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James Wilson
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- "He paid for your lunch, liked monster trucks, and was your conscience"
- ―-Kutner reminding House what Wilson did for him in Not Cancer
James Evan Wilson is Princeton-Plainsboro's Head of Oncology and Dr. House's sole good friend. In the series, he acts as House’s conscience, sounding board, and the enabler of his abusive personality. He is portrayed by actor Robert Sean Leonard. Apart from House himself, Wilson is the only character who has made an appearance in every episode of the series, until the episode Family Practice. He is a left hander.
As befits a doctor whose practice consists primarily of patients who are terminally ill, Dr. Wilson is sympathetic, thoughtful and compassionate. However, there are clues his personality is far more complicated, and that he essentially buries his darker side within himself. He has been married and divorced three times (his first wife was Sam, the second wife was Bonnie, the third Julie). He cheated at least one of his wives, although he did tell her afterwards. He has had an affair with one of his terminally ill patients and dated one of House‘s rejected applicants, Amber Volakis until her untimely death. Wilson states in Season 1 that he has no children. He does seem to suggest to last girlfriend Sam (also his first wife) that he wants a child with her in season seven, as when she says she should get a puppy, he replies, "Or pregnant." He proposed to her in the following episode, but it resulted in her leaving him.
He has been treated for clinical depression. Although he cares deeply for House, he often goes behind his back in attempts to help him. For example, although Cuddy proposed the bet to House that he give up Vicodin for a week in order to reduce his clinic duty, it was Wilson's idea.
Wilson has gone to extreme lengths to protect and support House, as well as enable House's abusive and manipulative behavior:
- He was the only board member to vote against firing House in order to satisfy Edward Vogler, which cost him his spot on the board and almost cost him his job.
- He lied to Michael Tritter when House forged Wilson's signature on Wilson's prescription pad. After Wilson admitted the forgery to Tritter, he once again refused to cooperate with Tritter after House saved yet another patient no-one else could.
- He was always by House's side when Stacy Warner left him, which eventually cost Wilson his second wife.
Although House is often abusive to Wilson, Wilson is perfectly capable of giving as good as he gets. In one instance, he learned that House was deliberately borrowing money from him just to find out how far Wilson would take it. Wilson retaliated by lying to House, to see how far he could go before House realized the truth. On another occasion, to retaliate for House eating Wilson's bag lunch every day, Wilson sawed partway through House's cane so that it broke when House put his full weight on it. When House hired a private eye to spy on him, Wilson deliberately hired a prostitute for a short visit and planted drug paraphernalia in his own garbage.
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Character Biography
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Early LifeEdit
Wilson was born in New Jersey to Henry and Sophie (Krugman) Wilson. Wilson's father is Protestant and his mother is Jewish; due to the mixed religions the family never seriously practiced one religion or another, although Wilson is recognized as being Jewish. From the time Wilson was born until he was ten his father Henry was a woodshop teacher that did oddjobs for extra money, Sophie was a nurse. Shortly after Wilson's tenth birthday the family moved to Pennsylvania where Henry Wilson started up a construction company along with his brother, this money made the family comfortable financially. Wilson did well in school and was also talented atheletically, he was the captain of his highschool's varsity tennis team.
Higher EducationEdit
Wilson has ties to both McGill University (he wears a sweatshirt from the university) and the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University (he has a Surgical Degree from it in his office). It is reasonable to presume he went to McGill as an undergraduate and Columbia for medical school. He also has a degree from the University of Pennsylvania where he did his specialty training in Oncology.
During this time, Wilson was trying to deal with the demands of his brother Danny Wilson, a student at Princeton University who was on medication for his schizophrenia. Danny had a habit of calling James to complain about his treatment by the professors as the medication Danny took did not totally eliminate his paranoia. However, on one occasion, James was desperately trying to study and hung up on Danny. He soon learned that Danny had left the university and didn’t take his meds, losing all contact with his family.
During his later part of medical school, he met and married his first wife, Sam Carr. It appears Sam was about a year ahead of him and that they married in medical school. The marriage was strained as Sam took an unpaid internship after medical school, leaving James to work two jobs to pay the bills as well as continuing to attend to his final year of medical school.
Chance MeetingEdit
Shortly after graduating medical school, Wilson decided to take some time off to attend a medical convention in New Orleans, Louisiana before starting his own internship. While he was at the convention, his wife had him served with divorce papers (the first time he knew Sam was dissatisfied with their marriage). While mulling the matter over at a bar, he got upset with a doctor who kept playing Billy Joel’s “Leave A Tender Moment Alone” on the jukebox. He got into an altercation and hurled a glass into an antique mirror. He was soon arrested and taken to jail.
