SPOILERS FOR ALL SEASONS OF HOUSE M.D.
If you’re familiar with the series House M.D: congratulations, you have amazing taste. Along with that, you’re probably aware of the general viewer’s opinion on House and Wilson, the main character and his love interest. Most will admit that House is a bit of an asshole — I refuse to admit as such, but that’s just me. However, Wilson is rather messed up himself. The creators of the show intended to create a character who appears near-perfect and normal, but in reality, he’s deeply flawed. This is touched on at various points throughout the series but somehow remains ignored by many viewers. Perhaps next to House, no matter what Wilson is struggling with, he’ll always seem relatively normal.
I’ll begin my explanation with the most messed-up things Wilson has done throughout the series. He slept with his dying patient, which sounds as bad as it is. Next up is the fact that he cheated on one of his wives, which brings up the other issue of his three divorces and chronic inability to make any relationship last (outside of House). Then we have the instance of him opting to give a patient his own liver, because he felt too guilty not to. There are smaller instances of him lying to House, manipulating House, buying the apartment Cuddy wanted simply because he knew she wanted it (showing his love for House), leaving House after he overdosed and various other episodes.
Although Wilson has the ability to manipulate and lie, he usually avoids doing so, showing that he could be worse than he is, but chooses not to be. This is something we see in House too. The main difference between the two, however, is that Wilson doesn’t make it everybody else’s problem when he’s struggling.
This is where Amber and House stand out. Both recognized that this is a tendency of Wilson’s. House opts to take advantage of this tendency more so than Amber, but to be fair to him, he’s much closer to Wilson and has been for much longer than her. Amber and House both actively fight against Wilson’s instinct to please everybody but himself. They force him to get upset and retaliate (more so House with their pranks and such). Amber refuses to let Wilson buy the bed he knows she wants rather than the one he does, not wanting him to fall into the same patterns as with his other relationships.
Wilson feels a deep sense of guilt, having been raised with no friends, as implied multiple times throughout the series, and treated as responsible for his brother, who has schizophrenia. This comes to a head when Wilson is at medical school studying for an important final and his brother calls him, as he does every day, to complain. Wilson doesn’t have the time to call so he hangs up. His brother then runs off and Wilson blames himself. He made one slightly selfish decision, and it ended in the worst-case scenario. Ever since then he’s trying to make up for this seemingly unforgivable sin, trying to be there all the time for everyone but himself.
We are made to believe that House is selfish and doesn’t care for anybody but himself. We hear that House cares only about solving puzzles so many times we start to really believe it. House very intentionally builds a wall between him and everyone else, patients included. In doing so he prevents himself from forming meaningful connections, knowing that if he did form such connections, he would inevitably get hurt, whether by a friend leaving him, or a patient dying. Either way, he knows he wouldn’t have the emotional bandwidth to continue with his work. We see this very clearly in the season finale of season six, in which he unintentionally forms a connection with a patient who ultimately dies, despite House doing everything right. We see that this death impacted him deeply, leading to a near-relapse after over a year of sobriety. House’s emotional experiences are externalized in less-common ways. We see that his emotional turmoil translates to physical pain throughout the series. He builds walls intentionally, believes himself unworthy of love, while also trying to sacrifice happiness for something greater. Wilson puts it best when he says that House doesn’t like himself, but he does admire himself. House fears being normal and believes the only way for him to be a valuable doctor is to be miserable.
House is the perfect subject for Wilson’s desire to please and be needed. House always needs someone, and Wilson gets to make up for not being there for his brother by always being there for House. House and Wilson are each other’s missing puzzle piece. House refuses to allow Wilson to fall into his pattern of people pleasing and repressing his emotions. Wilson sees House’s own deep and overpowering feelings.
So, we have a man who willingly presents himself as an awful person in order to create distance between himself and the world because he cares too much and feels too deeply. Then we have Wilson, who presents himself as perfect and put-together when in reality he’s depressed and guilt-ridden. He does everything in his power to please everybody around him, with little to no care about his own well-being and desires. They are both deeply flawed and equally messed up, just in very different ways. Fortunately for the pair, they have each other. Most aren’t lucky enough to find and spend their life with the person that complements their own faults as perfectly as House and Wilson do. They are toxic, they are codependent and they are messed up, but they are perfect together.