his sleeve no matter what. But due to his Dark and Troubled Past, he is the best person on the show at dealing with trauma. In the episode where Amber dies, we're shown a montage of everyone struggling to cope with what happened, which brings out the emotions in everyone, including House. Kutner is the only one who seems unaffected, and is just casually eating cereal and watching television.
  • Then a second later he commits suicide. While the audience is never told the reason, he clearly had more going on in his head than we ever knew.
• Parental Abandonment: His parents died when he was six.
• Reformed Bully: In one episode, he becomes furious when he learns about a patient being bullied. Taub assumes assumes that he's sensitive because he was a victim of bullying, but the episode ends with Kutner tracking down a former classmate and apologizing for his actions in school.
• Running Gag: Kutner + defibrillator = disaster — Foreshadowing in "Locked In", Kutner uses the paddles without anything disastrous happening. The next episode is "Simple Explanation", where Kutner commits suicide. As Kutner's previous... mishaps with the paddles were likely a result of his characteristic overeagerness, this shows that, despite appearances, he isn't his usual self.
• Sad Clown: Is a friendly, fun-loving guy always trying to come up with the next wacky, experimental procedure and thinking up some off-the-wall treatments. As listed under Dark and Troubled Past, his parents were murdered when he was six, which appears to have given him the perspective needed to help his colleagues through their personal drama. Turns out he's so sad he winds up committing suicide.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Is consistently able to understand House's rather abstract metaphors and even come up with some of his own. This would be a sign of intelligence, but because Kutner is easily the least "normal" of the team in terms of general thought process, it's more a worrying sign if he and House can be on the same wavelength.
• Those Two Guys: With Taub, both being House's new fellows and not gelling quite as well with the aloof Thirteen.
• Token Minority: For the new crew, although Foreman is still around so he's not alone. In the episode "Locked In", he refers to them as "dark and darker".

Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley

Played by: Olivia Wilde

Remy Hadley is better known as "Thirteen". She specializes in internal medicine, and is a fellow during Seasons 4-7 (though she's gone for most of Season 7). Thirteen prides herself on being a bit of an enigma, and her real name was not known until the end of Season 4. It's later revealed that her mother died of Huntington's disease, and she was reluctant to get tested for the disease herself, feeling that it was better not knowing. In the fourth season finale, she finally gives herself a blood test for Huntington's, which comes back positive.

In Season 8, she leaves the hospital to be with her new girlfriend and enjoy what time she has remaining. She returned for the last two episodes of the series.

Not to Be Confused with another famous female Doctor with the designation of Thirteen.

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• 13 Is Unlucky: She has Huntington's.
• Back for the Finale: In the series finale "Everybody Dies", she returns to the show.
• Brainy Brunette: Smart enough to earn House's respect.
• But Not Too Bi: Discussed but ultimately Averted, refreshingly; House points out that, when she's acting hedonistically after her Huntington's diagnosis, she only has one night stands with women, significantly reducing the risks that she'll catch an STD or be assaulted by one of the strangers she takes home—but his actual point is not that she should be identifying as a lesbian, but rather that her erring on the side of caution when she chooses her casual partners shows that she still has hope for the future. In fact, what we see of her romantic life is a fairly reasonable representation of a monogamous bisexual's dating life: she has a fairly serious relationship with a man, casually dates men and women with perhaps slight preferences for one gender or the other in the short-term, and eventually settles down with a woman.
• Commuting on a Bus: While she officially ceases to be a regular character at the start of Season 8, due to her Huntington's implicitly having gotten worse in-between seasons and she and her new partner wanting to enjoy what time they have left, she continues to make occasional appearances up to and including the series finale.
• Deadpan Snarker: Able to keep up with both House and Foreman in this regard.
• Death Seeker: Develops this after her diagnosis of Huntington's disease is confirmed, and start engaging in riskier behavior afterwards, from sleeping with strange women to taking medicine during a hostage situation at the request of the hostage-taker, even though the drugs could kill her because of her illness.
• Distaff Counterpart: To House, in the later seasons, as both their lives seem to be made of concentrated misery. House seems to believe that if she can be happy, her life being much crappier than his, so could he.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: By Season 8, she's fallen for a woman named Amy and the two are now apparently in a happily committed relationship. Though this is more of a Bittersweet Ending since she's still dying and is now a good three or four years into the decade - at best - that they estimated she had left when she was first diagnosed. She and her partner both appear to have accepted this, though, and seem quite content to focus on enjoying the time they have together.
• Good Bad Girl: She had brief periods of promiscuity between saving lives as a doctor.
• The Hedonist: Descends into this for a bit following her Huntington's diagnosis. Develops a drug habit, has sex with strangers, stays out partying, in her words, "Cramming as much life into my life as I can."
• Hospital Hottie: Played by Olivia Wilde who is gorgeous.
• Iconic Sequel Character: She is one of the show's most prominent female characters, but is only introduced in Season 4.
• It Runs in the Family: Huntington's disease follows bloodlines.
• Mercy Kill: After disappearing for a year House eventually finds out that she did this to her brother, who was suffering from Huntington's at his request. She kept her prints off the syringes used to administer the drugs so that she only did time in jail for excessive prescribing. At the end of the episode, House offers to mercy kill her when she gets too sick.
• Missing Mom: Her mother died of Huntington's when she was a child.
• Ms. Fanservice: Combined with a bit of Girl on Girl Is Hot ("Thirteen," S5, Episode 5).
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Her last name is only given a couple of times on screen and her full name only once, both after she'd been on the show for quite a while. Even after her real name is revealed, it's almost never used.
• Out of Focus: She's gone for most of Season 7, due to her actress filming TRON: Legacy, and most of Season 8.
• Plucky Girl: Tries to remain positive in spite of her looming disease and a number of personal tragedies.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: In season 7.
• Really Gets Around: Sleeps with a different woman every night after her Huntington's diagnosis.
• Secretly Dying: Poor Thirteen has Huntington's disease.
• Show Some Leg: At one point in Season 6, she flashes her tits by opening her flannel shirt so she doesn't have to deal with Taub's bullshit.
• Soapbox Sadie: Her temporary return in season 7 oddly has more of these tendencies such as when she's calling out a patient for dating multiple men in her workplace and when she defends a performance artist's... poor decisions.
• Smurfette Principle: Replaces Cameron as House's only female team member. This deliberately used by House when Cuddy wouldn't let him hire all the people he wanted, so he picked two men, knowing that Cuddy would insist on adding at least one woman to the team.
• You Are Number 6: Her nickname is just "13", from the number she was assigned during the application for the fellowship, and she insisted on that. "I'm not getting invested".
• Your Days Are Numbered: Her Huntington's gives her 10 years to live, probably less, as of "Last Resort".

