matthEVIL

hi matthew matthevil here im getting into arguments on tiktok and like. this is just objectively not true, right? like I don’t even really think fauxcest is a thing but I feel as though even if it were it isn’t a thing in this case. im getting irritated and I can’t word my thoughts properly

I'll be honest, I'm not even sure what they mean: are they saying House/Chase is good? Bad?

There is a case you can make for Chase seeing House in a similar vein as he does his father: Chase's usual way of trying to ingratiate himself to House is by sucking up, trying to win points, but specifically by doing what he perceives House wants, that is, by imitating House (badly), or by cold reading House and saying what he thinks House wants him to say (for example in Paternity, where Chase does it repeatedly). Chase will also fairly regularly put his own beliefs or opinions aside in order to appease House — both because he wants that approval and because he doesn't want to be on House's shitlist ("I'm against the death penalty in theory. In practice, however, watching a murderer die offers me a lot less grief than annoying my boss"). Chase is kind of a pragmatist: he wants to get along, in as far as he wants to make his own life easier.

This is something that, by implication, he very much learned from his father. As House himself puts it in Damned if You Do: "Good boys" do what they're told, like going to med school when it's the last thing they want. Foreman brings this up later in Finding Judas: Chase does "whatever his father tells him." Foreman means it as an attack, but Chase himself is pretty explicit about how much this sucks: he's in a career he didn't particularly want (or at least choose), in a country on his father's behest (Rowan got him this job, after all), and in return… his father neglected him well past the point of abuse. Chase has always been a Good Son. He does what he's told. He's eager to please, eager to kiss ass, eager to Win Points. It didn't work with Rowan. It also doesn't work with House, who among other things is considerably friendlier to Chase after Chase gets over him and starts pushing back and challenging him in the latter part of S3.

So yeah, you can make a case that Chase, if he didn't see House as a father exactly, did fall into the same pattern of behavior he learned from his father (be obedient, seek approval, put aside your own feelings/wants to make him happy). What this leaves out, of course, is that this is not a good thing, that Chase does not seem to enjoy it, and that as soon as House returns the favor by assaulting him in the hospital lobby, Chase stops chasing this relationship in that way (you can even argue that this started by The Mistake: House never gives Chase anything, and Chase knows it). Chase has always found House to be funny and liked the guy, but he also basically shrugs and moves on and gives up on winning points after S3: even when he returns to the team in later seasons, he enjoys House's company while never trying to connect or admire or even accept House's concerns. S1 Chase probably would have been a bit awestruck by House telling him he was sorry and wanted better for him; S8 Chase can't wait to quit PPTH and get out of the shadow.

(There's also the fact that, you know, even if Chase might have — subconsciously or consciously — been trying to emulate his relationship with his father through House, House very much never was interested in that dynamic or relationship. See again how much more House likes him after he stops.)

1. Canon I outright reject

2. A canon or headcanon hill I will die on

3. Obscure headcanon

4. Favorite line

5. Best personality trait

6. Worst personality trait

7. Age/height/weight headcanon

8. Unpopular opinion about them

9. Scene that first made me love (or hate) the character

10. Best moment on screen (or in the book)

11. Faceclaim for the role

12. Crack headcanon

13. Dumbest thing they’ve ever done

14. Most heroic moment

15. Worst thing they’ve ever done

16. Deepest darkest secret they won’t even admit to themselves

17. Quotes, songs, poems, etc. that I associate with them

18. What they’d go to see a therapist about

19. Vices/bad habits

20. Scars

21. Drink of choice (not just alcoholic)

22. Best physical feature

23. If they were a scented candle, what would they smell like?

24. Most annoying habit

25. 3 things they’d want to take with them if they were dropped off in the middle of nowhere

26. What they would do if stuck in an elevator with [insert character of your choice from the same fandom]

27. Their guilty pleasure

28. How they feel about [insert character of your choice from the same fandom]

29. Eating habits

30. Sleeping habits

31. If the had a tumblr what would it look like?

32. Something guaranteed to make them smile/laugh

33. Something guaranteed to make them cry

34. How they react when they are feeling X emotion (sad, angry, excited, scared, etc.—can specify as many as you like)

35. Their idea of a perfect day

36. Their favorite season

37. What they really think about themselves

38. Favorite holiday

39. Favorite game

40. Favorite book

41. If they could have lunch with anyone in the world (living or dead, from any fictional universe or the real world), who would it be?

