Home“Last Resort” was one of the most nerve-wracking episodes of the series and confirmed just how far House was willing to go if it meant solving the mystery. As head of the diagnostics department and following an unwritten “one case a week” rule, House would accept only the most challenging and extraordinary cases. Almost no case was good enough for Hugh Laurie's character, but every time he took on a new patient, he became obsessed with finding out what was wrong with him. To do this, there was no line House wasn't willing to cross.
Although House cared about his patients' lives, what really motivated him was solving the puzzle. That's why he'd rather spend days trying to solve a difficult case than do clinical duties for a few hours. House's drive to solve cases was, for the most part, a good thing. However, in some of the best Home episodes, solving the puzzle no matter what it meant putting others in danger. This includes Season 5 Episode 9, “Last Resort,” during which House and a few others became hostages.
House giving Jason his gun back was one of the worst things he ever did
House Could Have Ended the Hostage Situation But Chose Not to
In “Last Resort”, a man with an undiagnosed condition arrives at the hospital armed and takes hostages, one of whom is House, and says he will only leave when they find out what is wrong with him. Luckily for him, Jason was now trapped in a room with the perfect doctor to give him the diagnosis that no other doctor had been able to. “Last Resort” was an incredibly stressful episode, as the “patient” was willing to use the hostages as currency in exchange for medicine and access to certain areas of the hospital.
Between the gun and the man who forced Thirteen to take all the medicine sent to him in advance so he knew it wasn't a trap, “Last Resort” was an emotional rollercoaster. However, when Jason finally agreed to drop the gun to get an EMR done so House's diagnosis could be confirmed, the hostage situation should have been over. Yet, once House realized that his theory was wrong and that the man was still undiagnosed, he gave the gun back to Jason so the police wouldn't come in.
House's itch to solve the puzzle was both a gift and a curse for the character
For House, it was always about the puzzle
House was willing to put the lives of the remaining hostages – one of whom was Thirteen years old – in danger simply to have more time to figure out what was wrong with this man. While it could be argued that House wanted to help a desperate man, it's safe to say that his biggest motivator for returning the gun was the opportunity to solve a difficult and intriguing case. House would never be at peace with himself if he let the man leave without finding out. what he had.
This happened several times throughout Homethere are eight seasons. There were even times when, even though there was no hope of saving the patient, House still wanted to do more tests to find out what he had missed. On the one hand, this was a gift from House and allowed him to solve cases that no one else could. On the other hand, it made him dangerous to himself and others, not to mention how it made it impossible for him to connect with patients on a human level, hence the damn part of it.