I'm beginning to wonder if the House writers are taking a vacation, perhaps leaving the interns behind to write the show. Because once again we had an undistinguished episode, with a few bright moments, but a major lack of the snappy dialogue and moments of brilliance I've come to expect from this show.

"The Greater Good" seemed to be a retread of several previous episodes, with the Patient of the Week insisting that she's doing what makes her happy, House and Cuddy...not doing very much, and a snoozer of a conclusion to the Foreman/Thirteen clinical trial drama.

I was happy to see Wilson mention Amber and get a little continuity on how he's doing recovering from her death. I think that his moment with the PotW and seeing him clean the mug at the end of the episode were probably my favorites. Everyone else is so busy with their own drama, they've forgotten about him. I hope he gets some character development soon.

Other than that...well, it's a good thing I take notes as I watch, because most of the rest of this episode was eminently forgettable. The back and forth of whether Foreman should report what he did to the drug company made me roll my eyes, because I knew he had to, because he'd compromised the trial. How could he explain a patient on the placebo having a brain tumor? I just sat back and waited for the inevitable and I wasn't all that impressed by everyone trying to convince him not to call.

Kutner calling him a hypocrite was probably the highlight of that entire storyline. (Well, that and his moment near the end: "You always blab to make people react, so you not blabbing means you don't want us to react." Yay, Kutner!)

Even the House/Cuddy interactions mostly left me cold this week, so you know I wasn't impressed by the episode. I think the only scene I really enjoyed was the one where she's watching her daughter on the webcam and gives that beautiful little speech about the elevator wanting to be home with its little dumbwaiter. That was hilarious. Now if only that kind of dialogue had appeared at any other time...

I did buy her trying to get vengeance on House and that was, well, mildly amusing, but I pretty much sided with Wilson that they both needed to grow up and cut it out. One practical joke from Cuddy was appropriate, but I didn't buy her being dragged down to his level. And despite good acting from both actors, I didn't completely buy Cuddy's theory at the end that House is just playing a part. I may believe that House is in love with her, but y'know, Cuddy honey, deep down, he's also an asshole.

On the bright side, at least this week the writers managed to tie the different storylines together. The PotW story was fairly boring, but the basic question of how much an individual owes the "greater good" is an interesting one. The PotW decided that she'd given up enough of her life to cancer research and now she wanted to do what made her happy. But everyone seemed to have an opinion about whether she made the right decision, and boy, weren't they a self-righteous bunch?

In any case, it looks like nobody at Princeton-Plainsboro is entirely sure of how much they owe to the greater good and why they do what they do. House thinks Cuddy does her job because she likes it and Cuddy thinks House does his because it's who he is. Taub is fairly sure he wants to do something more meaningful than plastic surgery...but maybe he just wants to have kids.

Foreman, on the other hand, decided to hell with the greater good, he was going to change Thirteen's drug regimen...whether or not it was actually a good idea. (Turns out, the answer is "not.") And I'd also note that apparently the drug company conducting the clinical trial isn't all that interested in the greater good or they wouldn't have simply excluded Thirteen's brain tumor results from the trial.

So nearly every one of the secondary storylines tied together rather nicely. One thing I wish they'd done, however, was tie Taub's "maybe I want a kid" story to Cuddy's. I don't mean I needed a heart-to-heart between them, since that wouldn't have been in character, but...heck, he could have simply been in the room while Cuddy was being pissed at House. Then the entire "let's have a baby" idea wouldn't have felt so much like it came out of thin air.

I'm sure something else must have happened in this episode, but I think I slept through a few parts. And I can't remember when that's ever happened before. Please, House writers, bring back the snark. Bring back the snappy dialogue and tense moments that made me love this show to begin with!