Clueless (House)

"Clueless" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of House and thirty-seventh overall, which premiered on Fox on March 28, 2006. It was written by Thomas L. Moran and directed by Deran Serafian.

The episode's cold opening begins with Maria, a woman looking in the mirror after showering when she is violently grabbed and carried to the bedroom by a man. As he attempts to force her onto the bed she fights him off, and he begins to have difficulty breathing. Her apparent concern for his welfare is surprising, given that he was trying to rape her. However, when Maria suddenly uses his name it is revealed that this man is not a rapist, but rather her husband, Bob, who was engaging in role-play with her. The man is soon unable to breathe.

Meanwhile, Wilson has been staying over with House due to problems at home. House and Wilson agree that Wilson will move out the next day.

House leads the team in a differential diagnosis over Bob's breathing difficulty. He also questions the motives for their marriage. During discussion with the rest of the team, House has too much caffeine, which leads to him juggling at inopportune times and then forcing all of them (including Cameron) to conference in the men's room while he urinates.

House is convinced that the symptoms are typical of heavy metal poisoning but none of the tests confirm that diagnosis. The more interesting finding is that while at the hospital, instead of Bob's condition remaining stable or getting better, he experiences multiple respiratory attacks.

Although Foreman pushes a lupus diagnosis and treatments, House decides Maria must be poisoning Bob, as any heavy metal that could enter his system by other means has been tested for. He tries to convince Cameron to search her, but ends up doing it himself. Maria lets House search everywhere but a body cavity search, but he finds nothing.

Still certain that Maria is to blame, House rushes home to retrieve a vial of liquid to test his theory, instructing Cameron to prevent Maria from using the bathroom until he returns. Cameron is unable to stall the wife long enough, but House enters the restroom just as she is leaving the stall, takes hold of her hands and apologizes for his inability to properly treat Bob. However, when House lets go of her hands the fingertips are stained purple. He explains that he asked Cameron to stall her only to prevent her from washing her hands, allowing him to test his theory by way of a gold indicator he retrieved from home (stannous chloride), which reduces gold ions to colored colloidal metallic gold. By applying the indicator to his hands and touching Maria's hand after she went to the bathroom, he confirms his suspicion that Maria was killing Bob with gold sodium thiomalate. Cameron pays him the $100 she bet him that the couple's marriage was happy.