| abstract | - Twenty Vicodin is the first episode of Season 8 of House, M.D. that first aired on October 3, 2011. It was the last season premiere of the series. It was directed by Greg Yaitanes and written by Peter Blake. The episode takes place about one year after the episode Moving On. Season 8 starts out with Gregory House serving out a lengthy prison sentence for his various misdeeds in Moving On, including his trip outside the country in an attempt to escape responsibility. Entirely cut off from his old life, House determines his current problems are the result of his inability to deal with people. Feeling he will never be able to practice medicine again, he plans instead to go back to university to earn a doctorate in physics - a field that will all but assure his isolation from other human beings. As expected, House has great difficulty getting along with his fellow inmates, but does find his "one friend", an elderly prisoner who shares a fondness for chess. After one year, he's unable to bring himself to apologize for his conduct, show respect to the parole board, or cooperate with the prison system. However, due to prison overcrowding conditions, the parole board sees him as a candidate for early release as long as he can stay out of trouble for five days. This faint hope may turn out to be pointless. First, he meets a fellow prisoner with a mysterious medical condition, and convinces a beautiful doctor he has met working in the infirmary that with her help he can figure out what is wrong with the man. Second, one of the prison gangs makes it clear to him that he will not get out in one piece unless he delivers something within his control to them as an "exit fee" before he's released. In the end, House must walk a fragile path to save the patient, avoid trouble, and still walk away with his relationship with the pretty doctor intact. Michael Pare appears in this episode as the prison warden. Jaleel White also guest star as a fellow inmate, Porter. This is also the first episode in the series not to feature Lisa Cuddy in the opening credits.
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