Why Kal Penn's Lawrence Kutner Left House M.D.

Warning: This post contains discussions of suicide.

Hugh Laurie's curmudgeonly genius was undoubtedly the main draw of "House M.D." but he'd be nothing without a supporting cast of characters to continuously upset, befuddle, and bewilder. From the very beginning of the hit Fox series, Dr. Gregory House was surrounded by a team of colleagues who were both enamored and perpetually offended by a man who remains one of the greatest detectives in movie and TV history.

Whether it was head of oncology at Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and House's bestie, Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard); Dean of Medicine, Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), or House's team of diagnosticians, there were plenty of personalities against which the titular M.D.'s cynicism could clash. Throughout the show's eight seasons, that team of diagnosticians changed somewhat, with new doctors joining the team at various points. At the beginning of season 4, House is forced to find a new team after he dismisses one of his former consultants and another resigns, resulting in Peter Jacobson's Dr. Chris Taub, Olivia Wilde's Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley, and Kal Penn's Dr. Lawrence Kutner joining the team.

But towards the end of season 5, Dr. Kutner dies in a shocking episode that sees Thirteen and Foreman (Omar Epps) discover their colleague in his apartment with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The episode, entitled "Simple Explanation," was made even more upsetting as no explanation at all was provided as to why Dr. Kutner would take his own life. The real-life explanation for Penn's exit from the series, however, made a lot more sense.

Prior to his role on "House," Kal Penn had gained notoriety for starring in "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," the first of the "Harold and Kumar" movies. But before that, the actor had harbored modest political ambitions. Though he attended a performing arts high school, he took several political science classes and was influenced by his grandparents, who marched alongside Gandhi in the Indian independence movement. All the while he was acting, Penn maintained an affinity for politics.

As the actor recalled in an NPR interview, after landing his role on "House," he and his co-star Olivia Wilde attended an event for the Barack Obama campaign, where Penn was impressed with what he saw. He ended up helping the campaign for three days in Iowa before Obama won the 2008 Presidential election. It was after this that Penn was offered the opportunity to work as part of his administration. In April 2009, the actor accepted an offer to become an associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement. 

As he told NPR, "What are you gonna say, 'No Mr. President, I have another stoner movie to make?'" Of course, accepting this job offer meant that Penn's time on "House" had to come to an end, and he spoke to Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly's "Ausiello Files" about his departure from the show, recalling how he and "House" showrunner David Shore "had a very long discussion." He continued:

"I remember David saying, 'Are you telling me that you're unhappy with the show and that you want to leave so you can go off and do a different show?' And I was like, 'Not at all. I'm actually saying the exact opposite, which is I'm having an incredible time, but there's something aching in me to do something completely different and take a break from the acting thing for a while.' And with their blessing, we were able to work it out."

Still, Penn had no idea how his character would be written out of the show, and he was as shocked as audiences when he read the script for "Simple Explanation," which, though tragic, remains one of the best episodes of "House." Penn told EW, "That news struck me in the same way we hope it strikes the audience: There was a little bit of anger and some depression."

Dr. Lawrence Kutner's suicide in season 5 is a major shock as, prior to that point, the show had given no indication that the character was suffering in any way. According to showrunner David Shore, however, that was very much part of the reason he and the writers chose to end Kutner's story in the way that they did. Shore told Entertainment Weekly, "The suicide was essential to [the story]. The lack of reason behind it — the lack of answers — was what I responded to and is what I got excited about." The showrunner went on to explain how he felt Kutner's death highlighted "the issue of, 'Do we know anybody?" and felt that it would make for a fitting end to the character's story.

The success of "House" might have cost Hugh Laurie a role in a big superhero movie, but Penn wasn't going to let it prevent him from forging a political career. So he left for the White House, where he ended up serving two years in his role as associate director in the Office of Public Engagement. He did take a break to film "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas" before returning to acting properly in 2011, when he took on the recurring role of Kevin in "How I Met Your Mother." Still, Penn maintained a political career, with Barack Obama appointing him to serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities in 2013, a role from which he resigned In August 2017.

Dr. Lawrence Kutner did eventually return to "House" for the 2012 season 8 series finale, "Everybody Dies," in which Gregory House hallucinates his former consultant. No explanation for Kutner's suicide is provided in this hallucination sequence, however, and the real reason for the character's death remains unconfirmed. Elsewhere, Penn has continued to act, playing Seth Wright on Netflix's political thriller series "Designated Survivor" and hosting his own Freeform political talkshow, "Kal Penn Approves This Message."

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