Exploring the House and Wilson Friendship on House M.D.

House is rockin'

Last week an episode of House M.D. (a repeat, yes) was on. I was in the same room with my Dad, and our conversation came to this revelation:

Me: *In a thoroughly shocked tone* “Well yea, Wilson is House’s friend. His only friend, really. And it’s a weird friendship.”

Dad: “I didn’t think House had any friends.”

My Dad has actually seen House M.D. more than just a few times, but mostly it’s been just snippets of episodes (he’s a terminal channel-changer). Can we blame him for not realizing that Wilson and House are BFF? I thought it was interesting on HouseisRight.com that Lynn mentions the friendship House had with Wilson and then says ‘if you can call it that’.

Can we call it a friendship? Was it a friendship? Does tolerating someone make them a default friend? But did they simply tolerate each other? (“He had that smug look on his face when he’s that pleased about something, he’s got to tell somebody and the only somebody he knows is you.” - Stacy to Wilson) Wilson is always great to verbally spar alongside. So it’s not as though House just picked a random person. Wilson might like someone who calls him on his crap, instead of not seeing through his ‘nice, normal’ facade. I think they were friends, in a very twisted sort of way. But with House, isn’t everything twisted?

Often, they say that we despise in others what we hate about ourselves. But in the House/Wilson friendship, I’m not so sure that holds true. House once said to Wilson, “You love everybody. That’s your pathology.” We certainly can’t accuse House of harboring too much love for people. Then again, does Wilson really love people? Or does he have a compulsive need to serve them in the same way that House has a compulsive need to fix them (not to fix the person, but to solve the puzzle).

Wilson and House in House M.D.

The collective ‘they’ have also said before that we go for opposites in our friendships and relationships. House is the one who points out, “I’m a night owl. Wilson’s an early bird. We’re different species.”

So, let me know what you think. House and Wilson, were they true friends? Is their friendship over now? Will they reconnect? Is it weird that normally we care about romantic relationships but in this case, it’s a simple friendship that has us asking all these questions? (I don’t think it’s weird, it’s just good storytelling!)

A patient (asking Wilson about House): “Does he care about you?”
Wilson: “I think so.”
The patient: “You don’t know?”
Wilson: “As Dr. House likes to say, ‘Everybody lies.’”
The patient: “It’s not what people say, it’s what they do.”
Wilson [after thinking for a moment]: “Yes, he cares about me.”

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