Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
House and Cuddy finally try being a couple, and the new arrangement follows them into Princeton-Plainsboro. Their private life keeps colliding with House’s work: he struggles to show up for Cuddy and her daughter Rachel, while the team worries that their boss is distracted. When Cuddy becomes seriously ill, House is frightened by the possibility of losing her and reaches for Vicodin again. She recovers, but the crisis exposes how little he can offer when she needs a steady partner.
Cuddy ends the relationship, and House goes back to Vicodin while trying to feel something through cases and a risky experimental drug. He also takes on brilliant medical student Martha Masters, whose insistence on honesty repeatedly clashes with his habit of bending rules. At the same time, Thirteen returns after serving time in prison, and House learns she helped end her terminally ill brother’s suffering. The team’s personal lives keep shifting too: Taub’s marriage falters, Wilson’s relationship with Sam changes, and House’s quick marriage to Dominika starts as a favour for a green card.
Near the end, House discovers the experimental drug has caused dangerous tumours and tries to cut them out himself. Cuddy is the only person who answers his calls for help. Their reunion does not repair the breakup: after she moves on, House drives his car through the wall of her dining room while she and others are inside, then escapes to a beach. His act leaves him facing prison and removes Cuddy from the hospital story, setting up the very different conditions of the final season.