“Merry Christmas Cuddy,” words uttered with such an underlying weight to them that what should have been, and was, a breathtaking and joyful (excuse the pun) scene was turned into a deep look into the psyche of House and the underlying melancholy tones of his unhappiness.


What makes this scene all the more gorgeous than it already was, was that it lacked so little dialogue, most of the important material lay not in the speech itself but the facial changes that the actors portrayed and as always, nobody is more of a master of this than Hugh Laurie. In the span of 30 seconds we see House go through a range of emotions, from deep depression, to trying to be happy for her, to rejection, to self-hate, a fleeting glance of hope and finally to resignation. A heart wrenching performance from Hugh Laurie and in my opinion one of his best, I know tall order huh? Lisa Edelstein was equally amazing in this scene, the slow break of her smile captured the reluctance of building hope perfectly, and I most certainly consider this as one of her biggest achievements on the show as well. Wonderful acting, with beautiful music and camera angels (I love how it looked at them through the wires of the IVs, great symbolism of their relationship being fuzzy and not readable), I’m writing this article because these types of scenes are why I watch House MD, just pure magic on the screen. Now that I’ve had my little paragraph of praise for the actual making of the scene, let’s do an analysis of it plot wise.


A few weeks ago, the viewers were treated to a scene that isn’t common in House MD, where House, caught in a moment of startling realization, shed his walls for a few moments and couldn’t contain the complete devastation he felt upon hearing that Cuddy was going to adopt. I bring up “Lucky 13” because the scene in the baby store and the ending House/Cuddy scene in “Joy to the World” is a very purposeful repeat allowing the viewers and House to react to the idea of Cuddy adopting in a different way. In “Lucky 13” House comes to the baby store with no idea of what is going on. He approaches Cuddy and Wilson completely ignorant of the situation since he jokes, but indirectly questions what’s going on by asking, “Or is this a creepy if you build it they will come moment?” It is in this state of ignorance that Cuddy drops a bomb that will shatter House’s world as he knows it, she plans to adopt. His surprise is so evident that he cannot even contain his emotions and can only stare at the two as he desperately tries to get to grips with the sudden change in life.


House is a self-despising, world fearing and change hating character who suffers from deep insecurities that he masks with sarcastic remarks and arrogant behavior. He rarely lets his guard down since he is essentially ashamed of his short comings and of himself in a way, but when he does, everyone knows that something has truly shaken him, and this was the case with the baby. House actually works very hard in his relationship with Cuddy, he goes out of his way to court her in his own little weird way, him being the one that pushes their relationship, Cuddy hardly ever the one to push back (up until “Let them eat cake”). But as with House, he likes to keep it comfortably in control and therefore because he meticulously makes sure that nothing truly meaningful happens between them (he tries very hard at this), nothing has happened and instead of turning into a normal relationship, they form this relationship that both traps them and makes them lonely at the same time. While House is perfectly content to remain in this playful, seemingly un-meaningful relationship, Cuddy needs more and turns to a baby to give her love. Cuddy appreciates the life she has, but suddenly feels the pulls of her biological clock and the loneliness that circling House has caused in her life and reaches out for a love that she feels could be never-ending.

BECCA: You’ve got like this perfect life.

CUDDY: Not yet.

Joy, episode 6, season 5

It’s heart-breaking because Cuddy has a lot of similar insecurities to House (obviously not as self-hating) and feels in-adequate in some way or other. She reaches out for this “unconditional love” because in that way it will never leave, she can never screw it up.

CUDDY: I was good at school, good at work, lousy at life. I screwed up every relationship I ever had.

Joy to the World, episode 11, season 5

She acknowledges that she fails at relationships and I guess this is where we can pinpoint her deepest insecurity that she’ll end up alone, with nobody. This is the explanation for the sudden feverish desire to have a child, because she realizes that very soon she’ll have lost that chance. Which is why at the end of “Joy” when she once again lost her chance to have a baby it was painful to watch because she suddenly became defeated, lost in her insecurities that she was going to end up alone and resigned herself to her fate (until the Huddy kiss).

I partly think she became so outright about in their relationship in “Let them Eat Cake” was because she suddenly saw a chance at perhaps having something she wanted, and maybe if she tried and pushed House that they could work together and that she might not end up by herself. But lol this isn’t what this article was about, I got side-tracked.


I have always had trouble explaining why House was once incredibly supportive of her decision to have a baby (season 2) but then was so devastated when she told him she was going to adopt. At first I thought it was because he was a part of helping her the first time, and no doubt this plays into that still, but upon reflecting a little and having new scenes to think about, I came up with a slightly different theory. I think House saw Cuddy’s desire to have a baby as a slight whim, a sort of on the moment decision because in that week she had been particularly lonely and hadn’t really considered the repercussions that having a baby would have, and actually it seemed he was right in his accusation because Cuddy was rushing the process in her hopes of acquiring the affection she so desired.

HOUSE: Cotton ball? I don’t care if you marry this guy, date this guy, go through his garbage, but you should know genes matter. Who you are matters. Find somebody you trust.

CUDDY: Somebody like you?

