Chase eats a few more Tic-Tacs as House asks him about those mints. Foreman and Cameron watch as Chase says he took them from Harvey, who had a whole drawer of them. "And you didn't find that interesting?" House asks. Chase says that mints were pretty low on the list of interesting things in Harvey's apartment. "Wrong," says House.

They enter Harvey's room, and House orders Chase to put his face in Harvey's open mouth. Chase does, and comments that Harvey's got some bad-ass breath going on. House says that's one of the biggest symptoms of fulminating osteomyelitis, an infection of Harvey's jawbone from when his original break didn't heal properly. Pieces of the bones broke off and spread to Harvey's brain, blocking the blood supply and causing all of his problems. The metal plate hid the infection from the scans. To prove the diagnosis, House jabs a needle into Harvey's jaw and extracts a whole bunch of delicious pus. Harvey's jaw needs to be removed.

And so it was, in some really hot surgery footage.

House enters Jawless Harvey's room, where he immediately figures out that the attending nurse is actually Annette in disguise. I think her helpful and kind nature gave her away as a fraud. House says that Annette can stay, because House needs to talk to both of them. Harvey has to stop the strangling, or he'll die. Annette says it's not about pain, but about being "completely open" and "vulnerable" to another person. That kind of trust changes a person, Annette claims. And I would agree that having your jawbone removed is, indeed, a change. House tells Annette to lock Harvey in a cage from now on, then. He turns to leave, and Harvey asks him if his parents stopped by to see him when they were here. Harvey just loves to expose himself to all kinds of pain, it seems. I think we can take House's non-answer as a "no."

Music montage! House listens to a record in his office and studies a photograph. We don't get to see it very well, but it looks like a happy couple. I'm betting it's not a souvenir from House and Cameron's date.