In the first episode, back this Tuesday, January 29th, it is Christmas time in House-land. (Due to the writers’ strike, this episode was pushed back with the other two.) To everyone’s surprise, House tells them they are going to participate in a Secret Santa gift exchange. When I asked Olivia to tell us more about that, she said,

I think it’s a shock to everyone that House would want to partake in a Secret Santa, but of course, he proceeds in a very House-like way, and of course, he’s going to change the rules of the game. And he really is — this Christmas episode I love so much, because Christmas — you know House is the Grinch. So to imagine him partaking in a Christmas game is just all too delicious. I really laughed my way through the script. I think it’s one of the most brilliant ones, and also quite heartbreaking as they always are in a way.

But it’s a really interesting episode as well, because the competition is now over and he doesn’t have the same power over the characters as he has had up until this point. So now that we aren’t trying to compete against each other and get rid of each other and get a one-up on each other, the dynamic has changed and House is reacting to that. That has something to do with how he proceeds in the game, the Secret Santa game. He doesn’t like giving up games. He likes to always be playing one game or another, so that’s sort of what we find out in this one.

Speaking of playing games, the contest is now over. Obviously Olivia’s character was one of the final 3 chosen. But House had originally fired her and we viewers thought she was gone until Cutty told House to hire her. Olivia wasn’t worried when she read about House firing her.

We were reading the scripts backwards every week, so I knew I was okay. But there was a moment when my entire family thought I was fired, because I don’t tell them anything in advance. So I got this call from my father, who hadn’t even finished watching the episode and he was like, “What? What happened?” So I had to assure everyone that they had to watch it through. And I had a few friends whose Tivos cut out before the end. And so people were saying, “I’m so sorry to hear you got fired.” And I was like, “No, no, you’ve got to finish it.” So I think that was a great little twist.

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