Hugh Laurie stars as acerbic but brilliant New Jersey medic Dr Gregory House in the fourth series of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning medical drama. In this episode, the doctors treat a drugabusing punk rocker who displays an alarming range of symptoms. Cuddy pressures House to decide who will make the line-up of his new team and Wilson is confronted with an unusual lawsuit.

Tired of House prevaricating over his new team, Cuddy orders him to choose two of the four remaining applicants by the end of the week. To help him decide, House picks one final case for their attention, that of a hard-living, 38-year-old punk rocker named Jimmy Quidd. According to House, the patient displays a “dizzy array of symptoms – any of which could be caused by drugs, trauma, being a loser”.

Quidd’s principle symptom is a bloody cough, but the doctors cannot agree if there is an underlying illness or whether his poor health is simply due to half a lifetime of alcohol and drug abuse. However, the case soon brings out the team’s competitive qualities when House says, “get it right, you’re hired.” He lets his entourage take it in turns to run tests on the patient whilst keeping a running scoreboard of their successes and failures – an approach that provokes Foreman’s alarm. He is determined to stop House’s game-playing, only for Chase to remind him: “That’s your role in the game.”

In an effort to shake off Foreman’s interference, House holds secret meetings with his team in various parts of the hospital. He lets Amber take the lead in treating the patient, but when her theory is shot down, 13 assumes the reins by suggesting Quidd may have malaria. This notion intrigues House, but tests soon prove negative. Kutner then takes a stab at solving the case, before Taub comes up with the idea that Quidd may have an abnormality in his heart.

Taub successfully manipulates a reluctant Chase into performing exploratory open-heart surgery on the patient, but finds no evidence to support his theory. With Quidd’s condition worsening, House finally suspends the game and threatens to fire the applicants at random unless they can come up with a solution on the spot.

With his team seemingly unable to crack the case, House struggles to decide which of them he wants to keep, and even resorts to asking others for advice. He is also intrigued by his team’s various reactions to their patient, who does not seem to care that he is throwing his life away by taking drugs and making hideous music that no one – except for House – seems to want to hear.

Amber’s revulsion to Quidd’s history of drug abuse immediately arouses House’s curiosity. “You don’t know him,” he says. “Why do you hate him?” 13, by contrast, appears determined not to pass judgment on Quidd, while Taub declares he simply wants to impress House, and has no interest in the patient’s life. “If he doesn’t care, why should I?” he says. Individually, House’s applicants offer different perspectives on the case; together, can they provide House with enough inspiration to solve it?

Also this week, Wilson realises that he made a mistake when he told a patient he had only months to live. But he is astonished when the man reacts angrily to the news that he is going to live after all, accusing Wilson of stealing his happiness. The bemused medic offers to compensate the patient for any inconvenience caused, but the man is determined to take him to court. “You’re suing me not for the wrong diagnosis, but for the right one?” Wilson asks. The man does not have a legal leg to stand on – and Wilson comes to suspect that somebody else has put him up to the challenge...