97 Seconds

"97 Seconds" is the third episode of the fourth season of House and the seventy-third episode overall. It aired on October 9, 2007. The primary patient in the episode is a man with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) who develops symptoms that could be related to his SMA or something else. However, the episode title is linked to a different patient in this episode who was clinically dead for 97 seconds after a car accident.

Plot

Stark

Thomas Stark is a man with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), using an electric wheelchair. While he and his assistance dog were crossing the street he faints (syncope) and is almost hit by an SUV.

House sets his team of ten fellowship candidates to compete in a race to find the diagnosis first. To do this he splits them into two teams: men and women, but Amber Volakis (Anne Dudek) elects to defect to the men's team. When House suggests this is because she thinks the female candidates are inept, she says it's because House has never had more than one woman on his staff so if he's going to fire an entire gender it will be the women's team. Because of her previous behavior trying to get on the team, including getting others fired, House and the other fellowship candidates begin calling her "Cut-throat Bitch." Amber continues to do whatever she feels it takes to get the job, initially starting by attempting to schmooze Dr. Cameron into giving her advice.

House (season 4)

The fourth season of House premiered on September 25, 2007 and ended May 19, 2008. Having previously fired Chase, and with Foreman and Cameron quitting, House starts a competition between forty applicants for the vacant positions. He eventually narrows them down to seven, firing one each episode. In the episode "Games", he fires Amber "Cutthroat Bitch" Volakis (Anne Dudek), hiring Dr. Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson), Dr. Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn) and Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley (Olivia Wilde) as his new team. Dr. Foreman rejoins the team after his dismissal from another hospital. Meanwhile, Amber begins a relationship with Wilson.

Interrupted by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, the number of episodes was reduced to 16 instead of the planned 24. Executive producer Katie Jacobs explained that it was hard for the writers to finish the story arcs started during the season with eight episodes fewer. Season four also introduced seven actors to the cast; in addition to Jacobson, Penn and Wilde, who became regulars, Andy Comeau portrayed Travis Brennan, an epidemiologist;Edi Gathegi played Jeffrey Cole, a geneticist;Carmen Argenziano appeared as Henry Dobson, a former medical school admissions officer; and Anne Dudek portrayed Amber "Cut-throat Bitch" Volakis, an interventional radiologist. Each of the four departed the show after elimination, except for Volakis, who remained recurring until the finale, having started a relationship with Wilson.