Mirror Mirror (House)

"Mirror Mirror" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of House and the seventy-fifth episode overall. It aired on October 30, 2007.

Plot

Medicine

House's team gets a patient (Frank Whaley) with breathing problems with no apparent cause. He was just robbed and doesn't have I.D. on him, and they don't have his past medical records. Foreman suggests it might be a result of a vocal cord spasm. The patient complains of additional symptoms, and Foreman determines that he's faking them. His alleged symptoms are the same as those of other patients, and the name he gave them was the same as the paramedic. Foreman thinks he might have Munchausens, but House thinks it might be a rare form of Anterograde amnesia recently discovered by Giovannina Conchiglia that causes a patient to mimic those around him. House suggests that they try to convince the patient that he's a doctor, since a Mirror Syndrome patient would be convinced, but a Munchausens patient wouldn't. They go to one of Wilson's surgeries, and the patient acts like a doctor. Specifically, he acts like Wilson. Wilson later notes that Mirror patients always mirror the most dominant person in the room, which means that Wilson was more dominant than House. House explains that as a consequence of the fact that Wilson was in charge of the surgery.

House notices that the patient's blood is cold, which can't be faked. They look for an infection that could have caused it. The patient has his car keys on him, so House sends Cole to look for the patient's car, and "Thirteen" volunteers to go along. Brennan suggests that the patient might have a fungus, but the cure doesn't work. They put the patient in a whirlpool to keep him warm. House suggests they get a medical history by checking his blood for antibodies. The test reveals that he's had a disease common in Ohio, although that doesn't really help. The patient has heart problems, so Foreman suggests they biopsy the heart, although that doesn't find anything.

Cole and "Thirteen" find the patient's car, which allows them to determine his name, his hometown, and that he carries vaporub. The patient earlier said he liked hot tubs in the presence of one of the applicants, who later states he hates hot tubs. This evidence shows the patient was capable of thinking for himself, so House pretends to be the patient, so that when the patient mirrored him, he'd say more about himself. The patient said he was on the road a lot, and he used the vaporub to block out the smell of dung. House inferred that the patient sells farm equipment, and is around pigs a lot, and correctly diagnosed him with an infection that comes from pigs.

Chase takes bets on who will be fired at the end of the case. House doesn't fire any of the candidates, so Chase wins all the bets. House confirms Foreman's suspicion that he was in the gambling with Chase on the bets and received 50% of the money. As they walk away, We're Going to Be Friends by The White Stripes plays, suggesting House and Foreman may begin to get along better, perhaps because they are so similar.

Foreman, Cuddy, and House

House didn't want Cuddy to rehire Foreman, and they get into a power struggle. To waste Cuddy's time, House tells the people in the cafeteria that the food was poisoned, and they should all go to the clinic. Then he orders unnecessary expensive tests for the uninsured clinic patients. In retaliation, Cuddy replaces House's vicodin with laxatives. House responds, "I know when my Vicodin isn't Vicodin. Do you know when your birth control pills aren't birth control pills?"

House realizes that no one is going to back down. (His exact quotation is "No one's going to be happy here... and Cuddy's going to end up pregnant.") So House tells Foreman he got him another job somewhere else. At first Foreman claimed that he was miserable working with House again. But when the patient was mirroring Foreman, he said that he liked being here. Foreman decided he did like being here, and he says he doesn't want House to get him a job somewhere else.

Foreman suggests that House and Cuddy both talk to the patient at once, to see which one the patient would mirror, to see which one is dominant. The patient tells them both to shut up and says that Cuddy has "great yabbos" (breasts). House takes this as confirmation that the patient is mirroring him (although Cuddy initially tries to claim that's something she might have said as she has always considered her breasts to be one of her best features). When Foreman sees that the patient thinks House is dominant over Cuddy, he considers taking that other job, although Wilson suggests that House was lying when he said he got Foreman another job.

Other

The patient's mirroring gave several people insights about themselves. When he was mirroring Amber, he said that she has to be right since no one likes her. When he was mirroring Taub he said that he was attracted to Amber's dominant personality. When he was mirroring Brennan, he said that he doesn't like being in this hospital. In response to that, Brennan told House that he was going to quit and go back to his old job when the patient was cured, although he didn't end up quitting. When the patient was mirroring Kutner he said that he is obsessed with new things.

House suggests that Thirteen went to find the patient's car because she didn't want to see what the patient would say if he mirrored her. House wanted to find out what he'd say, so House and Thirteen went to see the patient together, but the patient mirrored House instead of Thirteen and commented emphatically on how attractive Thirteen was, by saying "my God, you are incredibly hot." House left the room, and when the patient started mirroring Thirteen, he said he was scared and it wasn't going to be all right.

Cultural References

• House says "Who here doesn't have health insurance? Michael Moore was right," referring to film documentarian Michael Moore's assertions in his 2007 movie Sicko concerning the number of medically uninsured Americans.
• Giovannini's mirror as presented on the show is sensationalized at best, and fictional at worst. Giovanini's "mirror" is highly theoretical in reality. While Giovannini's in theory does cause its sufferers to imitate the personalities and characteristics of those around them, it does not give any special insight into the workings of complete strangers within mere moments.

External links

• "Mirror Mirror" at the House M.D. Guide
• http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content?content=10.1080/13554790601160558
• http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2007/03/brain-damage-turns-man-into-human.html