Fox Television announced on Tuesday, May 10, 2011, that House, M.D. would be renewed for its eighth season for 2011-2012. Fox and the show's producers NBC Universal were at an impasse over responsibility for continuing production costs of the series, but those issues were finally settled. NBC Universal had already agreed to extend Fox's option to pick up the series to April 15, 2011, but that date passed without an agreement having been reached. However, Fox was getting ready to announce its fall schedule and any further delay would have meant scheduling difficulties once the fall season started if it did not find a replacement series.
Production of Season 8 was somewhat delayed and the season did not begin airing until October 3, 2011. Part of the issue was that without a firm deal to continue the series, NBC Universal only had Hugh Laurie and Olivia Wilde under contract to appear in any following season. However, shortly after Fox's announcement, Robert Sean Leonard, Peter Jacobson and Omar Epps agreed to new contracts. Jesse Spencer was in negotiations longer, but finally agreed to a new contract. However, Lisa Edelstein announced she would not be returning and instead joined the cast of The Good Wife.
It was announced in early 2012 that season 8 will be House's last, and it's "swan song" episode (a two hour finale consisting of a retrospective and the series finale). The finale was co-written and directed by series creator David Shore. The last few episodes focused heavily on a Hilson story line. Olivia Wilde, Kal Penn, Anne Dudek, Sela Ward, Amber Tamblyn and Jennifer Morrison also returned for the finale.
Among the story threads that was picked up from Season 7 were:
- The end of Huddy and the replacement of Lisa Cuddy with Eric Foreman as Dean of Medicine.
- Chris Taub's relationships, both with his ex-wife Rachel, and his much younger girlfriend Ruby, both of whom gave birth to a daughter.
New plot points developed from the beginning of the season were:
- House serving time in prison for his various misdeeds. His absence lasts about one year: long enough for things to really be shaken up at Princeton-Plainsboro.
- House is eventually released on strict conditions, meaning if he screws up, Foreman can have him sent back to jail to serve out the rest of his sentence.
- House meets his new fellow to be, Jessica Adams, while in prison and brings her onto his team after his release.
- The shape of the team forms into something completely different, marking the biggest shift since Season 4. Both Dr. Adams and Charlyne Yi's new character Dr. Chi Park become fellows.
- It appears Thirteen moves off the team at least temporarily, and Olivia Wilde leaves the series to pursue other career options.
Summary
House starts the year in prison, serving out a long term for his various misdeeds in Moving On. However, it turns out that he didn't even try to get a lesser sentence and took a one-year term without complaint. He blows a chance for early parole in order to prove a fellow patient's diagnosis. Although he plans to withdraw from the practice of medicine, it appears the real co-dependant relationship is between House and the hospital. With House looking at serving at least another six months, the new Dean of Medicine, Eric Foreman approaches House with an offer to return to work.
House accepts the offer and gets out of prison, eventually reconnecting with a doctor who worked in the infirmary who he's made unemployable, Jessica Adams. With one new team member established, he soon meets a bright but timid resident, Chi Park, and adds her to his growing entourage of no-cost doctors as well. He receives a cool welcome from James Wilson, but after a cathartic punch to the nose, the two men reconnect.
However, all is not well at the hospital. House is put on a short leash, and the hospital lacks the funding to provide him with a proper team. Park is his only employee, and House must convince Adams and other doctors to donate their services to help him. House seeks out wealthy patients who can provide him with funding, but the rest of the hospital staff is also working to push House to return to his bad behavior so that Foreman will have to fire him, resulting in House's return to jail.
House gets the money to re-fund his department by pawning a piece of hospital equipment to bet on the market. He also helps Park avoid getting fired for hitting her previous boss. Chase eagerly returns, and even Taub prefers the excitement of saving lives to the routine of fixing noses. However, House initially tries to reconnect with Thirteen, he finally sends her off with her girlfriend to live in Greece.
Taub has other problems. Both his ex-wife and ex-girlfriend are furious with him, and he's on the hook for two child support payments and one alimony payment. Not only that, the mothers choose the names Sophie and Sophia. In addition, Rachel announces that she wants to move to Seattle with her new boyfriend Phil and take Sophia with them. After a lot of soul searching, Taub refuses.
The routine of weird cases continue until February. However, when treating a chemistry teacher, Chase and Adams are in the room when he suffers a psychotic break. In the melee, Chase is badly stabbed and the life-saving surgery nearly costs him the use of his legs as well. He takes a lengthy leave of absence and, when he returns, has an inappropriate relationship with a patient. When she leaves him to return to be a nun, Chase decides to return to the team.
