"Dreams are the answer to a question that you have not asked yet". - X-Files

House MD is a show famous for its special episodes, those that escape the strict formulaic structure of the show. 'Three Stories, No Reason, House's Head, Under My Skin' are among those episodes in which dream sequences or hallucinations are used in order for the audience to delve deeper into what our beloved Gregory House tries so desperately to hide from those close to him but foremost himself.


ZOMBIES

Whoever has ever seen any zombie movie, knows that the disease always disrupts the brain functions. The same thing happens with House.
"As sharp as a a razor" is an expression for those who are quick-minded. House has always treasured his intellect. It is what makes him special. At the age of 12, he deduced that John House wasn't his biologiac father. Wilson once said that House suffers from the Rubic cube complex, he need to solve the puzzle. They can never fail you because they consist of a basic formula, an algorithm which you can always crack if you are as sharp as a razor. Another use of the word razor as used in my beloved Battlestar Galactica, is someone who is willing to use any mean to achieve his goal. House is infamous for this. He uses immoral and illegal means to cure ailments as he said in "Pilot" and tries to strip medicine of anything resembling humanity because simply the human factor disrupts the perfect algorithm.

House enters a deserted and destroyed PPTH. House is a force that always brings chaos in his path. He was expelled from two universities and he was fired four timed before Cuddy hired him. Let's not forget the numerous times he has been sued and dragged to court. The first thing House sees is Chase, his first demon. Chase, the church-boy who became a man-whore after Cameron dumped him. Chase killed Dibala because Cameron wanted it. He didn't consider the permanent wound he was inflicting in his soul. He did it to protect her. Deep down House knows that in order to help Cuddy, he will go back on drugs which last year terrified him and why he resorted to drinking instead. He knows he is going to lose Cuddy by being unselfish in his own selfishness (did that make sense?) But that is the problem with House. House was a victim of child abuse, physical and emotional by his dad. One mechanish for those who have been abused is to become introvert and shun anything physical and emotional because pain starts surrounding them like a bubble. He makes everything about himself so he becomes the narcissistic with a God-complex pain in the ass. If you don't open up, you won't feel pain and if you need to open up, you numb yourself enough to help others.

House struggles with Chase and with the help of his cane which turns into an axe ( a bigger version of a razor), chops off his head. He wipes any thought that Cuddy will dump him like Cameron did to Chase. Next come Taub and Masters. Masters represents the clean-cut morals. Honesty is the best policy is her motto. House without a second thought kills her. Taub is the failure House has become. A prominent student who lost his track and resorts to cheating to feel alive. House head-shots him and his fears. A cocky Foreman lurks behind him. Foreman, House-lite has screwed up his relationship with 13, the only woman who managed to penetrate his cold armour. He destroyed his relationship because he needed to be in charge without considering 13 as an equal part of that relationship. House can't kill Foreman easily like the others because he realises that his egotestic demeanour will be the last straw for Cuddy. House kills Foreman eventually but when he enters Cuddy's room, he encounters all zombies on her. His martyric, egotestic nature to cheat has infected the way Cuddy will ever see him. He has failed her.

One of the most famous dream-driven films is Mulholland Drive. It depicts Betty, a happy-go-lucky girl who wishes to be an inspiring actress who manages to help her friend and lover Rita, the damsel in distress to regain her lost memory. Or isn't that the case? *winks*

Cuddy with Wilson and House

Cuddy has always been an idealist, she sees the world as it is and how it could be. Cuddy feels proud about her career and what she has achieved in a man-dominated world where the only thing that distinguishes Cuddy is her tailor-cut clothes and her failures as it was illustrated in '5 to 9' with the demeaning word bitch every 5 minutes. The only thing she has never been succesful at is her personal life. Dominated by a condescending mother, Cuddy aspired to prove herself to everyone and forgot to live.

Cuddy envisions Rachael's life when she dies with House and Wilson. I'm going to say sth really unpopular here. Cuddy has always believed that Wilson enables House when she is the only one who sets boundaries for House (The Jerk). What other option will Rachael have with House and Wilson as her guardians but have misdeeding behaviour feeded by House's immoral behaviour and Wilson's need to please everyone? Cuddy doesn't want Wilson in hers or Rachael's life as it is pointed out in the 50's dream. He is a simple mailman, the bearer of bad news, her own imminent demise. Wilson has always been the one who would suck her into his hobby of shceming behind House's back for House's good even when she wanted to live her own life without thinking of what it would do to House.

In the western dream, House is the same scheming failure she is accustomed to dismiss due to her love for him. Cuddy wants to venture into the wild with House because she has always seen greatness he fails to accept. But in the dream, House is making plans that suit himself and not Cuddy's needs which she quickly compromises to be with House. She hears the ringing bell that it might be late for House to be the man for her.

In the dance dream, the environment is filtered with Cuddy's LP and private moments with House. Her life with House resembles a Cirque Du Freak, a circus that contains mystery, uncommon things but also profound pain, physical and emotional deformities. However, Cuddy sees it as it could be, she and House ascending to a united path until he falls behind and Cuddy as always remains alone.

"You only see what your eyes want to see, you're frozen when your heart's not open" goes the song. House (and us fans) has always focused on things that are pointless. The patient in "Mirror, Mirror" told us that House needs to be right in order to impress Cuddy making himself worthy of her love but he misses the point completely like the noble knight in "Knight Fall". He admits in that deleted scene in "Brave Heart" that not everything with his dad was bad and that he was focusing on the wrong things. The same applies to Cuddy. Cuddy is too eager to create this 'perfect family' for her and Rachael so inevitably she will end up alone even if the only thing she demanded from House was honesty.


And I come back to Mulholland Drive. The crux of that story was a cold object, a box which showed the delusional life Betty wished she had. Similarly, in Bombshells, it was candy which was House's pills. Cuddy, along with Wilson, are the only people who have seen House prior to his infarction and how he dealt with it afterwards. They both saved him, Cuddy by making him Head of Diagnostics and Wilson with his friendship. They gave him the tools to pull himself from the dark abyss. This is why I always thought that House would end up with either Wilson or Cuddy and not Cameron, 13, Lydia or another new character. However, they are both responsible for who House has become. Does all the pain House went through Stacy's departure have to happen again? Does Cuddy have to end up alone? Are they both on a Mobius strip where there is no redemption? God, I hope not. Which is the show's real motto? 'Hope is for sisies"? Maybe 'You can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you might get what you need'? A girl can hope.