Massage Therapy (House)

"Massage Therapy" is the fourth episode of the seventh season of the American medical drama House. It aired on October 11, 2010.

A young woman (Erin Cahill) is home alone. She hears a noise, notices the front door was open and calls her husband, Billy (Zachary Knighton), who is in his car a few blocks away. She searches the house, fearing intruders. It turns out to be nothing but the wind, but when she runs into Billy arriving downstairs, she begins projectile vomiting.

House (Hugh Laurie) is introduced to Kelly Benedict (Vinessa Shaw), the new fellow Chase (Jesse Spencer) hired. Not surprisingly House doesn't give her a warm reception. A few ideas are tossed around about the vomiting woman, one of which is lead poisoning.

House tells Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) he and Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) aren't spending the night together at her place and he isn't spending any time with Cuddy's daughter yet. While working on Margaret, the vomiting woman, Chase assures Kelly not to worry about the cool reception she got from House and Foreman (Omar Epps). They notice multiple broken ribs, something she never told the doctors about.

At Margaret's house, Foreman denies having lasting feeling for the departed Thirteen (Olivia Wilde). They find a credit card receipt from a lunch Margaret never mentioned. Margaret tells the docs the lunch was an honest mistake and the fractures are a decade old. House is less than romantic the next time Cuddy leaves his place. As she leaves, an attractive blonde masseuse is arriving.

Doing research into her past histories, Kelly finds Margaret is using the social security number of a woman born in the 1940s. Cut to Margaret seizing with a heart attack and being worked on by the whole team. Margaret wakes up to House asking who she is. She tells Billy that five years ago she was married to an abusive man. She left him, but he found her, stalked her and poisoned her dog. She took a dead woman's identity to escape the man (named Carl). She tells them her real name is Jenny.

House grills Kelly for answers about Jenny's dueling stomach/heart issues. She doesn't come up with anything. House suggests perhaps the ex used the poison with which he killed the dog to poison Jenny as well. Foreman isn't convinced Kelly is talented enough to work with them. He thinks Chase wants to sleep with her.