“Scrubs”: My Saving Grace and My Happy Place

Posted by SH

So this is how the Courteney Cox era ends on Scrubs. Not with a bang (unless you count her revelation of an affair with Dr. Mickhead — BTW, that dude’s into some kinky stuff), but a whimper. When she turns out to be more of a heartless, money-grubbing dictator than good ol’ Kelso ever dreamed of being, the gang look to find ways to oust her. Not digging Janitor’s idea of “photo shop” — which pertains not to using software to create incriminating photographs, but to a long, drawn-out plan that culminates in beating Dr. Maddox to death with broomsticks — they hit up Kelso to use the dirty laundry he has on the hospital board to persuade them to fire her.

Kelso, it seems, can’t get enough of those lifetime supply of muffins at Sacred Heart’s Coffee Bucks, so he’s still around pretty much every day. More on that later. But before he decides to help J.D., Elliott, Janitor and Cox, he pressures Perry into saying he misses him. Perry eventually agrees, delivering a heartfelt speech about how he always sensed it was the job, and not Kelso, that was the real problem.

Carla, meanwhile, tries to put a suck-up intern in her place after she catches her taking credit for a procedure she didn’t do. While Katie gives Carla nothing but attitude (“You’re just a nurse!”), Carla is patient, but warns that if she doesn’t change her ways, she won’t survive. She’s a better person than I am. I would have ground the girl into oblivion. But instead, Katie makes nice and admits her wrongdoing to Elliott.

After Maddox is fired, she pays a last visit to the staff, warning them that her replacement will be just like her, if not worse. It’s too bad they chose to play her this way. Trying to make her worse than Kelso smacks of desperately trying to make us miss an old character, and of Courteney Cox’s apparent refusal to become a permanent cast member. Plus, they used the same approach in Hannibal, and I really hated that movie.

Highlights: Maddox telling Dr. Cox that he has a ridiculous name; Elliott and Jordan using their femininity to get free candy from the gift shop guy.

“My Happy Place” has the gall to revisit that most tired of Scrubs topics: J.D. and Elliott’s romance. Truthfully, I’ve never had a problem with them being together, and it only seems that Bill Lawrence’s absolute hatred of the idea has framed it that way. Yeah, there have been some tiresome turns along the way (the entire second half of Season 3), but nothing that made me want to give up on the show entirely. Here, after J.D. and Elliott start hanging out again, it takes an unwitting Kelso to show them they’re doing everything that normal couples do except have sex.

That prompts a nice tete-a-tete among them where they have a frank discussion about their history and their future. It borders on the self-referential tip, but they come through nicely, deciding that they want to give it another try. They’re emboldened by Kelso, who decides to not be ashamed of spending his retirement at the place he used to work. Hey, it’s what he likes, and who cares what anyone else thinks?

Highlights: J.D. almost fantasizing about he and Turk having sex; J.D. taking off his shirt after he asks Elliott if she still ever thinks of him sexually; “Who wants to eat some cereal?”; the return of the Todd and Dr. Jan Itor.