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Episode 1: Alone

Aired 9/25/07

When a gas main explodes, a young woman named Megan Bradberry is buried beneath a collapsed building. Severely injured, her face almost unrecognizable, Megan is rushed to a hospital, where she undergoes a tracheotomy and is placed on a ventilator. Cuddy is puzzled by one aspect of the case: Megan is suffering from an unexplained fever. House isn’t interested in the case, as he doesn’t have a team. When Cuddy orders him to take the case, House says he’ll do it on his own, provided she goes away for a week if he makes the correct diagnosis.

As House mulls over the facts in Megan’s case, he talks out loud, as if his team was in the room with him. He then bounces ideas off the janitor, Leon, and eventually concludes that the fever was triggered by an infection. Dressed in a lab coat, Leon accompanies House to Megan’s room. There, House interviews Megan’s boyfriend, Ben, and her mother, hoping to discover what might have caused the infection. When that avenue dead-ends, House and Wilson break into Megan’s residence to look for clues. House finds Megan’s secret diary. Inside are entries describing her depression. House suspects Megan has been taking anti-depressants which, in combination with the drugs she’s being given at the hospital, produced the infection. At the hospital, House convinces Ben and Mrs. Bradberry that it’s in Megan’s best interest to be placed on dialysis, even though both of them refuse to believe she’s secretly been taking medication for depression.

When House returns to his office, he discovers that his prized guitar has been kidnapped. He suspects Wilson is to blame, but Wilson denies it. Meanwhile, Cuddy asks Megan a series of questions. Since Megan is unable to talk, Cuddy instructs her to blink once for “yes” and twice for “no.” Suddenly, Megan’s heart rate soars. Cuddy is forced to use defibrillator paddles to return Megan’s heart rate to normal.

House and Cuddy are now faced with two unexplained symptoms: fever and tachycardia. House proposes a second explanation for the illness: the DTs. Ben dismisses the idea as nonsense; he knows Megan isn’t an alcoholic.

Convinced that Wilson stole his guitar, House shows up to Wilson’s hotel apartment and begins erasing his beloved telenovelas. Meanwhile, at the hospital, Cuddy realizes Megan is silently screaming.

Cuddy tells House that Megan has developed pancreatitis. House attributes the development to the IV alcohol being used to treat Megan DTs. Later, Wilson reacts with mock revulsion when he pulls the tremolo arm of a guitar out of a package mailed to House. He tells House that the kidnappers mean business. House insists he’s not hiring a team to help him diagnose cases.

An MRI shows no abnormalities on Megan’s pancreas, but House realizes she’s bleeding internally. House enters the operating room where Megan is undergoing surgery. He examines Megan’s uterus with the help of an endoscope. It shows she recently underwent an abortion. This leads him to conclude that Megan was taking birth control pills. A short time later, House meets Doug McMurtry, whose girlfriend, Liz Masters, was working with Megan at the time of the explosion. Doug tells House that Liz died from her injuries.

House tells Ben that Megan had an abortion and is on birth control medication. Ben insists this isn’t true, as they both wanted kids. House places Megan on tamoxifen, an anti-cancer drug, to block estrogen receptors. Cuddy relays word that Megan is now experiencing breathing difficulties and her kidneys are failing.

A young doctor suggests to House that Megan is suffering from ARDS and Crush Syndrome, both reactions to severe trauma. The problem is, there’s nothing doctors can do to save her. House gives Ben and Mrs. Bradberry the bad news. Yet House notices a lump on Megan’s arm. It turns out the lump was triggered by an allergic reaction. Ben and Mrs. Bradberry insist the allergy diagnosis doesn’t make sense.

Still convinced that Wilson stole his guitar, House moves one of Wilson’s cancer patients to another room in the hospital. Wilson confronts House, and warns of catastrophe should the patient be given the wrong medication. House thinks about this for a moment -- and makes a connection. House makes his way to Megan’s room, where he tells Ben and Mrs. Bradberry that the girl on the bed isn’t Megan. It’s Liz Masters. Both women have the same build and hair color. This explains why nothing added up in terms of a diagnosis: House had the wrong patient. Unfortunately, it also means that Megan is dead.

Cuddy orders House to assemble a team. Later, as House twangs his guitar, he addresses a group of candidates.

- From Fox.com