‘House’ shocker (***spoilers***)
If you haven’t watched last night’s “House” and plan to, stop reading now, because there’s no way to discuss this without spoilers. I hadn’t watched the episode myself until I started hearing buzz about it on Twitter this morning. (Follow me at www.Twitter.com/gailpennington.) So I made this very dark episode a priority — and in fact, the shocker arrived in the first 10 minutes, when….
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Dr. Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn) was found dead, a gunshot wound to the temple. What made him kill himself? That’s what his colleagues pondered, with House (Hugh Laurie) treating the tragedy like a case he had to solve. Fox has set up an online memorial for the character and is also selling T-shirts (saying “Normal’s Overrated”) to benefit the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
What’s the story behind the story? Michael Ausiello reports on EW.com that Penn left the show to go to work in the Obama administration. Read his interview with Penn.
The episode was poignant. I still consider “House” one of my favorite shows, and I liked Penn’s character well enough, but I realized after he was gone that I didn’t think of him as one of the “real” characters, i.e. the original members of House’s team. I’m not sure I even realized his name was “Lawrence Kutner.” Has “House” been the same since the team was broken up and new people brought in? I don’t think so. You?
That was quite a shocker last night! When “13″ saw his body with all of the blood on the floor, I figured, nah, it was someone else. Then I figured it had to be some kind of drug-induced delusion or even a dream.
As the story unfolded from House’s unkind remarks to the grieving parents to his obsession that it was murder instead of suicide, well, I was riveted to the story. And it appears it will be continued in some fashion next week.
I liked the original cast (Dr’s Chase, Cameron & Foreman) but House’s search for a new group to pick on (as well as his reasons for elimination) was hilarious. When he decided on “13″, Taub and Kutner, they kind of grew on me. C’mon, who ever thought Kumar would be such an interesting character on episodic tv? They each had interesting story lines and it had reached the point where Chase and Cameron were only seen when their expertise was warranted.
Kutner will be missed.
Kutner will be missed. The question I have is why is he off the show? I checked at IMDB and the actor that plays Kutner has a lot of things going rightnow, so did he leave on his own, or did the writers just need a shocker?
I’ve always wondered if the original three would eventually come back to House’s “team” and 13, Taub, and Kutner would disappear after a couple of seasons…
I was very shocked at Kutner’s death, but this is why I love this show. No one is safe. House fires people like he pops vicodin. Everyone is flawed and evidently, so was Kutner. (BTW, who knew 13’s real first name is Remy?) Good for Kal to follow his dream to work in the Obama admin., but I think it will be difficult to take Kumar seriously.
Tim — can’t you even make it to the 3rd paragraph? Kal Penn is leaving to work in the Obama Administration. In case you are still confused, Obama is now the President of the United States.
I was shocked, indeed, to learn last night that Kutner died. I figured he must have gotten his own TV show (”Anti-House,” maybe).
But I found the suicide unbelievable. Kutner seemed to be the most centered character on the show. It would have made more sense to have it be a random murder.
My daughter thought maybe Taub had done it since he’s been so odd lately….
Sure knocked me outta my chair. He was my favorite character. Real life guy has a job in the white house as a liason with the “arts”…whatever the hell that is.
Hmmmmm…. the White House has a “liaison to the Arts”, but there’s no “liaison to the working stiff who is out of a job due to the crappy economy”. I guess if you’re in “the Arts” (i.e. Hollywood leftist liberals) you gave so much money to the Democratic National Committee that now it’s payback time and this guy’s name was pulled outta the hat. It sure ain’t what you know, children, it’s WHO you know.