However, it's House soon having woman problems as his immigration wife Dominika returns from Atlantic City to tell House that the immigration authorities are coming to test whether their marriage is real. House tries to blow her off, but an offer of $30,000 if he succeeds is too much for him. Unfortunately, they blow the test, but Dominika pleads that she loves House and asks that he not be punished. Immigration gives them one more chance, but it means they have to live together for real. To House's surprise, he enjoys spending time with Dominika and when her citizenship is granted, he keeps this knowledge from her so she will stay. Unfortunately, she discovers the deception and leaves him.
As for the other woman in his life, House works through some issues with his mother. She shows up in Princeton with her new fiance, Thomas Bell, a man who House has believed for forty years was his biological father. At a cathartic dinner, House reveals his immigration wife (which Bell supports given the U.S. immigration system) and his stint in prison (which his mother knew about from reading the Princeton newspapers). She also admits she and Bell got married shortly after John House died. House finally confronts her about Bell, and she admits she deceived both of them. Afterr the initial shock, Bell reaches out to House. However, Wilson is too tempted and tests Bell's DNA - he's not House's biological father either.
At the end of the series, it's House's most important relationship at stake when James Wilson reveals he has inoperable cancer. Despite being an oncologist, he rejects the conventional therapy for his thymoma and instead gets House to agree to try a short course of radical chemotherapy in order to shrink the tumor and make it operable. Wilson survives the treatment, but it doesn't work - the tumor remains inoperable, meaning that without treatment, Wilson will survive no longer than six months and, even with treatment, three years would be an exceptional lifespan.
Given the options of spending two years in and out of hospitals or six months in fairly good health doing what he wants, Wilson opts not to accept treatment. House is furious and the men go back and forth on the matter, with Wilson changing his mind throughout. Eventually, House comes to terms with Wilson's choice and the two start to plan for their last few months together. At that point, Foreman drops a bombshell - becauls of a disastrous prank, House has to go back to jail for the next seven months.
Meanwhile, with House spending more time with Wilson, the team find themselves increasingly on their own. Chase starts to take the lead on the team, but when they start to treat one of his rivals, a doctor who was also up for the fellowship Chase received, Chase starts to re-examine his life and decides to leave the team at the end of the case. Finally realizing that he doesn't have to be exactly like House to be a great doctor, he starts using his own strengths and solves yet another case. Foreman offers him a promotion to stay, but Chase feels that he has to get out of House's shadow once and for all and leaves the hospital.
With prison looming, House hatches a number of crazy schemes in an attempt to stay out of jail long enough to be with Wilson during the last months of his life. However, when they all fail, he comes up with the craziest scheme yet - faking his own death. This one works and he has the pleasure of texting Wilson during his own funeral to tell him to shut up. The two men head off on motorcycles to enjoy the rest of Wilson's life and House's death.
Coda
- Eric Foreman remains as Dean of Medicine of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. He finds House's name badge steadying his wobbly table and starts to realize the truth.
- Robert Chase is made head of Princeton-Plainsboro's diagnostic department. Jessica Adams and Chi Park stay on as his fellows.
- Allison Cameron goes back to her husband and child and running an emergency department in Chicago.
- Chris Taub reconciles with the mothers of his children so he can spend more time with his daughters.
- Remy Hadley remains with her girlfriend Amy.
- James Wilson and Gregory House ride off on motorcycles together, both facing inevitable death, but in different ways.
Main Cast
- Hugh Laurie as Gregory House
- Robert Sean Leonard as James Wilson
- Omar Epps as Eric Foreman
- Jesse Spencer as Robert Chase
- Peter Jacobson as Chris Taub
- Odette Annable as Jessica Adams
- Charlyne Yi as Chi Park
Recurring Characters
- Karolina Wydra as Dominika Petrova House (4 episodes)
- Olivia Wilde as Remy “Thirteen” Hadley (3 episodes)
- Wayne Lopez as C.O. Alvarez (2 episodes)
- Ron Perkins as Dr. Ron Simpson (2 episodes)
- Angel Oquendo as EMT Coumont (2 episodes)
- Yaya DaCosta as Anita (2 episodes)
- Diane Baker as Blythe House (2 episodes)
- Jennifer Morrison as Allison Cameron (1 episode)
- Kal Penn as Lawrence Kutner (1 episode)
- Anne Dudek as Amber Volakis (1 episode)
- Sela Ward as Stacy Warner (1 episode)
- Amber Tamblyn as Martha M. Masters (1 episode)
- Andre Braugher as Dr. Darryl Nolan (1 episode)
- Patrick Price as Jeffrey Sparkman (1 episode)
Notable Guest Stars
- Michael Pare as Warden Delaire
- Jaleel White as Porter
- Wentworth Miller as Benjamin Byrd
- Jamie Bamber as Bob Harris
- John Scurti as Monroe
- Melanie Lynskey as Natalie Tavares
- Jeffrey Wright as Dr. Walter Cofield
- Julie Mond as Moira Parker
- Billy Connolly as Thomas Bell
- Patrick Stump as Micah
- Peter Weller as Doctor Penza
Episodes
- Twenty Vicodin (October 3, 2011)
- Transplant (October 10, 2011)
- Charity Case (October 17, 2011)
- Risky Business (October 31, 2011)
- The Confession (November 7, 2011)
- Parents (November 14, 2011)
- Dead & Buried (November 21, 2011)
- Perils of Paranoia (November 28, 2011)
- Better Half (January 23, 2012)
- Runaways (January 30, 2012)
- Nobody's Fault (February 6, 2012)
- Chase (February 13, 2012)
- Man of the House (February 20, 2012)
- Love is Blind (February 27, 2012)
- Blowing the Whistle (April 2, 2012)
- Gut Check (April 9, 2012)
- We Need the Eggs (April 16, 2012)
- Body and Soul (April 23, 2012)
- The C Word (April 30, 2012)
- Post Mortem (May 7, 2012)
- Holding On (May 14, 2012)
- Swan Song/Everybody Dies (May 21, 2012)
Major Events
- Twenty Vicodin: House has been in prison for a year and the parole committee says they will give him early release in 5 days if he can stay out of trouble.
