Satellite TV Addict

A college football star hits all the right marks during a game and is set to compete in NFL tryouts the next week. Suddenly lineman Daryl Bartlett becomes aggressive with other players then hits himself in the forehead with his own helmet, injuring himself. Daryl’s strange behavior and injuries land him in the hospital.

House and the team discuss Daryl’s injuries and bizarre actions, watching the video tape of the incident. House attributes the outburst to steroid rage, but tests reveal he is clean. The team discovers Daryl injects his sore ankles with lidocane every game. Foreman suggests repeated head trauma might lead to damage at the base of the brain leading to the pituitary gland, creating excess hormones causing the rage. House has Taub test Daryl for elevated GNRH in the blood. Daryl’s mother tells Taub Daryl must be able to play in Saturday’s game because talent scouts will be there.

Wilson becomes angry with House when he wakes to find House taking a bath in Wilson’s bathroom. Wilson tells House to use his own bathroom but House says there is no tub in that bathroom and his leg is hurting. House examines a soldier going back to the middle east for a fourth deployment, trying to get out of the tour on a medical discharge because his wife is pregnant. House chides the soldier asking him why he didn’t to to Canada or shoot himself in the foot to avoid deployment?

Tests reveal Daryl’s pituitary is normal but the GNRH is high, indicating steroid use. Daryl denies steroid use and his heart begins to race. House suspects Daryl has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. House orders the team to put Daryl through a treadmill stress test.

House intercepts a call from Foreman’s brother Marcus who is asking for a ride after being released from jail. House knows Foreman is avoiding his brother, so he arranges a ride for Marcus. House decides to hire Marcus as his assistant, knowing it will irritate Foreman, who doesn’t want his brother to work there.

Wilson returns home to find an opossum has gotten into the bathroom and made a mess. Wilson suspects House of retaliation but House says he didn’t do it. Wilson tells House he thinks the real reason House hired Marcus was to help the brothers connect again. House denies he is helping anyone. Chase tells House Daryl’s heartrate never went over 150 on the treadmill and did not induce heart problems. House decides an injection of a vasodilator will do the trick instead.

House finds Daryl packing up to leave the hospital. House notices the palms of Daryl’s hands are turning white. Taub, Thirteen and Chase offer suggestions regarding the symptom, but Foreman thinks Lymphoma fits the symptoms. House orders an ethanol drip to test for Lymphoma or Takayasu. If Daryl becomes itchy, the symptoms indicate Lymphoma and they must remove his spleen. If it is Takayasu, Daryl will lose his radial pulse, indicating steroids for his treatment. Marcus is sent by House to spy on Foreman and Thirteen while they work with Daryl.

The soldier comes back to the hospital with an injured foot. House is shocked to see the soldier has shot himself and one of his toes may need to be amputated. House prescribes antibiotics and tells the soldier he can still be sent back into active duty with nine toes. House decides to take a bath in Wilson’s bathroom to ease the pain in his leg. As House uses the safety rail to get out of the tub it comes off the wall and he falls, gashing his face. Wilson looks perplexed as House confronts him, telling him this is war over the bathroom.

Daryl becomes itchy from the test, indicating Lymphoma. As Chase removes Daryl’s spleen in the operating room he shows Foreman the liver is inflamed. They are wrong about Lymphoma. Foreman tells the team it is not Lymphoma and the team suggests other possible diseases relating to Daryl’s symptoms. House gets the scoop on Foreman’s childhood from Marcus and reveals the news to the team, upsetting Foreman. Foreman tells House Daryl’s blood is clotting, noting with the cold football weather he must have cryoglobulinemia.

House asks Marcus about his jail time. Marcus tells House it is his fault Foreman got in trouble with the law and that Foreman had spent years trying to never disappoint his mother again. House discovers Foreman’s mother died recently and Foreman did not tell anyone on the team about her death. House realizes Wilson did not loosen the safety rail in the bathroom because they did not have the right wrench to loosen it. House and Wilson stay up most of the night to surprise the intruder. Suddenly the overhead sprinklers turn on, soaking them and the apartment. Wilson concedes House would never do anything to harm the big screen TV. House and Wilson decide someone is pranking them.

Daryl decides he must leave to go to the football game even if it means he could die on the field. House reveals to the team that Foreman’s mother died recently. Marcus told House not to upset Foreman by mentioning his mother’s death and quits his job. Foreman accompanies Daryl to the game. Daryl is feeling very ill. Realizing he cannot see, Daryl decides he must go back to the hospital.

Foreman visits his brother Marcus at his halfway house. Foreman asks Marcus to stay with him because family is important. The brothers bond and Marcus asks Foreman’s forgiveness for his past drug use. House notices Daryl did not lose much weight in the hospital, someone his size should have lost more weight. Chase thinks Daryl is creating antibodies to combat cancer, called paraneoplasitc syndrome. House decides Daryl’s dark skin is masking a melanoma, House finds the melanoma between his toes. Treatment will make Daryl well again but he worries what he will do without the scout opportunities football gave him.

House and Wilson go to lunch in the cafeteria. House suddenly trips, spilling his lunch tray. Lucas comes face to face with House and admits to tripping House and pranking he and Wilson in retaliation for buying the condo Cuddy wanted to buy. Cuddy talks to Lucas about pranking House and Wilson and encourages him to ease up on it since it was just a condo she lost.

House sees the soldier being wheeled out of the hospital. Apparently the soldier did not take antibiotics so his foot would become infected and he would not have to go back to war. House is stunned to see the soldier’s foot has been amputated.