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Jeffrey Cole (usually referred to as "Cole", while House addresses him as "Big Love") was a recurring character in the fourth season on House.

He was one of the original forty applicants for the three open fellowship positions at the beginning of the fourth season. He made it to the final five candidates before he was eliminated at the end of You Don't Want To Know. He was the only remaining African-American applicant at that point. He is a Mormon and matriculated from Brigham Young University.

He was portrayed by actor Edi Gathegi.

Background and role in the competition[]

Cole was married at one point and has a child from the relationship that he continues to care for. However, he admits that he has no idea where his ex-wife is. Cole's religious beliefs often made him the target of House's jibes, which he usually responded to with a mixture of impatience and discursiveness.

Cole first comes to our attention when he and Amber were assigned, along with eight other applicants, to wash House's car while the other applicants were assigned to do tests on a patient. Amber led a mutiny and walked away from the job, taking eight other applicants with her, but Cole felt that washing House's car was a reasonable price to pay for the opportunity and refused to follow. His faith was vindicated when Amber returned a few moments later, patting herself on the back for eliminating competition. However, when she tried the same trick later on, Cole told the other remaining applicants she had tried it before.

House most likely decided to keep Cole on when he agreed to drink alcohol in contravention of his religious beliefs in order to participate in an unconventional test of a patient's liver - Cole was the only non-drinker in the group and House needed him as a control subject.

Cole started to become angry with House when he wouldn't learn his name and referred to him by a series of descriptive nicknames. This led to a bet between House and Cameron where House bet Cameron he could keep making fun of Cole without him retaliating. House lost the bet when Cole punched him in the head after a particularly egregious attempt to bait him into reacting. However, he kept Cole on.

However, by the episode You Don't Want To Know, it was clear that Cole was in serious trouble as all of the other remaining applicants had made major breakthroughs and he had not. When House proposed keeping on any applicant who could get Cuddy's thong, Cole went to Cuddy to make a deal - give me your thong and you can pick the two applicants from whom House has to fire. Cuddy apparently chose the manipulative Amber and the risk-taking Kutner. House became suspicious of the second choice as Cole and Kutner had become friends and Kutner had done an excellent job recently. He figured out Cole had sold out to Cuddy and fired him instead for breaking the spirit, if not the letter, of the intention of the challenge which was to fly in the face of Cuddy's authority.

Appearances[]

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