Harsh words, probably the first hurtful words caring and sensitive Wilson ever said to House.
Being the show's main character, we got to see more of House's side of that conversation than Wilson's, more what House was feeling and House's reaction to those words than what they meant to Wilson.
Hearing those words from your best friend must be devastating alright, but what about saying them? What about the feelings that led Wilson to speak them out loud?
I always find it funny the great ammount of House fans who are completely confident that if House was a real person they would be best buddies with him or would be ready to marry him. I would bet most of my possessions that 90% of those fans wouldn't be able to put up with half the crap Wilson puts up with from House.
Don't get me wrong, I really like House, he's very funny, very entertaining and brilliant, a very attractive character, but let's be honest and unbaised here, he doesn't do that well at human relationships.
House is the kind of guy from whom you get a confirmation once a year, if you're lucky, that he actually gives a damn about you. He's practically incapable of opening up, he constantly pushes everyone away and he's not very good at being supportive, hardly a good candidate for a best friend.
Wilson, on the other hand, usually comes out as somewhat of a perfect friend, sure he's human and he's had his couple of screw ups, but usually he does very well at being House's friend.
How does he do it? Is he completely inmune to House's jerkiness? Well, of course not, but he's got a pretty high level of patience and tolerance alright. Wilson is very good at reading people and understanding their intentions and actions, there have been a couple of jokes about him being a bit of a psychiatrist, so he can generally see past House's jokes and sarcasm and can understand that House cares for him even if House will never say it out loud.
But Wilson isn't psychic, he mostly assumes the things he can tell about House and, even if he doesn't show it that much, I'm sure he gets hurt from time to time with House's selfishness and jerkiness as much as the next person. And yet he kept staying by House's side every time.
So the ultimate unavoidable confirmation finally came during that scene on the episode Wilson's Heart, House asked "You think I should risk my life to save Amber's?", Wilson nodded and House nodded back, the confirmation of House's deep care for Wilson. He risked his life and his rational mind for Wilson, for the first time showing real reciprocation in their "stupid screwed up friendship".
But House failed in his attempt to save Amber and Wilson couldn't help but feel resentment towards him for his invlovement on the accident, even though he knew he couldn't rationally blame it on House.
Now we have Wilson with a considerable ammount of resentment for his best friend, which leads him to give that little speech at the end of the episode Dying Changes Everything, which unfortunately had a lot of truth in it, House does spread misery plenty of times and House does manipulate people because he has deep troubles handling real relationships. Wilson has always known these things about House too, but never spoke them out loud because, like he said, he always tries to protect House.
But Wilson is deeply hurt after loosing Amber and House's involvement in it brings feelings to surface that have been kept in his subconscious, like the need to say those things he knew about House that can't be easy to deal with if you have a relationship with the guy.
And back to the most important phrase "We're not friends anymore, House. I'm not sure we ever were". The key phrase is the last one, not sure we ever were. Wilson's conscious or subconscious mind can't possibly have created this thought out of nowhere right after Amber's death. Just like all the other things he said in that speech, that phrase has always been somewhere deep in his subconscious.
He is the almost perfect friend who can put up with almost anything, but of course he isn't, he is just as human as the next guy (at least inside the show xD). As great and so much fun as House is we have to admit to ourselves that House is hardly the kind of friend that inspires much confidence in the everyday, even in the episode The Social Contract where he did pretty well at being a friend he screwed up in the key momment where Wilson was going in to see his brother. With House being the way he is, it should come as little surprise that even Wilson, who is that good at reading people and most particularly House, has doubts in their friendship, has doubts in how much of a damn House gives about him, has doubts in how good their "stupid screwed up friendship" is for him.
So yeah, Wilson, vulnerable and in pain, finally spoke up the harsh cold truth of his own feelings. We see House speak the harsh cold truth every episode with everyone and most fans even commend him on many occasions for it, maybe it doesn't seem as bad because House usually throws a joke or another in the middle, but he does it and it hurts people even though it is the pure truth most of the time. And most poeple think that to whoever House delivers this harsh cold truth should suck it up because it is actually the truth and because he is right.
So why should Wilson delivering the harsh cold truth to House to his face be any different? He's just trying out himself what House does absolutely every week, but it sounds oh so different coming from Wilson's usually extra gentle mouth, doesn't it? Is it fine for House to tell everyone their truth, as harsh as it might be, but it's just plain wrong when it is delivered back to him? If Wilson said to him "I'm not sure we ever were [friends]" there must have been a small part of him, tiny as it might be, that actually felt that way even before Amber died, should he have kept it shut forever? Does House deserve to be protected every single time?
My point is, it isn't easy to be House's friend and it is to be expected that there will be doubts regarding House's friendship value, as much of an attractive person as he may be.
To the benefit of their friendship, how much I love them together and with the results seen in and after Birthmarks, I will say that I think Wilson needs House just as much as House needs Wilson, and there are benefits that House provides to Wilson (too complicated ones to explain here) that no one else has been able to so far, one of them he didn't even find in Amber, so I think for a real friend Wilson himself can't do better than House.
But with House being who he is it's more than understandable that Wilson's doubts got to be big enough for him to say those words and to try to separate himself from House, Wilson should've left for good if he really thought that House's friendship did more harm than good in his life. Thankfully, he weighed the advantages and disadvantages of House's friendship and came to the conclussion that he did better with House than without him. Only he could accurately make that call at the end of the day. I was glad :)