HOUSE: Someone you like.

Who’s your Daddy, episode 22, season 2

Because of her rushed state, I don’t think House ever considered her becoming a mother seriously which is why he joked a lot about her being pregnant (I also think deep down there was a small hope that she was but that contradicts what I’m saying so….lol) and didn’t truly consider what was happening, and once she failed he pushed it to the back of his mind, assuming that she would do the same thing. But Cuddy had no intention of doing that, and when she was tired of trying to conceive went to the next step of adopting. In “Lucky 13” House finally understood the depth of Cuddy’s desire and was scared to realize that his feeling of contentment about their relationship was not mutual. Her devotion to getting this baby scared House because he knew that he would be pushed out of her mind and he would not only lose control over their relationship, but that she might not need him anymore when he still needed her.

HOUSE: If you’re happy, I’m………

Lucky 13, episode 5, season 5

This quote shows that House is truly distraught by this news and cannot even try to be happy for her because he “knows” that the baby is the end of their relationship. This quote very strongly contrasts with House’s sentimental biding of Merry Christmas to Cuddy in “Joy to the World” where he makes an earnest attempt to be happy for her. It’s obvious that in the span of 6 episodes, House has grown in some way and realized something along the way.


In “Joy” House went on a rampage, doing everything he possibly could to try to alter Cuddy’s decision, persisting in his jibes and pokes about her not being ready to become a mother, deluding himself into thinking that this was like before, and that this again was just a whim that she was going to get over in a few day, which explains his immature betting with his team. He acts like a jerk the whole episode pretending that he is doing Cuddy a favor, but in reality he is lashing out at the object that is messing up “perfect” little world. People have different opinions about the end of “Joy”. Some people claim that House feels crappy about the way he treated Cuddy, or he suddenly realized that Cuddy deserved to have a baby or there are other theories, but I think House is a little more self-absorbed than a lot of people give him credit for. I think House was happy that the baby was gone, I don’t think he truly regretted anything he did or said in the course of that episode, and rather I think he went to Cuddy’s house to comfort her because he knew that she would need it. Okay that’s not that selfish but I really don’t think he was there to apologize because he made no attempts at it, but awkwardly tried to console her by using platitudes that he thought she wanted to hear. Now that the baby was safely out of the way, House could afford to tell her that she would have made a good mother, he had nothing to lose anymore. I think that besides rubbing salt in the wounds, this is the reason why Cuddy gets so angry with him.


Between “Joy” and “Joy to the World”, House is forced to reflect on his relationship with Cuddy and tries desperately to regain control over it and force back into the mould from the past seasons that he felt comfortable with. But what House didn’t realize or refuses to believe was that he changed their relationship forever by kissing her, and now Cuddy was putting her hope into him and wasn’t prepared to let it return to as it was. Cuddy and Wilson both force House to question his feelings about Cuddy and see if he’s willing to take the risk and try to be something with her. I think after much debate with himself, his talk with Taub was a vocalization of his internal struggle; he comes to the decision that he wants something with Cuddy and makes a very big and romantic gesture of bringing her desk from med-school (one that has obvious significance to their relationship in college) to her office. Unfortunately it all goes wrong, as is typical with TV shows. This is the change that brings the House we saw on the screen during “Joy to the World”, and is partly why it makes that scene at the end all of the more heart-breaking. Just as House was getting ready to throw himself in the murky waters of a “relationship” the baby comes back to knock him back to perhaps where he started at in “Joy”.


As House learns about Cuddy’s second chance at adoption he exhibits a completely different reaction than that of the one in “Lucky 13”. The best word I can find to sum up his feelings in that scene is defeated. Instead of throwing a fit and breaking her lamp again, House finally appreciates that this is what Cuddy wants, what she needs, and that he really can’t beat this. I think because House truly mulled over Cuddy and what she meant to him, he was able to look past his own wants and focus on hers. House “knows” that this baby will make Cuddy happier than he ever could, and he respectfully takes a step back from the picture and leaves the room. He glances back, in one last fleet of hope to see if she cares that he is gone, that maybe she can see him and the baby equally, that maybe he hasn’t “lost” her forever, but she fails to live up to this hope and this is when House mentally resigns. His own insecurities and lack of self-confidence cannot even comprehend that she might want both him and the baby; he feels he lacks anything that Cuddy could want. Its heart-breaking because he doesn’t feel as if he can add anything to Cuddy’s life, in fact I believe that he thinks that she’s better off without him.

HOUSE: I’m better off alone.

The Itch, episode 7, season 5

He leaves her with the baby, knowing that it’s what’s best for her and THAT’S WHY THIS SCENE IS SO GORGEOUS. House put her before himself, even of his view is twisted and distorted, it seems very real to him and yet though he wants this woman, perhaps even loves her, he is willing to step back from her and let her have something that he thinks can make her happier than he ever could.

I want to thank whoever created this scene because I truly have never loved a moment as much as this one, and I think it will be hard for me to love anything more than I love this scene. We’ll see what House will do in a month, how this will affect how he treats Cuddy, how he acts in general, and how the baby will affect everyone’s life in the next House episode “Painless”.