Was it just my imagination, or was tonight's episode of House a Halloween special? Sure, the ghosts weren't actually ghosts and the zombie was just a misdiagnosed patient, but that doesn't mean that "Brave Heart" wasn't designed for chills and creepy things. At the very least, this episode brought a bunch of old plots back from the dead, and not all of them were welcome. This season has been all about the core cast of characters confronting their issues and, grinding against the central ethos of the show, changing in the process. Some of this feels more manufactured than the rest.

The patient this week is a cop who winds up in the emergency room after he falls from a roof chasing a criminal parkour expert. There's no medical mystery in a few broken bones and a collapsed lung, but the patient, Donny, insists that he's genetically predetermined to die by age 40. Because apparently the diagnostics team at Princeton-Plainsboro doesn't have anything else to do, they decide to indulge Donny in his doomsaying.

Meanwhile, Wilson furnishes his old bedroom so House can get off the couch, The twist is that the room, now a study, was once the place where Wilson and Amber slept. During his first night in the room, House starts hearing ghostly whispers. Naturally, he assumes he's experiencing some form of psychosis. This is actually an interesting, subtle development in his character. For years House was a master of denial, an addict rife with problems who always found ways to pin the blame on something else. Now that he's clean and has accepted that therapy helped him, he's quick to assume that there's something wrong with him. In this case, House's brain is just fine, but his roommate's heart needs some work. It seems that Wilson spends a little time before bed every night talking to his dead girlfriend as a way to vent.

Speaking of venting, Chase hasn't been able to shake his guilt over killing the African dictator a few weeks ago, so he finally goes to confession looking for a quick fix. The priest won't give him absolution, though and Chase decides to go get drunk instead. This plot has already dragged on too long and it's starting to feel way too forced. I don't want to see Jesse Spencer off the show, but this story needs to be resolved, and soon.

After sending the patient home with a clean bill of health and a placebo, House and Foreman end up slicing into his presumed-dead body when he shows up in the morgue. Cue the usual good but wrong ideas and House's eventual epiphany to save the guy. Also, Donny has a 10-year-old son from an ex-girlfriend and that story is both too sweet and doesn't connect back to the rest of the plot, so it was kind of a waste.

Happy Halloween?

Best Moment: The autopsy scene. I've always wanted a body to pop up on the autopsy table in something that isn't a horror movie or a stupid joke (the latter of which has previously occurred on House).

Notes: House tried talking to his dead father before bed at the end there. Since when did House ever have a decent enough relationship with his dad to justify that?

Episode Rating: 3.5/5- Everything felt a little forced and hokey tonight, but House had fun and the patient premise was a bit different. So far, I've enjoyed this season, so a mediocre episode can be tolerated.