Cameron and Chase

By now you've no doubt caught notice of my obsession with House, and among my favorite characters from House are Allison Cameron and Robert Chase. Cameron is a young, beautiful woman that becomes maternal of every single patient she meets. Chase tries to be like House, indifferent and brilliant, and he is quite the ladies man. He's the non commitment type while Cameron married a man despite the fact that he was dying, and somehow these two different individuals are brought together in time. In spite of what Chase did in Season 6 episode "The Tyrant" he is still a relatively prime image of what a good man should be like (at least according to the latter end of Season 3 to the end of Season 5).

In spite of the "playing the field" attitude Chase carries with him from the early seasons, as well as his thoughts that beauty and attractiveness are a requirement in the world (according to Season 1 Episode "Heavy") he somehow changes to a romantic with a view of love that the world could consider childish and improbable. His relations start with Cameron when they both see that their jobs keep them from any true relationships, and so they (in a very noncommitted way) begin to see each other. Cameron makes it very clear that she had no interest in a serious relationship with him, and she even chooses him because he is the one she is least likely to fall in love with, but still, time begins to change them. As they go through more cases together, Chase even backing up a few of Cameron's ideas only because they were seeing one another, Chase realizes that his feelings for Cameron extend to beyond the physical realm. Sadly, when he makes his feelings known to her and that he wants a serious relationship, she turns him down.

This brings about the awkwardness of dating a coworker: when the relationship goes bad. There is bad blood between the two of them, most of it coming from Cameron's side. During the Season 3 episode "Act Your Age" we see them going through the rough ends of their break up. Chase even calls Cameron out, saying she was the one to break things off with him, and that she had no right to be angry. While admitting she's sad they're done, she sticks to her feelings about not wanting a relationship, and eventually apologizes for hurting Chase, but reiterating that she had no feelings for him, to which Chase responds (as I can only recall from memory):

Chase: You do have feelings for me. You love everyone. You love every patient and child that you don't even know and yet me, someone you've worked with for three years, you're trying to say that you don't feel anything?

This is delayed when a patient's son, jealous of Chase because he likes Cameron, comes and bites Chase so that Cameron cannot reply. At the end of the episode, Chase leaves flowers for Cameron that aren't stolen (as the boy mentioned earlier stole some for her) and she again tells Chase that she doesn't want anything more with him... and again...

Chase: I know. I also know how much you love flowers.

This begins Chase's persistence in convincing Cameron she loves him too, not willing to give up on her. He does so in a simple way, every Tuesday he tells her that has feelings for her and wants them to be together. Nothing more than that, just a weekly reminder if she changes her mind. Needless to say, it drives Cameron right for awhile, but other issues take priority. Foreman leaving the team seems to drown out all else, but when House fires Chase due to "needing a change" (though it's most likely due to Chase calling House a coward for not telling Foreman that he likes to work with him) it strikes a nerve in Cameron. Having been in love with House for a long time, and seeing him like this, turns a new page for her. She quits the team along with Foreman, and ends up going to Chase.

During the next season they are seen happy together, and their relationship isn't really scrutinized until Season 5. When Cameron joins up with House's team to treat a man with severe agoraphobia, House strikes up the issue that the couple mostly spend time at Chase's apartment rather than sharing their apartments equally when they first began to date. Cameron raises this issue, to which Chase seems reluctant to talk about at first, but eventually he comes forward with a truth that comes as a shock to her. The reason they spend time at his place as opposed to hers is because he is only a guest over there, and she seems to rush him out of the door as soon as possible the next morning. It's a shocking revelation as in most television series (or life for that matter) it's usually a problem with the guy rather than the girl... or so we think. To me, seeing this example made me smile. The guy being right and the girl being wrong, but the guy says this graciously rather than rubbing it in, and together they resolve it. Though its far from the last issue that they have.

The next one arises when Cameron finds a wedding ring in Chase's sock drawer, and she prolongs their vacation because she doesn't want him to ask her to marry him. After Kutner's suicide, they're all shaken up, and she doesn't want it to be a spur of the moment thing. She runs and hides so to speak, and Chase reiterates a point he made earlier with the apartment dispute: "I can't keep chasing you forever." Chase decides to end it, which is what Cameron wanted because she can't stand to end it (due to still wanting to be with him) but a talk with House makes her realize her mistake. Despite the fact that she foiled his elaborate vacation plans and set up to propose, Chase asks her to marry him and all is well... momentarily.

As they make their wedding plans, some of Cameron's issues arise, and she tells Chase that she had some of her deceased husband's sperm frozen, and that she wants to keep it as a prenup. Chase, who is in love with her and never plans to hurt her, doesn't want a prenup, believing that they'll be together forever in spite of Cameron's doubts. This leads to postponing the wedding, and Cameron believes its the end, and she goes to House once again for advice. When confronted with whether she thinks they will last, they enter another metaphorically colorful conversation:

Cameron: I don't plan on my apartment burning down, but I still pay for fire insurance.

House: If your apartment didn't let you buy fire insurance, would you go homeless?

Cameron changes her mind about keeping the sperm, and tells Chase that she's willing to destroy it and that she wants to get married. This makes Chase very happy, but again, to give even more credit to Chase, it doesn't end there. At the end of the episode, he confronts Cameron, telling her that he knows she doesn't want to destroy it. She says she will, and he asks her to visualize them in five years, telling them about the life he sees, and if she would destroy it then. Then ten years, saying they have five children and are ridiculously happy, and asks her if she would destroy it then. He sees that the sperm is not meant to be a prenup, but its the last memory she has of her departed husband, and he tells her to keep it.

Overall, I just felt it a pleasure to write about Cameron and Chase, a couple that is peculiar by all means namely because its a relationship where most (if not all faults) have resided within the girl. Cameron's character is a very kind and nurturing person, which just shows that there is fault in all of us, whereas Chase shows what good guys are like. The point and purpose of me writing about this? No one is perfect, but when people come together, they can get close. As Season 6 sadly points out between this beautiful romance, it's when a couple begins to act as a pair of individuals that the relationship falls apart. To me, that seems to be the number one reason that divorce happens and that relationships crap out, people act more like individuals when they should be acting as couples. Food for thought. Enjoy.