The Super Bowl had an exciting finish, but not nearly as exciting as this post-football episode of House. What a nifty twist to have a patient that House finally wants to touch and talk to, but can't because she's at the South Pole!

And Mira Sorvino was fabulous as Dr. Kate Milton, a psychiatrist doing research at the very remote and unreachable Antarctic outpost. Damn, this doctor is bad-ass, refusing to take medication that someone else might need and sticking a syringe in her own chest to reinflate her lung. Not to mention the terrifying biopsy of her own lymph node. Wow.

I absolutely adored the back-and-forth between House and Milton. They were believable and funny and scared...and how often do we see House truly scared for a patient?

He was scared, it seems to me, because he's gotten blasé about having an entire team of specialists to sic on his patients. Sure, he may pick on his fellows and Foreman and Wilson, but he knows they're damn good, and if his patient goes into crisis, he can leave them in safe hands and wander off to think. But suddenly this hot, funny, clever chick is stuck thousands of miles away with no other doctors, and House discovers he doesn't like that at all. Control is everything to House and now he's completely lost it. He's at the mercy of what his patient is willing and able to do!

But our guy is such a horndog, isn't he? I loved the scene where she's scanning herself and she refuses to strip until House shows her his apartment. Especially fabulous was the way House's expression changed when he saw the swollen lymph node and how he automatically cut out the sexy music he'd been using to annoy her. Hugh Laurie did his usual amazing job of being both the consummate asshole and the best damn doctor at any pole.

The fellows didn't get a lot to do in this episode (and the stupid B-plot with Cameron and the cable fight was a waste of valuable screen time) but I did very much enjoy Kutner's attempts to stand up to House and his seriously cool suggestion of using drilling equipment to break up the kidney stone. (I saw the exploding jar coming, but it didn't make the scene any less fun.)

Foreman and Wilson, however, were a team of pure awesome here, trying to keep House in line. (Not to mention that "It's House's version of courtship" followed by "Oh god, he's been wooing me for years" will never stop being funny. Same with Wilson running through the lobby to get away from House. I love when House reduces other people to immaturity.)

To get back to the best part of the episode, every single scene in which House and Milton talked was perfect. "You'd rather show me your soul than your leg" was fascinating, and I wish the episode had taken the time to follow up on that a little more.

In fact, that's my main complaint about the episode: that there wasn't more of it! I wanted House and Milton to talk more, I wanted more of her views on the way House's brain works, and I wanted more House being befuddled by the experience of liking a psychiatrist. I could have easily watched another half hour just of the two of them arguing about things, and I'd have been happy. ("How bad is the insomnia? Let me clarify that: Do you drink two or three scotches before passing out in front of the TV?")

But what we got gave us a side of House we don't get to see very often, and ably commented upon by Foreman and Wilson. "You used her name!" was said in the tone of disbelief usually reserved for phrases like "but I thought you were dead!" And Wilson's utter shock that House asked the patient how she was...well, I laughed. A lot.

I especially enjoyed House's inability to come up with a nasty response when Milton notes that he's spent more time with her than he does with other patients. It seemed as if he hadn't quite realized it himself, or maybe that he just hoped she wouldn't realize it.

The minor character of the Mechanic Who Loved Her was pivotal and adorably played. I absolutely bought his feelings for her, even though we only saw him a few times, and that final hug almost brought tears to my eyes.

And as always, the episode had tons of funny dialogue; for example, "I can't get cable, but I can get the South Pole in high def" and "Excessive Antarctic drilling. Bad for the environment and the ladies."

At the beginning of this review, I said that the episode had an exciting finish, and I think you'll agree that watching a mechanic drill into a doctor's head was pretty exciting...but I was actually thinking of the bizarre sight of House practically pushing Milton into the arms of the man who loves her.

When House said "Don't thank me, he's the one who saved your life," I thought I might faint. And Milton knew exactly what he'd just done. I'd give almost anything to know what the character was thinking at that moment, when she gave House a significant look.

"Frozen" is a fine example of enjoyable House, and for once, a gimmick that really worked to make the episode special.