My Karma

"My Karma"
Season	Two
Episode	Sixteen
Writer	Janae Bakken , Debra Fordham
Director	Marc Buckland
Air date	February 20, 2003

“Honestly, Perry, the only way I could have felt more taken care of is if I were at a four-star resort, or a spa...or a third-world country where you have to boil your own sewage if you want something to drink! Oh, and by the way? A giant, giant feather in your cap for how much power you wield in this hospital after 15 years.”— Jordan

"My Karma" is the sixteenth episode of Scrubs' second season. J.D. and Turk cause an accident while playing golf on the roof, causing them to fear bad karma. Jordan goes into labor, and J.D. is too scared to keep an eye on her. Elliot and Carla start going insane over their respective partners.

Synopsis

Jordan's demon-baby attacks J.D.

J.D. & Turk's Karma

Dr. Kelso complains to J.D. about how the crappy coffee is worse than a faulty MRI machine. After dismissing Mr. Simms although he was complaining of stomach pains, Turk asks J.D. to join him on the roof to shoot some golf balls. One ball hits Dr. Kelso's coffee which spills on his face leaving him burned. When J.D. takes a shot, the two hear the sound of glass breaking and a car crash. They rush inside. Later, the two residents meet their patient Mr. Foster who was in a car accident after a golf ball flew through his windshield. The doctors freak out but do not tell him that it was them who caused his accident. They decide to never tell anyone. Dr. Cox asks J.D. to keep an eye on Jordan while he gives her a break from himself, but he is too afraid that she will yell at him so he avoids her room. He then begins to run into bad situations - having to take all of Dr. Kelso's patients, learning that his favorite Dairy Queen has burned down. Turk has to hold the fat flaps back during a surgery. The two doctors believe that karma is affecting their lives, so they admit to Mr. Foster that they were playing golf on Sacred Heart's roof. Mr. Foster tells them that his accident happened downtown, so it was not possible that they caused it. J.D. realized that their karma may have been because of other patients. He entered Jordan's room and she confessed her true feelings of Dr. Cox. Turk later confessed to Mr. Simms that he may a minor mistake during his lung surgery that resulted in his pain.

Jordan Gives Birth

Meanwhile, Dr. Cox brings Jordan to the hospital because it is her scheduled delivery date. He promised her that he kissed every butt in the hospital to get her the best room, but the room is occupied by a woman in her 40th hour of labor and Jordan is stuck with a crappy room and her OB-GYN's cherry student Dr. Donna Berlutti. At the end of the day as Jordan is leaving the hospital, she complains to Perry that he doesn't have the clout in the hospital as he thought he did. He tells her that it's not his kid and that he doesn't have to be taking care of her. Upset, she walks toward the exit. Perry stops her when he notices her water has broken. In another birthing room, Jordan yells at Perry for still not having Dr. Gerson. She demands he leave her alone, and when he exits her room he asks J.D. to check in on her. After avoiding her for a while, J.D. enters the room and she is happy to hear that Perry cared about her enough to send someone in. She confesses that the baby really is Perry's, but that she wanted him in her life because he wanted to, rather than was obliged to. Perry storms in the room and demands to be present for the birth, but Jordan still doesn't tell him the secret. She then gives birth to a very healty Jack Cox, who Perry says "must have had an ugly father".

Elliot & Paul

At the same time, Elliot struggles to hide her craziness from Paul. On their fourth date on which Elliot plans to sleep with him, Paul leaves without going into her apartment. Back at the hospital, she freaks out because of this, and tells Carla that she needs to continue hiding the crazy until Paul is too invested to back out. On their next date, Paul is upset that Elliot still seems to be hiding something from him. Elliot pours her soul out, revealing odd secrets. He says he is very turned on and they make out. Back at Sacred Heart, Carla is still freaking out about her recent acceptance to marry Turk. When Dr. Cox is looking for someone to listen to him, she tells him that there are no perfect relationships, but the only ones that come close are when people are there for each other no matter what.

Recurring Themes

     More: Fantasies • Flashbacks • J.D.'s girl names • Janitor's pranks and lies

J.D. as Jerry Seinfeld

Fantasies

• J.D. is the comedian at a comedy club, but gets no laughs from the audience. Turk and a patient do the drums in the background.
• Jordan gives birth to a demon baby which jumps on J.D. and starts strangling him.

