"Good coffee -- cheaper than Prozac!" reads the placard on the meeting room's coffee pot. Maybe so, but most of the people who use that room would probably be better off with some Prozac. Neither is available, though: the coffee pot is empty and so is the bag of grounds, much to House's displeasure. The Cottages rush in to report that they found a small mass on the base of Ian's brain, which seems to confirm the lymphoma diagnosis. Chase disagrees here, though, because the blood tests he just ran didn't show any lymphoma. So now we have a mass that will cause pituitary failure, just like what Ester had, but no lymphoma.

House leads the Cottages to the hospital coffee shop. It's closed for the night, but that won't stop House, who destroys the lock with a few well-placed whacks of his cane and helps himself to the freshly-brewed coffee the place apparently keeps on tap for any nighttime intruders. The next place Ian's mystery disease will hit, if Ester's example is correct, is the liver. House wants to start treatment to try to slow it down, but, as Cameron points out, they have no idea what they're treating him for. House loses it for a second and knocks some loud plates off the counter in frustration while he yells at them to "treat him for everything!" And since that never actually works and always makes the patient worse, I'm sure it will be a rousing success this time around.

House calls Wilson again. The poker table has turned for Wilson, and he is now faring quite poorly against Cuddy. But now that House wants Wilson to do well (and therefore keep him and Cuddy playing), he gives Wilson some winning advice after expertly figuring out that Wilson is holding a middle pair by the pitch of Wilson's voice. House also knows that Wilson's hand beats Cuddy based on how she's drinking her seltzer, and advises Wilson to go all in. He does. Cuddy folds. House hangs up. Playing poker with House is a lot like that SNL sketch where everyone gives Sherlock Holmes presents and he figures out what's in all of them without having to open them.

While Chase and Foreman dose Ian with every drug that will prevent liver failure, House watches from outside. Obsession! Chase comes out and tells him that the treatment seems to be working, although Ian's platelets are dropping. House says that this is a good thing, because it tells them something Ester's case did not. Suddenly, Ian goes into respiratory distress. House leaves to write some more on his Whiteboard.