I rather think that the Sela Ward character is the homage to Irene Adler (she runs over House by virtue of her own professional abilities) and goes off with another man, finally. Unless there’s a full-blown Irene character coming up.

So, what will be House’s Reichenbach Falls? Its season 5, and the Hound has to show up in season 6! [perhaps the patient has developed nocturnal wanderings via something picked up from his dog, likely a small one, and there will be a Baskerville joke.]

Oh, and what pray tell is on the plaque by the front door under the 221 address.

Ever since the Tritter arc, I’ve been speculating on how the show/House will ‘end’. I too see a very dark ending to the series, and the character. Anything else would be an unrealistic cheat. I just cant imagine a way they could pull even a semi-’happy ending’ out of this, even to the extent of a Holmesian ‘retirement’ for House.

Probably not going to happen, but I’d like to see Tritter return for the finale. Not to (further) pursue and persecute House, but perhaps just to bear witness to his end. And, I think House *will* die. Maybe he *should* die - not after being the focus of some medical mystery that afflicts him (with the attendant opportunity for a dying bedside reconcilliation with Wilson, etc.) but alone in some dark alley, of an overdose.

In addition to that, there are some things to consider about Amber’s death at the end of Season 4.

First of all, there’s the obvious fact that House agreed (and at some points volunteered) to risk both his life and his mental health just to try to put the pieces together in blind hopes of getting a clearer diagnosis. In fact, there’s even the conversation between him and Wilson in which he asks Wilson if he’s asking him to risk his own life to save Amber’s. Wilson nervously nods yes. House pauses, then agrees.

The other is the actual cause of the death. House did unknowingly put her in the situation which ended up damaging her kidneys, but the kidney damage didn’t kill her. Her body’s newfound inability to process the amantadine in her medicine is what did it. She just happened to be with House when the kidney damage was done, which could just as likely have happened alone or with Wilson. If House insisted on driving both of them home after she came, then he’d be more to blame. In fact, House could just as easily have suffered kidney or liver damage and died of similar causes because of his Vicodin or the unprocessed alcohol in his blood.

Wilson is a reasonable character, but he isn’t immune to irrational behavior. Through the stages of grief, much of it will be directed at House, his closest compatriot. This includes anger, of course, but it will pass with time. Wilson will realize that House did all he could, more than he had ever done for any other patient, to save her, as well as the fact that his putting her on that bus was done unwittingly.
House will likely avoid him during cases, unless it somehow suits his approach to a diagnosis. He may even blatantly push him away to avoid lashing out at him, as he did towards the end of the cop-in-the-clinic story arc.