Chapter Summaries

Sheldon dreamed that his inner council debated whether to admit Flash Sheldon, who was also a birdman, and the meeting descended into chaos. The cowardly Sheldons rallied against his decision until Sheldon woke, blaming Adam for the disruption.

• Throne Sheldon opened the standing Sheldon Council meeting and introduced Flash Sheldon as a new personality.
• Scientist Sheldon, Texas Cowboy Sheldon, and Comedian Sheldon supported Flash Sheldon joining, while Fanatic Sheldon and Germaphobe Sheldon objected.
• Throne Sheldon revealed Flash Sheldon was also a birdman, and Germaphobe Sheldon threatened to call a full assembly of cowardly Sheldons to overthrow him.
• Germaphobe Sheldon summoned the fearful Sheldons, who surrounded the council as Throne Sheldon struggled to maintain control.
• Throne Sheldon blamed Adam and roared that he would not allow the revolt, then Sheldon woke from the dream.

Adam teased Sheldon over the immersive Flash story that had given him nightmares, then won back his friendship by promising him a signed Spock item. In Sheldon's dream, Fanatic and Flash Birdman Sheldon sided with Adam against Germaphobe Sheldon, while Throne Sheldon authorized a show of force that sent the Cowardly Sheldons fleeing.

• Sheldon called Adam to complain that Adam's Flash story had given him nightmares and made him hate Adam.
• Adam apologized for the story's betrayal, and Sheldon declared Adam his number-one mortal enemy.
• Adam offered Sheldon a signed Spock item, and Sheldon immediately welcomed Adam back as his good friend.
• In his dream, Germaphobe Sheldon rallied the Cowardly Sheldons against Fanatic Sheldon, Flash Birdman Sheldon, and Throne Sheldon.
• Throne Sheldon authorized military action, and Fanatic Sheldon fired phase cannons that scared the Cowardly Sheldons into fleeing.

The Sheldons voted down Germaphobe Sheldon’s rebellion and agreed to accept Adam as a good friend. Adam then improvised a multiverse short-film plot for Paige, imagining her as Supergirl chasing Flash Sheldon into an Alien-infested universe.

• The expanded Sheldon conference rejected Germaphobe Sheldon’s demands by a six-to-one vote, and he accepted the decision to regard Adam as a friend.
• Adam reflected that his teasing of Sheldon would not lead to the long-running grudges Sheldon held against Howard.
• Paige asked Adam which superhero her multiversal counterpart should be, and he insisted that she should be Supergirl rather than Ms. Marvel.
• To reassure Paige, Adam invented a short-film story in which Supergirl Paige pursued Flash Sheldon across the multiverse and threw him into an Alien universe.
• Adam’s imagined ending had Paige watching Flash Sheldon get attacked by Aliens as a Facehugger latched onto his face.

Adam soothed Paige with an improvised multiverse story, then went to the hospital for Mr. Robinson Jr.’s Adam Virus treatment. Mr. Robinson Jr.’s tumor-driven outbursts continued, and the chapter ended as he revealed he had picked his divorced older brother as Jenny’s future husband.

• Adam invented a story about Supergirl Paige pursuing Flash Sheldon, and Paige laughed and was satisfied.
• Adam drove to the hospital, where Lexie and Shorty reported that Mr. Robinson Jr. had propositioned Dr. Melendez the night before.
• Mr. Robinson Jr. tried to arrange a new husband for Jenny, prompting Adam to rebuke him for humiliating her.
• Jenny told Mr. Robinson Jr. she wanted him to fight through surgery so they could spend their lives together, and he agreed to proceed.
• Before anesthesia, Mr. Robinson Jr. told Adam that his divorced older brother would take care of Jenny if he died.

Adam’s operation on Mr. Robinson Jr. ended in the patient’s death, and he used the loss to teach Lexie and Shorty to focus on preparation rather than grief. At lunch, Adam learned that the clinical trial could be suspended after twelve consecutive patient deaths, leaving him eleven chances to succeed.