However, he was soon rescued by a doctor who had also been at the convention who had been following him around, Gregory House. House became intrigued with Wilson when he saw him carrying around a parcel from a divorce attorney all weekend without opening it. He followed him to the bar and bailed him out of jail. They spent the rest of the weekend drinking together and soon became fast friends. Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding, Wilson never attended to plead to the charges and a Louisiana warrant was issued for his arrest.
New StartEdit
Wilson completed his internship and residency in oncology, becoming board certified. He soon found romance with a new partner, Bonnie Wilson.
Wilson enjoyed substantial career success as an oncologist. One day, House called him to let him know that Princeton-Plainsboro was looking for a new oncologist and thought it would be fun to work together. Wilson jumped at the chance, but not for the reason House thought - since Danny had disappeared in Princeton, Wilson took the opportunity to look in homeless shelters for him. He kept this secret from House for years. He only spotted Danny once during this time - while James was having dinner, he spotted him outside. However, by the time he got out of the restaurant, Danny was gone.
Unfortunately, Wilson’s second marriage went no better than his first. When House became disabled and his girlfriend Stacy Warner left him, Wilson started spending more time with House and less with Bonnie. Between this and Wilson’s infidelity, Bonnie finally decided to divorce him too, leaving Wilson on the hook for alimony.
However, Wilson bounced back again - he married a third time to Julie Wilson (who has never been seen in the series).
The SeriesEdit
Added by Protocol RedSeason 1Edit
Wilson is House’s constant friend and protector, often deflecting the attacks of their mutual boss Lisa Cuddy and reminding her how important House is both to the hospital and the patients despite his deficiencies.
It is during this time (after House treats a homeless patient) that Wilson finally admits to House that he has a brother that he has never talked about that he hasn’t seen in years.
The hospital is soon in turmoil when it obtains a new benefactor and chairman, Edward Vogler, who insists that all the departments be profitable. Wilson tries to advise House to get along with Vogler, but House instead stands on principle, refusing to endorse Vogler’s new expensive drug that replaces a cheaper drug that is almost as effective. Vogler tries to convince the board to revoke House’s tenure, but Wilson stands firm and refuses to allow unanimous consent. For his trouble, Wilson is voted off the board, and is forced to consider resigning his position at the hospital to avoid further damage to his career. However, the next time House’s tenure comes up, it’s Cuddy who stands up for House and when Vogler’s attempt to remove her from the board fails, Cuddy manages to convince the Board to remove Vogler even despite his donation. Wilson is soon restored to his job.
We also find out that both House and Wilson love monster trucks, but when Wilson refuses an invitation on the pretence that he is giving a speech and House finds out that the speech had already been cancelled, he finds that Wilson is instead meeting Stacy. Stacy is soon back in House’s life when she seeks treatment for her husband Mark Warner.
Season 2Edit
Wilson is brought into action when Stacy returns and it appears House wants to rekindle their relationship despite her marriage. He confronts her and reminds her of the damage she did to House the last time she left. Although House and Stacy have a brief affair, House decides to end it. However, House’s pain gets worse and Wilson can’t convince him that Stacy’s departure is the reason.
Wilson also finds out that House borrowed money from him to buy a motorcycle even though House had enough money already. House admits that he borrowed the money to see how much he could borrow before Wilson refused. In retaliation, Wilson refuses to give House an excuse to get out of dinner with his parents, leading to what turns out to be House’s last face to face meeting with his father.
However, Wilson’s personal life begins to unravel as well. Fearing that his wife is angry with him for his latest infidelity, he instead finds out that she has been cheating on him. He moves out and moves in to House’s apartment. Initially, House makes out like he wants Wilson to leave as soon as possible, but instead House erases messages from potential landlords, and then tries to make Wilson’s life as difficult as possible by stealing his food and refusing to clean up.
Wilson does manage a personal accomplishment. With House out with a patient and helping Wilson to keep Cuddy playing poker instead of checking out his activities, Wilson manages to win the oncology benefit poker tournament by slow playing a pair of pocket aces and beating a pair of kings.
However, Wilson’s womanizing ways nearly cost him his career. He has an affair and moves in with one of his terminal cancer patients. After House figures it out and confronts him, Wilson agrees to end it and moves out on his own.
