This is just a draft - I also reserve the right to take this all back if the show fucks up her character in the finale. (EDIT: They didn't, YAY. And now includes finale spoilers.)



I know, I previously ripped my favorite show a new one on how badly it handles female characters. At that time, the only promising one, Amber Volakis, hadn't made the cut for House's new team. Little did I know she would return two episodes later and become a hugely important character, contributing not only to House and Wilson's character growth (and their relationship), but having a character arc for herself. It was a very pleasant surprise. Twice as much in that the show runners seemed to have fallen for the character so much she dominated entire episodes.

Amber is as aggressive, competitive, and manipulative as House, MD's protagonist, but being female, a double standard is applied to her and she is labeled the Cut-Throat Bitch. The great thing about Amber? She doesn't back down from the title, she fucking claims it; she's in a competition, so she's going to compete without remorse. Amber declares that House has never had more than one woman on his team, and so she becomes a representation of a woman trying to make it into a male-dominated field.

The only other woman who's a real contender is Thirteen, whom Amber comes to resent, especially. They are more-or-less equally good doctors, but Thirteen is younger, “prettier,” and favored by House. Thirteen gets it easy. Amber has to fight every step of the way. Thirteen is hired because Cuddy insists House hire a woman – one who “cares,” as though that's all a woman can offer the team. Several episodes down the line, House practically admits Thirteen serves as a replacement for Cameron – the young, pretty, “caring” doctor who had (has?) an out-of-control crush on him. Meanwhile, Kutner stays for his creative thinking and the unattractive Taub stays for his experience. No, Thirteen probably didn't deserve to be the target of Amber's hate, but can you really blame Amber for feeling the way she did?

I was especially happy that the show could grasp the concept that just because Amber was a bitch (aggressive) on the job, didn't mean that was all there was to her. She cared about her patients, unlike some of her competitors (see “Mirror, Mirror” and “Games”). Amber tells House that she knows her desire to always win is twisted, but it still works out to benefit her patients.

After Amber is cut, she returns two episodes later, dating Wilson. By the end of their second episode as a couple, she is clearly in love with him – and the show again wins points for not having love defang her! She's sweet to Wilson, but she'll become aggressive when she wants to get them seats at a restaurant and manipulate to get a lower price tag on their new mattress. And when House tries to run her off, Amber pushes back.

And I was very glad that no-backbone Cuddy turned out dead wrong about Amber destroying Wilson out of selfishness. Amber actually looked out for Wilson by trying to get him to go after what he wants rather than what he thinks he should. She actually served as a healing presence in Wilson's life, as he did in hers. (And he doesn't realize it yet, but House has benefited from her presence, too, learning how to treat his friend better.)

As Amber said in “Don't Ever Change,” she always had to choose between love and respect, and she always chose respect. The idea that women can't have it all still lives, but Amber manages to defy this “common knowledge” when she finds Wilson. And while we can argue all day whether he was actually in love with her, he definitely cared about her and liked Amber as is. No one liked Amber during the competition. Taub and Kutner, two of the winners, were attracted to Amber but “afraid of her.” (And with the reveal that Thirteen is bisexual, there's a possibility all three of House's current fellows felt the same way.) Amber stuck to her guns, and although she lost the fellowship, she wound up winning it all.

Cuddy, Cameron, and Thirteen continue to wander about in various levels in misery, while Amber gets rewarded rather than punished for being the Bitch and daring to go after what she wants.

EDIT 5/20/08 (OMG META ROUNDUP. SWEET.)
Still a draft. The finale surpassed my expectations. Final version will turn up on Cut-Throat Bitch, MD when I make a new layout. Additional thoughts:

Thirteen-Amber thing was actually very touching for me. Of all the characters, she was the one I really wanted to see Amber again before she died. Their hug came off as a desire for reconciliation between two groups of women needlessly (but understandably) pitted against each other. Women's progress slows when women divert energy towards fighting each other when there should be unity.

All of the fellows coming to see Amber before she died was, yes, clunky, but thematically, I understood what the show was trying to do. Amber essentially was a positive force on the show. There is zero ammunition against her, she's done no wrong, and her death made the other characters rethink some things about their lives. (And as sad as her death is, she served the show better in this role rather than on House's team. Amber was the only new character to get a reaction out of every single other character, and interacted with all of them.)

And, yes, the Bitch dies, but the Bitch dies happy. Not only that, she chooses not to die angry. She's been on the show for such a short amount of time, but the proportion of her time on she was happy was much, much higher than any other character. And she was happy because of her strength to be true to herself.