Martha M. Masters

Played by: Amber Tamblyn

A med student brought in as an intern to replace Thirteen for most of season 7. She disapproves of House's extreme methods. She departs when Thirteen returns.

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• Alliterative Name: Martha M. Masters.
• Back for the Finale: Returned for House's funeral.
• Break the Cutie: House spends most of Season 7 trying to do this to her, but fails. She's finally broken by discovering the Patient of the Week whose life she just saved is a cannibalistic serial killer on the run from the FBI, and she just helped him escape. She breaks again when she tricks the parents of a girl with cancer in her arm (who can't achieve her life goal of setting a sailing record without both arms) into consenting to amputate her arm, even though she had adamantly refused to have it removed. This drives her to quit House's team.
• Child Prodigy: Although older than the typical medical student (stated to be roughly Thirteen's age), she graduated high school several years early and acquired several Ph.Ds before entering medical school.
• Cute But Psycho: Downplayed and Played for Laughs in one epsiode. When the others debate whether a teenager's anger issues are a symptom (with Chase stating that he used to fantasize about killing his geometry teacher) she confesses that while she hasn't fantasized about killing anyone, she has fantasized about "torturing them slowly in [her] basement, preferably with acid."
• Determinator: Although she is surrounded by others who bring attention to her overly-idealistic views, she still remains determined and shy in her approach to medicine.
• George Jetson Job Security: She is fired, un-fired, re-fired, and re-hired multiple times over the course of her time working under House.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • When she realizes she unknowingly just saved the life of a cannibalistic serial killer and helped him to escape the FBI.
  • Later, She suffers a big one after tricking a patient's parents into authorizing an amputation of her arm, a procedure that saved her life, but one that she was adamant against. She leaves the hospital afterwards.
• Honesty Is the Best Policy: She believes that the best way to operate is to be honest and to never lie to the patient, causing her to butt heads with House for most of her time working for him.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Even though she eventually learns to lie to their patients somehow, she still retains her morality.
• The Intern: The Naïve Newcomer on House's team. She must have been a genius of epic proportions to make it to the all stars team of all medical dramas at so young an age.
• Last-Name Basis: Like everyone else, she's referred to only by her last name.
• Not That Kind of Doctor: She has several Ph.Ds, but is still working on her MD. So while she could technically call herself "Doctor Masters", to do so would be dangerously misleading.
• Principles Zealot: House finds her strict adherence to the rules nothing but a hindrance when trying to handle medicine.
• Put on a Bus: Joins the hospital staff as a regular intern after Thirteen returns.
• Straight Man: To House, who often makes fun of her for her honesty and naivete.
• Token Good Teammate: She breaks her own rules once and then resigns from House's team.
• Token Wholesome: Is unfailingly perfect and devoted to her principles around big mean Dr. House and his cynical teammates.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Her main point of contention with House, believing that people don't need to lie so often, especially not her.

Dr. Jessica Adams

Played by: Odette Annable

An internist who originally worked at the jail that House spent the first episode of Season 8. After being fired from that job for taking House's advice in treating an inmate, she joins House as fellow in season 8.

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• Brainy Brunette: A woman with brown hair and a doctorate.
• The Generic Girl: She got easily the least development of any regular character in the series. In part this was due to her only appearing in the final season, and part that the the character development episodes in that season focused almost entirely around Park (and, to a lesser extent, Taub) before the final story arc involving Wilson's terminal cancer, which mostly took the focus away from House's team.
• Jack of All Trades: Unlike most doctors featured on the show, she has no stated specialty. Her previous employment was as a prison doctor, which essentially made her a GP in a really tough neighborhood.
• Last-Name Basis: Like everyone else, she's referred to only by her last name.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She's basically a heterosexual, non-Huntington's afflicted version of Thirteen. Besides having a very similar physical appearance, both specialize in internal medicine, have an unlucky relationship history and a complicated personal life, and have very serious moral concerns about patient care. A little bit of Martha Masters' idealism also gets mixed in, albeit not to quite the same level.
• Woman Scorned: Patients who cheat on their wives/girlfriends are her Berserk Button, thanks to her own husband having done the same to her.

Dr. Chi Park

Played by: Charlyne Yi

A young Korean/Filipino neurologist who joins House's team when he finishes his prison stint in the second episode of season 8. Initially, she is his team. She is nerdy and socially inept.

