Outside, Lt. Bowman suspects that House is lying about being overpowered and has developed himself some Stockholm Syndrome and is now rooting for his captor. "House isn't the rooting kind," Cuddy says. She's wrong, of course -- remember House's secret cheerleader past? Lt. Bowman orders his men to put a mic on the door and prepare to blow up a wall. "Hope your boyfriend knows what he's doing," he tells Cuddy. Cuddy doesn't deny it.

The Cottages, now with special bonus Wilson, await House's call in his office. Wilson answers it with "are you insane?!" House just lists off Jason's symptoms and asks for a differential. First, he gets Foreman deciding that Chase was right all along and that House is going to kill someone. He doesn't want to be a part of it, and leaves. Adios, Foreman! Go run your clinical trial! The remaining Cottages make a few guesses, but then House notices a new symptom: Jason seems to be favoring his left ear when people are talking, which means he's losing his hearing in his right ear. This is a few hours after he had super-hearing. Sucks for you, Jason! You wasted your brief time with super-hearing pointing guns at people. Cameron guesses Cushing's, saying it can cause fluctuating hearing. Kumar adds that it could also explain Jason's "increased aggression and risk-taking." Jason gets all defensive, saying no disease tells him who to take hostage! He can make up his own mind. House wisely tells him to keep that on the down-low because it might help his chances at trial.

House calls and orders some steroids to prove his new diagnosis. Lt. Bowman refuses, saying negotiation time is over. Jason says he'll release a hostage and agree not to test drugs on "the sick doctor" in exchange for the drug, so I guess negotiation time is not actually over. If they really wanted to make sure Jason couldn't test the drugs on Hadley, they would have released her next. But no, it's the Kid who gets to leave. Cuddy gives House the drugs and says "House, you can't -- " before he slams the door in her face. Such love.