Doug, a husband and father with brain cancer, drives his wheelchair at a BBQ. Everyone but his son think that it was suicide from the pain but House will stop at nothing to figure out his true ailment.
Clancy, a 7 year old boy, who believes he is being tortured by aliens comes to the hospital because of rectal bleeding. When House, who thinks he did not solve his last case and it's effecting him physically, finds a medal object in his neck where Clancy claims a chip has been planted and when a cell with a different DNA is found, the team has to give his alien theory more credit. But House's humiliation from his last case and worsening leg pain causes him to back out forcing Cuddy, who lied to House about curing his last patient, rethinks her decision to withhold information.
House puts a well-known medical researcher through a battery of tests to determine why he collapsed in his lab. When the team is unable to diagnose the problem, the doctor asks the team to help him end his life. House is forced to use his cane again after the ketamine has worn off as he deals with a clinic patient's teenaged daughter who has a crush on him.
When three previous doctors are not able to diagnose why a severely autistic boy screams loudly for no apparent reason, House takes the case. Although the boy isn't sick, it becomes obvious to the team that House relates to the boy because he can't lie.