I loved this episode of House! More so when it first aired, in season 3, when it was titled "Half-Wit." 

In that episode, House fakes being ill in order to receive a cancer treatment that basically gets him high. His team finds out in the process and in an effort to treat him, discover that he's not really sick. Watching Dr. Adams convince the team House was ill brought me right back to when Cameron attempted to stick House with a needle and kiss him in the process.

While tonight's episode "Blowing the Whistle," was the first episode in a long while where I found the patient storyline captivating, it was ultimately difficult to watch because House's sick plot was so completely recycled. But I suppose if House is going to recycle anything, better this whole "I think House is sick storyline" than a few other choice storylines in the last eight years.  

But back to the patient, Brant. It took me awhile to actually latch on to what he did that was so treasonous, but now I think I've finally got a grasp of it. This patient, (Arlen Escarpeta), and his brother, (Hayes, played by former ER actor Sharif Atkins), reminded me of something in The Good Wife. And yes, I realize that this is a major compliment for House.

This week's patient worked so well because, like House, he did what he thought was honorable, with a compelling reason behind it, even though it clearly broke the black and white rules of engagement in war.

So was he a traitor? Without getting political, I liked his motivations. He saw his own country make a terrible error and he wanted to make sure it never happened again. Of course, his methods of going about this were entirely questionable, but that's what got him into trouble in the first place. So here we have a resolute, determined man who will not back down from his perspective, while on the other side, Hayes, the clear-cut, color within the lines type, who thinks his brother is a fool. And to more clearly show that they are two sides of the same coin, they both involve their honorable deceased father in their beliefs.

Brant feels that his dad would be proud of him for holding true to his principles, while Hayes does his best to convince him otherwise. In the end, we find out that the patient's brother is capable of breaking some rules, and they're are not insignificant ones. Brant and Hayes' father died in an accident and Brant had been searching for a long time to see if the military had any involvement with the death of his father. Rather than confirm his beliefs about military cover-ups, Brant's brother confessed to falsifying the records to cover-up his father's dishonorable death: driving drunk and killing a pedestrian in the process.

We're left wondering if honor is in the intentions of an action or the action itself. Both brothers did what they felt was best and right. And both were to protect others. This leads us right to Chase, the supposed "rat" of the episode. House's Ferris Bueller routine turned out to be a litmus test to see who House could trust. Turns out Chase ratted out House's sickness to Foreman. And as payback, House released rats in his apartment. But really, what does it prove other than Chase knows House better than anyone and that he's a good friend to House? 

Bravo on the patient's storyline this week. And while I know after eight years, it's a challenge to reach for new storylines, let's at least try not to so blatantly steal from House episodes past. 

Question of the week: Is the patient honorable?