Moving the Chains

Daryl Bartlett, a large 22-year-old football player hoping to be spotted by NFL scouts, suffers a fit of rage on the football field and is admitted to House's care. House initially dismisses it as steroid rage but Daryl is clean and, when his heart rate suddenly increases, suggesting a thickening of the heart muscles, House decides to stress test his heart. As he prepares an injection, however, House notices Daryl's palms are turning white!

The team suggest various causes and tests point to lymphoma, but when Chase conducts a splenectomy, he notices that Daryl's liver is inflamed. It's not lymphoma. Foreman realises Daryl's blood is clotting and needs to be thinned out. But Daryl's insistent that he plays football in front of the scouts and, though it could endanger his life, he leaves the hospital. Foreman accompanies him to the stadium where Daryl suddenly loses his vision... Foreman has drugged him to prevent him from playing.

On Daryl's return to hospital, House realises that his patient's not lost any weight since admission, which is unusual and points to paraneoplastic syndrome and the presence of cancer, though there's no internal sign of it. Then House realises Daryl's dark skin is hiding melanoma, a skin cancer which in this case can be removed in a short operation.

Meanwhile, Wilson chastises House for using his personal bathroom and thinks his flatmate is after revenge when he finds a wild possum in his bath later that day. House denies responsibility but finds his bathrail has been tampered with. Then their fire sprinklers flood the flat! Someone else is behind the pranks and Lucas soon reveals himself as the culprit. He'd discovered that they'd outbid Cuddy on the apartment and wanted his revenge.

And House hires Foreman's ex-con brother, Marcus, as an assistant, seemingly to annoy Foreman. But Wilson believes it's an attempt to reunite the estranged brothers.