The POTW [Patient of the Week], Erza, is a 70ish world famous scientist who had several important papers published in his career. He's been working a particularly promising project involving cancer the past few years, but his theories haven't panned out in the experimental phase. We open with him in his lab, surrounded by lab rats. He opens one up, hopeful it might bring good news, but it's only more disappointment. He finds tumours. Not what he wanted to see. In the meantime, he's coughing and shaking as we see his lungs fill with fluid, and he falls unconscicous. One of the rats starts biting his lip.

"This is major role (played by Joel Grey), so there is much focus on him.... his condition is serious enough that Ezra would rather die than find himself helpless and incapacitated. House of course, will do anything and everything he has to - to find out what's wrong with him. Against Ezra's wishes. House pleads with him at one point to give him another day to find out what's wrong with him, promising Ezra that if he doesn't figure it out, he'll personally help him die. They don't come up with an answer by then, but House won't give up and attempts to tell Ezra they think they know what's wrong with him, just to try and buy more time...but Cameron gives the lie away with her eyes. Anyway, Ezra insists he has the right to die. House tells him he'll help him and loads a syringe of morphine - enough to kill him. Ezra is at peace with that, but of course Cameron isn't, nor is Nurse Brenda who sees this unfolding...Foreman is against it as well. They try and pull House away etc...the kind of struggle we've seen before. Tensions ensue.

"Anyway, House gives him the morphine and he goes into cardiac arrest. House knew this would happen, but he had also planned to revive him all along, lying to Ezra that he would help him die. So he brings him back and keeps him in a coma to buy time for more tests. Ezra doesn't know this of course. Cameron is digusted, and Foreman is sure she's run off to tell Cuddy. In the meantime, Nurse Brenda saw the entire thing and they are sure she's calling Cuddy and whoever else she might have to call.

"Meanwhile, Cameron has gone to Ezra's lab to see what she can find and she collects several bags of dead rats and also brings many of his old journal articles, lab books and dictations back to PPTH to comb through and read.

"The team is struggling to figure out what is wrong with Ezra, after the usual false positives and misleading results. Because of his condition (unconscious) there are certain tests they can't perform that would help confirm the lastest theory, so House decides they have to wake him up. Needless to say, Ezra is NOT happy that he's not dead. He and House do have respect for one another, as they understand each other, and even though Ezra knows House won't stop until he finds his answer, Ezra won't give in. He wants to go home and die. As this is going on, Cameron has had a chance to go through Ezra's work over the past few decades and she discovers that he was irradiating babies for experimental purposes without the informated consent of the parents. I think we all know how well this goes over with Cameron. She angrily confronts Ezra about it and he explains that if the parents knew what he would doing, they never would have consented and the breakthoughs that came about because of the studies would never had happened. The results of studies did help many other sick children and lead to new and better treatments, but Cameron thinks he was morally and ethically wrong to do it.... House is House and is obsessed with solving his puzzle. Which he does. And in the end, it's not good news.

"There is one clinic patient, Mark, who comes in with what turns out to be a cold. That's nothing special, but what is special is his "smoking hot" 17 year old daughter (Ali) who comes onto House in big way. It's no secret she wants him. As she is leaving the clinic, House drops some papers and Ali helps him pick them up, with much sexual tension in the air. Cameron happens to walk in just then, and the atmosphere does not go unnoticed by her. She's really talking about Ezra, but she shoots Ali a look and says 'he's too old and weak.'

"Ali comes back to the hospital with her father to get more meds and finds House getting a candy bar. They banter a bit and she asks why he hasn't returned her calls etc. House says he will. In a few years. Ali tells him he doesn't have to wait a few years, only 6 months. That's when she turns 18. House doesn't know whether he's flattered, frightened or turned on by her attention to him.

"Later we see House wearily coming into his office, where he finds a wrapped gift on his desk. He opens and sees it's a calendar, with the date of Ali's birthday circled. He hesitantly tosses it in the trash, but then he has a change of heart and digs it out. Tossing it on his desk.

"Just note - House's pain and cane are back."