• Adam operated on Mr. Robinson Jr., but the patient suffered a complete heart block and died despite repeated resuscitation attempts.
• Lexie pronounced Mr. Robinson Jr.’s time of death, while George took over to suture the patient.
• Adam and Lexie told Mrs. Robinson Jr. the news, then Adam reminded Lexie that the doctors had done everything they could and urged her to turn her grief into better preparation.
• Shorty agreed with Adam’s advice, and Adam told her and Lexie to review the operation and look for a better method.
• At lunch, Cristina explained that the ethics committee could suspend the trial after twelve consecutive deaths, and Adam recognized that he had eleven chances left.

Adam organized a private gathering of medical experts to discuss Mr. Robinson's surgery, but more hospital staff joined than he intended. He began inviting renowned doctors, including Dr. Gregory House.

• Adam invited Dr. Shepherd to join the discussion about Mr. Robinson's surgery, and Dr. Shepherd agreed to attend.
• Adam called experts in several medical fields, and Cristina asked to join; Adam told her to help prepare and listen quietly.
• George, Carter, and Lexie joined the gathering, and Richard offered to organize it under the hospital's name.
• Adam declined Richard's offer to keep the gathering private, then invited Richard to attend.
• Adam worried that the growing crowd would discourage experts from speaking freely, and he called Dr. Gregory House.

At Princeton Plainsboro, Dr. Adam Duncan called Dr. House’s office and invited Dr. Cameron to consult on a patient who died after surgery. Chase and Foreman bristled at being overlooked, while Cameron defended Duncan’s easygoing manner, leaving the team debating whether his apparent humility concealed arrogance.

• Dr. Chase worked on a crossword while Dr. Foreman supplied an answer, and Dr. Cameron handled emails in House’s office.
• Dr. Cameron answered a call from Dr. Adam Duncan, who praised her expertise and invited her to discuss his clinical research project the following evening.
• Dr. Chase asked why Duncan had invited Cameron instead of the other team members, and Dr. Foreman dismissed the importance of a first-year resident’s approval.
• Dr. Cameron described Duncan as gentle and approachable, while Dr. Foreman argued that a younger House would still be arrogant and that Duncan hid his own pride.
• Dr. Chase agreed with Foreman as the doctors reflected on their elite status and their decision to work under House.

Adam Duncan called Gregory House to invite him to advise on Adam’s virus-based tumor research, but House declined and tried to recruit him instead. Adam challenged House with personal observations, leaving House stunned by his remarks about his injury and ex-wife.

• Gregory House complained to James Wilson that his handpicked doctors had little to do while Cameron handled emails and Chase and Foreman supposedly researched.
• Adam Duncan called House, who praised Adam’s abilities and urged him to join his team, but Adam said he was not calling to apply.
• Adam invited House to a gathering about his clinical research using viruses to reduce tumors, but House refused because he could not lead the project.
• Adam compared House to a blend of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, then joked about boxing and racing with him.
• Adam told House he would save his good leg if another accident happened, prompting House to recognize the remark as a calculated attack.
• Adam suggested House’s ex-wife had acted out of love and resentment, and House fell silent.

After Adam Duncan invited Dr. Wilson to a gathering, Dr. House became determined to uncover Adam’s secrets and started looking for another way to investigate him. He remembered meeting a noisy woman named Rachel on a flight to London four years earlier and sent his team searching for Rachel, Ross, and Phoebe.

• Adam ended his call with Dr. House by inviting him to the gathering, and House left to learn more about him.
• Adam invited Dr. Wilson to the gathering, and House concluded that the invitation was a way to pressure him into attending.
• Dr. Wilson warned House not to break into Adam’s home, so House considered other ways to uncover his secrets.
• Dr. House ordered Cameron, Chase, and Foreman to search a New York phone book for Rachel, Phoebe, and Ross and ask whether they knew one another.
• Dr. House recalled meeting a noisy woman named Rachel on a flight to London four years earlier.

At Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, Dr. House recruited Wilson, Cameron, Chase, and Foreman to help him investigate Adam Duncan by contacting people from Adam’s past. He reached Rachel and began probing her for Adam’s secrets, then called Ross to claim he was owed a favor.

