Recap:'House M.D.,' Season 8, Episode 7, 'Dead and Buried'

In "House M.D.," Season 8, Episode 7, "Dead and Buried," we discover that House's love of solving medical mysteries is just another expression of his addictive personality. How typical and how disappointing.

Spoilers surely follow.

House has become obsessed with the case of a 4-year-old son of another member of his anger management group who died under mysterious circumstances years ago. His quest to find out what killed him will cause him to seriously annoy the kid's mom, her new husband, and the kid's granddad. It will also risk for House going back to jail, as his research involves him going places his ankle bracelet does not permit him to go.

House's official case is that of a 14-year-old girl named Iris who has had an anaphylactic reaction. The examination of what ails the girl takes the team through the usual false starts and red herrings. The girl is apparently pregnant but with no clear recollection of how that happened. There is also the matter of some ghastly porn she is keeping for her boyfriend, the presumed father.

To make a long story short, Iris suffers from multiple personality disorder as the result of psychological trauma of seeing her father die in a car accident when she was two. She blames herself as she was crying at the time, distracting her dad. She also has a kind of cancer that mimicked the signs of pregnancy. Fortunately the cancer is treatable through chemotherapy.

There is a subplot of Chase getting something called a "Brazilian Wax" that, as it turns out, was required by a television producer. Chase taped a segment in which he plays an Australian doctor, with exaggerated accent, bush hat, and all. It is embarrassing what some people will do to get on TV.

The 4-year-old turns out to have died to a genetic disorder which is also afflicting the mom's second child. Fortunately it is treatable. Unfortunately House has gone too far and it looks like Foreman will send him to jail again. However, Wilson, always the voice of reason, points out the obvious that Foreman's job is not to control House, but to manage him for the good of the hospital. Foreman thus has to content himself by giving House 30 hours of clinic duty in punishment for his folly.