House has been in a bit of a slump this season. Aside from the addition of the spinoff-able private investigator, and the surprising loss of Wilson there has been zero serious earthquakes in the House world. After taking a week off Fox’s ads for House promised some action this week, and despite keeping the tried and true formula of crazy illnesses alive, they did a fairly good job.

House’s father has died and in standard House fashion he absolutely glosses over it. Instead he chooses to focus on a patient. While tracking down her birthparents in China, a woman throws up blood and collapses. House’s merry band tries to convince him that he needs to get in touch with his mother who has been calling frantically. House rebuffs their pop psychology claiming he never liked his father to begin with.

House’s mother has asked him to perform the eulogy his father’s funeral. So we’re gonna get a road trip! House passes out in his office and wakes up in a car besides the estranged Dr. Wilson. Cutty drugged him in order to get him to the funeral, even going so far as to steal his Vicodine and cellphone. There’s some really good banter between Wilson and House, it helps remind us how much of a hole Wilson’s absence has left in the show. Wilson always acts as House’s humanity, and House knows it. House is fighting Wilson every step of the way, recounting stories of how much his father and he hated each other. House even goes so far as to get them arrested. Setting up a cute moment where Wilson explains how they first met at a New Orleans medical convention.

The patient’s parents are concerned that her alcoholism caused her problems, while its believed that SARS may be the culprit. Since its the first 10 minutes of the show, there’s no way its actually SARS. The patient is poked and prodded as usual as the crew fumbles to treat her without House around to guide and berate them. The patient’s drinking problems are worse than we may have expected because she falls into heavy withdrawal, forcing the doctors to paralyze her anesthetically in order to perform surgery.

House finally arrives at his father’s funeral and into his mother’s arms. House insists that he won’t speak at the service, that he’s not really his father’s son and that he had no real influence on him in the first place. Its fun to see House so out of control. He fidgets like a child and throws tantrums. It really broke the character into a place we don’t get to see him in. He was allowed vulnerability. House eventually makes his speech and its as petulant and childish as you might imagine. Even then, House still is trying to prove that his father isn’t his biological father and clips a DNA sample off the body. Wilson and House charge of the service into the funeral parlor to have it out once and for all. Its a bit cathartic, but unsatisfying. We do get something we’ve been looking for when Wilson and House banter over the life of the patient. Finally, the puzzle pieces fall into place.

The patient’s birth parents actually tried to kill her as an infant. By placing pins through the skull of the child, they hoped to kill their unwanted baby. The attempt didn’t work, but the pins where left inside. Years later, very strong magnets moved deeper into her brain and caused the symptoms.

As it turns out, House was right, his father was indeed not his biological father. And although its the result House wanted, he isn’t consoled by it at all. The only consolation he gets is the one he’s been desperate for all season. Wilson is coming back to stay.