How someone’s subconscious is capable of describing a person is explored this week through the interactions of three different couples.

First, the patient du jour is a high school senior who is admitted to Princeton-Plainsboro after she stops breathing and starts foaming at the mouth during a class field trip.  Her symptoms point to an allergic reaction, but the doctors can not find anything she’s allergic to, even testing possible fluids from her boyfriend.

No allergens can be determined, so the doctors turn to experimental cognitive science treatments after she has some hallucinations.  The tests reveal that she is subconsciously thinking about her father who passed away when she was eight years old.  As her internal systems start to shut down and death seems imminent, House realizes that daddy issues are the culprit – just not her father.

The patient’s boyfriend’s father travels frequently for work and House realizes that he must have exposed her to a foreign allergen.  He realizes that the cognitive science tests revealed that she was thinking about the boyfriend’s father because the two of them slept together.  It was the only way the allergen could still be affecting the patient and House confirms this after confronting the father, allowing him to save the patient once again.

Meanwhile, Taub’s relationship with his wife continues to deteriorate and it starts to affect his work.  Though Taub makes a number of efforts to try and convince his wife that he is still interested in their relationship it is obvious that subconsciously she is still wary of his past indiscretions.  After watching the patient’s boyfriend propose to his hallucinating girlfriend, Taub re-proposes to his wife and promises to be a better husband.

Our third couple is everyone’s favorite bickering roommates – House and Wilson.  After Wilson confronts House about leaving food on the couch, House challenges him to buy a single piece of furniture because it would tell House something about Wilson.  The world’s nicest oncologist tries unsuccessfully to shop for furniture and runs to Cuddy for help.   Though House chastises Wilson for using Cuddy’s decorator, he’s thrilled that Wilson purchased him an electric organ and proclaims that he likes what the purchase says about Wilson.