For several seasons now I've wanted to see some real progress in House's Vicodin addiction. It's a great character element but it seems to have been more cosmetic than it ought to be. So, it should come as no surprise that House's recent hallucinations have been a result of his poisonous pill-popping, nor should it be a surprise that he goes to such great lengths to blame his mental check-out on something else.

House has been a true-to-form addict, choosing his substance over just about everything else in his life. He has kept all but one person (Wilson) at a distance, he has risked jail time and has even put his own life in danger just so he can keep those pills in his routine. The only thing that could possibly make House consider giving up Vicodin is the prospect of losing his gift for diagnostics. By the end of tonight's episode, that's exactly the problem House faces.

Our patient this week is a ballerina named Penelope. She experiences a collapsed lung in rehearsal that lands her in the care of the special diagnotics team at Princeton-Plainsboro sans one Dr. Gregory House. He's been hiding out at home for fear that his increasingly antagonistic hallucination will put his patients' lives in danger. Under the threat of termination, House finally comes into work, but he enlists Wilson to be his mental guide dog... not that he always listens to anyone else's judgment.

Things get nice and gory after House puts Penelope on a round of antibiotics. Her skin starts falling off and bloodflow to her extremities is limited. House is only partly paying attention, though. He's trying to figure out the source of his head-Amber. After eliminating sleep problems he ponders MS, not just for the hallucinations but for the guilt he feels. If anyone can chalk up emotions to medical problems, it's House. Maybe out of desperation or just for the sake of experimentation, House even apologizes to Penelope for giving her a treatment that ended up harming her. There's a first time for everything, right?

When House finally slips up and lets Wilson know that the hallucinations are of Amber, things get desperate. House even tries insulin shock therapy. In between then and when the hallucinations return, House has his epiphany about his patient. It's a nasty case of VD thanks to a cheating boyfriend. If it weren't for the mental instability, House would be thrilled.

What ensues is a short but painful withdrawal drama. Cuddy watches over House as he comes down off of Vicodin, which I sincerely hope is genuine this time around. We've gone down this road before and it just wouldn't be worth it to see House popping pills again. And House and Cuddy have finally hooked up, which was inevitable I suppose. I'm not too excited about it, but I'll let this one slide if they can do something interesting with it.

While House is out of commission, his team saves the day (and Penelope's hands and feet) with a sort of silly, last-minute treatment. But whatever. At this point, is this show really about anyone but House? I guess we'll see with next week's season finale.

Best Moment: Head-Amber tempting House to take the pill on the bathroom floor.

Biggest Laugh/Shock: Um, this wasn't a very laughy episode. Sorry. As for the shock, I guess I'll hand it to House actually trying to detox for real this time.

Episode Rating: 4/5- Hugh Laurie is awesome incarnate and we had an interesting patient, even if the resolution was a little blah. I could have done without the House/Cuddy romance and the whole Cameron's dead husband's sperm plot was just plain stupid. Still, it was a good episode with some interesting implications for the future of the show. What do you think? Is House still House if the title character is clean and sober?