So I was musing (in the shower, of course) about the recent developments in the Foreteen arc, thinking about replies to various commenters on previous posts--and I promise I will get to them--when I started thinking about House's comments to Foreman regarding the clinical trial and whether Foreman should switch Thirteen's drug. House outlines all the reasons why it was a Bad Idea.

But when Foreman turns to leave, House says, "But if you love her...then you do stupid things." In my last House post I said I felt a definite Stacy vibe there.

Today, my brain hamster woke up and cranked the light bulb, and I realized why I felt that way: because we are witnessing House's and Stacy's story playing out with Thirteen and Foreman.

Love her or hate her, Thirteen's been getting a huge amount of air time relative to the other characters.  TPTB have been anvilicious clear on outlining her similarities to House, but there's a good reason.  Over the past season they've been setting her, and we the viewers, up, for next week's episode.  She learns she has a devastating and incurable disease that is ultimately lethal.  She copes with it in a self-destructive manner.  Foreman befriends her.  Foreman conveniently gets to assist in running a (double-blind--this is important) clinical trial for a possible Huntington's cure.  He gets her into the trial as a test subject.  They start falling for each other.  She starts improving, becomes happier.

Then the anvil ball drops.

Foreman learns something he shouldn't have:  Thirteen's on the placebo.  Of course, Thirteen doesn't know this--she knows that she has an even chance of receiving either test drug or placebo.  This should would have been explained to her before she started the trial, and she should would have entered the trial knowing that.  That's how double-blind trials run on the patient side.  On the trial design side, the researchers don't know who gets what either.  Only after the data crunching do the patient codes get revealed, so a fair comparison can be made.  (Cue me throttling the nurse for spilling the info to Foreman in the first place.)

Now Foreman has the Big Ethical Dilemma.  Thirteen can't know what she's taking--that skews the results.  So should he switch drugs on her without her knowledge, in an attempt to cure her?

Doesn't that sound familiar?

We only got to see House's and Stacy's story in flashback, most notably "Three Stories," but also in offhand comments in other episodes that suggest, now, just how similar the Thirteen/Foreman situation is to House/Stacy.  There are differences, of course:  House's leg infarction was immediately life-threatening, while Thirteen's Huntington's isn't; House and Stacy were already in a long-term and committed relationship, while Thirteen and Foreman's relationship was just beginning.

What's the same, though, is that both House and Thirteen made supposedly informed decisions regarding going into induced coma, and participating in the clinical trial, respectively.  They both knew there were no guarantees, but they chose those paths.  They had compelling reasons to choose those paths--they both wanted to live as whole beings.

But Stacy, and now Foreman, chose something else for them.  They both had information that neither House nor Thirteen had:  Stacy learned of the tissue debridement from Cuddy, while Foreman learned about the placebo from the nurse.  (Edited to correct; thank you blackmare_9  and shutterbug_12 !)  They used that information for made their choices based on their own ends and needs, forcing their choices on House and Thirteen because they were both in the dark (one of them literally), believing that that's what House and Thirteen would have chosen.

We know what happened to House and Stacy.

Next week we learn the consequences for Thirteen and Foreman.  From the preview, they ain't gonna be pretty.

This is why I think House's "but if you love her..." comment is crucial to the whole Foreteen arc.  It shows that he understands, maybe even possibly now accepts, the reasons for what Stacy did to him.  Now he'll get to witness the consequences for Foreteen, not as one involved, but as a dispassionate bystander.  Maybe TPTB want this to make a difference in House's worldview.  Dunno.  But next week's episode is the payoff for the arc, for sure.