Why did 13 leave House? Olivia Wilde traded Princeton-Plainsboro for a Harrison Ford blockbuster

Wilde left twice. The first time she was off making Cowboys & Aliens with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, and the show told viewers Thirteen had gone to Rome. The second time she didn't come back.

Wilde joined House in its fourth season in 2007 as Remy Hadley, the applicant known only by her number, Thirteen, during House's search for a new team. The show built her around secrecy and a Huntington's disease diagnosis she received in the season four finale. By 2010 she had a film career running alongside the series, and the two started to collide.

The first exit: a leave of absence

At the end of season 6 in May 2010, Thirteen asked House for time off. Days later, Entertainment Weekly reported the reason: Wilde was taking a leave from season 7 to star in Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens, opposite Craig, Ford and Sam Rockwell, with production expected to overlap the new season by at least two months.

Executive producer Katie Jacobs said Wilde would appear at the start of season 7 "and then she will not be there for a period of time."

Season 7 premiered on September 20, 2010. Thirteen appeared in the premiere, prepared for her leave of absence, and told everyone she was going to Rome. She then missed episodes 2 through 17.

How the show explained it

Thirteen came back in "The Dig," the show's 150th episode, which aired on April 11, 2011. House is waiting for her outside a prison gate. She had spent the back half of her leave in jail, officially for excessive prescribing, and House spends the episode building a spud gun with her while trying to work out the real crime.

• The truth — her older brother was in the late stages of Huntington's disease, the illness that killed their mother and that Thirteen carries too.
• The request — in one of his increasingly short lucid periods, he asked her to end his life.
• The cover story — she used excess pain medication to do it and pleaded to the prescribing charge.
• The fallout — she served six months, rejoined the team and stayed through the end of the season.

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Wilde appeared in episodes 18 through 23 of season 7. Her time away had also produced a run of films, including Cowboys & Aliens and The Change-Up, both 2011 releases.

The second exit: for good

Cowboys & Aliens opened on July 29, 2011, won its opening weekend with $36.4 million, and finished at $174.8 million worldwide against a $163 million budget. In August 2011 it was announced that Wilde was leaving House.

Her final episode as a regular was "Charity Case," season 8, episode 3, which aired on October 17, 2011. House, who is wearing an ankle monitor at this point, keeps calling Thirteen to get her back on his rebuilt team, and she tells him she isn't coming back.

"My film career is thanks to House," Wilde told E! News before the episode aired.

Thirteen made one more appearance, in the series finale on May 21, 2012. Wilde went on to Her, then to directing, starting with Booksmart. Hugh Laurie's send-off at the time held up: she was "obviously headed for great things."

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