Scrubs

Scrubs

Episode 6: My Bad

Episode 7: My Super Ego

By: Carlos Uribe

Scrubs is about a bunch of doctors. It aired from 2001 to 2008 on NBC and from 2009 to 2010 on ABC.

Spoilers Ahoy!

The first episode I'm reviewing this week is “My Bad”. This was an episode that dealt with Dr. Cox's suspension from the end of the last episode. The whole episode had J.D. worried about Dr. Cox and he tried everything he could to save his friend. It just happens that he gets a patient who happens to be on the board that's going to settle Dr. Cox's fate in the hospital. This member of the board is Jordan Sullivan. Jordan is a female version of Dr. Cox but with more power. It isn't until J.D. shows a backbone that Jordan decides to sleep with him. This doesn't help Dr. Cox because it turns out that Jordan and Dr. Cox were married and the divorce wasn't good. This episode is a great way to introduce the recurring character of Jordan, while at the same time establishing the state of the relationship between her and Dr. Cox. The episode ultimately works well simply because of how J.D. fit into the episode. He might have little control to where she is concerned, but his loyalty to Dr. Cox was strong enough to overcome his fear. The one flaw the main plot had is that I didn't actually believe that Dr. Cox was going to get fired, making it a bit melodramatic.

There were also some sub-plots of the show. The first involves Elliot getting a patient is a shrink, and she quickly turns herself into one of his patients. It turns out that she really needs therapy. While it's a nice story, I'm not entirely sure how it fits into the episode's theme of making a mistake. J.D. made a mistake in sleeping with Jordan and then lying about it to his mentor. Dr. Cox was potentially paying for his mistake. It would have been nice if Elliot's story had a better connection to the episode's theme. The second sub-plot had Turk and Carla having to deal with Carla's traditional mother. The mother isn't happy that Carla is sleeping with Turk before getting married but Carla doesn't feel like she should spend the night away from home. This creates conflict, and it eventually leads to Carla's mother getting injured when Carla decides to spend the night at Turk's apartment. Carla blames Turk for this, but in reality the slip would have happened anyways. This was an episode that had some flaws, but it was pretty good.

The second episode I'm reviewing this week is “My Super Ego”. This is an interesting episode as there is a scene in the end which is all dramatic. This episode introduces a new intern called Nick Murdoch. Nick is attractive and very intelligent. He's very nice and most people like him. The only person who doesn't is J.D. That is because J.D. has been the top intern for a few weeks. He's been happy at the spot. Nick's intelligence and attitude threaten J.D.'s status and this means that J.D. tries his hardest to dislike Nick. Nick seems to have it all together, a perfect role model of what a doctor might be. His positive attitude is just a mask. When the condition of a seven-year old patient of his keeps on deteriorating, Nick loses hope and quits being a doctor. He simply couldn't take. Just because someone is perfect on the outside doesn't mean someone is good on the inside. When the episode ends, everyone including J.D. and the viewers are sad to see Nick go.

While this is going on, Turk has his own sub-plot where he almost makes a mistake in surgery. This makes him realize that one wrong move can kill a guy and causes him to freeze in a future surgery. Many medical dramas have taken this kind of story, but Scrubs does something different. It makes the story less about Turk and more about the relationship between Turk and Carla. Carla is upset because Turk doesn't tell her that he froze and she eventually accepts that he's not as open as she would like him to be. She shows up to show her support of him and this is what ultimately helps him. It's an episode that helped to explore their relationship a bit further and in doing so, elevated this kind of story to be something different. It was a good episode that worked wonderfully-although the dramatic scene at the end is more serious than Scrubs is used to presenting.