HOUSE has gone through a lot of changes over the years – House himself was a drug addict.  Now he’s not.  Chase, Cameron, and Foreman were the three underlings.  Now they’re not.  13, Taub, and Kutner were the three underlings.  Now they’re not.  But there are things that haven’t changed since day one of the show – Wilson is House’s best friend and Cuddy has been the woman of his dreams (spoken or not) since an ill-fated hookup in medical school.  After a season that started with House all alone in a mental hospital, and chronicled his struggle with new found sobriety, his inability to win over Cuddy, and his issues with keeping his best friend all to himself, the season finale brings everything to a head.

Click the jump for my thoughts and reactions (as spoiler-free as I can get) –

The episode starts with a horribly distraught House, struggling with something that we haven’t seen.  Cut to 8 hours prior and the news that a crane collapse has decimated downtown Trenton.  The team is needed on the scene, and House reluctantly heads out to assess the situation with his typical frankness.  When he hears a small sound under an area that used to be the parking garage, he heads down into the darkness to see what he can do to help.

Throughout the episode, House grows more and more supportive of a woman stuck under the rubble.  He feels her pain and steps up to be the hero we haven’t gotten to see very much over the years.  In this woman, with Cuddy right beside him, he finds a confidante with whom he can share his pain.  As the episode heads towards a dramatic conclusion, House struggles with a very difficult decision (and he’s not the only one – I haven’t even touched on the “someone might be leaving PPTH” story), and the screener I got didn’t have the final scene, so I don’t know what decision he makes.

To give anything else away about tonight’s episode would be too much.  I will say that Hugh Laurie and Lisa Edelstein can stack their Emmy reels with any scene from tonight’s episode.  I loved everyone’s story line, and it shakes up the show, once again, for Season 7.  I will be tuning in to see what happens, and I have a feeling it will be a long summer waiting to see what happens next!