We all know Dr. Gregory House as a bitter, sarcastic, rather mean doctor. All of those qualities make him fascinating.

What happens, though, when House is approached by the CIA to help solve a case? Well, he goes along and sulks the whole time. you don’t say no to the CIA, now do you? And it’s there that House meets someone who might become enough of a permanent character on the show. And the gorgeous lady, Dr. Samira Terzi, might even be an influential factor in having him put his crush on Dr. Cuddy on the back burner, believe it or not.

In any case, House and another doctor, Dr. Curtis, are both helping a patient, who is a CIA agent, and a possible victim of an assassination attempt get better. The Agent, who a week before was a healthy 185 pounds is wasting away to nothing. Unfortunately, they have no information to go on, except “Bolivia,” which didn’t come easily. Dr. Curtis notes that the patient ate a lot of chestnuts.

House, being sulkily unhelpful says it’s a fungal infection brought on by alcoholism. Dr. Curtis suggested radiation poisoning. After House illegally messes with the patient’s meds, it’s determined that he does have radiation poisoning. That is, until they learn that the Agent wasn’t stationed in Bolivia, but Brazil, where he ate many nuts containing high doses of Selenium, which cause all of the patient’s problems. Fortunately, the treatment for that is the same as for the radiation poisoning. As he’s leaving, House offers Terzi, who is impressed by him (hopefully against her better judgment) a job, which she refuses.

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, there is a drag racer, Casey, who is in the hospital after passing out. Foreman, who has been left in charge immediately says that it’s heatstroke, but then she has a Heatstroke, which suggests Miller-Fisher.

Poor Foreman is having a hard time because every time he comes up with a conclusion, something comes along to disprove it. Finally, just moments after he’s finally confirmed to Casey’s father that she has Botulism, her Father says he’d better be treating her for the right thing, when the test results that one of the fellowship members ran, confirming that it’s Polio, which they treat with Vitamin C.

They’re all proud of themselves until House returns from the CIA (not that anyone believed he was there), and realizes that the fellowship member who ran the test faked the results – and he’d poisoned her. House adds that he’d left Foreman in charge for a reason. So much for getting in good with the boss, huh?

And then, to top it off, Dr. Terzi is there waiting for House when he steps outside. And she’s accepting his offer of a job.