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• All Love Is Unrequited: Her crush on Chase is not mutual, and House and Adams taunt her about it occasionally, presumably as he's a Mr. Fanservice even in-universe, while she's seen as a Hollywood Homely (House notes that she's ruining his Charlie's Angels fantasy for the brief time where only her, Adams, and Thirteen were on his team.)
• Asian and Nerdy: Cute, inexperienced, and from a Korean family.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Got fired from Neurology and wound up on House's team after punching her then-boss, and assaults House with his cane in "Holding On".
  Park: You're aware I punched the last person who pissed me off?
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Has a lot of trouble accepting help and gifts since her family were poor and struggled for everything they have.
• Extreme Doormat: Played with. As a doctor, she'll go along with all of House's extreme suggestions and bizarre ideas without a word. As a person, House has a lot more trouble messing with her than he does with any of his other fellows; unlike them, Park will not hesitate to lash out violently if pushed too far.
• Formerly Fat: Apparently gained a lot of weight when her last relationship ended.
  Park: They used to call me Park-ing lot.
• Honor-Related Abuse: Not directly but implied; she was groped by her boss and attacked him for it, and is terrified at the idea of telling her family because of this Trope. Her parents, it turns out, are perfectly understanding and horrified at her boss's behavior.
• Last-Name Basis: No one else uses their first names; why should it be different for her?
• Mushroom Samba: After eating ice cream at a patient's house, she starts having very vivid and hilarious hallucinations, including seeing Taub as a fairy. It turns out that the ice cream was laced with LSD, due to the patient (who had been blind since birth) wanting to know what it would be like to see.
• No Social Skills: Seems to have no clue how to interact with people, and House is a poor instructor. It reaches a point of deconstruction when she has to answer for punching her boss after he groped her. House gets her so upset before the hearing that she can barely put a sentence together. Wilson assumes that he did it deliberately, as her obvious panic made her more sympathetic.
  Foreman: So you do realize that it is unacceptable to hit someone in the workplace?
  Park: Yes, completely unacceptable. I wasn't thinking. I guess, I mean, I guess technically I was thinking. I just, it happened so fast I didn't... I... I.... it's like... it's like it wasn't even me I would never do something like that, even though I did. I'm sorry, I'm not making any sense right now I um.... I don't know I just, really love being a doctor so much and I barely even have a hundred dollars and... please don't fire me!
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a brief yet poignant one to House in "Holding On".
  Park: You spent your whole life looking for the truth, but sometimes the truth just sucks!
• Shrinking Violet: Her relationship with her old boss ended with her punching him in the face. It's implied she's afraid to speak up again or else she'll be fired, leading to this trope.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For Masters. Opinionated, younger than the rest of the team, poor social skills which make her unafraid to call out superiors, and intimidated to the point of speechlessness in her first few interactions with House. Unlike Masters though, she lacked the unfailing moral principles and need to preach to her teammates, and has a bit more teeth when it came to being pushed around.
• Token Minority: Only Asian and only non-white in season 8.
• Vestigial Empire: Her intro is a show of just how little House has to work with after being let out of jail. He's kept on a leash, Wilson won't talk to him, he doesn't even have an office and his only fellow is this inexperienced and meek-looking newly-graduated doctor (who was assigned to him after she punched her old boss in the face).

Fellowship Candidates

Dr. Amber Volakis

Played by: Anne Dudek

An interventional radiologist trying to join House's new team who made it as far as the final-4 in the candidate game. Devious and manipulative, Volakis earned the epithet of "Cutthroat Bitch", a nickname that she seems almost proud of. House eliminated her in the last round of the competition due to her inability to accept being wrong. From there, she started dating Wilson in the latter half of Season 4. After suffering kidney damage in a bus crash (which brings on amantadine poisoning as a result), she dies in the Season 4 finale... before reappearing as a manifestation of House's subconscious in the latter half of Season 5 following Kutner's death. She returns as a hallucination in the series finale and discusses House's patient with him and convincing him to keep living.

