"My Friend the Doctor" is the eighth episode of Scrubs' third season. J.D. tries to stop the Janitor from tricking everyone into thinking he is someone he is not. Turk becomes the stud of the hospital after a successful surgery. Elliot doesn't feel like a doctor, and wants to save someones life to feel like one. Dr. Cox hurts his back while showing off and realizes he is getting old.
Synopsis[]
Dr. Cox dunks
When Turk performs a successful surgery he is the stud of the hospital but Dr. Cox doesn't like Turk getting all the attention so upstages him on the basketball court. This misguided act of masculinity results in Dr. Cox hurting his back, which causes him to doubles-down and pretend he's all fine. Dr. Cox confides in Carla about his back so she can help him recover, but Carla challenges him to admit his limits. He refuses because it will make him look old. That night Jordan tells Dr. Cox they haven't had enough sex recently and that she wants to have sex in a physically-demanding position. The next day at work Carla and Dr. Cox discuss Dr. Cox's back where he reveals that he doesn't want to be seen as an old dad. Carla decides she would prefer a baby earlier into her marriage than she initially thought. Carla and Dr. Cox then both admit they are old and getting older and know they have to accept it.
Turk's performance unfortunately makes Elliot realize she hasn't had her "a ha" moment and still doesn't feel like a real doctor. Elliot feels that she needs to save someone's life and get the thanks from their family to feel like a doctor. The opportunity arrives when she gets an emergency code and runs down the hall towards the patient, but J.D. catches her up from behind her and gets to the patient first and J.D. gets all the thanks. Later, Elliot is paged about another code and runs to get to it, but again J.D. catches up and gets to the door first. Realizing Elliot needs a win he waits at the door and lets Elliot take care of it. Even though the patient dies, Elliot feels like a doctor when she leaves the hospital.
The Janitor is tricking everyone in the hospital by pretending to be multiple different characters: "Klaus" the German with Doug, "Nigel" a British man with Todd and Efrem who has a stutter. J.D. calls him on this odd behavior and tells him to just be himself. That evening, J.D. watches the movie The Fugitive and sees Janitor in one scene and believes Janitor used to be an actor. The next day at Sacred Heart the Janitor refuses to confirm J.D.'s theory about his past acting career. J.D. notes that he'd hoped he was right as it would make the Janitor more human and show that he had used to have dreams and ambitions even if they didn't work out, rather than just being a jerk who likes to mess around with and lie to people. As J.D. leaves, the Janitor recreates his brief appearance in The Fugitive, confirming that it was him in the film but swears J.D. to secrecy.
Recurring Themes[]
More: Fantasies • Flashbacks • J.D.'s girl names • Janitor's pranks and lies
When J.D. imagines Turk kissing Elliot, he imagines himself. This fantasy has been retroactively removed from the episode due to the portrayal of blackface.
Fantasies[]
- Turk jumps out a moving car when Carla suggests they should have a baby, as Turk was the driver, Carla and J.D. go off a bridge and crash. The crash scene is from Vanilla Sky.
- As Turk walks through the hospital, everyone sings about him and praises him as he is the "stud" of the hospital.
- J.D. keeps thinking of himself and Elliot kissing. When he is supposed to think of Sean kissing Elliot, Sean turns out to be J.D. And when he is supposed to think of Turk and Elliot kissing, Turk turns out to be a black J.D. This fantasy was removed from the episode on streaming and digital platforms due to its portrayal of blackface.
Flashbacks[]
- Elliot has a small beard (from overdosing on birth control pills) and has to shave it before her homecoming date arrives.
- J.D. brings a patient to a formal reunion, so when the other people are boasting about their lives, J.D. can say "This is Mr. Booker, he's alive because of me".
Janitor story[]
Janitor reveals to J.D. that he was an actor in The Fugitive
Janitor is pretending to be different people in front of other people. He claims he is "Klaus" the German with Doug, "Nigel" a British man with Todd and Efrem who has a stutter with another doctor. J.D. doesn't like this and tries to stop Janitor but he won't. Later that day, J.D. is watching The Fugitive and sees the Janitor in a scene and comes to the conclusion that Janitor is an actor, and when he confronts Janitor about this, he is told that Janitor picked being a janitor over being an actor.
