. . . is wonderful! Seriously, why doesn't the Wilson character appear more often? He's cool! But usually you don't see him for more than ten seconds per episode. This last one he was in nearly every scene, though, and it was the best episode of House I've seen so far.
Wilson, as a character, is more or less superfluous. He's basically just there to tell House what the audience is thinking.
Agreed, it was a great episode, unfortunately I hadn't seen the backstory so I didn't have the full context.
Wilson is what I call a "dramatic straight man". In comedies, "straight men" are the keys to the shows. The characters who is always the but of the jokes. Act basically as stand ins for the viewing audience in being the "normal one". I think Wilson is supposed to act as House's "straight man". To take in all his insanity and be the onscreen proxy for the audience. Ironically, in a comedy, the straight man is far more important than the comediennes themselves. When MASH lost their straight man, Frank Burns (Larry Linville) it radically altered the entire tone of the series.
I really enjoyed the episode - gave the actor a chance to really shine in the role, and he ran with it. The episode had a refreshing sentimentality to it. Plus, the moments where the team would rush past spouting some random explanation were a hilarious bit of self-parody.
The original intention for the show was to base it on the Holmes/House Watson/Wilson relationship; the producers quickly realized this would run out of steam after a couple of seasons, so they made it more procedural and based around House's interactions with the team.
This was House's version of the buffy episode "The Zeppo," which centered around an adventure Xander was having apart from the regular cast, while they would occasionally be seen in the middle of an apocalyptic struggle that really wasn't the main plot.
It was a nice break from the show's usual repetitive formula, though. The Wilson character is interesting, as "the oncologist with too much humanity", and the actor who plays the role is pretty good.
