Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) may be a genius diagnostician, albeit an erratic and apathetic one at that, but even he faces losses during his eight-season run on the medical show House M.D. Sometimes these losses come in the form of the death of a patient, inevitable considering the nature of the profession, but other times these come from his or his team’s personal lives. The show follows House and his curated team of specialized diagnosticians who specifically work on tricky cases where patients exhibit symptoms that don’t add up or have diseases that are considered rare. Most of the time, despite House’s bizarre and questionable methods, the team comes out on top, successfully diagnosing and treating the patient while overcoming whatever personal story befalls them during that episode. Other times, they’re not so lucky. So, let’s go through the saddest episodes in House, ones that broke our hearts in ways we could not imagine and ones that still haunt us to this day.
House
- Release Date
-
2004 – 2012-00-00
- Network
-
FOX
10
“The Mistake”
Season 2, Episode 8 (2005)
“The Mistake” is told in a narrative format, unlike the majority of House episodes, taking place mostly in the courtroom rather than the hospital. Chase’s (Jesse Spencer) actions are under the microscope after the death of his patient during surgery, where the hospital’s lawyer is fighting to ensure he can still practice medicine while reducing the hospital’s liability. The medical aspects of the story are told through flashbacks, and they unfold in a disturbing sequence.
What’s provocative about this episode is how seemingly disconnected events can lead to such devastating results. Before surgery, Chase found out his father had died, impacting his concentration and performance. The fact that he didn’t even like his father and was simply reacting in shock makes the loss of life even more heartbreaking, magnifying the fragility of life and how random events can connect in unexpected, awful ways. The death of the patient and the reaction of their loved one drive home this gut-wrenching, shocking realization.
9
“Histories”
Season 1, Episode 10 (2005)
A Jane Doe passes out at a rave and is admitted to Plainsboro Hospital, where House and his team take on the case, but Foreman (Omar Epps) has an uncharacteristically aggressive attitude towards her. Since she is homeless, he believes she is exploiting the hospital’s services of food and shelter, refusing to take her case seriously. But when her medical history of rabies and a brain tumor finally comes to light, she is finally given the help she needs and deserves.
While no one actually dies in “Histories,” it is a disheartening episode that uncovers some of the prejudices that exist in the medical system, presented through Foreman’s behavior. It draws on the harsh realities of the system failing the more vulnerable people in our society, where their health and concerns are dismissed due to discrimination. While the episode is saddening in this sense, it also shares a shred of hope, as it reminds us that everyone deserves humanity, regardless of their background and status.
8
“House Training”
Season 3, Episode 20 (2007)
Of all the team members in House, Foreman is arguably the most similar to the protagonist, and in this episode, he learns this trajectory may not be a good thing. House often rushes to treatments as per his instincts and medical knowledge before fully confirming the diagnosis, and Foreman calls a similar shot here, resulting in the patient’s imminent death. She suffers from a simple illness but, due to her complex medical history, the path they quickly settle on is full-body radiation, which essentially wipes out her immune system. By the time they realize it was the wrong call, the patient’s fate is sealed.
“House Training” also delves into Foreman’s past, creating a holistic picture of how he turned his life around to become a doctor and who he is today. However, this medical decision, paired with his visit to his mother, who has Alzheimer’s, makes Foreman question who he is becoming. This episode is devastating due to how one rash decision can lead to someone’s death, especially since House makes pre-emptive decisions a lot throughout the show. As such, Foreman is forced to confront his identity, realizing the flaws in House’s ways.
7
“A Simple Explanation”
Season 5, Episode 20 (2009)
The principle of Occam’s Razor suggests that the simplest explanation is often the correct one, but “A Simple Explanation” demonstrates how hard it is to accept that sometimes. It follows the fallout of Kutner’s (Kal Penn) suicide, a doctor on the team who made a decent impact on the show in the nearly two seasons he was there. Like us, the team is shocked by the news, and House, in particular, searches for another reason for Kutner’s death.
What is heartbreaking about this episode is what the title suggests. Sometimes, it really is just suicide and not a hyper-specific neurological disease or murder. Kutner’s death reflects how suicide in real life is often sudden and out of nowhere, as many people don’t know what some is going through until it is too late. And accepting that simple explanation can be much harder than laying out a meticulous, back-breaking investigation.
6
“Both Sides Now”
Season 5, Episode 24 (2009)
The Season 5 finale of House starts with hope. It’s a harrowing yet fulfilling journey of watching House detox from his pills and develop a relationship with Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein). She stays with him for the entire ordeal, and when he survives, they sleep together, cementing their relationship. At the end of the episode, House is confronted with the confusing scene of Cuddy asking him why he told everyone they slept together, and he takes her lipstick out of his pocket. But it isn’t her lipstick; it’s a bottle of pills, and he is at home in the bathroom, sinking down onto the floor in defeat.
