House: Hey! You! I know you! I know you!

Spoilers for �House� coming up just as soon as I make sure my pills haven�t been tampered with...

Ahh, the therapy episode. A tried and true TV staple, and handy as all get out when you have a bunch of new characters who haven�t had much solo time to establish themselves. This being �House,� of course, they couldn�t do things as simply as to have the candidates deal with an actual therapist, so instead they disguised the concept with the mirror syndrome patient, well-played by Frank Whaley. And, as Grumpy noted, this wasn�t exactly like seeing a shrink because the patient was completely unbiased. As viewers, we needed to buy into the notion that he could completely psychoanalyze someone after hearing them utter a few sentences, but when you�ve got a dozen or so characters and only 42 minutes of screen time, leaps need to be taken.

(Poor Whaley, by the way. His career seemed so promising after �Field of Dreams,� �The Freshman� and his Oliver Stone movies, but then the ironically-titled �Career Opportunities� essentially killed it, and now most people just know him as the guy whose burger Sam Jackson eats in �Pulp Fiction.�)

Sorry. End digression. While I don�t think we learned anything we didn�t already know about Cutthroat Bitch, Grumpy or Unnicknamed Plastic Surgeon, Kutner (who I keep wanting to just call Kumar for simplicity�s sake) was a pretty blank slate before last night, and we even got some minor insight into the mystery that is Thirteen.

While I�d be fine with never seeing Cameron or Chase again, I�m glad Foreman�s back. Omar Epps and Hugh Laurie have developed some strong chemistry over the years -- maybe not Laurie/Robert Sean Leonard strong, but strong enough -- and he serves a valuable role that I don�t think any of the candidates can, as the one guy who always stands up to House and the one doctor House respects unreservedly (much as he acts like he doesn�t).

Nice to see Wilson and Cuddy get more prominence after being mostly AWOL during the candidate search, and the only thing the episode was really lacking were more reminders that Chase had chosen �Nobody� in the pool; by the time we got to the payoff about Chase and House splitting the profits, I had forgotten about the set-up. Plus, I�m pleased to see in the previews that the dreaded Michael Michele�s role won�t be one (presumably) that could threaten to turn into a regular gig.

What did everybody else think?