• Dr. House explained that Adam’s close friendship with a woman mattered more than an ex-girlfriend, and Cameron realized House had inferred her favorable impression of Adam.
• Cameron, Chase, and Foreman helped House search for Rachel and Phoebe, while Foreman admitted he was eager to watch House clash with Adam.
• Chase reached Phoebe, and House got Rachel’s number by reminding her of the London-bound flight she had taken four years earlier.
• Rachel recognized House as the poison-tongued man from the plane and told him she and Ross were now married with a one-year-old daughter.
• House steered Rachel’s anger into questions about Adam and used his mind-reading skills to draw out information.
• After hanging up with Rachel, House called Ross and claimed Ross owed him a favor.

Dr. House met Adam Duncan at a dinner gathering, where the two doctors discussed their opposing approaches to medicine. Adam argued that House could save more patients by treating the ninety-nine percent who could be saved, while House defended focusing on the most difficult one percent.

• Dr. Wilson warned Dr. House not to provoke Adam Duncan after Adam sent a limousine to pick them up.
• Adam welcomed Dr. Wilson, Dr. Cameron, and Dr. House at the Western Heaven Hotel.
• Dr. House gave Adam his mother's contact information and said he wanted to be friends with him.
• Adam sent Lexie Grey to escort Dr. Wilson and Dr. Cameron inside while he stayed behind to speak with Dr. House.
• Dr. House said he and Adam would make a perfect team, but Adam replied that their philosophies differed.
• Dr. House argued that solving the hardest cases would advance medicine and help other doctors treat more patients.

Adam and Dr. House argued over their values and their families, then House used Adam’s closeness with Chandler to provoke him. Adam warned House that revealing his insinuations would hurt Chandler, and House asked how Adam dealt with threats.

• Adam and Dr. House traded barbs about Adam’s goal of helping every patient and House’s approach to work and donations.
• Adam confronted House for disrespecting his parents, and House revealed he had learned at age twelve that his dad was not his biological father.
• House mentioned Adam’s past connections to Nora Bing and Rachel, while Adam insisted he had ended things with Nora after learning who she was.
• House suggested Adam’s special care for Chandler could itself cross a line, and Adam asked whether House was threatening him.
• Adam warned that House’s comments could psychologically harm Chandler if repeated, and House asked how Adam dealt with threats.

Adam warned Dr. House that his opioid addiction could destroy his career and the people who cared about him, using a hypothetical chain of legal consequences to show the danger. He ended by suggesting that the imagined retaliation against House had only begun.

• Adam told Dr. House that he hated people who knowingly abused painkillers, though he sympathized with patients who had been drawn into addiction.
• Adam argued that doctors and pharmaceutical companies shared responsibility for creating opioid addiction through casual prescriptions.
• Adam accused Dr. House of taking painkillers too frequently and suggested that he had become addicted and was stockpiling them.
• Adam described how a search after a hypothetical traffic stop could expose House's stash and lead to legal trouble and the loss of his ability to obtain medication.
• Adam warned that withdrawal could drive House to forge prescriptions and endanger his best friend, female superior, and ex-wife, then said his proportional retaliation was only beginning.

At the Western Heaven Hotel, Dr. Cameron recognized Adam as a possible new Anchor Point for Dr. House, whose bleak outlook was held in check by a few people and his medical work. After Adam threatened him with decisive retaliation, House abandoned his plan to provoke him and found him even more interesting.

• Dr. Cameron told Dr. Wilson that Adam could become another Anchor Point for Dr. House.
• Dr. Wilson wondered whether Cameron was drawn to damaged people and privately imagined pursuing her.
• Adam entered the room ahead of Dr. House, who took Vicodin before joining Wilson and Cameron.
• Dr. House called Adam sinister and, after hearing Wilson's suggestion, joked about Adam becoming a new Anchor Point.
• Dr. House recalled Adam's threat to retaliate against the people he cared about and decided not to provoke him further.

Adam checked on pregnant Monica and then joined Callie’s rare FOP case, where he examined a patient whose muscles were turning to bone. The patient may have internal bleeding, and Adam ordered a CT scan while weighing the danger of surgery.

• Adam reassured Dr. Montgomery that he would ask her to help when he eventually had children.
• Adam visited Monica in her VIP room and gave her nurses instructions before heading to the ward.
• Callie presented a rare case of Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva, and Lina warned the doctors that rough handling could worsen her mother’s condition.
• Adam carefully examined the patient and suspected that her vomiting came from internal bleeding caused by excessive painkiller use.
• Adam ordered a CT scan to confirm the diagnosis, noting that surgery could trigger further bone growth.

