What Happened to Amber on 'House'? A Look Back

Remember Amber on House? No? Well, you might know her better as something else thanks to House's not-so-nice nickname for her, "Cutthroat Bitch". But whether you loved her or hated her, Amber played an important role in Wilson and House's lives and would forever affect their relationship. 

Let's take a look back at two of the most powerful episodes of House and discuss what happened to Amber.

We first met Amber (Anne Dudek) in Season 4 when she competed to fill one of the fellowship positions on House (Hugh Laurie)'s team. Her methods and incredible ambition earned her the nickname "Cutthroat Bitch" which stuck.

In the end, House opted not to hire her for the position because she wasn't willing to lose. Her constant desire to win wasn't compatible with what House needed her to do.

Unfortunately for House, he later discovered that his best friend had started dating her. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and Amber dated happily for a while, despite House attempting to come between them and get her to go away. However, there are also many hints that House has feelings for her as well.

In Season 4, Episode 15, "House's Head", it's discovered that, following a bus crash, House has gaps in his memory of the night it happened. But he insists that he knows that someone on the bus with him is going to die. He attempts to track down who it is, enlisting the help of his new team and former team.  

He begins to hallucinate a young, beautiful woman (Ivana Milicevic), who seems to be guiding him to the truth. But the young woman has a necklace with a bug in some kind of gemstone. Though House studies the necklace and knows its tied to an answer, the truth is out of his grasp. At one point, in a hallucination, she appears to him and he has a long satin ribbon in his hands. Although it seems like a sexual fantasy of him tying a woman up, it has a much deeper and darker connection.

"I'm cold," she says next.

"Stay with me," House says back, not knowing why he was compelled to say it.

In his next hallucination on the bus, she asks him, "What's my necklace made of?"

"Resin," he says.

"Who am I?" she asks.

At last, he finally understands. "Amber."

The crash had led to a steel rod going straight through Amber's leg, leading to House having to tourniquet her, hence the scene with her saying, "I'm cold" and him saying, "Stay with me."

In the next episode, it's discovered that Amber is unconscious in another hospital, but there's something wrong with her heart that doesn't match up with her injuries from the bus crash. She's dying and they don't know why. 

House and Wilson move her back to Princeton Plainsboro Hospital. Wilson begs House to put her under protective hypothermia. Essentially, it would keep her alive while House and his team attempt to figure out what's wrong with her.

Like the anonymous woman from the previous episode, the unconscious Amber continues to guide House through his dreams and hallucinations, telling him when he's not on the right track. 

By stimulating his hypothalamus, he's able to relive some of what happened that night, which is when he learns that, after getting drunk at a bar and having his keys taken away by the bartender, he tried to get Wilson to come pick him up. But when he called Wilson, the oncologist was on duty. Amber picked up House's call instead. 

Although House told her to go get Wilson, she showed up to pick him up instead. While she tried to wrangle him into going with her, she sneezed, seeming to have a cold. He pushed past to get on the bus instead of going with her, so she followed him on. On the bus, she says that she's getting the flu.

But that's when House sees the real problem. 

"Don't do it," he says, as he watches her take a pill. She had been prescribed amantadine for the flu. It's at that point that House realizes what's killing her: amantadine poisoning. Since the crash destroyed her kidneys, she couldn't filter the drugs and she effectively ODed on her flu medication.

Although Wilson says that they can start her on dialysis to get the drugs out, House tells him its not possible. Amantadine binds with proteins, making it impossible for dialysis to clear it out of the blood. There's nothing they can do to save her.

Wilson is left with the decision to wake her up from her medically-induced slumber to say goodbye. When she wakes up, it begins to dawn on her what happened. "I shouldn't have gone on the bus," she tells Wilson. 

When she asks Wilson how bad it is and he explains what's happened to her, she slowly breaks down. "I'm dead," she says. All Wilson says back is, "I love you."

Wilson holds her for the remainder of her time alive and she fights to stay with him. Although she says she's tired, he asks her to hold on "just a little longer." "We are always going to want just a little longer," she says back. She tells him it's going to be okay and he asks why she's not angrier. "That's not the last feeling I want to experience," she tells him. 

He gives her one last kiss before turning off the machines keeping her alive and she dies in his arms.