Eric Foreman - Relationship With House

Relationship With House

In the first two seasons, House's relationship with Foreman was probably the least complicated of the relationships he has with his fellows. While Foreman is considered to dislike his boss ("DNR"), constantly challenges House's behaviour and diagnoses, and terms him "an anarchist" ("Deception") and "a manipulative bastard" ("Euphoria, Part 2"), he genuinely respects House's medical expertise and House seems to appreciate Foreman's professionalism. Although House frequently targets Foreman with racist jokes, Foreman does not appear to take them personally. It seems that House does so simply because Foreman's race is an easy target—just as House often targets Chase with his nationality and Cameron with her gender, House uses Foreman's race as a source of humor, and other episodes (c.f. "Humpty Dumpty") establish that House is not racially prejudiced. In the episode "Family", Foreman fears that he has begun to disregard his patients' lives much the way House does, and he decides that he'd rather leave his job than continue on that path. In the third season finale, House makes a last attempt to keep Foreman from leaving, but it fails.

Although House stated in the pilot that he hired Foreman because he was an ex-car thief, House often states or implies that he thinks Foreman is a great doctor. The best example of this is in the Season 2 Episode "Autopsy". House and the surgical team are trying to determine the exact location of a blood clot in order to be able to remove it. Foreman swears he spotted a clot on the screen that neither House nor anybody else saw. House nods and states "That's good enough for me." Also, in the third season finale "Human Error", when House is trying to stop Foreman's leaving, he bluntly declares that he is "indispensable" and that "he needs him" on his team, in an unusual display of respect for a subordinate.

Since Foreman's return to Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital, it has been shown that House still holds a great deal of respect for Foreman. In stark contrast to previous seasons, he tends to treat Foreman as an equal in his understanding of diagnostics and Foreman in return shows a marked regret at having quit the job in the first place. In "Whatever It Takes", House reprimands his new fellowship candidates when they fail to listen to Foreman's instructions while House is away. House tells the candidates that the reason he left Foreman in charge was because Foreman knows what he's doing and that they should listen to him next time. Later, in "No More Mr. Nice Guy" Foreman believes he is not getting the respect he deserves from Kutner, Taub and Thirteen when he tries, and fails, to do their performance reviews, which he believes is due to House frequently humiliating him. House replies that if he did not humiliate and taunt Foreman, he would not be strong and able enough to handle the rest of the team. In future episodes, Foreman was considered to be in charge whenever House is unavailable. He is also the primary attending physician whenever House is legally unable to do so, such as when House's license was suspended at the beginning of season 6, or when House was recovering from a bus crash and drug overdose while diagnosing Amber.