Lately, there has been a shift of opinion about Cuddy's character especially after the introduction of the Lucas arc. People have been claiming the writers are writing her too OOC, that they are displaying her for everyone to hate causing no sympathy for her character. They are calling her all kind of names, bitch, whore, tart, slapper and a blind idiot. The truth is (as I hope it is), the fandom are loathing Cuddy not because she chose Lucas over House and that she's treating him simply as another employee in a cruel mannner, negating everything in the past but because they had never realised that Cuddy is not who they thought her to be. She is the female version of House which dissipates the allusion they had that Cuddy is this wonderful, idealist.
In s1, Cuddy was introduced as House's boogeyman, his boss whose main purpose was to restrain him from doing insane procedures in the same manner as Scully was for Mulder his menace in "The X-Files". Admittedly, for the first half of the season, that's what we saw her as and as an admirable adversory to House's verbal abuse. But with the appearance of Vogler, Cuddy seemed as this very weak character who was caught in the middle of the Titan battle of the bastards in which she had to make the safest and not (presumably) the right choice. In s2, Cuddy's character took a step backwards in order for the writers to explore the Hacy romance. However, by the end of s2 and throughout s3, we got a closer look at her personality. As an isolated unit, s4 didn't offer anything substantially new to the audience and we come to s5 and 6 where the opinions are divided about Cuddy.
The Lucas arc is mostly to get us to know Cuddy as we hardly know anything about her or we assume we don't. Cuddy is not a saint but she's not the devil. Most of the times, we see her dealing with House so we see her at her absolute worst. Cuddy is not the opposite of House, as fans claim. She's intelligent, strong and as stubborn as House is. One of the weapons she uses to dominate is words as House does. No one can forget her first encounter with House.
H: I'm going home.
C: To what?
In the same way as House, Cuddy is cruel (I'm going to use the definition in real life and not the House universe where you get what you give) to him, she lies to him, plays the same adolescent games as he does. She knows he can take the hit and give it back to her and that's one of the reasons House is attracted to her. Both of them know what each other can handle. However, Cuddy is not an angel, as House is not a saint. As she told Wilson in "Finding Judas", House restrains and censors himself, so does she. In "All In", angrily, she tells him to go home, go brood in a corner somewhere by himself. She poked him in one of the areas House has issues with, his loneliness (he may have told Wilson that he's better off alone but his tone indicated the quite opposite). Yet, Cuddy has this perversed sense of guilt that makes her different from House but gives fans the excuse to bully up against her and call her weak. It's bad to be guilty but not to be a jerk. *rolls eyes*
House may be a jerk (call him whatever you want) but most of his remarks to Cuddy are made for her to reciprocate the verbal abuse, the banter all Huddy fans worshp. House crosses the line of abuse when he's in tremendous physical pain and when he feels all his hope is about to evaporate in thin air (the unfortunate comment in "UMS"). Cuddy surpassed that point in "Greater Good". Because of her inability to conbine her obligations towards the hospital and her desire to be with her baby, she blatantly causes him physical pain. Cuddy fans will try to back her up by saying that House was responsible for that inability but they are overlooking the fact that her actions were purely out of revenge. There was no game-play, no humour whatsoever. She found an excuse (a poor one) to take out her frustration on House and deliberately hurts him. No soap water on a rug can come close to what she did. She realises it after her chat with Wilson and apologises and again fans find the opportunity to call her weak.
Another arrow in her quiver is her ability of manipulation, something people don't realise. She used her cunning to manipulate the board to dismiss Vogler and save House, making them believe that they were saving their own heads. People may disagree with me here but the purpose of boards, especially when concerning finance, is not to make the morally correct decisions (Vogler is the big bad wolf so they won't have a true, free choice again. Simply an assumption.) but the effectual ones. In the same way, she used Cole for her end game and caused him his dismissal from House's team. Wouldn't she have hired him as she hired Cameron and Chase to make things right or don't candidates count? Similarly, she used Foreman endless times (Deception, Guardian Angels, the beginning of s6). Cuddy never intended to give Foreman the position of the head of the Diagnostics Department but every time he assumed that from her actions. She led him to believe that, does that make her a bastard? It doesn't but it doesn't also make her a saint, as a lot of fans assume (the magic word). She constantly schemes with Wilson against House for his own good but the end doesn't justify the means. Let's not forget "Unfaithful" and the whole plotting she orchestrated for House not to come to Rachael's ceremony, reminiscent of the scheming House did to Foreman in "The Jerk". We come to the ammunition fans use to berate Cuddy, the Thanksgiving dinner. She played House at his own game. Did she serve him what's right? The turkey sandwich was a step near the edge but that is consistent with her character. The problem with the majority of fans (not me) is that she schemed along with Lucas and lied to House about breaking up. Therefore, fans assume she's being manipulated by Lucas so in their eyes she's the typical woman stereotype who is victimized by her partner. Seriously? Cuddy may be a lot of things but she's not clueless. Again, it's consistent with her character and is another indication of why she and House are similar characters.
In the hospital lobby, House smiles as he realises that she again conned him which makes the admiration he feels for her become even bigger.
S6 is supposed to be all about the different way House treats everyone around him after his hospitalization in Mayfield. He's treating everyone differently except Cuddy. Cuddy doesn't want to play this game because it's not fun anymore (tell me about it). Cuddy is a very insecure person, she has admitted that she has screwed every relationship she ever had. The games they played last year (Let Them Eat Cake) ended in her being vulnerable and crushed by House after she lowered her guard around him. She had faith that there could be something between her and House. As people say, having faith in something really hard and it never happening is something people can't take without bleeding. So, by telling House that the games are not fun anymore, she's openly challenging him to lay his cards on the table and once in his life be honest like she failed in "The Softer Side" when he asked her why she cares about him being happy, where she deflected.
As hard it was for House to be in Mayfield, so was it for Cuddy. She may not be the reason why he broke down (do we know what did?) but she feels guilty that she didn't see the signs of his deterioration. She's his friend and doctor. Imagine what it would do to a person with the guilt complex Cuddy carries with her! Cuddy is afraid to be involved because she doesn't want to hurt him again so she's doing exactly what House did to Stacy and Wilson to House, she loves him enough to let go. The real question "Ignorance is Bliss" brought up from my POV is does Cuddy doubt his love for her (if it indeed is love) or does she doubt her worthiness of his love?
Cuddy wants to be happy, she's giving a chance to her relationship with Lucas, a man who is as close as she can find to House (a safer choice). This is why I don't like Lucas being her boyfriend. She's trying to find the perfect balance between love and work with the addition weight of motherhood. Assumebly,House did the same thing last year (he nearly lost Wilson, surfacing hidden emotions for Cuddy) which led to his complete meltdown. Does that mean we will she her breaking down? Who knows?
Cuddy is and never will be a saint. The only thing I can't explain about her is her decision to pursue a man that potentially could harm her daughter and her revealing Lucas intimate details of House's conditions. Boyfriend or not boyfriend, Lucas knowing House etc., doctor-patient confidentiality is sacred. House and Cuddy are different but they are made of the same material. They are not ying and yang, that's why they are attracted to each other as opposed to what should have happened with House and Cameron if "the opposite attract each other" theory stands. Huddy fans must always take in mind that when they renounce one element of Huddy ( House or Cuddy), they are bringing down all the structure because Cuddy and House are the personification of the same character, simply a female and male mould.
