The episode begins with a view shot of the supposedly-Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, a faint, annoying sound in the playing in the background. And as seconds go by, we finally realize that the buzzing, strumming, or perhaps ticking noise was intended to initiate suspense. As if the spoilers swimming around the internet hasn't caused that already. Back to the episode: We see random shots of clinic patients and staff in slow motion, and if you have already watched the episode like I have, you'd notice that the only actual faces we're actually seeing are the people who will be taken hostage by Guy From Damages who is also, in fact, another person whose lovely face we get to see in the opening. The slow-mo goes on for about half a minute and we zoom into a fat guy no one particularly cares about. We see him spotting Thirteen and deciding to go up to her, apparently, this dude has been waiting for his migraine pills for an extremely long time. Thirteen rejects him, because she's still feeling snappy about House firing her in episode five, and he stalks away pissed. I sympathize with him. Kind of. My grandmother had a severe case of migraines and every time the house ran out of pills we slip into her food, she went on a rampage in the neighbor's backyard and tries to climb their tree. I guess this guy doesn't like branches too much.
Thirteen continues with whatever too-important-for-you thing she's doing until about three seconds later, Foreman miraculously appear behind her and starts chatting away to her like old friends. It's about the clinical trial for Huntingtons disease that he wants her to test for, and she gives a snappy reply, totally in-character, unlike how Foreman's behaving at the moment. Really, since when has Foreman ever cared for anyone's well-being? Or maybe he's just nosy. Yeah, that's probably it. Thirteen brushes him off saying that she doesn't plan on doing anything about her slowly-dying state anytime soon, and nor is she looking for a consult. Oooh, burnnn! And then we see a shot of Foreman in his ugly pink tie looking irritated and slightly pissed off. Ah, welcome back, Foreman!
We see Guy From Damages - a white haired dude who looks scarily similar to Zeljiko Ivanek - sitting in on of the plastic chairs and he looks pitiful, for a second, until we remember from the FOX spoilers that he's supposed to be the threatening to shoot everyone. Dude glances around and as he looks into Cuddy's office... OMFG AHH!!!! Cuddy's turned into a man with greying hair, she's even ditched her low-cut top and... oh wait. Never mind. It's just House, rummaging through Cuddy's desks, as usual. Sorry House, I know for a fact that she doesn't keep her underwear in those desks anymore! Anyway, the scene flips and we're inside Cuddy's office now. The door burst open, and House looks up from whatever he's doing to sport the 'Busted' look for about a second before turning back to Annoyed, his default expression. Guy From Damages asks where Cuddy is, and House goes, "Well, she's either not here or under the desk. And either way, you're gonna have to wait until I'm done." You know, as a matter of fact, he does look like he's on the receiving end of a BJ... Hm. So Guy From Damages leaves, but not without asking when she'll be back. House doesn't answer him, and for a minute, I thought he was going to get shot then and there. But then I remember this episode is almost 50 minutes long. Guy From Damages goes to stand somewhere in the middle of the clinic and reaches out to pull something from his pocket. Is it his son's dead goldfish? Or an asthma inhaler? No, it's a gun, you moron.
Next thing we see is a crowd, lead by Thirteen (Who else gets that much screening time?) rushing into Cuddy's office. GFD points a gun at House, tells him to shut up - Ouch! - and demands the best doctor in PPTH to find out what he has... or he's going to start killing people. A guy you we saw earlier, the one with the pregnant wife, looks terrified and a hispanic nurse clutches her throat. Which is wrong, as she she should be holding her heart, because that's what everyone in a crisis does. The camera turns to House, where he says, "What seems to be the problem?" followed by an adorable puppy-like expression. Hah! But you got to admit that he is the best.
Theme song. Now, the hostage taker takes charge and orders his hostages to shut the blinds and et cetera, also taking the time to tell the pregnant chick to move the couch to block the door. How considerate of him. Or not. But then again, as the next lines tell us, he's been to 16 different doctors, had 3 full body scans, 2 MRIs, 7 blood panels, so that gives every right to take sick people hostage and make the pregnant chick move a piece of furniture. Five other people rush to help her, not because all of them are naturally helpful, but because they don't want her to go into labor in Cuddy's office. GFD tells House that he gets tired all the time, can't breathe properly, he has insomnia, and has rashes all over the place. Well. Too late for sympathy, eh? House tries to talk him out of shooting his way to the answer, but he fails, because you can tell from his eyes that he's an asshole. But we love you anyway, House!
The scene switches to a view of the hospital lobby, where people from the clinic are rushing out, trying to get back home so they can tell their kids about the nutcase who's shooting people in the hospital. We see Cuddy rushing in, a cellular phone in hand, looking terribly distressed. As she should be. I guess she heard?
Back to Cuddy's office: GFD is sitting in a chair, while House is trying to listen to his heart. House makes a frustrating going-to-get-him-killed comment but gets interrupted by the man with the pregnant chick, who is apparently brave enough to speak about his wife's condition. The woman assures her husband that she'll be fine and then the phone rings, making GFD jump. He refuses to answer it, and snatches the phone set back to his chair. He tells House that he gets 'shortness of breath' and 'sharp pain' when he inhales. House makes a going-to-get-himself-killed comment related to the dude's sex life again, and you get the pattern. House wants to do a test, and when Thirteen offers to look for a lighter in Cuddy's desk and House orders her to stay away because 'Cuddy doesn't smoke'. I've already watched this so I know that he's sabotaged her desk drawers... oops! I did say 'Spoilers' though. Anyway, they finally get a lighter from one of the hostages and it's red. It's also the plastic kind which is uncool.
House tells GFD to try to blow the flames out and he can't and only wheezes a bit. House concludes that there's a single symptom the past doctors have missed and solves the case. He tells GFD to go home and come back on 'Visitors Day'. The room is silent for about 3 seconds and then the telephone rings. I love how everything has perfect timing. GFD hands House the phone receiver... I bet it's Cuddy. It is. They chit-chat for a few seconds, Cuddy looking extremely worried and then House tells her to have the medication ready for GFD. A hostage offers to be the one who gets the meds. Hah! The rat is SO going to run. But no, Guy From Damages wants Dr. Cuddy to deliver the things. Thriller music comes on and YOUR TEN MINUTES IS UP! Sorry guys, that's all for now.