Blue Star Chronicles

Did you watch House tonight? Tonight’s episode had a huge shocking twist that isn’t finished yet for anyone that watched it. It has to do with House’s Lawrence Kutner. The audience was asked to track down the rest of the story at fox.com/kutner after the episode. The problem is, you have to wait until Hawaii has had a chance to watch it before the website has more information. Read about it below, see photos and a video. Be warned … spoiler alert! See the updated ‘the rest of the story’ below.

Kal Penn - House’s Lawrence Kutner

Tonight’s House took an ominous twist when the character played by Kal Penn didn’t show up for work. When Dr. Lawrence Kutner doesn’t show up for work, Dr. House sends Dr. Foreman (played by Peter Jacobson) and Dr. Hadley (also known as 13 and played by Olivia Wilde) to check out what’s going on. When they go to Kutner’s apartment, they find him laying in a pool of blood. It appears that Kutner has committed suicide by a self inflicted gunshot wound.

OH NOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

The entire episode has to do with the issue of suicide. Dr. House spends the episode trying to figure out why Kutner would kill himself. The other characters are a husband and wife, each trying to save the other by donating their organs to each other. In effect, committing suicide to save their spouses.

With the team focusing on properly diagnosing the sick couple trying to give each other organs, there is Kutner’s suicide looming in the background. House can’t figure out why Kutner would kill himself and concludes that it wasn’t suicide, but murder. While everyone else is at the funeral, House is going through Kutner’s apartment looking for clues to solve the puzzle of why he would kill himself … or to get clues about whether or not he was murdered.

Regardless of how Dr. House ends up diagnosing this, it looks pretty certain that Kal Penn is leaving House.

And there it is …. the mystery of Kutner’s death. Murder or suicide? We know that Dr. House will figure it out before its all said and done. At the end of the episode, viewers are asked to go to fox.com/kutner for the rest of the story. However, you won’t get the rest of the story until after the Hawaiian audience has a chance to see the show. Talk about a cliff hanger! There will be a lot of people on the east coast staying up late tonight!

The Fox site is a mockup site that is a tribute to Dr. Lawrence Kutner (1975 - 2009). There is a Kutner memorial video and an obituary on the site. There is also a note from Chris Taub. There is a memorial site on Facebook where fans can leave notes and, of course, get a ton more information about the Kutner character.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen quite this much of a send off for a character on a show before. Then again, its a pretty good marketing ploy.

BTW, did you know that Kal Penn is his stage name? His real name is Kalpen Suresh Modi. He was born on April 23, 1977 in Montclair, New Jersey. His parents are both Hindu Gujarati immigrants from India. His father is an engineer and his mother is a fragrance evaluator.

You’ve probably seen Penn in other television roles. For instance, he had a recurring role on Day 6 of 24 and has played Dr. Lawrence Kutner on House for two seasons. He had a starring roles in National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, The Namesake, Epic Movie and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

But its Kutner’s death, not Penn’s, that’s the subject of this episode of House.

UPDATE: The other half of the story turns out to be that Kal Penn left the show to take a job at the White House. He was an avid supporter of Obama for the Presidency and now will be Associate Director for the Office of Public Liaison. I have no idea what the Office of Public Liason will be, but I’m sure we’ll find out.

The obituary, photos and a video are below.

Mercer County Courier
April 7, 2009

Dr. Lawrence Kutner died on Thursday, April 2nd from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 33 years old.

“Dr. Kutner was a hard working, young doctor with a kind, unassuming, gentle manner. He will be missed by all of us”, said Dr. Lisa Cuddy, Dean of Medicine at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, where Dr. Kutner worked.

Dr. Kutner was born in Freemont, California. Tragedy marred his early life as he lost his parents, Karamchand and Niki Baidwan, who were shot during an armed robbery. After a couple of years in foster care, Julia and Richard Kutner adopted Lawrence. He showed great promise in high school, winning a Westinghouse Science award for an experiment involving dark matter. His adoptive parents mused that he showed a freethinking, inventive streak from a young age.

Kutner received a full scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Physics. He then attended the University of Tel Aviv Medical School and completed an internship and residency in Sports and Rehabilitation Medicine through the University of Colorado. “He wanted to be a doctor since seeing ‘M.A.S.H.’ as a kid”, said his close friend and colleague Dr. Chris Taub. “I think he modeled himself a little bit after Hawkeye Pierce.”

Kutner’s girlfriend Nicole Brewster remembered that Lawrence, being adopted and of Indian ancestry, always felt like an outsider. But she said he didn’t resent it - instead, he felt the experience gained him added insight and perspective. This drew him to take atypical paths in his career and personal life. One such example is when he decided to break the world record for distance crawling. After a grueling 43 hours, he managed to crawl 20 miles, and earn himself a place in Guinness Book in 2002.

During his free time, Lawrence played water polo and swam competitively. He enjoyed science fiction and was a frequent participant in the Clarion Science Fiction Workshops.

Dr. Kutner is survived by his adoptive parents. A private Hindu celebration of his life was held yesterday.

Kal Penn - House Cast - Photos