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• Ambition is Evil: Played with. Her primary personality trait is being absolutely determined to win, at any cost. This makes her a pretty unpleasant person, but also drives her to be pretty good at her job (as well as being appealing to Wilson).
• Back for the Finale: Or rather, her hallucination, as one of a few that House sees.
• Break Them by Talking: Does this in House's hallucinations. To House. And it is creepy.
• Competition Freak: Literally couldn't understand how the patient in "Games" could be okay with his own mediocrity. This is ultimately why House eliminated her from being on the team, she cared more about winning the position then actually curing the patient.
• Distaff Counterpart: To House for being manipulative and obsessed with being right. House himself notices this and mocks Wilson for dating her.
  House: You could do worse than a female proxy for me.
• Dr. Jerk: Unpleasant to the others competitors, but she's genuinely a good doctor, enough so that House takes notice in her skills.
• Enemy Without: As a hallucination. Initially an ally, she turns dark as House wises up to the fact that her (his?) intents are hostile.
• Establishing Character Moment: Amber is the first to balk at House's absurd tests. She announces she's leaving, and half of the trainees follow suit. She returns minutes later, having thinned the herd.
• Fake Guest Star: Is absent from only two episodes of season 4, appearing just one less time than Taub, Kutner and Thirteen.
• First-Name Basis: She's one of the few recurring characters in the entire series who's habitually called by her first name, at least when she's not being called 'Cutthroat Bitch'.
• Freudian Excuse: Parodied. When House does his usual 'why are you broken' routine she rattles off cliched reasons like 'Daddy didn't love me enough' or 'Mommy set too high expectations' or 'something' to show her annoyance.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: She was considered an insufferable Manipulative Bitch and all the other applicants hated working with her. It's very darkly lampshaded right before her death, when the fellows are discussing whether or not to go say goodbye. Taub asks if they even liked Amber, and Foreman's response is "we do now".
• I'm Cold... So Cold...: In the bus crash.
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Her attitude during the fellowship competition, telling everyone she's there only to win and openly sabotages the other applicants. Rather appropriate, since House decides to style the entire process as an elimination tournament Reality Show, even setting up a Survivor-style "tribal council".
• In-Series Nickname: "Cutthroat Bitch", coined by House due to her behavior.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's often bitchy, but she really cared about Wilson.
• Leg Focus: Part of the explanation Kutner gives as to why he asked her out, saying "She has legs that go all the way to Canada".
• Manipulative Bitch: Her ruthless and shameless manipulation of others earns her the nickname "Cutthroat Bitch" very quickly.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: She reappears as a manifestation of House's subconscious in Seasons 5 and 6.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives several to House as a ghost, when he's detoxing.
  Amber: Oh, now this is interesting. If you take the pill, you don't deserve her. If you take the pill secretly, you don't deserve anyone.
• Sore Loser: Why House eventually fired her. In their job, they have to deal with the possibility they might screw up a diagnosis and kill someone, and being unable to handle that is a major flaw.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After starting to date Wilson, she actually tries improving her attitude, making a real effort to get along with House, consciously trying to be less bossy and bitchy toward Wilson, and even accepting her death gracefully and ensuring that the last emotion she felt was her love for Wilson, rather than anger toward House or the accident. Inverted by the hallucinatory version that shows up later, which is like her early Cutthroat Bitch persona turned up a notch.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: House calls her by name rather than "Cutthroat Bitch" immediately before he fires her.

Dr. Jeffrey Cole

Played by: Edi Gathegi

A geneticist applicant trying to join House's new team who made it as far as the final-5 in the candidate game. Cole's the most religious of the candidates as a devout Mormon, and is willing to put up with House's bullshit, which earns House's respect. However, he ends up being fired after making a deal with Cuddy to try to get Kutner or Volakis fired from the game, which House viewed as a means to undermine his authority.

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• Beware the Nice Ones: House spends an episode deliberately trying to rile up Cole as much as possible, in order to win a bet with Cameron that Cole won't react to it. House loses the bet courtesy of a right-hook from Cole.
• Dark and Troubled Past: It's never made entirely clear how he ended up as a single father, but his reaction when House asks about his child's mother indicates that whatever happened wasn't an amicable split.
• Demoted to Extra: He gets a significant amount of focus early on in the interview process, but as soon as Foreman is re-hired and given a fellowship spot by Cuddy, Cole largely drops back into the background for the remainder of his time on the show.
• Et Tu, Brute?: The other remaining applicants are sorry to see him go and wish him good luck. The one exception is Kutner, since Cole was willing to sell him out after they had just become friends.
• The Mole: When House sets a challenge that will grant immunity and a say in the next firing to whoever can steal an item of Cuddy's underwear, he makes a deal with Cuddy; she gives him her underwear, and in turn he'll get House to fire Kutner for his Lethal Klutz habits.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: As soon as House finds out that he made a deal with Cuddy, Cole gets fired, with House not wanting to work with someone who will actively undermine his authority.
• Single Parents Are Undesirable: House frequently mocks him for being a single father, as do the other fellowship candidates to a lesser extent.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For Foreman, in that he's an African-American doctor with a Dark and Troubled Past, and is normally a Mellow Fellow, but is willing to stand up to House and call him out on his bullshit. Foreman's being re-hired by Cuddy immediately signals to the audience that Cole isn't going to be getting through the interview process, although he does last until the penultimate firing.

Dr. Samira Terzi

Played by: Michael Michele

A doctor who was introduced working for the CIA. When House is called in to the CIA to help cure one of their workers, Terzi supported him on the job. Due to Terzi being a beautiful doctor, House offers her a job to come work for him at Princeton–Plainsboro, which she takes him up on the offer. This gets on the remaining five game candidates' bad side as Terzi suddenly came in and took one of the spots on the team from them. On the first case for House however, Dr. Terzi turned out to not be all that great when it comes to diagnostic medicine compared to the candidates. Thus, House fired her after just one case under the belief that he was treating her unfairly by judging her by her looks instead of her medical experience.

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• Crippling Overspecialization: She's doubtless a very capable doctor when it comes to treating the kind of injuries that a CIA agent might face in the course of their duties, but when House brings her into the fellowship process, she quickly proves to be by far and away the least competent candidate in the entire process, leading to him reluctantly cutting her loose.
• Didn't Think This Through: She finds out the hard way that diagnostic medicine is a very different field to the one she's used to working in — right after she quit her job with the CIA. To add insult to injury, the CIA job paid a lot better.
• Ms. Fanservice: Lampshaded by House when Amber calls him out on why she gets a bye into the process at such a late stage; he comments that Terzi "has much more diagnostic experience than the other swimsuit models I've been seeing".
• Poor Communication Kills: While at the CIA, House offers her a job on the spur of the moment, purely out of attraction to her. She decides to accept and quits her job in order to join House's team, taking him so off-guard that he's forced to construe her as being a new fellowship candidate just to prevent the existing ones from mutinying on him.