42. 3 comfort items

43. 3 favorite foods and 3 they despise

44. Their happiest memory

45. Their favorite celebrity

46. The person they most admire

47. Their dream job

48. Scariest moment of their life

49. Favorite toy as a child

teamwork is not a good episode. not just as a cameron fan who thinks the show suffers immensely without her, but as an episode of a television show. the pacing is all over the place: taub and thirteen are given as much emphasis as cameron and chase, despite the emotional weight of the season so far being on the latter. the emphasis is on the audience, the episode is performing for them: who is house going to pick for his team?? ooooh, remember how fun season four was? let's do it in one episode, with none of the stakes! it's never made particularly clear why chase decides to abandon his marriage for house (especially given his lines before, after, and during the episode), and house's reasoning for both him and cameron is nonsensical: chase's marriage is over unless he proves to cameron that house isn't to blame for dibala by working for house, but also cameron's only reason for not working for house is her relationship to chase?

cameron ends up breaking up with house, not chase, which is so egregious they threw in a bunch of retcons in lockdown to fix it (none of which actually addressed any of the events from these past few episodes), and in the last minutes of the episode cameron also proves this whole hiring plot was pointless as she was never coming back anyway. and the thing is: the writers knew this! JMO was off the show! this was public knowledge! the show ends up trying to play this as a huge twist, as suspenseful, and so it has chase talking about monogamy (what if he leaves!) and scenes with taub and thirteen (what if they go!) and house treating cameron's staying as a foregone conclusion: something in character enough for him, sure, but --

it's for the audience. it's not for the characters. it's for us. it's a plot twist. it's shocking. it's suspenseful. at least it's meant to be. the point isn't "this is cameron's last episode, let's resolve her and chase and send her off," it's "let's shock the audience."

to use chase as a good contrast (bc the show doesn’t care about chase): he’s fatphobic in 1.5 episodes and then by s5 he’s shaming teenagers for their fatphobia. he’s over it! yay! we never really see it, he doesn’t get any arcs or pov episodes until s6; his focus episodes and plots tend to be perceived through house or even stacy’s pov (“what is chase doing and why?”) and we’re never really given his perspective on things. how does he feel about his and cameron’s meth hookup? idk. how does he feel about getting fired? idk. punched? who knows! his getting punched out by house is used to develop wilson’s character; his father’s death is a mystery for house and stacy to unravel, his emotions and feelings are hardly ever explained. and the same with chase’s flaws. how does he feel about vogler? no idea. does he feel bad about ratting? idk. everyone assumes he’s going to rat to tritter; how does chase feel about that? was he tempted? who knows!

foreman, by contrast, is given flaws and issues and forced to address them and grow, because the show cares much more about foreman’s perspective and growth. he has many, many such episodes, both positive/negative, where he is put in a situation (his boss is in town! he’s in charge of the team! he doesn’t like a patient!) and has to react and adapt, and when he does, we’re mostly in his head and perspective for it instead of observing him as a mystery to resolve. (contrast moving the chains, a weird episode in part because for maybe the first time, foreman is given the chase treatment: a situation isn’t about him, but about house getting to solve him.)

to use chase as a good contrast (bc the show doesn’t care about chase): he’s fatphobic in 1.5 episodes and then by s5 he’s shaming teenagers for their fatphobia. he’s over it! yay! we never really see it, he doesn’t get any arcs or pov episodes until s6; his focus episodes and plots tend to be perceived through house or even stacy’s pov (“what is chase doing and why?”) and we’re never really given his perspective on things. how does he feel about his and cameron’s meth hookup? idk. how does he feel about getting fired? idk. punched? who knows! his getting punched out by house is used to develop wilson’s character; his father’s death is a mystery for house and stacy to unravel, his emotions and feelings are hardly ever explained. and the same with chase’s flaws. how does he feel about vogler? no idea. does he feel bad about ratting? idk. everyone assumes he’s going to rat to tritter; how does chase feel about that? was he tempted? who knows!

foreman, by contrast, is given flaws and issues and forced to address them and grow, because the show cares much more about foreman’s perspective and growth. he has many, many such episodes, both positive/negative, where he is put in a situation (his boss is in town! he’s in charge of the team! he doesn’t like a patient!) and has to react and adapt, and when he does, we’re mostly in his head and perspective for it instead of observing him as a mystery to resolve. (contrast moving the chains, a weird episode in part because for maybe the first time, foreman is given the chase treatment: a situation isn’t about him, but about house getting to solve him.)

the ironic part is that 1976 is what makes sense for CHASE -- his age gets bumped up, but even in s1/cursed it's said his parents divorced 15 years ago when he was 15, so i can accept him being 29... if we pretend he never got a double specialty... and rowan pulled strings... it just about works out that he could be an intensivist in s1.