When it was first revealed on tonight's episode of House that Doctor Lawrence Kutner died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, the first thing I wondered was, why did the character not appear on the show? It seemed pretty likely to me that Kal Penn, the actor who played the character now over the course of two seasons, may well have refused to participate. I mean, why not actually show the character committing suicide, to what extend this could be done on network television as tastefully as possible?
After a while, though, I realized, such a scenario would have defeated the purpose of the episode. Kutner's suicide was never explained, though there were possibilities explored, such as his witnessing, as a young child, the murder of his parents at the hands of a robber. Still, the act seemed senseless, and left House for once dumbfounded. He came to the conclusion that Kutner had to have been murdered. Suicide made absolutely no sense, and so he set out to prove his hypothesis, his mind focused on this greatest of all puzzles to the exclusion of everything else-including his patients.
In the end, nothing was resolved. While most of the other characters attended the Hindu funeral at which Kutner's remains were cremated, the smoke ascending up into the sky from what looked to be some kind of crematorium temple complex, House returned a second time to Kutner's apartment, determined to find answers that were simply nowhere to be found. Nothing but pictures of a seemingly happy young professional, along with one that hinted at an unknown despair.
For once, House was stumped. There was no logical, rational explanation as to why someone, anyone, would purposely choose to end his own life for any reason, but all the more so in the case of someone who seemed to betray no outward sign of any reason or inclination to do so.
At the end of the show, a public service announcement gave a telephone number one can call if entertaining thoughts of suicide, but then the network sort of destroyed its credibility and may have defeated the purpose of the episode by advertising on its website a Lawrence Kutner Memorial page where you can go and pay your respects to the character and give your thoughts on his life and death. All of which, while meant to be poignant, comes across I'm afraid as unfortunately bizarre, silly, tasteless, and maybe even exploitive. I can only imagine what the Network could have been thinking about.
I think the comments section to this page has been shut down due to trolling, but here it is.
