Dr. Robert Chase (played by Jesse Spencer)
Background
Robert Chase was the longest serving member of House's staff, despite being a young doctor – reportedly 26 years old at the start of the show ("Cursed"), although he says he is 30 in the episode "Autopsy". His tenure on House's staff is hinted at in the episode "All In", where he describes details of previous work with House to Dr. Eric Foreman, citing himself as speaking to the doctor that was around before Dr. Allison Cameron.
Chase was very attached to his job and was willing to go to extreme lengths to keep it when it became threatened by Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital Chairman of the Board Edward Vogler in Season 1. He leaked the details of House's rather unconventional (and sometimes illegal) style of solving cases to Vogler over the course of five episodes, leading to a major rift between him and House when discovered – although House seemed to have suspected him from the beginning.
House says in the pilot episode that he only hired Chase because his father made a call, but considering Chase and his father had a horrible relationship, coupled with House's personality, this might not be the case. In the episode "No Reason", House, while hallucinating, is startled by a quick diagnosis on Chase's part, but covers by saying that he "wouldn't have hired him if he wasn't smart". This earns the sarcastic response from Jack Moriarty, "Right. 'Cause you've got nothing but respect for him", which becomes particularly worthy of note when "Moriarty's" identity is revealed. In any case, Chase and House have a highly complicated relationship.
In the differential diagnosis that takes place in every show, Chase's suggestions almost always tie into something the patient of the week has done to themselves, usually due to drugs or risky behavior. It could be argued this is driven by his own past experiences with self destructive behavior, a want to please House or a combination of both. Chase is often the only one to show amusement at his boss' callous jokes.
Early on in Season 3, Michael Tritter, a driven cop attempting to convict House of drug possession, sets Chase up to look as if he betrayed House. Chase responds by stepping up his loyalty to his boss, but during this, House is going through painful drug withdrawal and takes much of his anger out on convenient targets, Chase included. When Chase physically tries to stop him from leaving the hospital (to prevent House from making a serious mistake regarding a patient), House snaps and punches him in the face, knocking him to the floor. An irate and bruised Chase seems ready to wash his hands of House at last, vowing to Dr. James Wilson that he will not wait for his mentor's approval anymore.
Chase seems to have a soft spot for child patients; this leads to a dilemma in the episode "Autopsy" where a dying nine year old girl asks him for a kiss before she dies. He had a bond with another nine year old in the episode "Cursed", said a heartfelt prayer before performing an autopsy of an infant he failed to save ("Forever"), pretends to pull an alien chip out of a young boy in the episode "Cane and Able" and is frequently asking parents about their young children and dealing with kids.
In various episodes, he has been very unsympathetic towards the overweight, to the point of Foreman flat out asking him if he hated fat people. Chase supplied no direct response to the query.
In a surprising move during the Season 3 finale, Dr. House fired Chase from his position at the hospital.
Biography
Chase's life has been gradually illustrated throughout the series. He appears to be from a wealthy Australian family (of probably Czech descent; in the episode "Cursed", House speculated that his father's accent is "Czech with about 30 years Aussie", which the father confirms; Jesse Spencer is Australian himself) and has also had a rough relationship with his father, Rowan, a famous doctor in his own right, as Chase talks to House about trying to mend the gap with his father many times, but finding his father simply didn't care.
Eventually, Rowan Chase is revealed to have left the family when Robert was a teenager, which gave his son no other option but to care alone for his alcoholic mother until her death, a good five years later which was approximately ten years before "Damned If You Do". In "Cursed", Rowan visits the hospital claiming he is in town for a conference, but close observation of his behavior allows House to deduce that there is no conference and, in reality, Rowan is dying from terminal lung cancer. Rowan was at the hospital to visit Dr. James Wilson, a cancer specialist. Initially, Robert is intensely frustrated with his father's presence, but offers to buy his father a drink at the end of the episode. Rowan declines and leaves without ever revealing to Robert of his condition. In the Season 2 episode "The Mistake", viewers learn that Chase's father died about two months after the visit in "Cursed".
Chase has also hinted in the second season that he is now no longer well off, since he had started working in NICU while taking his paid vacation time in House's department, receiving twice his usual salary. Upon learning that Chase has been putting in extra hours, House speculates that Chase must have been cut out of his inheritance after his father's death. Chase neither confirms nor denies this hypothesis. However, in the Season 3 episode "Finding Judas", he admits that his father left him out of his will and that he harbors ill will towards Rowan once more.
In "Damned If You Do", Chase reveals to a patient that he attended a seminary, quoting 1 Peter 1:7. This aspect of his life was shown again in the episode "Forever", when he said a prayer for the soul of a baby who died under his care. It has also been alluded to that he has been into BDSM in the past, although he says that his familiarity with the scene was only because he was dating a banker who liked to be burned. ("Love Hurts").
Relationship with Dr. Allison Cameron
Chase has always been attracted to Dr. Cameron and this was featured early on in the series when he asked her out on a date in "Occam's Razor", which she declined.
In Season 2, Chase willingly had a one night stand with Cameron while she was high on methamphetamines; this was further complicated by the fact that he knew she might have been infected with HIV (which had led to the drug use).
Chase was involved with Cameron in what is essentially a "friends with benefits" relationship in Season 3. Cameron initiated sex in strange or risky places such as the sleep lab and a patient's house. This caused speculation that her intent was to make House jealous. Their boss later discovered their relationship after catching them making out in a janitor's closet at work. Chase's feelings for Cameron were made clear ("Fetal Position") through his reaction to the picture of her taken by a celebrity photographer patient and Cameron's remark on how she has never seen him glow like that when she sees the picture taken of him while he was gazing at Cameron's picture. However, when he informed her that he wanted to take their relationship forward, she ended it. Despite Cameron's refusal to reconcile, Chase asks her out every Tuesday anyway.
In "Human Error", Chase is fired by House after yelling at him for not going to greater lengths to keep Foreman on the team. House claims that he fired him because it was time for a change and he had learned all he could from him. However, House was just looking for a change, since Dr. James Wilson said he never liked change. Chase took this surprisingly well, telling Cameron having the job was one of the best experiences in his life and he was looking forward to new opportunities. He also apologized for his continuous pursuit of her. Chase later found Cameron waiting at his front door, where she said that she wasn't willing to wait until Tuesday, a sign that she was willing to try a relationship - which he immediately reciprocated with a kiss.
Trivia
- Worked at the clinic for 1 year before the first episode.
- Hates nuns.
- Jesse Spencer, who plays Dr. Robert Chase, has several family ties to the medical profession: his father and two brothers are doctors in Australia while his sister is currently in medical school. When watching House, Jesse's brothers try to diagnose the problem based on the symptoms and medical jargon presented in the show. They also look for medical slip ups in the dialog.
The second paragraph consists of material from the Wikipedia article "Robert Chase" which is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