Janitor story

Janitor claims that it was J.D. and Turk who broke his windscreen, despite it having being broken for a year. He blackmails them with the knowledge of the golf ball incident into replacing it. The Janitor later tries to sell the van to them for $500, but ups the price to $800 when he learns the windscreen itself cost $500. Karma later pays him back when Ted's golf club breaks the windshield again.

J.D.'s Girls Names

• Girl's Name & Ellen

“Hey, Girl's Name!”— Dr. Cox

“What?”— J.D.

“Gimme a break - I got a lot on my mind, Ellen! Ooh! Look at that! I bounced back!”

Dr. Cox's Girls Names

• Alice

“Now, in honor of this little goblin's arrival, I have gone ahead and taken care of everything: Dr. Gerson will be _waiting_ to induce you; she will also administer the world's largest epidural. I have wealthily under-qualified residents covering all of my patients, so that I can be with you every step of the way. And, here's the kicker: I have traded every single one of my weekends, I have called in every favor, and I have kissed every pompous, wrinkled ass in this fluorescent hell-hole, so that I could secure for you the one and only mack-daddy, out-of-your-mind birthing suite in this entire hospital! ”— Dr. Cox

[Flash forward to the poor-quality birthing suite]

“Nice job, Alice.”— Jordan

Guest Stars

• Rick Schroder as Nurse Paul Flowers
• Ron Ostrow as Mr. Foster
• Debra Azar as Dr. Donna Berlutti
• Keith Blaney as Mr. Simms
• Lindsey Stoddart as Lauren Halston

Music

     ♫ List of music featured in Scrubs

• "The Stripper" by David Rose, performed by John C. McGinley
• "Question" by Old 97's

Quotes

“Do not say splotchy.”— J.D.'s narration

“Good splotchy, Dr. Splotchy.”— J.D.

“Get the hell away from my stomach, or I put you in a leg lock and break your little bird neck neck with my enormous thighs.”— Jordan

“Enjoy your special day.”— J.D.

“What are you two talking about?”— Dr. Cox

“[pause...] Apartheid.”— J.D.

“That it's wrong.”— Jordan

“Oh.”

“Damn you, Karma”— J.D.

Trivia

• As the episode is dedicated to karma, there are many karmic pay-backs:
  • Turk and J.D. playing golf on the roof caused:
    • J.D. has to cover Dr. Murphy's shift.
    • Turk has to hold the fat flap of a patient getting their stomach stapled.
    • Dr. Kelso's face is scaring his patients, so J.D. has to cover them.
    • The Dairy Queen burned down.
  • The Janitor's windshield breaks (again) after he blackmailed J.D. and Turk to fix it.
  • Dr. Kelso gets his face scarred from hot coffee after he dismisses a patient in need of help.
• The Comedy Sketch fantasy is a spoof of the famous 90's NBC series Seinfeld.
• The Janitor and Turk meet each other in this episode.
• Elliot says she has a cat, but this causes some continuity errors:
  • In "My Brother, Where Art Thou?", she says that all cats hate her and she is attacked by a bunch of them.
  • This cat has never been shown during the whole series.
• Elliot narrates a few sentences in this episode.
• Elliot says that she is seeing three different psychiatrists. But this seems unrealistic since she often comments on her dire financial situation.
• In "My Old Man" Turk exhibits his faith in karma but in this episode he doesn't believe in it (at first). Likewise, J.D. believes in karma in this episode where he didn't before. However, it is possible that the apparent karmic payback in "My Old Man" has convinced J.D. of its power.
• The Janitor uses the golf club cozy as a puppet and says "Hi Davey", which is a reference to the 1960's animated Christian television show Davey and Goliath.
• When Paul tells Elliot she has something in her teeth, it is clear that she doesn't.
• In J.D.'s fantasy of Jordan giving birth, it is obvious that the baby is a doll that J.D. is holding up with his hands and making it move.
• When Elliot is talking to Carla about Paul, the clock in the background reads that the time is 15:10. At the end of the conversation, the clock reads 15:30. That's a long conversation for just about 20 sentences.
• When Carla says "This isn't Shangri-La", she is referring to a paradise described in James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon.
• When Dr. Kelso's face is burned, Dr. Cox calls him Backdraft. Backdraft is a 1991 movie about firefighters and arsonists.
• This episode takes place on March 21, 2003, as Dr Cox's sister later states in a future episode that Jack's birthday is March 21, 2003.
• This episode takes place over a month after the time that it aired on TV in real life.