Directed by: Deran Sarafian
Written by: David Hoselton
Jerry Harmon (Salvator Xuereb) is a single father who works at home. He's drinking a lot of coffee and lets his young daughter, Samantha (Joanna Koulis), to go wherever on her birthday. She becomes concerned about his health.
Dr. Foreman and Dr. Hadley stop the patient from leaving the hospital, apparently asleep with his eyes wide open. Compounding the puzzle, the patient sweats blood. Dr. House has Dr. Hadley and Dr. Taub take the patient to his home to monitor his brain waves, and follow him wherever he goes if he sleepwalks again.
Jerry buys cocaine from a woman, whom Taub wrongly assumes to be a prostitute. Hadley knows better. She tells Taub to buy some cocaine from the dealer, the same stuff as the patient. Taub's awkwardness reassures the dealer she's not selling drugs to cops. Hadley tastes the stuff and says it's the good stuff to get new customers hooked. It has no diagnostic value, so the streetwise doctor demands the same lower quality stuff Jerry just bought.
Dr. Cuddy tries to convince the daughter to give her father a kidney. But House determines that the daughter is suffering the same sleepwalking disorder as her father, since the daughter also sweats blood. Jerry Harmon's actually Jamal Hammoud, he and his daughter suffer from familial Mediterranean fever, which causes anhedonia. They both get better, we see father and daughter smile for the first time in the whole episode.
Dr. Cuddy meets with Becca (Vanessa Zima), the mother of the baby she'll adopt, who has a weird rash on her arm. Cuddy brings the mother in for an ultrasound. Dr. Cameron discovers the baby's lungs are underdeveloped. Worse, the mother starts bleeding. Cuddy consults House, who says it's easier to give the mother more blood than to give the baby more lung. Once again House advocates terminating a pregnancy to save a mother, and Cuddy wants to save both.
The baby is delivered by cesarean section. House intrudes to tell Cuddy she should be administrating rather than doctoring. The baby is silent and it takes some effort to get her to cry. Much relieved, Cuddy picks up the baby, which she has named Joy, and shows her to the biological mother. "She's yours now," the biological mother says. But later the biological mother changes her mind and cancels the adoption.
Cuddy thinks House has shown up at her place to gloat about losing the adoption. After some arguing, they kiss. Then House says goodnight and leaves.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- "Eureka!" Moment: Wilson is talking to House, and stops in mid-conversation to say "...I have just given you the answer, didn't I? And now you're going to leave without saying a word." House, of course, does just that (although he does say "Nope" as he's leaving, just to mix things up).
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Becca to Dr. Cuddy by withdrawing the adoption
- Title Drop: The baby's name is Joy, the title of this episode. Or at least that's what Dr. Cuddy calls her, we don't know if Becca will give the baby another name.
