and although it's implied that he does not keep in regular contact with his parents, he has been seen to phone his mother on Christmas. In episode 2.05 ("Daddy's Boy"), mother Blythe seems to be the standard military housewife, and House calls her a "human polygraph". The character's first name may be a reference to actress Blythe Danner, who played a similar character in The Great Santini. His father John is a retired Marine Corps aviator and is incessantly honest, a trait which House seems to be quite bitter about. According to House, his father is also obsessively punctual, to the point that if he was so much as "two minutes late for dinner, he didn't eat". House's father is hard on him for not dealing with his leg better, telling him "your problem is that you don't know how lucky you are." House's father was stationed in Egypt when House was young, and in Japan when House was a teenager. In episode twelve of season three ("One Day, One Room"), House reveals that his father abused him, making him sleep on the lawn and take ice baths. In episode 5.04, "Birthmarks", John House dies, and House reveals that he does not believe John was his biological father. At the funeral, House delivers a eulogy at his mother's request and he cannot restrain himself from pointing out his father's lack of compassion by referring to the fact that no officers of inferior rank (John House was a Colonel) attended his funeral, only superiors, meaning that he never inspired any respect in his subordinates. House removes skin from John's ear for DNA testing, which confirms his suspicion and seems in part to validate his disdain for his father. Despite the revelation, John's death seems to have moved House; later in the episode in a rare moment of vulnerability, House says to Wilson, "My dad's dead," as though the significance of the event were just sinking in. In "Brave Heart" House attempts to talk to his dead father after Wilson tells him to try it, despite having previously dismissed the idea as stupid. In the episode "Perils of Paranoia" it is revealed that House keeps his father's mameluke dress sword and presentation M1911 pistol in a closet at his apartment. Dr. Rowan Chase (Patrick Bauchau) is Dr. Robert Chase's estranged Czech-Australian father and an acclaimed rheumatologist. He left his alcoholic wife and