Lawrence Kutner, M.D. is a fictional character on the Foxmedical dramaHouse. He is played by Kal Penn. He becomes a member of House's new diagnostic team in "Games", the ninth episode of the fourth season. He dies from suicidein season 5, episode 20, "Simple Explanation"; he makes a further appearance as a hallucination in season eight.
Characterization
Kutner is shown to be open-minded about any new experience which is the reason he wants to join House's new team. He is originally #6 during the games, but is fired in his first appearance for reporting Amber Volakis's recording of patient information. He continues to work even after being "fired" by House by flipping his #6 into a #9 and refusing to leave, and then coming up with a clever stress test for a patient's liver, using alcohol to intoxicate the patient, which impresses House to keep him, much to Amber's dismay. Of all the new fellows, Kutner is the most enthusiastic and the one most likely to go along with House in taking risks, including illegal activities. When House is finally forced to pick his new team, Dr. Cuddy suggests he hire Kutner because Kutner "shares philosophy of medicine." He first gets approval from House after successfully reviving a patient with a defibrillator while in a hyperbaric chamber, despite also setting her clothing on fire due to the high-oxygen atmosphere. Similarly, in "Mirror Mirror", he resuscitates a patient using a defibrillator while the patient's skin is wet, inadvertently shocking himself into unconsciousness at the same time. Defibrillators and Kutner become a running joke for House, who, in "Ugly", appoints him the "professional defibrillist", a title of which Kutner seems rather proud. Kutner is a science fiction fan and seems to be easily distracted by pretty women, having asked out Amber Volakis at the end of the contest. However, at the end of "Wilson's Heart", while other characters are shown to be visibly upset over Amber's death, he spends the night after her death eating cornflakes while watching television. He tends to share a great deal of trivial personal details with others. In "Here Kitty", Kutner is shown to be superstitious, throwing salt over his shoulder after House deliberately spills some and avoiding walking under a ladder. He also takes great pains to avoid walking past a cat who is rumored to predict the deaths of people to whom it is close.
Biography
Little is revealed about Kutner's past. In the season four finale, Kutner comments that "Kutner" is not an Indian surname. He reveals that his parents owned a deli and were shot and killed during a robbery when he was six years old, suggesting that he got his surname from his adoptive family. In the episode "Birthmarks", Kutner admits that he liked being different, being Indian, after being adopted by a "Jewish family when he was six." In the season four episode "Ugly", in order to put a patient at ease in admitting drug use, he claims to have used drugs as a teen. In "Adverse Events" it is said that he holds a Guinness World Record for crawling the longest distance, twenty miles. In "Joy to the World", as a response to other events in the episode, the epilogue shows him seeking out and apologizing to a high school classmate to whom he had been cruel. In "Let Them Eat Cake", Kutner runs an online medical advice clinic under House's name; however, his fellow employees and then House himself blackmail him into giving them most of the profits. In "Here Kitty," to get back at House for making fun of him for being superstitious, and for pretending to throw up blood all over him, Kutner apparently gets a cat to urinate on House's chair. It is implied that it is actually Kutner's urine. In "Simple Explanation", it is revealed that Kutner streaked during the Penn-Dartmouth football game and a picture of him at graduation reveals him to be an alumnus of Dartmouth College. The team also meets Kutner's adoptive parents, who tell them that Lawrence called them Mr. and Mrs. Kutner until his ninth birthday, when they became "Mom" and "Dad". They also tell him that Kutner's original name was "Lawrence Choudhary" and that he himself decided to change it. Kutner is found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his apartment by Thirteen and Foreman in "Simple Explanation". Kutner left no reason for his suicide, causing House to suspect. The show's producers confirmed that his death was indeed a suicide. Actor Kal Penn had accepted a job at the White House as "a liaison connecting the Obama administration with arts and entertainment groups, as well as with the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities." In "Both Sides Now", Kutner appears briefly in one of House's hallucinations. In "Everybody Dies", the series' final episode, Kutner once again appears in House's hallucinations.
Reception
Kutner's death was criticized in The Star-Ledger, with columnist Alan Sepinwall arguing that the death was pointless, and seemingly written only to create a "Very Special Episode". However, Entertainment Weekly commended the show's handling of the death, believing that it was presented in a dramatically effective and realistic manner.
