'House': Our predictions for the final episode ever

Published May 21 2012, 14:00 BST  |  By Morgan Jeffery

It doesn't seem so long ago that Fox were announcing that the eighth season of House would be the show's last, but we've already reached the show's end-point. 'Everybody Dies' - airing tonight (May 21) at 8/7c on Fox in the US and on Thursday (May 24) at 10pm on Sky1 in the UK - is the final episode ever...

So what can we expect from the series finale? Well, let's consider where we left everyone's favourite curmudgeon (Hugh Laurie) and his team - a cancer-stricken Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) has five months to live and House will likely be in jail throughout his friend's final days thanks to a prank gone wrong...

First of all, it seems deeply unlikely that House will end with our lead in jail. It lacks dramatic impact on two levels - one, it's the most obvious outcome and so hopefully the one that the show's writing team will be most keen to avoid, and two, we've already seen House in jail once - same old, same old.

We'd put good money on the wily medical maverick scheming his way out of a return to prison, since we can't believe that he'll really be robbed of his final days with Wilson. Speaking of Wilson, his part in this finale is somewhat harder to predict, given that he's been the chief focus of the show's past two episodes...

We've seen Leonard's stoic oncologist learn of his diagnosis, struggle to fight it, sink into depression and seemingly come to terms with his imminent death. He's been afforded so much development that it's really difficult to see where he can go from here.



Quite rightly, the House series finale should focus chiefly on the show's title character, so we wouldn't be surprised to see Wilson play a less prominent role in 'Everybody Dies' - his fate feels more or less resolved already and all that's left is to put the perfect button on his relationship with House.

So moving onto that ominous episode title, 'Everybody Dies' - we've heard that plenty of familiar faces will be returning to Princeton-Plainsboro tonight, including Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) and Martha Masters (Amber Tamblyn). It would be rather a cheat, with a title like that, if no-one met their maker in the finale - could a funeral be what brings all these characters together?

Of course, the obvious candidate to die is Wilson, but we wouldn't be at all surprised if the House writers pull a last-minute switcheroo on us - as a hypothetical, what if Wilson still has months to leave but Taub, Chase or another character is caught in a fatal car cash, proving the unpredictability and fragility of life?

Perhaps the most intriguing returnee is Kal Penn - let's not forget that his character Kutner killed himself back in season five, so any return would suggest some kind of flashback, hallucination or ghostly intervention. Could a dearly-departed character - whoever it might be - meet up with Kutner on 'the other side'?

One of the most intriguing twists in House of late was Chase (Jesse Spencer) handing in his resignation in the episode 'Post Mortem' - he was absent the following week, but we've been promised that Spencer will reappear in 'Everybody Dies'.



Again, Chase returning to the hospital so soon would stretch credibility, so we're banking on a funeral being what brings him back into the fold. We've also been told that Chase will "interact" on some level with his ex-wife Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) and while there probably won't be time for a full-blown reunion, we'd like some hint that the pair could reconcile - it would serve as pay-off to Chase's recent womanising and would be a nice gesture for longtime House fans.

With a return for Cuddy ruled out, the only other original cast member who needs some attention is Foreman and here's our prediction - he won't get it. Poor Omar Epps has been badly neglected this year - bizarre when you consider that his character took on a whole new role and the potential character development that could have resulted from his promotion.

We fear it's too late to do anything interesting with Foreman, beyond a token moment in the finale's final scenes. That aside, we expect him to roll his eyes and snipe sarcastically at House - a shame, because Epps is capable of much more when given the right material.

Overall, the final season of House has been a bit of a mixed bag, but the last few episodes have seen the show return to its former glory, hitting all the right notes with plenty of humour, emotion and high drama.

So we're fairly confident that series creator David Shore and his team won't drop the ball with 'Everybody Dies' - the House series finale is sure to entertain, but will it tick all of our boxes and wrap up an eight-year-old series in a satisfactory manner? That remains to be seen...

What are your predictions for the House finale? Will you be sad to see the medical maverick go? Leave your comments below!