The House M.D. episode in which House teaches three medical students through three cases is titled “Three Stories.”
“Three Stories” is the 21st episode of the first season, broadcast in May 2005. House gives a lecture about diagnosing leg pain, presenting three patient cases. The narrative gradually reveals that one case is his own medical history, including the muscle infarction that caused his chronic pain and limp.
The episode uses a layered structure: House shifts between cases, possible diagnoses, and memories, allowing the audience to compare clinical reasoning with the personal consequences of treatment. It became one of the series’ best-known episodes because it connects House’s medical identity to the injury behind his cane and Vicodin dependence.
David Shore wrote the episode, which won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Its title is straightforward but important: the lecture is organized around three stories, even though the emotional center is House’s own.