House decided to go all “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” on us this week. Rapper/ actor Mos Def guest stars as man who is thought to be brain dead, but due to the good fortune of being in bed next to House in the hospital (House was in a motorcycle accident) his misdiagnosis is turned over to the team.

After determining that his fully paralyzed state wasn’t caused by his accident, the team flails around trying to figure a diagnosis. As usual, the path to treatment is full of twists and turns, false positives and dashed hopes. Eventually, it looks like the patient has had   a complex infection which killed his liver and caused his locked in syndrome. After treatment, he begins to come out of his state and the happy ending is achieved.

While all this is going on with the patient, Taub has a crisis about what he really wants to do and its revealed that House is in therapy. Though there are some interesting details in the revelation that House is in therapy, it generally it feels like another dead end. Taub’s midlife crisis felt propped up as well, though judging from the preview of next week’s episode it could be made much more important.

Much of the episode is shot from the patient’s perspective. Its a gimmick but it works. Mos Def does a fine job of conveying the desperation of the patient trapped inside his own body. The perspective shots are interesting without overwhelming the rest of the story. It really did go a long way in setting the mood.

Despite matching the standard line for the show, this was an excellent episode of House. Fine acting from the guest star and a truly compelling illness made for an episode that showed that House still has a lot of vinegar inside its beaten up premise.