Adam treated Mrs. Rogerson, whose FOP made even a minimally invasive procedure dangerous, but her severe internal bleeding could not be stopped and she died during surgery. He and Lexie then went to tell her daughter Lina the news as she worked on the dollhouse.

• Adam and Cristina accompanied Mrs. Rogerson to a CT scan while Lina stayed behind building the dollhouse her mother once loved.
• Mrs. Rogerson and Adam discussed her illness, and Adam tried to give her hope by mentioning Sheldon and the possibility of future medical advances.
• The CT scan revealed severe internal bleeding, and Adam recommended a dangerous catheter embolization; Lina agreed to the procedure and signed the consent form.
• When the embolization failed and Mrs. Rogerson's blood pressure fell, Adam opened her up, but he could not stop the bleeding and Lexie pronounced her dead at 15:34.
• Adam brought Shorty and Lexie to tell Lina, who dropped the dollhouse window when she saw their expressions.

Adam visited Monica in the VIP ward, where he discussed Rachel’s encounter with the dangerous Dr. House and warned her to stay away from him. After Rachel and the others left, Adam cautioned Chandler not to rush Monica’s labor or call 777 to induce it.

• Rachel arrived with Emma, and Adam promised to attend his goddaughter’s first birthday.
• Rachel told Adam about the Poison-Tongued Man she had met, and Adam identified him as Dr. House and described his invasive methods.
• Adam said Dr. House had tried to uncover Adam’s secrets but had found nothing, then warned Rachel not to contact him again.
• Adam reminded Rachel to bring Emma to the Medical Center for her vaccinations when she turned one.
• Ross and the others visited Monica, then left Chandler to stay overnight with her.
• Adam told Chandler to let Little Adam remain in Monica’s belly until he was ready and not to call 777.

Adam helped deliver the baby of an alcoholic woman who had tried to leave the hospital, and the newborn showed severe Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. After Lexie called the police, Chief Resident Kelly warned her that pursuing criminal cases was not the hospital’s role, and Adam rebuked Lexie for acting without thinking.

• Adam left Monica and Chandler in the VIP ward after hearing a pregnant woman screaming in the hallway.
• Adam and the nurses restrained the woman, who had drunk six double bourbons and threatened to kill her unborn child.
• Adam and Dr. Luna performed an emergency C-section and found that the newborn had severe signs of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
• Chief Resident Kelly told Adam that the district attorney’s office planned to prosecute the mother for attempted murder after Lexie called the police.
• Kelly warned Lexie not to interfere in matters outside her medical duties, and Adam scolded her for making the call impulsively.

Adam stayed with Monica and Chandler as Monica went into labor and safely delivered Little Adam. Chandler accidentally let the newborn slip from his hands, but Adam caught him, leaving Monica to ban Chandler from holding their son without her permission.

• Adam visited Monica's room and asked the staff to watch over her and the baby.
• After Monica's water broke, Adam reassured her and Chandler, and Chandler called their friends to the hospital.
• Monica delivered Little Adam with Dr. Montgomery in charge and Dr. Luna assisting.
• Dr. Montgomery handed Little Adam to Chandler, who accidentally let him fly through the air.
• Adam caught Little Adam safely, and Monica forbade Chandler from holding their son without her permission.

Monica gave birth to Little Adam, and Chandler, Monica, and their friends celebrated the new Bing family with photos and jokes. After Monica’s parents left, Monica vowed to build a Bing Team to rival Ross’s Geller Team, leaving Chandler in danger of being worked to exhaustion.

• Adam handed Little Adam to Monica, and their friends entered the delivery room to meet the baby.
• Phoebe and Joey each held Little Adam and joked about wanting children and marriage, while Adam warned Joey about his many unregistered children.
• Adam photographed Chandler, Monica, and Little Adam, then Rose took pictures of the whole group celebrating together.
• Monica accused her mother of comparing her unfavorably with Ross after her mother remarked that Ross had a son and a daughter.
• Monica ordered everyone out and urged Chandler to help her add more players to the Bing Team, but Adam and their friends held her back and calmed her down.