Dr. Travis Brennan

Played by: Andy Comeau

An epidemiologist applicant trying to join House's new team who made it as far as the final-6 in the candidate game. Brennan's experienced in medical work for third world countries, which eventually comes into play when he goes to the extreme of poisoning a patient with thallium. Claiming it to be polio, Brennan supposedly "cures" it with doses of Vitamin C. His goal being to get people invested in researching a true cure for polio as no one pays attention to diseases that only kills poor people. However, House is so disgusted by such an unethical practice that he forces Brennan to quit the candidate game. House even ordering Foreman to call the cops on him.

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• Jerkass Has a Point: When called out for his colossal breach of medical ethics in faking polio symptoms in a patient, he points out that American hospitals won't fund research into the disease because it hasn't been a serious problem in the country for decades, while third world countries where polio is actually rife don't have the money or medical facilities to do anything about it. House concedes that he has a point on this issue — or at least pretends to in order to more easily get rid of him.
• Mad Doctor: Deliberately poisons a patient as part of a convoluted social justice statement. He's arrested after House dismisses him.
• Single-Issue Wonk: Zig-zagged. At first he regrets joining House's team, realizing that he prefers helping patients in third world countries, but later decides that he might as well stick around, as his girlfriend works nearby and the knowledge he gains from the job could still be useful if he ever does go back to working abroad. And then his obsession with helping people in poorer countries gets turned up a notch when he fakes polio symptoms in an otherwise-healthy patient so that he can pretend to cure her.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He fakes polio symptons in the patient in his final episode, so that he can pretend to cure her with massive doses of vitamin C. When Foreman and House discover this and call him out, he points out that the technique was showing promise in the 1950s but was abandoned due to polio no longer being an issue in the U.S., and that his actions could lead to a whole new generation of polio research, which would benefit countries where the disease is still rife.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He's never mentioned again after he gets fired, leaving his final fate unknown — though it's probably a safe bet that, if nothing else, he lost his medical license for giving a Motive Rant in front of a whole room full of reputable doctors.

Henry Dobson

Played by: Carmen Argenziano

The oldest applicant trying to join House's new team who made it as far as the final-7 in the candidate game. It turned out that Dobson never actually finished medical school, but House agreed to keep him around given the medical knowledge that Dobson obtained over dozens of years. In the end, House chose to fire Dobson when it turned out that the two of them are way too similar in how they think, while House is seeking out doctors who can provide him a different perspective.

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• Birds of a Feather: A platonic version with House. It's what gets him fired; the pair of them think so similarly in regards to diagnostics that Dobson is essentially redundant. As Dobson puts it, "You don't need someone to tell you what you're already thinking."
• Cool Old Guy: He's an easy-going guy with good medical knowledge, who everyone except for Taub quickly gets on with. Tellingly, he's the only fellowship candidate apart from Amber whom House shows any regret for having to fire.
• Didn't Think This Through: Subverted; when he finds out that Dobson isn't a qualified doctor, House points out that it obviously had to come out sooner or later (even on the slim chance House himself didn't find out, Cuddy certainly would have during the formal hiring process). Dobson in turn admits that he had no expectation of being able to hide it; he knows House is a rule-breaker and he was hoping to prove himself worthy enough that House would be willing to break a rule for him — and his reaction when he's (temporarily) fired in the following episode indicates that he knows full well that this was an extremely long shot at best. Moreover, the reason House ultimately decides that Dobson will not be useful enough on his team is not because Dobson doesn't have the skills or qualifications, but because the last case Dobson worked on showed that he always came to exactly the same conclusions as House: the members of House's team must offer him alternatives to his diagnosis, allowing him to reason and find alternatives, not always agreeing with him.
• Liar Revealed: House discovers that he doesn't actually have any medical qualifications at the end of his first episode, but decides to keep it secret from the rest of the candidates. Taub eventually works it out a couple of episodes later, but by that point the rest of the team are more concerned with saving the patient's life than calling out Dobson. He does get fired at the end of the episode, but not because of his lack of qualifications being exposed; rather, because he and House keep arriving at the same conclusions, meaning he would have too little to offer the team.
• Phony Degree: Or rather, no degree. He worked at Columbia for over thirty years and audited every class at least once, but never actually got the degree itself.

Dr. Jodi Desai

Played by: Meera Simhan

One of the applicants trying to join House's new team who's got experience as a veterinarian. She's fired from the candidate game when the girl-team fails to come out on top in a match against the guys.

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• Chekhov's Skill: Her knowledge as a veterinarian comes in handy when it comes to diagnosing exactly how Thomas Stark and his assistance dog happened to die at almost the exact same time.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: She's a highly trained doctor and veterinarian; not something that's impossible for a person to become in real life, but adequately learning both disciplines by her age would be a tall order.
• Sacrificial Lion: She's clearly a skilled doctor, and one of the more competent members of her sub-team in "97 Seconds", but House fires her along with the twins in order to teach Thirteen a lesson about the consequences that a seemingly innocuous mistake can have.

The Twins

Played by: Caitlin and Melinda Dahl

Twin girl applicants trying to join House's new team. They're fired from the candidate game when the girl-team fails to come out on top in a match against the guys.

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• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": We never actually find out what their names are, with House only ever referring to them as "15A" and "15B".
• The Generic Girl: They get very little character development in either of the episodes they appear in, and are fired without making much of an impact.

Dr. Ashka

Played by: Heather Fox

A foreign applicant trying to join House's new team who's got a worthless medical degree. Despite the candidate game's first patient being cured, Ashka ended up being fired afterwards due to House not liking that she chose to play it safe.

