In Defense of Remy Hadley


When I was in high school, House MD was my favorite show. My week revolved
around it. I poured over spoilers, devoured countless fics, and obsessed over all the little moments.  A decade later, I decided to revisit it. I still love it but I find that I love different aspects about it. Coming at it from an adult perspective now, I’ve re-evaluated the story arcs and the characters.  And one that’s stood out to me is Thirteen and the way fandom perceived her at the time vs. the way I found her actual portrayal looking back on her now.

At the end of season 3 creator, David Shore, significantly reduced the screen time of House’s team, Chase, Cameron, and Foreman.  At the time, that was half of the cast and prior to this they regularly averaged more screen time than Cuddy and Wilson. The idea was to bring in an all new team for House. Understandably, this was not a popular move with a lot of fans. I was never one of those fans. In fact, I’d rather they have gone one step further and cut them entirely instead of spending the next two seasons trying to shoehorn Chase and Cameron into a story that no longer needed them.  Foreman fared better than they did.  

One of the new characters was Dr. Remy Hadley, aka Thirteen.  Oh, Thirteen, how you took a beating from the fandom. I think opinions on her have softened in the years since she first entered Princeton Plainsboro, but at the time, a lot of fans were rough on her.  She was accused of being a Cameron clone, a Mary Sue, boring, and that’s not getting into the attacks on Olivia Wilde as an actress. But, in the end, Thirteen ended up being the best female character on the show.  Maybe David Shore was enamoured with her (another charming theory by angry fans), but if that’s the case, I’m fine with it. Because she turned out to be a well rounded character. You see, House had a woman problem.  MadTV succinctly described it as ‘a show for women who like abusive men.’ I don’t think I’d go that far (not until S7 anyway) but their track record for female characters on the whole was not great. Cameron and Cuddy had moments of greatness but were frequently dragged down by mooning over House.  Cuddy’s character was wrecked over and over again starting from about season 4 until she was driven from Princeton by an act of extreme domestic violence. That act was committed by our ‘protagonist.’ Yeah. Cameron, in particular, was defined by her relationship with men. Her dead husband, House, and Chase.  Her exit from the show wasn’t even about her. It was a by-product of Chase’s story. And Chase went on to have some of the best character development of the series. Even my beloved Amber was killed off in the name of House and Wilson’s manpain.  

Then there’s Thirteen.  Love her or hate her, her story was always her own.  Wilson told her she was the only one who House had never really been able to suck into his crazy House vortex.  That might not be completely true but it’s more true for her than any of the other fellows. Maybe not Park and Adams but, they weren’t around that long.  Her story paralleled House’s in some ways but she wasn’t wrapped up in him. Once the ‘mystery’ around her is revealed in ‘You Don’t Want to Know’, her story kicks into gear.  Her arc involves her coming to terms with her Huntington’s diagnosis. When we first meet her, she refuses to even get tested. She doesn’t want to know whether she’ll live or die.  At the end of season 4, she gets her worst fear confirmed and from there, she goes through the grieving process. She acts self-destructively, gets into drugs and picks up a different woman every night.  She believes nothing matters and she’s angry, so she acts as recklessly as she can. This is all in the first few episodes of season 5.

She finally has her breakthrough in ‘Last Resort’ where she realizes that she doesn’t want to die and she starts to actually deal with her illness.  From here, she slowly changes. She opens up enough to have an actual relationship with Foreman. She socializes with her co-workers. She teases them and laughs when they tease her back.  She’s actually a fun and charming person. I love watching her travel from denial to acceptance in seasons 4-5. Not to say that her life is perfect once she comes to term with her diagnosis or that her disease is her only problem.  Foreman’s an ass (he always was) and breaks her heart. She loses her brother to the same disease that will one day kill her. She ends up serving jail time for euthanizing him. She screws up with patients and friends and strives to do better.

Her story is about a very troubled woman struggling to find peace with herself.  Even before the Huntington’s was confirmed, she’s known her whole life that she had a 50-50 shot of having it.  It was always hanging over her head. But, she does find that peace. One of the strongest episodes of
Season 8 is ‘Charity Case.’ Thirteen is the bright spot in the episode. She’s found love and happiness. She’s not the same woman we left in season 7. She’s noticeably lighter.  She has a new perspective on her life. She knows she doesn’t have a long life to live but she’s going to enjoy what life she does have. She won’t come back to work for House even though he wants her.  She only wavers because she feels guilty about being a trained doctor and not using those skills to save lives. Her temporary doubts are not about House. She found what she was looking for. She’s even reached a point where she can counsel House and Wilson late in the season when they’re both
dealing with Wilson’s own terminal diagnosis.  Of the women on the show, Thirteen has the clearest and most complete character arc. The most House free arc too.

Now that I’ve talked about what an independent character she was from House, let’s talk about her relationship with House.  The show is about him, after all. One common criticism I remember being lobbed at Thirteen was that she instantly understood House.  And well, yeah. She kind of did. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Sometimes that happens in life. We find a kindred spirit who we just get.  Thirteen and House had that kind of relationship. She didn’t always understand him. Even she admitted to that, but she had a pretty good track record.  I’ve mentioned how Thirteen parallels House’s story and that’s true. I’m not saying that she’s anywhere near as interesting or complex as
House is, but they have plenty in common.  They both have a tendency toward self-destruction, being reckless, and they’re both plagued by health issues. Hell, they even learn the same lesson in the end. Enjoy the time you have with the person you love.  (Again, it’s more complicated than that
with House, but that is a part of it.) House and Thirteen end up connecting in a way that was unique for House. I fully believe that he cared about all of his fellows and had different relationships with each of them, but I think Thirteen is the only one I would call his friend.  You need only watch ‘The Dig’ (a highlight of the craptacular season 7) for that. House occasionally talks to her about personal things. He didn’t often do that with his fellows. Sometimes with Cameron but that always had her pushing him and making things tense. Thirteen didn’t have that problem. He supported her at some very low points in her life.  She said it herself in ‘Charity Case.’ He was a friend to her.

Her fear after getting out of prison was that she would die, suffering without control of her mind or body and no one would be there to end her suffering.  House offered to euthanize her. I’d like to think that someday (if he’s still alive) he’ll make good on that offer. He let her go in ‘Charity Case’ because he knew that she would be happier that way.  He wanted her to stay and he typically fights tooth and nail to keep people he cares about in his life. But, he put Thirteen’s needs above his own. His relationship with her was healthier than most of his relationships.  It wasn’t co-dependent or abusive. House pushed her out of all her denial and she brought out a slightly normal side to him. Someone who can have just a normal friendship. I love his relationship with Wilson but it was so not normal.  House loved Wilson, Cuddy, and Stacy, but he could be terrible to them too. Because of his own insecurities. He didn’t have those insecurities with Thirteen. They were just two people who instinctively understood each other. They cared about each other.  I think their friendship added something to the show that no other character besides Thirteen could have brought.  

Thirteen was not a perfect character.  Boreteen was aptly named for that relationship.  The perils of Thirteen in season 5 got tedious. Her instant brother was clearly a retcon (even though I liked the story) and her bisexuality was mostly shallow and exploitative.  But, for me, the good in her character outweighed the bad. She wasn’t static or one note. She changed and grew. She found that peace that House was forever striving for. She laughed and cried.  She was sullen and bubbly. She fell into House’s orbit but easily broke free when she wanted to. She earned her place in the show’s history and I’m glad she was there.