As "The Itch" ended, all I could think was, "Doctor, heal thyself." But House has a long way to go before he's anywhere near healed.

I greatly enjoyed this episode, which combined a fabulous followup to the Cuddy/House kiss, a nifty patient of the week, and some great Chase/Cameron time. The central theme of "The Itch," of course, was, as House himself noted, cowardice. House was avoiding confrontation (and conversation) with Cuddy, Cameron was avoiding getting in too deep with Chase, and the patient was avoiding, well, everything.

(On a side note, as someone who suffers from an anxiety disorder, I was rather annoyed that the episode made it seem so easy to overcome his agoraphobia. Gee, all he needed was to be yelled at by House? Can House come yell at me? Okay, I'm done now.)

The English language does not contain sufficient vocabulary for me to explain how much I loved the House/Wilson/Cuddy scenes in this episode. Everyone was so fabulous and so in character that I wanted to kiss the writers. From House's "There's a reason the feeling of awkwardness evolved" to Cuddy's "Maybe we should have sex in front of House's office" to Wilson's "It certainly proves you've never thought about House that way," I had a fabulous time. (My love for Cuddy continues to grow, and her scene with Wilson had me in stitches. "You're an idiot. Trust me, everyone will be happier if House and I are not dating.")

I was also amused that nobody else believed House when he made his crude comment about Cuddy, but Wilson believed it immediately and tried to narrow it down to making out versus sex. And the way House lifts his head in disbelief that Wilson was the only one to believe him cracked me up. Hey, Wilson believes you when you're lying, so why shouldn't he believe you now?

All the storylines were neatly tied together into the theme of cowardice, but to nobody's surprise, Cameron and the Patient of the Week took a step forward, while House chickened out at the last minute. Not only is he a coward, but now he knows he's a coward. It should be fascinating to see what he does with this knowledge. (Three guesses and the first two don't count. Yeah, he's gonna lash out at someone. The question is, will it be himself, Wilson, Cuddy, a duckling...?)

Even Taub's storyline fit in, with the touching moment of his wife coming to him on the couch. Yes, he was a coward not to tell her about his affair before, but maybe, just maybe, things can work out now that he's told the truth.

This was a great ensemble episode, which always makes me happy. Besides the amazing Wilson and Cuddy scenes, Taub pushing back at House was a good thing, as was Chase's refusal to let Cameron use him any longer.

Go Cameron, comparing House's proposal to lie to the patient to Cuddy's surgery on House's leg. That's exactly what he deserved, but I never figured Cameron for the one to say it. Even the POTW got in a great jab at House this week, with "You obviously hate people, but it's worse for me. I'd rather die in here than go out there." House was taken aback, which is both unusual and pleasant to see.

Although I'm not an enormous Cameron fan, I thought she played an intriguing role in "The Itch," as she got a kick in the head about her tendencies to let her emotions overrule her medical judgment. I'd like to see her having learned something from the events of this episode, both concerning her relationship with Chase and how she deals with House and patients.

I loved her little "kicking it old school" bit with Foreman at the beginning, and the reminder that the original ducklings really do know House best. And I was pleased that the POTW called her on her need to psychoanalyze him at inappropriate times.

I’m not entirely sure what to say about the mosquito storyline, which, let's be honest, was a bit weird. (The dream, much as I loved it, was absolutely hilariously bizarre. House's little "huh" was made of win, though.) Okay, at the end, in seeing the mosquito land on his other hand in exactly the same location, he realized that Wilson was right, and it was making him think of Cuddy, but...it was weird.

That's a minor complaint, though, in an episode that overall made me happy. I mean, they set the patient on fire! It doesn't get any more awesome than that. (My husband turned to me in disbelief and asked, "Did they just set fire to an internal fart?" Yes, yes they did.) And the way House just put the fire out before anyone else could react and then immediately (and unconvincingly) tried to convince the lawyer that it was perfectly normal...pure love.

Of course, the team sounded like the least competent doctors ever during the surgery scene, but that was funny, especially Kutner's "I went to doctor school, not nurse school." Oh my, that sounds like some doctors I know. (We need a Kutner-centered episode now. Badly. He didn't interest me that much to begin with, but I'm getting intrigued.)

With plots that tied together, fast-moving stories, and fabulous dialogue, "The Itch" was good stuff, with everyone (including the writers) in top form.