House enters the patient room and accuses Alice's mother of trying to kill her. As you can imagine, this goes over really well. Mother says that her father had gallstones once, and that they passed just fine. Except that her father was probably a bit older when this happened, so having gallstones wasn't totally abnormal, requiring further investigation. Father maintains that he wants Alice to have the surgery, but Mom says that House is just a doctor; she's Alice's mother. She outranks him.

But wait! We cut to a judge's chambers, where House argues that Alice's father is "willing to see reason," a.k.a., the judge says, "slavishly deferring to [House]." I think that judge has watched a few episodes of this show before. Mother says she just wants to get a second opinion, but House insists that Alice "might die" before this happens. There is no time! The Judge asks Cuddy -- who we suddenly see is standing in the back of the room watching this, muttering silent prayers that the only doctor she has who isn't too scared to practice medicine doesn't get thrown in jail for contempt of court -- what she thinks of House. Cuddy says that House is a jerk. A jerk who knows what he's doing.