House has not played with our emotions as much as it did in “Both Sides Now,” where we genuinely feel hope for this misanthrope, only to be crushed by his hallucination. The ending forces House to confront his addiction like never before, but also in the cruelest way, giving him a taste of his dream and ripping it away. It may be the rude awakening he needed, but it was one that was gut-wrenching to watch, especially as a season finale.
5
“Selfish”
Season 7, Episode 2 (2010)
Despite what the episode title suggests, “Selfish” is about an impossible decision that gives us one of the most heart-breaking displays of altruism in the series. A healthy teenage girl collapses during a skateboard competition and is eventually diagnosed with a genetic disorder that affects her lungs. When her lung donor falls through, she refuses to take her brother’s lungs because he has congenital muscular dystrophy, and the transplant procedure would cut his life expectancy in half.
Everyone is faced with an impossible decision in this episode, where each side has its own devastating consequences. It’s the brothers’ and sisters’ performances that truly cement the distress and pain in this episode, as they each plead their case to save the other’s life, willing to sacrifice their own for their loved one. In a show that usually has a clever, last-minute, medical loophole to grasp at a happy ending, this episode was a steady, inevitable descent into loss and grief.
4
“97 Seconds”
Season 4, Episode 3 (2007)
The fragility of life is placed under the microscope again in “97 Seconds,” as sometimes, that’s all it takes for a person to lose their life. House is constantly pitting his team members against each other, and this time, the consequences are grim. In the episode, Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) correctly diagnoses the patient and gives him his medicine, but he gets distracted by the other doctors trying to order tests to prove their own diagnoses. During those mere seconds of distraction, his dog eats his medicine, and Thirteen doesn’t notice, eventually leading to the patient’s death, as no one realizes until it is too late.
There are multiple threads of heartache in this episode, from how Thirteen’s momentary negligence led to the patient’s death to House’s competition that churned out unforeseen, dangerous consequences. While Thirteen had a direct impact on the patient’s life, this episode reveals the flaws in House’s processes (typical of the morally gray character) and how his attitude can lead to real, terrible consequences. It’s saddening because this patient would’ve lived if only someone had paid attention.
3
“Help Me”
Season 6, Episode 22 (2010)
In the Season 6 finale, House and his team join a search-and-rescue after a fire, where House is drawn to a woman who is stuck under collapsed debris. The medics want to amputate her, but with House’s own experiences with a disability, he vehemently advises her against it, and tries to save her in another way. However, the race against the clock turns against his favor, and he is unable to save her.
While the death of the woman is certainly tragic, it is the bond that House formed with her that makes this episode even more harrowing. Throughout the seasons, we have seen glimpses of House’s vulnerabilities, but he really lays his heart out on his sleeve in this episode, talking about how his disability made him feel while confronting the limitations of his own medical skills. It’s always a sobering moment to remember that House is not infallible, especially as time ticks by and all he can do is keep her company in her last moments, hounded by futility and frustration.
2
“Forever”
Season 2, Episode 22 (2006)
Many times throughout the seasons of House, it is the personal tragedies in the characters’ lives, those we have invested so much time in, that churn out the saddest stories. Sometimes, the patient’s story is enough to crush your heart. In “Forever,” a woman has a seizure in the bathtub with her baby, and her husband finds them with the baby submerged in the water. During this episode, the baby eventually dies, and the woman, struck with grief and guilt, refuses treatment, despite her husband’s pleas.
It’s a devastating exploration of how the human mind works, where even though the patient’s medical condition was responsible for her child’s death, she cannot fathom living with the knowledge of her baby essentially dying in her arms. Among all this heartbreak is also the husband, who loses his child and wife in one fell swoop. Heartache attacks us from all directions in this episode. The story speaks for itself with wrought performances striking despair straight into our hearts.
1
“Wilson’s Heart”
Season 4, Episode 16 (2008)
“Wilson’s Heart” is the second highest-rated House episode on IMDb, ranking just below the episode preceding it, “House’s Head.” Together, they make a two-parter tragic tale that still haunts House fans to this day. Amber (Anne Dudek) was a doctor trying to get a residency with House and failed, but started a heartfelt romance with House’s best friend, Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard). Their relationship was endearing to us but irritating to House, who was also dealing with his own mental health issues. However, between “House’s Head” and “Wilson’s Heart,” a harrowing tale emerges.
House was drinking his sorrows away at a bar when Amber came to fetch him since Wilson wasn’t available. They eventually embark on a bus, which shortly crashes, leaving House with temporary amnesia. When he finally pieces his memories back together, he realizes Amber was on the bus with him, and they track her down, finding her in a near-death state. Despite their best efforts, Amber dies tragically in Wilson’s arms, with the latter holding tightly enough to crush us too. Wilson has always been the light counterpart to House—the friendly, hopeful, optimistic breath of fresh air among House’s apathy. So, bearing witness to such a profound loss is enough to shatter and haunt us.
