Gimmick episodes of House are either a nice change of pace or they fall flat. Tonight's head games happened to occupy the former. As promised by last episode's cliffhanger, House spends a majority of "House Divided" talking to a hallucination of Amber.

Aside from it being great to see Anne Dudek back on the show, head-Amber gave us a peek inside of House's subconscious. She wasn't just there to tease House, she actually voiced his usually hidden thoughts. Sometimes that meant some rapid-fire diagnostics, other times it meant obsessing over the name of a stripper from a decade-old bachelor party.

Speaking of bachelor parties, House jumps right on top of throwing one for Chase now that he's getting married. This allowed for some amusing interludes and comically literal visuals. In a nice twist, it also actually fit back into the main plot by the end.

This week's patient is also pretty interesting. He's a deaf teenager who has refused a cochlear implant that would restore his hearing. He collapses in the middle of a high school wrestling match when he suddenly starts hearing explosions. The episode manages to balance the case and all of the other plots, which is something of a feat considering this show's tendency to give the patients short shrift when our main players have something special happening to them.

House approaches his helpful hallucinations with a degree of suspicion. They're the result of insomnia, so House already knows that he's impaired. It's not apparent until late in the episode just how impaired he is, though. Throughout the day House obsesses over the name of the aforementioned stripper (it was Karamel) though he isn't sure why. At the bachelor party, Chase takes a body shot off the girl and goes into shock from an allergic reaction to her strawberry-flavored body butter. House realizes that he knew about Chase's strawberry allergy and that his subconscious wanted to hurt Chase. It's not entirely clear why, at least not yet.

By the end of the episode our patient is cured (it's sarcoidosis), Chase is stable and House gets some sleep. But when he wakes up, head-Amber is still there. As we move into this season's endgame, we'll see if this fun but outlandish twist is sustainable over more than a single episode.

Best Moment: Head-Amber convincing House to give the patient a cochlear implant against his will. It was just great listening to a vocalization of House's less rational, more passionate side.

Biggest Laugh/Shock: The laugh- "House: Why aren't you in my office?   Wilson: Because I know what the definition of "my" is?" The shock- House has got some serious psychological issues... ya know, beyond his usual issues.

Episode Rating: 4/5- This was the most consistently entertaining episode of the season. On more than one occasion, though, it went over the top. The fire scene was just silly, especially with the CGI flames, and the bachelor party was tonally wrong. Still, the patient was interesting, House's hallucinations were fun and the rest of the team got to be the supporting players they were always meant to be.