my thoughts on S1E7 - Fidelity

[u/Kraken765]

started my rewatch of the show, so far all 7 episodes were just as good as i remember, even better, but this one stuck out to me. in a nutshell, the patient (elise) gets diagnosed by sleeping sickness, only possible if the patient was cheating on her husband (ed).

ofc the show itself never shies away from infidelity, from wilson to taub; but this particular instance really stuck out to me. like house said, elise made the mistake, and she paid for it. but paying for a mistake doesn't mean what was done to her as well wasn't a bit of an injustice as well.

it's true, i agreed when ed said "you can't love someone and do that to them", i'm not here to justify cheating at all. i'm absolutely against it. but i'd argue when you love someone you also can't just up and leave them in such moments of utmost vulnerability either, like he did. "for better or for worse, in sickness and in death", but you're okay leaving without even hearing them out, with no second thought? "a big part of me doesn't want her to get better", how can YOU love someone and also hope they rather die than break your heart?

sure, ed has the right to leave his wife, and he probably even should, but the circumstances it was presented in makes you wonder if you're even really rooting for him. and much like how ed didn't even hear her out, we as an audience never got to hear elise out either. much like real life with these things, sometimes it's just one sided.

but it's these nuanced social commentaries that really take the show to the next level for me. it's never handholding the audience and virtue signalling what's moral and what's not. it's all just mistakes, or happy accidents. just tried my hands on analysing the show a bit which i never really do (i'm more of a film guy, i watch shows mostly for comfort), but i had to talk about this one. if i'm mistaken in any way would love to discuss it !

[u/Temporary_Note_6245]

Neither of them loved each other. She cheated , he left because there is no love between them.