Considering how many things I loved in "Under My Skin," I should probably have liked the episode as a whole more than I did. But it never managed to be more than the sum of its parts.

However, those parts were pretty cool, especially House's episode-long complete disintegration. House was pathetic, diagnosing himself while trying to ignore Amber; it was a nice touch when she pointed out that by ignoring her, he was ignoring his own knowledge. (Of course, only House would be doing his own differential on the back of an envelope. Classic.)

Just when I think Hugh Laurie's acting can't get any better, we have an episode like this. He quite simply took my breath away on several occasions, such as his detoxing from the Vicodin. And Amber's taunting was almost terrifying as it got nastier, so kudos to Anne Dudek and the writers there. "If you take the pill you don’t deserve her. If you secretly take the pill you don't deserve anyone." Ouch.

(Nitpick: Wow, that was some fast detoxing. So, what, he's all better now? It's all out of his system? I'm no doctor, but that doesn't seem right.)

Other things I enjoyed in the diagnosis storyline: House calling Wilson to say he's putting himself in an insulin coma, Wilson getting House a spot in rehab, and House admitting to both Wilson and Cuddy that he needs help.

Unfortunately, the House differential storyline suffered when it made a screeching left turn from Wilson to Cuddy. Don't get me wrong: Cuddy watching over House had me teary-eyed, but it would have made sense to have *both* Cuddy and Wilson there--Cuddy to be the hardass and Wilson to be sympathetic.

The detoxing scenes were fabulous. Oh, the sense of history between House and Cuddy and her noting that she'd last lied to him twenty years before. ("I audited your endocrinology class.") And "I'm your hospital's biggest asset." "Is that why you think I’m here?" was absolutely note-perfect. Even after all these years and all the big talk, he really doesn't believe she could care about him, let alone love him. It's doubtful he believes anyone could (or should) love him.

Then Cuddy and House done sex. Yikes. I'm sure the writers could have come up with a more trainwreck of a time for them to finally do the deed, but I'm not sure how. I'm also not sure where they're going to go with this, although I can pretty much guarantee it won't be hearts and flowers and happily ever after for the two of them.

Which, of course, brings us to the second couple of the week: Cameron and Chase. I can't decide which one of them annoyed me more this week, sad to say. I'll absolutely grant that Chase had a right to be weirded out by the sperm issue, but to insist that she should have no doubts about marriage wasn't exactly fair either. Is this the first time Chase has noticed that Cameron has Issues?

How can he have forgotten about the dead husband, what with House reminding them every five minutes? I have to agree with Cameron that it's naïve to have no doubts whatsoever about getting married.

And so we come at last to the Patient of the Week. Uh, who was that again?

Okay okay, seriously, the ballerina PotW was interesting, and there were some nice scenes with the ducklings treating her, but the PotW was mainly there to keep tension on House while he was doing his own diagnosis. (And to have a seriously gross complication. Skin peeling off? Ewwww!) However, the PotW and her boyfriend were the third couple of this week's episode, and definitely not a stellar example of trust rewarded.

It was an interesting twist for House to correctly guess that someone had cheated, but guess the wrong partner. I agree with Foreman that House should be proud to have figured it out at all, but we know that House is unable to handle being wrong about anything...ever.

The PotW storyline had two particularly fabulous moments: House's very sincere apology about the antibiotic reaction and the ducklings' differential without House, especially when Taub gets Foreman to stay by poking at his pride. Hooray for Taub coming up with a crazy idea on his own! And another hooray for it actually working!

In conclusion, I want to discuss the theme, the central idea, the point of "Under My Skin." I want to, but I can't, because I have no idea what it is. Which is what I mean by the episode not being more than the sum of its parts. We had three couples, trust issues, and...something, I suppose, but I don't know what.

Next week, we reach the season finale and presumably it will be shocking. After hallucinations of Wilson's dead girlfriend nearly killed Chase, I shudder to think what the writers consider shocking.