"Joy to the World" wasn't the most stellar or coherent House episode, but it had some good moments.

I suppose the point of the episode was "be nice," which is ironic for a Hugh Laurie-headed show, because it leaves me singing "The Polite Rap" from A Bit of Fry and Laurie. And somehow I suspect that wasn't what the writers intended.

But I digress...kind of like "Joy to the World" did approximately every five minutes. Ahem.

In any case, we had Wilson challenging House to be nice to a patient, the Patient of the Week's fellow students supposedly learning to be nice (although I wasn't convinced), and Foreman learning to be nice to patients in his clinical trial. Oh, and we learned something about Kutner (hooray!) as apparently he was a bully in school. Oookay.

Of course, if "be nice" was the lesson, then we can be sure that House didn't learn it, as he won his bet with Wilson by cheating. (Parthenogenesis? In the Christmas episode? Do the writers know what the word "subtlety" means, or would they have to look it up in a dictionary?)

Kutner and Foreman, however, do seem to have taken the lesson to heart. Of course, Foreman seems to have, ah, taken it a bit too close to his heart and possibly other parts of his body.

I'm not entirely convinced by Foreman/Thirteen, although I've suspected it might be coming for a while. It doesn't seem like a smart idea medically or emotionally, but we'll have to wait and see what games are afoot.

And speaking of games being afoot, I can't fail to mention what was possibly the best scene in the entire episode...Wilson's straight-faced description of House's former patient, Irene Adler. Of course, any Sherlock Holmes fan knew immediately that it had to be a joke, but Robert Sean Leonard still delivered those lines with a beautiful amount of sincerity. Kudos to the writers for one of the best laughs I've had in a long while.

In fact, I would say that the House/Wilson scenes were probably the best in the episode. The House/Cuddy interaction was amusing for a while, but it got old rather quickly. Yes yes, everyone in the hospital has figured out they've got the hots for each other and House is going to keep needling her because he's emotionally about ten years old. Not exactly news.

Although I did get another good laugh out of Taub playing House with his "you need to talk to Cuddy or I will" speech. It was nice to see one of the ducklings get to prank House for a change! (And Taub also got the hilarious ""This is a good experience for me as my parents never got divorced.")

Another change in "Joy to the World," of course, was that Cuddy got to solve the medical mystery. Considering how often House has denigrated her medical skills, it was great to see her turn the tables on him and figure things out. (I would have liked to see him acknowledge that, however.)

The interaction between Cuddy and the PotW was incredibly awkward, though, despite both actors doing their best to salvage it. And Cuddy's attachment to her didn't make any sense except as a setup for the pregnancy solution to the medical mystery. Oy.

However, due to my own issues, I was deeply affected by the PotW's revelation of her pregnancy, premature delivery, and the fate of the baby. I was in tears as Cuddy went looking for the body, and Cuddy's joy at potentially adopting the baby affected me nearly as much as it obviously affected House.

I loved the way they played that scene, with House no longer making fun of her, and torn between wanting all her attention on him and knowing that this baby would bring her the joy he can't. You could see House considering various options and finally finding himself unable to be mean to her at that moment. Best of all was the way Cuddy barely even noticed him and didn't notice at all when he left.

(I should note, though, that the writers partially ruined an otherwise fabulous scene by having House say "Merry Christmas, Cuddy." Uh...she's Jewish, y'know. And if you think House would ever forget an important fact like that about Cuddy, you're crazy.)

"Joy to the World" did have some good parts, but overall, it was a bit lazy for a Christmas episode. (Sorry, I still haven't gotten over parthenogenesis, even as a joke on House's part.) But it did move along several storylines and it sets up some very interesting interactions for the rest of the season. Here's hoping Cuddy gets to be happy for at least a little while!