Season 3Edit
After House returns from his convalescence after being shot and having treatment that removes his leg pain, he takes on the case of a former cancer patient who is confined to a wheelchair. After performing several dangerous procedures on the patient, House comes up with the seemingly crazy idea that the patient has Addison’s disease and merely needs a shot of cortical. However, Cuddy refuses permission, only to give the patient the shot herself. As if by a miracle, the patient immediately improves, showing House was right. However, Wilson tells Cuddy she can’t tell House as if she does, he will never be controllable again.
At the same time, House’s leg pain starts to return and he asks Wilson for Vicodin. Wilson refuses, figuring that House is merely suffering aches and pains from overdoing his rehabilitation. However, House responds by stealing one of Wilson’s prescription pads and forging his signature.
The deception soon turns into a disaster. A police detective takes an interest in House after he sees House taking Vicodin in the clinic. He soon finds the faked prescriptions and asks Wilson about them. Wilson lies to the detective and says he wrote them, but it’s clear the detective doesn’t believe him.
The detective soon turns up the heat on Wilson by having his car towed and suspending Wilson’s ability to prescribe narcotics to his patients. Wilson tries to get Cameron to sign off on his prescriptions, but when House calls her away to work on his case, Wilson instead gives up his oncology practice.
Wilson accompanies House on a trip to Atlantic City with a former coma patient who House has temporarily revived. When it turns out that the only way to save the patient’s son is to have him serve as a heart donor, Wilson sets up an alibi for House in a casino.
However, when House’s Vicodin is cut back, House lashes out at Chase, leading Wilson to the belief that House must somehow deal with his Vicodin addiction. He starts cooperating with Tritter and tries to convince House to take a deal that will not involve jail or a risk to House’s medical license. Instead, House turns the deal down flat. In order to keep the pressure on House, Cuddy and Wilson conspire to cut House off of Vicodin completely until he agrees to the deal. Instead House steals drugs from a patient and, even though Wilson reverses himself and stops cooperating, House nearly goes to jail until Cuddy perjures herself to convince the court the stolen drugs were only a placebo.
Wilson has to once again intervene when he realizes House is plotting to get nerve tissue from a patient who is insensitive to pain in an attempt to graft the nerve cells to his own.
While House is away, Wilson takes over the team when a middle aged woman collapses in her own home. Fortunately, Chase comes through with the right diagnosis.
Wilson ends the season by confronting House about the imminent departure of Eric Foreman and his subsequent decision to fire Chase.
Season 4Edit
Wilson puts the pressure on House to hire a new team by “kidnapping” House’s expensive guitar until he agrees to interview fellowship candidates. House finally relents when he takes a lengthy period of time to solve a case.
After the fellowship derby, House is sure that Wilson is not only dating someone, but someone House knew personally. Much to House’s dismay, it turned out to be:
Amber Edit
Wilson's relationship with Amber Volakis came as a surprise to everyone, including Wilson and Amber themselves. Wilson realized that because Amber shared many characteristic with his best friend that they might be able to have the same type of lasting relationship. He later admitted to House that one of the reasons he liked Amber so much was because, like House, she was so much fun to be with. He also enjoyed the fact that she was much more assertive than he was. On Amber's part, she had deep seated feelings of inadequacy that drove her to demand respect and to excel to get that respect. In Wilson, she found someone who could both respect her and find her attractive and desirable at the same time.
- "Nobody at this hospital even liked her."
- ―Wilson, rejecting Cuddy's attempt to sympathize with his loss in Dying Changes Everything
Amber's death devastated Wilson more than his three previous divorces had. Although he did not blame anyone for Amber's death, not even House, he came away from the relationship with the one lesson Amber taught him - she could take care of herself and he had to take care of himself, particularly in a relationship with someone like her. He soon came to the conclusion that he didn't want to enable House any more, but tried to hide his feelings from House in order not to hurt him by claiming he just wanted a change of scenery.
Season 5Edit
After a long period of mourning, Wilson returns to the hospital to announce that he’s leaving. House tries to confront him about it, but Wilson is tired of House acting like a jerk all the time and won’t change his mind.
In an attempt to reconnect with Wilson, House hires Lucas Douglas, a private detective. Lucas soon finds out that Wilson has stayed connected with everyone at the hospital except House. House once again tries to confront Wilson about this, but Wilson blows him off again.
However, when House’s father died, Cuddy enlisted Wilson to ensure that House attended the funeral. During the trip, the two confronted the problems with their relationship and Wilson learned not only that House suspected John House was not his biological father, but that House’s suspicions were correct. He soon realized after the trip that he hadn't had any fun since Amber died until he and House were back together again. They soon reconciled and Wilson returned to his old job.
