I applaud David Shore (the show's creator, so I doubt he'll fire himself) for writing this pivotal episode even though he must have known few people would understand it. What I loved about this episode is that all the negative comments people are making as examples of how it was typical and lame are actually the opposite or have nothing to do with what was going on. I understand that on the outside, if you don't specifically pay attention to what is being said, this episode would come off as a boring fluffy installment of Grey's Anatomy. In reality, from House's perspective the message was rather bleak in that he comes to the conclusion that talking to the patient did no good for either of them. House did not turn nice, his dark cynical outlook on life and humanity was fully intact throughout saying we are base animals who can occasionally aspire to something less than evil. He was cold and argumentative with her the whole time until the very end when he decided that revealing something about himself he finds uncomfortable talking about would get her to talk, a move he made despite himself and ultimately found to be useless. They never claimed House's abuse to be the reason he is the way he is nor that her rape excuses her from anything. The episode was a discussion about logic, dealing with traumatic events, and, predominantly, how we respond to and are affected by the people we end up in rooms with rather than the world as a whole.
I think I also need to clarify something else. The purpose of the old man had nothing to do with Jesus. The relation may have been intended for fun along with House's position lying on the picnic table, but that's not the reason for the story's presence in the episode. The father stuff was a ploy, that may or may not have been true, to get Cameron to let him die in pain so she wouldn't forget him as just another patient. He wanted to be remembered. It's a parallel to House's storyline in that House and Cameron got stuck in rooms with patients asking them to do something they find torturous, and they would have happily switched places with each other.
I think I also need to clarify something else. The purpose of the old man had nothing to do with Jesus. The relation may have been intended for fun along with House's position lying on the picnic table, but that's not the reason for the story's presence in the episode. The father stuff was a ploy, that may or may not have been true, to get Cameron to let him die in pain so she wouldn't forget him as just another patient. He wanted to be remembered. It's a parallel to House's storyline in that House and Cameron got stuck in rooms with patients asking them to do something they find torturous, and they would have happily switched places with each other.