- Twenty Vicodin: While in prison, House meets Jessica Adams.
- Twenty Vicodin: After risking his parole to save a patient, House's parole is revoked and he is sentenced to another 8 months in prison.
- Transplant: After 2 more months, House is visited by the new Dean of Medicine, Eric Foreman, who gets him out of prison on parole in order to save a patient.
- Transplant: When House returns to the hospital, he realizes that his world has completely changed: Chase, Taub, and Thirteen have all moved on with their lives, and he must work with Chi Park to treat the patient. The hospital does not have the budget to provide him with a full team.
- Transplant: During their first conversation, Wilson tells House they are no longer friends. However, by the end of the episode, Wilson punches House and tells him he'll bring dinner to his place at 8.
- Charity Case: Thirteen leaves the series
- Risky Business: Park is given a minor punishment for punching her boss
- Risky Business: House manages to re-fund his department, getting his old offices back, as well as rehiring Taub and Chase. Dr. Jessica Adams and Dr. Chi Park, who are introduced earlier, are added onto the team
- Dead & Buried: House gets thirty extra hours of clinic duty after solving an unauthorised case after Foreman decides not to revoke his parole.
- Better Half: Foreman agrees to get House's ankle tracker removed
- Nobody's Fault: Chase is stabbed after a patient suffers a psychotic break while undergoing one of House's disgnostic trials.
- Nobody's Fault: House takes part in a disciplinary hearing to decide what his punishment would be after Chase is stabbed. Dr. Walter Cofield declares the stabbing was Nobody's Fault.
- Nobody's Fault: Chase temporaily leaves the team after a clot causes temporary paralysis in his legs. He requires rehabilitation
- Chase (episode): Chase sleeps with one of his patients, a nun, but she leaves him after she regains her faith. Chase returns to the team.
- Man of the House: Dominika returns as she has to prepare House for her citizenship interview, but she is nearly deported.
- Man of the House: House and Dominika have to live together to give the appearance that they are really married.
- Love is Blind: House's mother, Blythe, appears to tell House about her new boyfriend, Thomas Bell.
- Love is Blind: House goes to visit Blythe when she and Thomas are having sex
- Love is Blind: During a cathartic dinner, House accuses Bell of being his biological father. However, a curious Wilson surreptiously tests Bell's DNA and rules him out as House's father as well.
- We Need the Eggs: Dominika's citizenship is approved, but House hides this information from her so she will keep living with him.
- Gut Check: Park moves in with Chase after she has a fight with her parents. Chase bonds with Park's grandmother Popo .
- Body and Soul: Dominika leaves House when she finds out House hid her citizenship approval from her.
- Body and Soul: Wilson reveals to House that he has cancer (Stage II Thymoma)
- The C Word/Holding On: Wilson tries radical chemotherapy to try to cure his Thymoma. When it fails, he refuses to take more
- Post Mortem: House and Wilson attempt to drive to Cleveland to see the actress Julie Christie
- Holding On: Foreman attempts to become House’s best friend by giving him season tickets for seats together
- Holding On: House flushes the season tickets down the toilet in Foreman’s office, causing a massive sewage backup which shorts out the main power supply for the hospital
- Holding On: House’s parole is revoked due to the prank and he is told he must go back to jail for six months, most likely not being released until after Wilson dies.
- Everybody Dies: House attempts suicide in a patient’s squat, but decides not to after seeing hallucinations of Kutner, Amber, Stacy and Cameron
- Everybody Dies: The house explodes and House is declared dead. A funeral is held for him
- Everybody Dies: Wilson finds out House is alive, as soon after does Foreman. House and Wilson ride off on motorcycles together.
Video
References
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Season 8 |
Next season: N/A |
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| Stacy Warner | Season 8 | Porphyria |