A Startling Television Mystery Solved

This week's episode of House M.D., began with and focused on the suicide of Dr. Lawrence Kutner. Dr. Kutner was played by actor Kal Penn, best known for co-staring in the "Harold and Kumar" movies.

Dr. Kutner was introduced last season as one of Dr. House's new diagnostic team. His character brought a warmth and a calm that seemed absent from the rest of the team. He had become a fan favorite because of this and his suicide was sudden and jarring. The bulk of this week's episode focused on finding reason for/in Dr. Kutner's suicide. While none was found onscreen, we finally have one offscreen.

Actor and longtime Obama supporter Kal Penn is joining the Obama administration, the White House confirmed to CNN Tuesday.

The actor will be part of the White House Office of Public Liaison, which is run by Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. Penn will be primarily involved in dealing with Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and the arts community.

It appears that the way that his character was written off the show was as much a shock to him as it was to the rest of us.

One of the things I love about our show is you never know what's going to happen. So that news struck me in the same way we hope it strikes the audience: there was a little bit of anger and some depression. You really go through those emotions, especially when somebody dies in that fashion. Ultimately, it was a really interesting choice for them to make. We don't really know why he did it, unless it's resolved in the episodes after [I left], which, of course, I'm not privy to anymore. At least in [last night's] episode, we don't really know why he did it. There's no note. There's no explanation. And as a testament to David and Katie, that's a huge risk. 'Cause it is going to make people upset, and it is going to piss off some of the audience. And, ultimately, in my opinion, that's what art really is -- when you can conjure up those kinds of emotions. And it's rare nowadays to be able to do that on network television, but they managed to.

I wish Mr. Penn all the best in his new (political) role. His acting on House M.D. will be missed.