After Lawrence Kutner dies, House starts hallucinating a vision of Amber and finally turns to Wilson for help. However, Wilson soon realizes that House is in serious trouble and Wilson accompanies him to Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital
Season 6Edit
House quickly detoxes from Vicodin, but refuses to deal with his underlying issues. Instead of following his doctors’ treatment regimen, he tries to blackmail Dr. Nolan and tries to enlist Wilson in the attempt. However, Wilson refuses to cooperate. However, House soon agrees to treatment and is released into Wilson’s care. Wilson encourages House to start a relationship with Cuddy, but their plans are thwarted when they discover she’s dating Lucas Douglas.
House is soon reinstated and back doing diagnostic medicine. Wilson is astounded when House tries to re-form his old team, and is even more astounded when he succeeds.
When an old friend and patient of Wilson’s needs a liver transplant, Wilson finally agrees and House shows up just before the operation for support even though he thinks it’s a bad idea. House is there for the rehabilitation as well, and Wilson soon regrets his decision when the friend goes back to his new girlfriend instead of his ex-wife.
Wilson remains supportive, even moving into a larger condo in order to give House more living space. In the process, Wilson decides to make a dig at Cuddy for starting a relationship with Lucas by outbidding Cuddy for the condo she wanted. Both of them try to get together with their new neighbor Nora, but she rejects them both. When House demands that he decorate the new space himself, Wilson gets a decorator instead but gets House a thoughtful gift - a new electronic organ.
However, Wilson soon has a new relationship in mind. He reconnects with his first wife Sam on the internet and they are soon dating and, soon after that, planning to live together. Sam and House immediately earn each other’s enmity, but they agree to keep the peace for Wilson’s sake. However, at the end of the season, Wilson is asking that House move out of the condo so he can spend more time with Sam.
Season 7Edit
When House and Cuddy get together, Wilson is initially skeptical until Cuddy makes it clear how comfortable she is with House’s sexuality.
Wilson’s own relationship with Sam doesn’t work out so well. Although he plans to marry her, he finds out during a review of Sam’s treatment records that she may have been overexposing terminal cancer patients to radiation in a last ditch effort to save them. Although he is supportive, Sam treats this as evidence that Wilson doesn’t trust her and breaks up with him.
Relationship with House Edit
The two friends are so close that gay references have been made to the relationship between the two characters of the show and House has made a joke about the relationship between them ("I'm gay!...Oh that's not what you meant. It would explain a lot, though: no girlfriend, always with Wilson, the obsession with sneakers..."). Verne Gay of Newsday described House's love for Wilson as "touching and genuine".Hugh Laurie said that the relationship between the characters is "not just buddydom".The two characters appeared on the cover of the October 13, 2008 issue of TV Guide.In an interview with E!, executive producer Katie Jacobs stated that there are equal chances of either Allison Cameron, Lisa Cuddy or Wilson "ending up" with House.
The term Hilson has been coined to describe those who support a romantic relationship between the two, and in the episodes Hunting, The Tyrant and The Downlow they have been mistaken for a gay couple. This same misunderstanding has also been explored in modern interpretations of Sherlock Holmes, particularly the 2010 production “Sherlock” set in 21st century Great Britain where people often mistake Holmes and Watson for a gay couple.
However, the relationship is deep but apparently platonic. One of the reasons House is so close to Wilson is that it appears it is the one relationship he has that he has no chance of ruining. Wilson, however, is often frustrated by House’s attempts to test the strength of the relationship, such as when House deliberately borrowed increasingly large sums of money for no reason.
- "$5,000! That’s nothing to be ashamed of."
- ―House’s response to Wilson expressing surprise that he was testing the friendship in monetary terms.
Wilson and House do share similar tastes. They are both big fans of monster trucks (and Wilson once used this as an advantage by claiming he didn’t like them that much to throw House off another scent). They are often attracted to the same women (even Cuddy at one point). However, at the heart of their relationship, Wilson often acts as House’s conscience, and House acts as an honest critic of Wilson’s own personality, pointing out faults such as his infidelities and his need to please everyone.
One other thing that Wilson does as a regular basis is to provide House with inspiration for his cases while talking about totally unrelated matters. This happens so frequently that House has commented that his strategy is often to “talk to Wilson about something unrelated” until he reaches an answer. In Not Cancer when their friendship had broken up, he went so far as to try to pay Wilson to talk about things unrelated to his current case.
This article was the featured article for February, 2011
