BEST BETS FOR TUESDAY, NOV. 18, 2008

	HOUSE Fox, 8 p.m. ET Last week’s ended with an agoraphobic on the verge of leaving his house and going outside, and with House on the verge of knocking on Cuddy’s door and going inside. The agoraphoric followed through. House didn’t. And tonight, he’s back to work, trying to solve a medical mystery involving a teen patient with an unsettling secret.
	NCIS CBS, 8 p.m. ET The unit discovers something that hits too close to home: according to the latest information, one of their members is a double agent. And early suspicion settles on someone we KNOW can’t be guilty… not with all that playful goth geekiness.
	TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT TCM, 8 p.m. ET In 1944, director Howard Hawks bet on a beautiful but untested young model to star opposite Humphrey Bogart in this WWII drama. Hawks went with Lauren Bacall, who was 19 at the time – and whose acting debut here is incendiary. Especially when she’s lighting a cigarette, or teaching Bogart, who fell in love with her in real life, how to whistle.
	THE MENTALIST CBS, 9 p.m. ET “This ought to be good,” Jane says as he’s about to be introduced to a psychic and attend a séance. And it is – but not because she’s so easy to dismiss. Like him, she’s good at what she does.
	FRINGE Fox, 9 p.m. ET Here’s another walk down X-Files lane – a story about an attractive woman, on a lonely road, who seems to come from another time and place. So does this plot – but let’s see how it turns out.
	THE SHIELD FX, 10 p.m. ET This penultimate episode is a stunner – so good, I’m not about to ruin any of its surprises or defuse any of its tensions. But without spoiling anything, I can say this: There’s one scene where Michael Chiklis, as Vic, is completely silent, for an unsettlingly long time. And it’s a magnificently tense, bold, beautifully acted moment.