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• Bystander Syndrome: The reason why she gets fired. She complains that other people (i.e. Kutner) committed serious mistakes and were kept on, but House points out that they at least made an effort, while Ashka stayed in the background and played it safe.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Similar to Mason and O'Reilly, Ashka didn't last beyond one episode of the candidate game as she got fired after the first case.
• Worthless Foreign Degree: Complains about the state of New Jersey not considering her doctorate to be up to the required standards.

Dr. Mason

Played by: Jonathan Sadowski

One of the applicants trying to join House's new team who appears to be a good-looking man. He ends up being fired by House early in the candidate game when he chose to blab about their patient's hidden identity to Cuddy.

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• Didn't Think This Through: He attempts to ingratiate himself with Cuddy by ratting out the patient's true identity in exchange for her not telling House that he was the person who did so. However, he evidently didn't stop to consider that this would indicate that the person who told her was one of the three (himself, Askha, and Dobson) who went to the patient's home — albeit Amber discreetly indicates him as the person responsible anyway.
• Dirty Coward: When the angered Cuddy demands to know the identity of that week's patient, he quickly blabs everything out. This of course gets him fired by House, who wants his fellows to be people who will stand up to Cuddy.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Aside from the candidates whom House fires en masse at the start of the candidate game, along with the ones duped into quitting by Amber shortly afterwards, he's the first named candidate to be fired (O'Reilly quit). He barely lasted to the halfway point of the episode in which he's introduced.

Dr. O'Reilly

Played by: Jason Manuel Olazabal

An applicant in a wheelchair trying to join House's new team. He departs from the candidate game early on when Volakis convinces him how stupid it is that he was ordered to wash House's car.

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• Genius Cripple: He's the crippled applicant of the bunch who sits in a wheelchair, but also happens to be a doctor.
• Sacrificial Lamb: His early drop out from the candidate game was to hype up Amber Volakis as the manipulative bitch who will stoop to such lengths to come out the game winner.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He falls for Amber's trick where he was convinced to exit the game because of how stupid it is that he was ordered to wash a car rather than perform medical duties.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: One of the first named candidates to exit House's candidate game. He falls for Amber's trick when she duped several doctors to leave out of anger for being forced to wash House's car rather than doing medical work.

Number 23

Played by: Kathryn Adams

An applicant who left a good impression on House before he started the candidate game. Once the game began though, she ended up getting fired almost immediately due to House not liking that she couldn't properly identify who was on a picture he showed the applicants.

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• Early-Bird Cameo: She appears in two episodes before the other game candidates are introduced. One of her medical suggestions to House left a good impression on him to the point of asking her to sign up as an applicant for his new team.
• Epic Fail: House fired her almost immediately into the candidate game for mistaking actor Buddy Ebsen as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
• No Name Given: Was never given a name. She's just known as #23 during the candidate game.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: She was fired just a few minutes into the candidate game due to failing to identify the person in the picture House showed the applicants. The viewers don't even get to learn what her name is.

Antagonists/Secondary Characters

Edward Vogler

Played by: Chi McBride

A billionaire pharmaceutical magnate who "donated" $100,000,000 to Princeton-Plainsboro in exchange for being made chairman of the hospital's board. Wanting to use the hospital as a testing facility for his company's drugs, he comes into direct contention with House, whom he sees as a serious liability.

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• Arc Villain: For the second half of Season 1. Once the season's over he's never seen or mentioned again.
• As Long as There Is One Man: The main reason Vogler singles out House for punishment. House flouts medical protocol and ethics, which Vogler quickly realizes makes House likely to stir up opposition to Vogler's reign as long as he is around.
• The Atoner: His first scene makes him out to be this, with him revealing in his introductory speech that he didn't much speak to his father for years because he was focusing on his business career, and when he did try to rebuild their relationship, it was too late, as his father was suffering from dementia. Thus, he felt compelled to invest the money he made from his businesses into medicine, to prevent anyone else suffering the same pain that he and his mother had. After said scene, however, this motivation is never mentioned again, indicating that either Vogler hasn't changed as much as he thinks he has, or the whole thing was just one giant pack of lies.
• Bad Boss: Bullies and manipulates everyone in the hospital in one way or another.
• Blatant Lies: His $100 million was not a donation.
• Control Freak: His first act as board chairman is subjecting House to a sick loyalty test, just because he can.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: "Donated" $100 million to a hospital so he could use it as a testing ground for his pharmaceutical company. Cuddy finally turns her back on Vogler when House reveals that perfecting his new drugs and treatments is his first priority.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Using all kinds of underhanded tactics to get rid of House ends up making him look far worse to the hospital board than House himself, which makes them reject his $100 million and presence on the board.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": It's "Edward". Not "Ed".
• Evil Is Petty: While Vogler may've had legitimate criticisms about House's actions and attitude, he goes far beyond the acceptable manner in handling an insubordinate employee. Forcing House to make a Sadistic Choice regarding who to fire and giving a speech shilling Vogler's drug gives the impression he needs to see a person capitulate in the most humiliating manner possible.
• Freudian Excuse: Gave $100 million to the hospital because of his father's Alzheimer's disease. Zigzagged when it turns out this is at least partially a sympathetic cover for what really amounts to a corporate takeover by a different name.
• Hate at First Sight: Vogler instantly takes a dislike to House because he refuses to wear a lab coat. His further investigation into House's department just solidifies his belief that House is an insubordinate money drain.
• Hypocrite:
  • One of his major points against House is that he answers to no one and is impossible to control or reason with. Cuddy immediately points out the same is true of Vogler.
  • Because of House's rule-breaking attitude and arrogance, Vogler at one point claims that he's "everything wrong with modern medicine." Meanwhile, Vogler made his fortune by fixing and inflating the price of drugs and treatments, knowingly making them as expensive as possible for patients who need them. Most critiques of the American health care system point to this practice as one of its single biggest problems, if not the biggest.
• It's Personal: Vogler's tension with House gradually becomes this, as Vogler sees House as everything wrong with medicine and House fans the flames of Vogler's disdain by humiliating him at every possible turn.
• Jerkass: Seems to lack the bit of gold that made House likeable.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Had Vogler just ignored/sucked up House's shenanigans, the hospital board would've likely experienced little conflict in his takeover of the hospital. Instead, Vogler gets overly fixated on getting rid of House and spurns the hospital board to dump his donation in the name of keeping their independence rather than deal with Vogler's whims.
• Scary Black Man: Chi McBride is very large, and plays this trope for all its worth.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Buys his way onto the hospital board, then uses his donation as leverage to get rid of House.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Uses his money to essentially buy the right to run the hospital however he wants. He circumvents the board by having any member who votes against his proposals fired, then holding the vote again. They finally vote against him when they recognize how controlling and petty he truly is, and decide his investment isn't worth losing their independence.
• Villain Has a Point: In his final episode he prevents House from putting his patient on an experimental cancer treatment in breach of regulations. House calls him out on this, and Vogler fires back by pointing out that had House's patient been given the treatment and anything gone wrong, it could have severely set back the clinical trial, if not torpedoed it altogether. Sure enough, House's patient dies shortly afterwards from complications of her cancer, meaning that had she been given the experimental treatment, the trial would most likely have been halted while it was determined whether or not it had contributed to her death.
• Wealthy Philanthropist: Dark subversion version of the trope. He's the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company offering to donate millions to the hospital. However, the donation has numerous strings attached and it becomes clear that he is using it to gain power over the hospital and use it to promote his company's products. In the end, Cuddy convinces the hospital's board to decline the donation and maintain its independence. As she points out, he's not much of a philantropist if he's ready to deprive patients of the healthcare his donation would afford just because one doctor won't listen to him.

