Season 8 Poster 1

This is the first poster for Season 8. Last night TV Line posted it along with their theories of what the tally marks represent. As we have known for a while now that House will be in jail when S8 begins it's easy to overlook the fact this is a (huge) hint for those completely unaware of what the writers have in store for us.

 

Source: TV Line 

The general consensus seems to be that the lines represent the 7 seasons so far and the tally in the 8th line represents the premiere. It would make sense as the fourth line is shorter, as was season 4. The number of episodes don't match but some have shared the opinion that this is done purposely to add to the intrigue.

I think this is a very reasonable explanation, but I can't help but wonder if there is more to it. The titles often make reference to more than one aspect of the episode, so why shouldn't the poster?

Peter Blake told me that Hugh himself came up with the concept for the poster, which made me even more curious about what the poster intends to convey.