Season 6 of House has been all about whether or not the title character can change, or to what extent he has changed. More to the point, it's been about discovering just what's wrong him. Was it really just his drug addiction, which has been firmly put to rest? Or maybe it's something deeper, a fundamental personal flaw that makes him destructive to himself and others. I think that "Teamwork" went a long way to answer this question and it did so with a demonstration of balance and good storytelling that the show hasn't always been able to achieve.

One of my major complaints from last week's episode was that it didn't spend enough time with the patient and that it ultimately brushed her aside at the end because the episode simply ran out of time. Such was not the case this week and not to the detriment of the longer dramas involving the regular cast. The patient was a male porn star with a host of interesting symptoms, like throbbing eyes and a liver full of worms. His part in the plot dovetailed nicely with the background conflicts, especially the one between Chase and Cameron.

The happily married blonde doctors start off the episode coming to an apparent understanding about Chase's morally motivated murder of African dictator Dibala at the beginning of the season. They decide to quit their jobs and leave Princeton so they can distance themselves from the darkness of it all. When they put in their notice, House makes it his business to dig deeper into their motivations until they fall apart. He also takes the opportunity to drag Taub and 13 back into the mix under the pretense of filling the now vacant spots.

When the new team crumbled early in the season I wasn't quite ready to buy it, especially considering that this show already pulled that trick a couple years ago. It was just a matter of how House was going to con his new favorites back into his life. In short, he appeals to Taub's need for more thrilling work than routine cosmetic surgery and he needles away at 13's insecurities about her now concluded romance with Foreman (and adds a dash of Huntington's Disease drama for good measure). It was interesting to watch Taub and 13 occasionally fall into their old work-mode and House's scenes with Taub were particularly entertaining. Peter Jacobson has particularly good, subtle screen chemistry with Hugh Laurie and I've always appreciated how these two characters play off one another.

By the end of the episode our patient is cured, but the same can't be said for the team. Chase, Taub and 13 all come back to the fold, but it cost Chase and Cameron their relationship. The details of their story suggest that they would have broken up eventually, but that still doesn't relieve House of the responsibility. As far as Cameron sees it, Chase's ability to see right from wrong has been irrevocably poisoned by House's influence, or even more to the point the atmosphere of the increasingly incestuous, morally relativistic world of Princeton-Plainsboro. Everybody there is addicted to the place and maybe personal happiness is just the cost of being part of something special.

Best Moment: Cameron's final confrontation with House. It was basically a summation of her character, but it also served as powerful story moment that illuminates House himself. Of everyone who ever came into the diagnostics department, she was the only one who never compromised herself to become a function of its brilliance. If Jennifer Morrison is truly off the show, which she may very well be, it was a wonderful swan song.

Notes: It's probably a coincidence, but I'd like to think that there's some kind of thematic basis for the fact that every place in Dr. Remy "13" Hadley's life is some kind of brick cavern. Her apartment is this bare, brick loft and even her gym looks like a converted 19th century factory.

Episode Rating: 5/5- This episode finally turned some of this season's more annoying plot points, like Chase's guilt and House's aborted romance with Cuddy, into fertile story. The performances were all strong, the patient played a significant role without being too blunt and the episode contemplated the larger questions of the series.