Detective Michael Tritter

Played by: David Morse

One of House's clinic patients, who bullied House into running a series of (presumably unnecessary) tests; House retaliated by using a rectal thermometer to take his temperature... and left him there, unattended, for two hours. Tritter, who is as hard headed as House (with a bad attitude to match), sees House as a danger to himself and his patients due to his Vicodin addiction, and will stop at nothing to put him away.

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• Arc Villain: The show's second (and last) attempt at this Trope. His storyline is the focus of much of Season 3, but has no consequences or ramifications beyond that.
• Boomerang Bigot: Tritter has an over the top hatred towards drug addicts, even if they are addicted to something pretty mundane or understandable (like painkillers for chronic pain). Tritter himself is addicted to nicotine.
• The Bully: What he really is overall. While he believes he’s a Bully Hunter, in reality, he’s just a self-righteous asshole who pushes people around for not doing what he wants.
• Bully Hunter: He typifies himself this way when he starts to harass House, calling him a bully and stating that bullies only start changing their behavior after encountering a stronger bully.
• Corrupt Cop: In exchange for Foreman's testimony, offers to get his brother Marcus early parole. Destroys Wilson's practice and freezes the accounts of House's team to extort testimony.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Okay, Tritter has reason to be pissed House left him in a clinic room with a rectal thermometer up his ass for two hours straight, but does that really justify trying to imprison House, get him declared a drug pusher, and get him disbarred from medicine forever? And then there's his nonchalant destruction of Wilson's practice as part of his investigation, for the sole reason of trying to force Wilson to testify against House.
• Freudian Excuse: It's hinted that a drug addict once betrayed his trust and that is why he takes the case so personally.
• Graceful Loser: He does concede he could be wrong about House at the end of the Tritter arc, and even wishes House luck while he's at it.
• Hypocrite:
  • Demands an apology from House regarding the thermometer incident from their first meeting and embarks on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge when he doesn't get one. At no point does he acknowledge that he assaulted House first, at a point when the only thing House had done "wrong" is refusing to run tests that he diagnoses as medically unnecessary.
  • Has a particular hatred towards drug addicts, and is addicted to nicotine.
  • Claims repeatedly that House is dangerous and shouldn't practice medicine because he doesn't follow the rules and is a danger to the people he's supposed to be helping. Tritter himself is a Corrupt Cop using tactics that logically would get him thrown off the force, up to and including attempting to destroy Wilson's career just to get his testimony against House.
• Hero Antagonist: House did commit several felonies during the arc Tritter was in, so it's not like his actions are completely unfounded.
• Jerkass: Establishes himself as a less-than-pleasant person by kicking House's cane before the latter had done anything terrible to him.
• Karma Houdini: Other than a judge telling him his charges were overblown, he gets away scot-free.
• Knight Templar: Assuming his actions aren't just petty vengeance, he's adamant that his tactics are justified and that House is a drug addict who needs to be dealt with by the police. He never entertains the idea that the Vicodin could be legitimately medicinal, or that pushing for the harshest possible sentence is overreach.
• Never My Fault: It never once occurs to Tritter that the only reason House stuck the rectal thermometer in him was because he assaulted House by kicking his cane out from under him. Yet despite doing something much more dangerous, Tritter maintains House started their feud and deserves more severe punishment.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: His raison d'etre for making House suffer; House is a jerk so he should face his own behavior.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • His actions are jumping off the slippery slope, but his irritable lecture to Cuddy hits every point on the head as he rails against House's drug addiction and the fact that those around him enable it. He also accurately states that House is gonna kill someone if something isn't done. This is at foreshadowing for later events in the episode when a strung-out House almost would have caused a little girl to have crippling amputation for the wrong diagnosis if not for Chase's intervention.
  • He demands House to apologize. When House finally does Tritter dismisses it as dishonest. House then checks himself into rehab to show Tritter he is making an effort to improve himself. Tritter still rebuffs him, saying that even his actions are dishonest. He was right. House was bribing an orderly to give him Vicodin instead of his medicine.

