Real disappointment is actually fairly rare. It requires high expectations and the slow build of anticipating elation, only to have everything dashed at the last moment. That said, I didn't really have high expectations for the finale of this season of House. The show has hovered between mediocre and bad for the entire season and it didn't really have anywhere else to go with its plot or characters. Even the titular protagonist, the only reason the show has lasted as long as it has, stopped being interesting and started being a source of irritation, especially over the last month or so. I wanted House to go out with an appropriate whimper, but instead it managed a bang that fizzled out at the last minute. As the episode closed, I had to ask myself: How can a team of writers create such a compelling hour of television with such a tremendously stupid ending?

The majority of "Help Me" takes place underneath a collapsed building where House attempts to save a trapped woman's life. A construction worker with a mysterious condition passed out while operating a crane and crashed into the building with a lot of people inside. A huge emergency response team shows up to help the injured, including a large contingent from Princeton-Plainsboro. House discovers the trapped woman deep within the rubble, her leg caught beneath a collapsed beam.

For what may be the first time in the entire series, House actually connects with his patient. Maybe it's because her condition mirrors his own debilitating leg problem or maybe because he's feeling particularly vulnerable after learning that Cuddy and Lucas have gotten engaged. That last bit should have been a clue that "Help Me" was going to sink into the quicksand of the House/Cuddy romance that never should have even shown up on the idea board in the writer's room. For short-term mercy and long-term cruelty, the episode mostly steered clear of any latent love drama between House and Cuddy, opting to take their tension as an opportunity to deliver some really cutting dialogue.

It occurred to me early in the episode that I was enjoying it so much mostly because it was like watching a different show altogether. After all, House isn't a show about saving people from huge, cinematic disasters and holding onto hope no matter how grim things might get. In fact, this series has been unique in its clinical indifference to the wellbeing of the patients. "Help Me" was exciting and high-stakes, more like a movie and less like a TV show that has been on the air for half a decade. I've never felt particularly sad about a patient dying on House until this episode. When the trapped woman made it out of the rubble, only to die in the ambulance, it was truly heartbreaking.

That's why I wish the episode would have done something more with this plum of a premise. House has dealt with a lot of difficult emotions, but watching him feel torment over losing a patient is something entirely novel. I was on board with him shouting at Foreman in the hospital, rushing home injured and revealing his last secret stash of pills behind a nailed-in mirror. It seemed like the episode was going to go into some dark, dark territory. And then... Cuddy inexplicably shows up, acts entirely out of character, reveals she has dumped Lucas for no good reason and confesses her love for House.

Damn it, damn it, damn it. To hell with this show and its insistence on doing tremendously stupid things with its plot and characters.

Best Moment: The ambulance ride. It was such a beautifully tragic scene that it almost justified an entire season of turning House into a real boy.

Notes: There was also a scant plot about 13 having some mysterious trouble, probably related to her Huntington's. She showed up long enough to do some medical grunt work and send in a formal request for time off. Translation: Olivia Wilde has more enticing career options than being an "also starring" on a dying network TV show.

Episode Rating: Ya know what? I'm flummoxed. I really enjoyed the vast majority of this episode but the ending was so colossally bad that it just ruined the whole experience. Honestly, I'm really let down by how bad House has gotten. This used to be one of the best shows on television and 95% of this episode was as good as the show in its prime, but the plot has taken so many stupid turns that this mess is officially unsalvageable. I don't know how to translate that into a rating.