Directed by: David Platt
Written by: Russel Friend and Garrett Lerner
The 97 seconds of the title refers to a previous instance of a near death experience a clinic patient had and being declared dead for 97 seconds. He said those were the best 97 seconds of his "life"
The competition of the applicants started in the previous episode continues with a new patient. Dr. House puts the applicants into two teams: men and women. But Dr. Volakis switches to the men's team, because she thinks she'll have an easier time getting the men out of the competition.
A clinic patient threatens to attack Dr. House with a knife, but then veers off and sticks the knife into an AC outlet, thus electrocuting himself. House is mildly surprised by this strange turn.
At his new job, Dr. Foreman develops a relationship with his team like House's with his former team. But he praises them for doing a good job, but that praise seems to fall on deaf ears.
Dr. Volakis comes up with the idea of having insects bite the patient.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Continuity Nod: To Dr. Foreman's Career-Building Blunder in "House Training", where he made a mistake that killed a patient.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Dr. Hadley, #13 has one when the medicine that would have cured the patient was never taken and had killed the patients dog. It's left ambiguous if the patient intentionally dropped the pills as a suicide attempt or if the dog got the pills after the patient was rushed out of the room by the men's team for tests without the patient having the chance to take them.
- Shout-Out: To Star Trek. Dr. House asks, "Why does Leonard Nimoy bleed green?" (Nimoy played Commander Spock, a Vulcan, from the original series, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and several movies up to Star Trek Into Darkness).
- Ultimate Job Security: Deconstructed with Foreman, who unconsciously pulls the same Bunny-Ears Lawyer antics as his former boss House. While his rule-bending does save a patients life, whatever praises he gives to his team barely registers on them due to his fast-and-loose nature, and gets fired from Mercy after only three weeks. The next episode shows that Foreman has no better luck in other hospitals either, with the employers not willing to take a chance on his medical practice styles, ultimately forcing him back into Princeton... and back under House.