Dr. Darryl Nolan

Played by: Andre Braugher

House's psychotherapist manager in Season 6. Came back for the series finale as Foreman and Wilson asked of House's whereabouts after he was considered missing.

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• Back for the Finale: Appears in the final episode when Wilson and Foreman are searching for the missing House.
• Badass Boast: "I know [Van Gough]'s life would be better."
• The Shrink: Throughout his dealings with House, he proves to be nothing more than a Consummate Professional who is genuinely trying to help his patient. After House is released from the psychiatric hospital, he visits him a few more times for more sessions.

Stacy Warner

Played by: Sela Ward

A lawyer in the employ of Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital in seasons 1 and 2... oh, and House's former girlfriend, and is sort-of responsible for his chronic leg pain, as revealed at the end of season 1. Remarried; her new husband was the Patient of the Week in the season one finale.

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• Almost Kiss: More like "almost sex". In "Failure to Communicate", House and Stacy attend a meeting in Baltimore and end up stranded there when all the flights are grounded. Stacy books them a hotel room, and they end up kissing, but before things can go any further, House gets a call from his fellows regarding their patient and reluctantly answers it.
• Beleaguered Bureaucrat: As hospital attorney, she is swamped with malpractice and fraud claims, especially those related to House's department.
• The Bus Came Back:For the finale.
• Death Glare: She loves giving these to House. At least ninety percent of her glares are completely justified.
• It's Not You, It's Me: How House ends their final affair; while he still loves her, he isn't able to change for her and knows that another relationship between them would end the same way the first one did.
• Loving a Shadow: She loves the excitement and thrill of being with House, but unfortunately that does nothing to address the reasons that they broke up in the first place; House is ultimately the one to realize this and break up with her, knowing that his inability to change for her will end up tearing them apart again.
• Masochism Tango: She compares her relationship with House to vindaloo curry: painful to eat, but delicious nonetheless.
• Offscreen Teleportation: A couple times, which House thinks is really cool.
• Older Than They Look: Sela Ward was in her late 40s during the Stacy arc of Seasons 1 and 2.
• Put on a Bus: Left New Jersey with her husband Mark after House ends their affair in Season 2.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Is afraid of rats.

Dominika Petrova House

Played by: Karolina Wydra

A prostitute of unidentified Slavic origin introduced in Season 7, when House marries her as a green card cheat. House later falls in love with her for real, but ends up sabotaging that, too.

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• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: House at first just seems to like Dominika for the sex, the cooking, and her skills as a massage therapist (massages help his leg). The fact that she's a willing sidekick to his escapades doesn't exactly hurt. Over time he actually does get attached on an emotional level, comforting her when she suffers a death in the family and trying to spend more time with her in general. He still manipulates her, but he does that with everyone.
• Fair Cop: She was once in the police force.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: This is what breaks her and House up, as she was so upset when she learned House was lying when he said she had not got citizenship (House hid the letter stating she could become a citizen, so she would carry on living with him for fear of being deported).
• Ms. Fanservice: Even in a world where everyone looks like an underwear model, she still manages to pull off this trope.
• Sensual Slav: A large part of what attracted House to marry her was her Eastern European beauty.
• Sidekick: Seems more willing to go along with House's zany schemes than his team.
• Supreme Chef: After she settles into the United States life she sets up a food business successful enough to easily bribe House into keeping up the illusion of their Citizenship Marriage.

Jack Moriarty

Played by: Elias Koteas

One of the few other characters besides House and Wilson loosely based on a Sherlock Holmes character, Jack Moriarty is an ex-patient of House's who walks up to him one day and shoots him twice. The majority of his portrayed character is shown to be House's greatest enemy - himself. The real Jack Moriarty shot House, escaped, and was never seen again. Instead, House's coma-induced hallucination of Moriarty breaks down House's morals from within, hurting him far more than the bullet ever did.

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• Meaningful Name: He is named after Professor Moriarty, the arch-nemesis of Sherlock Holmes (with House being the Sherlock Homage). Who is also a fictional character.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives two incredibly in-depth ones to House. House's hallucination of Moriarty does, that is.
  Moriarty: You pretend to buck the system, pretend to be a rebel, claim to hate rules. But all you do is substitute your own rules for society's. And it's a nice, simple rule: tell the blunt, honest truth in the starkest, darkest way. And what will be, will be. What will be, should be. And everyone else is a coward. But you're wrong. It's not cowardly to not call someone an idiot. People aren't tactful or polite just because it's nice. They do it because they've got an ounce of humility. 'Cause they know that they will make mistakes. They know that their actions have consequences. And they know that those consequences are their fault. Why do you want so bad not to be human, House?
  Moriarty: You think that the only truth that matters is the truth that can be measured. Good intentions don't count. What's in your heart doesn't count. But a man's life can be measured by how many tears are shed when he dies. Just because you can't measure them, just because you don't want to measure them, doesn't mean it's not real.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: No word was ever given on what happened to him after the episode he appeared in, other than he was never caught.

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