![]() | This article consists almost entirely of a plot summary .(March 2020) |
"Unwritten" | |
---|---|
House episode | |
Episode no. | Season 7 Episode 3 |
Directed by | Greg Yaitanes |
Written by | John C. Kelley |
Original air date | October 4, 2010 |
Guest appearances | |
| |
"Unwritten" is the third episode of the seventh season of the American medical drama House . It originally aired on October 4, 2010.
When children's author Alice Tanner (Amy Irving) inexplicably suffers from a seizure during a suicide attempt, the Princeton-Plainsboro team must evaluate both her underlying medical conditions, as well as her unstable psychological state. Because of her suicide attempt, House can hold Alice in the hospital under psychiatric hold for 72 hours, but Alice is uncooperative and the team must diagnose her before she is allowed to leave. Meanwhile, House takes Cuddy on a double date with Wilson and his girlfriend, Sam (guest star Cynthia Watros).
When the team gets Alice an MRI, three metal screws are ripped out of her leg by the strong magnetic field. She claims they are from treatment following a skiing accident. House is convinced that the key to unlocking the mysteries of Alice's condition lies in the pages of her most recent novel and suspects that fictional character Helen Rutherford's symptoms are actually Alice's symptoms that she's been writing about in her book. The symptoms all point to lupus, but House is unhappy with the diagnosis as it's not curable and he wants to take her pain away.
Later, House suspects the screw implants were actually from a car accident, and that the seat belt damaged Alice's thyroid glands. Taub suggests a post traumatic syringomyelia that grew over the years and pressed on her spine, causing all her symptoms. When the team can't find her old medical records, Cuddy suggests that Alice Tanner may be a pen-name.
House discovers that her real name is Helen and the books are about her son who died in a car accident. Helen refuses treatment until House lies and tells her that her son died from a brain aneurysm that caused the crash. After being cured, she decides to stop writing the book series but House demands that she write a new ending for the last book with more resolution than the cliffhanger she originally wrote. Helen refuses and House begins to tell her the truth about her son's cause of death, but he sees Cuddy in the doorway and stops.
In the side story, House is worried that his relationship with Cuddy is doomed to failure because they have no interests besides work in common. Cuddy then tells House that she doesn't care that they have nothing in common because commonality is boring. She says that she thinks they make each other better people and that is sufficient.
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2010) |
Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B− rating. [1]
This episode was watched by 10.78 million American viewers.
"Need to Know" is the eleventh episode of the second season of House, which premiered on Fox on February 7, 2006.
"Lucky Thirteen" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of House and the ninety-first episode overall. It aired on October 21, 2008.
"Simple Explanation" is the 20th episode of the fifth season of House. It first aired on April 6, 2009.
"Known Unknowns" is the seventh episode of the sixth season of House and 117th overall. It aired on November 9, 2009. The team tries to diagnose a teenage girl while House is away at a medical conference with Wilson and Cuddy. At the conference House finds something out about Cuddy.
"Ignorance Is Bliss" is the ninth episode of the sixth season of the Fox television show House. It aired on November 23, 2009.
"Wilson" is the tenth episode of the sixth season of House. It aired on November 30, 2009. In contrast to the usual storylines focused on Gregory House, this episode centered on James Wilson and a day in his life.
"The Down Low" is the eleventh episode of the sixth season of House. It aired on January 11, 2010.
"Remorse" is the 12th episode of the sixth season of House. It aired on January 25, 2010.
"5 to 9" is the fourteenth episode of the sixth season of House. It aired on February 8, 2010.
"Selfish" is the second episode of the seventh season of the American medical drama House. It aired on September 27, 2010. House treats a patient with sickle cell trait, while dealing with the effects of his burgeoning relationship with Lisa Cuddy on his work.
"Unplanned Parenthood" is the fifth episode of the seventh season of the American medical drama House. It first aired on October 18, 2010.
"Office Politics" is the sixth episode of the seventh season of the American medical drama House. It aired on November 8, 2010. It is also the first episode to feature Amber Tamblyn as Martha Masters, as a replacement of Thirteen.
"A Pox on Our House" is the seventh episode of the seventh season of the American medical drama House. It aired on November 15, 2010.
"Larger than Life" is the ninth episode of the seventh season of the American medical drama House. It aired on January 17, 2011.
"Bombshells" is the fifteenth episode of the seventh season of the American medical drama series House. It aired on March 7, 2011.
"The Dig" is the 18th episode of the seventh season of the American medical drama House. It first aired on April 11, 2011. This is the 150th episode of the series and marks the return of Thirteen, whose whereabouts have been unknown to House's team for the last year. Wilson and Cuddy do not appear in this episode.
"Changes" is the twentieth episode of the seventh season of the American medical drama series House. It aired on May 2, 2011 on Fox.
"Moving On" is the twenty-third and last episode of the seventh season of the American medical drama House. It aired on May 23, 2011. It was the last episode of House to feature Lisa Edelstein as Lisa Cuddy.
"Dead & Buried" is the seventh episode of the eighth season of the American television medical drama series House and the 162nd overall episode of the series. It aired on Fox Network in the United States on November 21, 2011.