Over the years of "House," several of the main characters have gotten small changes to stand in the spotlight. The show may be about Gregory House first and foremost, but his supporting team are all characters worth developing in their own right. Most of the time the plot still revolves around medical mystery and House continues as the primary focus, but this season the writers have been experimenting. In the episode 'Wilson,' they did the entire story from Wilson's point of view. It was fun to see the insanity of House's team from the outside and Wilson's worth as the good tempered doctor he is. This week it is Cuddy's turn for special treatment.

Cuddy wakes up at 5 in the morning and goes through a ritual. She does yoga and takes care of her sick daughter, and then allows her boyfriend Lucas to convince her into a quickie before going to work. This sweet home bliss takes a bad turn when House, who paged her during the sex, admits he made a bet with Lucas that she'd stop to answer his page. She didn't, but why does she keep picking these jerks? Jeez, Cuddy! Lucas didn't seem like a prize anyway, especially not after the vicious, illegal pranks from last week.

The episode shows what it is like being Cuddy, and this is both really boring and endearing all at once. No one wants to see the life of an admin. It sucks. She is constantly bombarded with information and requests from everyone, plus she has to put out small fires all around the hospital thanks to House and other ridiculous employees. This gives the viewers a chance to see the hospital on a general level, to see the nurses and other doctors, and how much work it takes to really keep things moving on a day to day basis. This is not necessarily fascinating TV, but it is good character development for Cuddy, and it fleshes out the hospital.

The big issue for Cuddy is that she's facing down an insurance company. She wants them to concede to a very ambitious new partnership, and they refuse because the hospital is too small. They do eventually agree to bring it up into a compromise, but Cuddy won't back down and demands what they deserve. This is probably stupid, and the board indicates they will fire her if she breaks off the partnership and refuses to compromise. She stands her ground after a pep talk from House, and it seems for a bit she might be in trouble ... but come on, Cuddy's here to stay. So the insurance company gives in, and she gets a big win.

Other problems jump up for her, such as an employee who has been stealing drugs for years and finally gets caught. That woman is a terror. She pretends it was all about losing weight for her husband, but Cuddy figures out she was probably dealing instead. Then the woman is all sociopathic and promises to smear Cuddy's name and take her down. So Cuddy records her admitting everything for the DEA and ... that's a win too? There might be a law about recording people without their knowledge, but someone who watches more "Law & Order" could probably clear that up for me. Cuddy also tries to check in with her sick daughter, scold her childish boyfriend, deal with a patient that wants breast milk for his cancer (what?), and House causing the chief surgeon to get into a fist fight with Chase. Okay, that part was funny.

Basically, Cuddy's job sucks. Even if at the end of the day everything works out for her, we know it'll go back to insanity the next day. It was nice to see things from her point of view and to appreciate how much she really does. She doesn't just sit around waiting for House to cause problems; she actually works! There were some genuinely nice scenes with her and House as he showed he could be a good friend when she needed him. Also Lisa Edelstein did a great job carrying the entire episode on her back. This was an off-beat episode with very little medicine, and it was a big risk to take for a procedural, even a character-based procedural. Overall it worked, but it shouldn't happen all the time. Cuddy's life is boring in comparison to the former pill-popping misanthrope.

"House" is on FOX Monday nights at 8 PM EST.



Story by Chelsea Doyle
Starpulse contributing writer

Follow Chelsea on twitter at http://twitter.com/mustbethursday.