Episode Running Gags[]
- Enrique Iglesias' "Hero" plays when Dr. Cox hurts his back attempting to do various things in slow motion.
- J.D. is having a "gay day" accidentally saying various feminine or homoerotic phrases.
Guest Stars[]
- Charles Chun as Dr. Wen
- Adrian Armas as Handsome Man
- Adam Biesk as Guy
- Bernie Kopell as Mr. Moran
- Donald Sage Mackay as Dr. Page
- Sam Menning as Mr. Booker
- Tara Reid as Danni Sullivan
- Yolanda Snowball as Woman (My Friend the Doctor)
- Sheila Wills as Wife (My Friend the Doctor)
- Debbie Heimowitz as Nurse
Music[]
Elliot has a beard after taking too many birth control pills.
♫ List of music featured in Scrubs
- "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of" by U2
- "Theme from Shaft" originally by Isaac Hayes, parody performed by Donald Faison and cast
- "Empty Room" by Brian Paturalski
- "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias
- "William Tell Overture" by Gioacchino Rossini.
- "Someone" by Tammany Hall NYC
Quotes[]
- “How's about we skip the insults and you do something helpful like prop me up, or throw on a skirt.”— Dr. Cox, as he is lying on the floor
Carla and J.D. crash after Turk jumps out of the car when asked about having children.
- “Day?”— Carla
- “Day?”— Carla
- “I thought you said there was going to be some bitches here?”— Mr. Booker
- “Relax! We just got here!”— J.D.
- “Relax! We just got here!”— J.D.
- “Back injuries are for 80 year old guys named Norman who have pants up to here, nose hairs down to here, and start every sentence with a very elegant...<loud, gross sniff and hacking cough>”— Dr. Cox
J.D.'s high school reunion.
- “Carla, I have a six-month-old child. I'm going to be one of those weird old guys who brings my son down to the park where everybody is like, "Hmm, is he the dad, is he the granddad, is he the granddad's granddad...? And oh my God, why is he pushing a traffic cone on the swing while his five-year-old little boy is in the mud, crying? Is... is he taunting the little boy? No, he can't even see the little boy. And now look - he's actually taking the traffic cone, putting it in the minivan, and driving away while the little boy cries, and the traffic cone sits quietly and watches Finding Nemo on DVD.”— Dr. Cox
Trivia[]
J.D. praises himself in front of a family.
- The scene in the beginning of the car driving off the bridge is footage from the movie Vanilla Sky, a 2001 psychological thriller. In order to use this footage they had to use the same make and model of car, despite the fact that Malik, the car the characters usually drive, is a different one.
- In the same fantasy, after Turk gets hit by the car, he falls out of view behind another car, but when that car accelerates, Turk is mysteriously gone.
- Neil Flynn, the actor who portrays Janitor, did have a small role in The Fugitive. This spawned much fan speculation that the character's name was Neil Flynn.
- As Klaus, the Janitor says "Why is your Lake Titicaca not filled with boobs and poop?" the word "your" implying that Lake Titicaca is in the United States. Lake Titicaca is in South America, on the border of Peru and Bolivia.
- Dr. Cox narrates a line when he lands from the basketball hoop and hurts his back.
- The Todd reveals he is 25% British and it is revealed that Dr. Cox is Irish.
- After saving a patient's life, J.D. says to the family "Oh please, I put my pants on one leg at a time, just like you guys... except after I put my pants on, I save your husband's life! Oh, no he didn't!" This is a reference to a Saturday Night Live Skit featuring Christopher Walken, in which he says that he puts his pants on one leg at a time, except when they are on, he makes gold records.
- For several years, this episode, along with "My Jiggly Ball" and "My Chopped Liver", have been removed from Amazon, Hulu and other even including paid for by season or episode streaming services, due to characters appearing in blackface or similar.[1] The episodes are present with the scenes removed on Disney+.
References[]
- ↑ Tweet from Bill Lawrence regarding a suggestion that Scrubs follow 30 Rock removing episodes showing characters in blackface. Twitter, June 23, 2020