Storylines
Cuddy's role in House is that of Dean of Medicine and hospital administrator. She is 43 years old, Jewish, and has a mother and one sister; her father died. She began dreaming of becoming a doctor when she was 12, graduated from medical school at age 25 as second best in her class, and became the first female and second youngest Dean of Medicine ever at age 32. Cuddy attended the University of Michigan, where she first met Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), and with whom she shared a one-night stand. Years later, when House suffered an infarction in his right leg in the backstory, he was treated by Cuddy at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Under Cuddy's care and on the order of his Medical Proxy, House's then girlfriend of five years Stacy Warner (Sela Ward), the dead muscle in his leg was removed against House's explicit wishes after he was put into an induced coma, leaving House with a permanent disability and chronic pain.
After hiring House to run the hospital's Diagnostics Department, Cuddy began setting aside $50,000 a year from the hospital's budget for potential legal expenses. When, during Season 1, the new Chairman of the Board Edward Vogler (Chi McBride) tries to have House fired for refusing to kowtow to his demands, Cuddy urges the board to save House and remove Vogler instead, losing the $100 million donation he had made to the hospital. In Season 2, it is revealed that Cuddy is trying to conceive a child. House agrees to administer the twice-daily injections necessary for her to undergo in-vitro fertilization and to keep the matter secret. In Season 3, Cuddy confesses to the hospital's Chief of Oncology and House's best friend Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) that she has made a total of three attempts at impregnation, one of which was miscarried. She is hurt when House, who is going through Vicodin withdrawal, tells her it is a good thing she has failed to become a mother, as she would be terrible at it. When House's career is threatened by Detective Michael Tritter (David Morse), Cuddy falsifies documents and perjures herself in court to cover up his wrongdoing.
Cuddy questions whether House has a romantic interest in her when he interrupts her repeatedly during a blind date. When Wilson takes Cuddy to the theatre and later to an art exhibition, House intervenes in an attempt to prevent Cuddy from becoming Wilson's fourth wife. In Season 5, Cuddy reveals that she is adopting a baby girl, to be named Joy, and then is devastated when the birth-mother decides to keep the baby. House consoles her, and the two share a passionate kiss. Cuddy professes not to want a relationship with House but is touched when he has her old desk from medical school brought out of storage for her when her office is renovated. In episode "Joy to the World", Cuddy becomes a foster mother and potential adoptive mother to a baby girl she names Rachel. She initially struggles with motherhood, revealing to Wilson that she feels nothing for Rachel but soon begins to bond with her. In episode "Under My Skin", Cuddy helps House detox from Vicodin; and the two sleep together. In the following episode, the Season 5 finale "Both Sides Now", it is revealed to have been a hallucination on House's part: in reality, he spent the evening alone and is suffering from psychiatric problems as a result of Vicodin and emotional trauma.
Throughout Season 6, Cuddy is busy with her adopted daughter and is in a relationship with a private investigator, Lucas, who was initially hired by House to spy on Wilson at the start of Season 5. She's still caring towards House after he goes through rehab for Vicodin. She finds though that life is stressful with managing the hospital, as with the new additions to her life and House still having feelings towards her. Cuddy eventually tries to ask House to just be friends; but he refuses, saying that is the last thing he wants. In the Season 6 finale, House gives Cuddy an antique medical text written by her great-grandfather, which prompts her to confess that she and Lucas were engaged. However, at the conclusion of the episode, Cuddy goes to House's apartment and announces she has broken it off. She confesses her love for House; the two share a tender kiss and lock hands in a surprisingly romantic gesture.
Cuddy's relationship with House progressed throughout most of Season 7. In Episode 15, "Bombshells", Cuddy discovers blood in her urine. After several tests, Wilson finds a mass in Cuddy's kidney and schedules a biopsy to take place later in the episode. Further "imaging shows enhancing masses across multiple lobes of Cuddy's lungs", of which Foreman points out "That's what kidney cancer looks like when it metastasizes". Finally, just before surgery to have the tumor removed, House shows up to support his girlfriend through this tough time. Cuddy realizes at the end of the episode that the only reason House was able to overcome his selfishness was because he had taken Vicodin before visiting her in the hospital. It is here that Cuddy breaks off the relationship with House after confronting him regarding her suspicion of his relapse.
In the Season 7 finale, an angry House rams his car into her house. She resigns as Dean of Medicine after this event with Eric Foreman eventually replacing her.
Read more about this topic: Lisa Cuddy