"My Best Moment" is the twelfth episode of Scrubs' fourth season. Everyone remembers their best moments while at Sacred Heart. Mr. Milligan is admitted to the hospital and everyone tries to get him home by Christmas.
Synopsis[]
J.D. talks about his best moment in medicine
It's Christmas time at Sacred Heart Hospital, and J.D. is giving a speech to pre-med students about what it is like to be a doctor. After going off-topic by talking about how to do his hair, he is brought back on track when he is asked about his best moment in medicine - and tells them about the time when he watched a baby being delivered on the hospital ramp, before having sex with the baby's Grandma. He recalls this story in the cafeteria, but when he asks them to recall their best moment, they all quickly leave. Mr. Milligan, checks into the hospital after being constantly tired, and arrives with his son, Tyler. J.D. diagnoses him with mono, but Dr. Cox tells him off when he tells Mr. Milligan he will beat Santa home - because something is bound to go wrong. He is right, Carla comes to them and tells them Mr. Milligan is unconscious. Dr. Cox keeps a tight check on J.D. to see he doesn't mess up, but after a while J.D. gets fed up with him looking over his shoulder, and says he is responsible enough to deal with it - even though they can't find what is wrong with Mr. Milligan. Carla then tries to convince Dr. Cox to trust J.D. but does not succeed.
Tyler drops his ice-cream
Turk and Elliot aren't directly responsible for Mr. Milligan, but for the sake of getting him home for Christmas, they both help out. When Carla finds out Mr. Milligan has no insurance, which would mean that they have to bounce him once he is stable, Turk tries to convince Dr. Kelso to let him stay, although he doesn't succeed. Elliot, meanwhile, looks after his son, Tyler, despite being scared of children because of their scary small hands. Eventually she neglects her responsibility for Tyler by giving him money and sending him outside (on his own) to go get some chocolate milk. However, both Turk and Elliot's problems are solved when Tyler turns up in Dr. Kelso's office, who takes a liking to Tyler and agrees to let Mr. Milligan off-the-hook with his insurance.
Mr. Milligan arrives back from a successful surgery
After being ignored before, Carla remembers that Mr. Milligan mentioned that he had wrestled with his son, and his problems may be the result of being kicked by Tyler while wrestling. J.D. suggests that Mr. Milligan has a ruptured spleen, and Dr. Cox quickly agrees. This proves to be the case and they decide to operate. Despite not liking family members watching surgery because it makes it seem too personal, Turk decides to allow Tyler to watch as he starts surgery on Mr. Milligan. Everyone else, meanwhile, is waiting outside surgery to find out how Mr. Milligan does, as they have all taken a liking to him. Turk bursts through the door with Tyler and Mr. Milligan and announces that surgery was a success, and as J.D. then takes charge of the situation and assigns tasks to everyone, Dr. Cox finally realizes that J.D. is a responsible doctor. While speaking to another group of pre-meds, J.D. is once again asked what was his best moment in medicine and J.D starts telling the story of Mr Milligan, which happened to be everyone's new best moment in medicine; Elliot dealt with her issues with children, Turk found the confidence to let family members watch surgery, Carla was able to get the doctors to listen to her, Dr. Kelso worked around the insurance issue and Dr. Cox found trust in J.D., who kept his promise to get Mr. Milligan home by Christmas.
Recurring Themes[]
The Miracle 5
More: Fantasies • Flashbacks • J.D.'s girl names • Janitor's pranks and lies
Fantasies[]
- J.D. imagines a black family watching Turk perform surgery as if they are at a movie theater. They are acting like the stereotypical black movie-goers - shouting "don't go behind the kidney, there's a tumor in there!", before getting scared and screaming while chucking their food around in terror.
Flashbacks[]
- J.D. is at a party, the only one not currently kissing a girl. One girl turns around and sneezes on him, giving him mono.
- Janitor gets revenge on Turk by spelling out 'Gum goes in the trash!' in gum on his windshield.
- Everyone remembers their best moment in medicine:
- J.D.: Witnessing a baby being delivered on Sacred Heart's ramp, before having sex with the baby's Grandma.
- The Todd: The now Legendary, Miracle Five. An old man flatlines in surgery, but Todd isn't giving up. He orders a nurse to "prop his hand up", before resuscitating him by giving a high five.
- Elliot: As a thank you, a patient hooks her up with a sweet new ride, a pony.
- Dr. Kelso: At a Plomox retreat in the Bahamas, Kelso is drinking with two scantily clad young women. A man has just fainted, so another young man asks if Kelso is a Doctor, to which he replies "Not this weekend, son." before ordering another Bahama Mama, "easy on the Bahama, heavy on the Mama".
- Carla: The last time a doctor actually listened to her. She advised Dr. Mickhead on how to get a coffee stain out of his white coat.
- Turk: Breaking Beardface's record for the fastest Appendectomy.
- Dr. Cox: Cox is repeatedly throwing scrunched up paper in to the waste bin when a man starts to choke on gum. He does the Heimlich maneuver on him and his gum flies out of the man's mouth and into another woman's mouth. Cox does the Heimlich maneuver on her as well and the gum flies through the air and into the waste paper bin, after circling the basketball rim that was above it.
Janitor leaves a message for Turk in gum
Janitor story[]
Turk angers the Janitor by dropping gum on the hospital floor, he retaliates by writing 'Gum goes in the Trash' in gum on his windshield.
J.D.'s Girl Names[]
- Phyllis
Guest Stars[]
- Matt Kaminsky as Mr. Milligan
- Mike Weinberg as Tyler Milligan
- Colin Bain as Intern Steve
- Charles Chun as Dr. Wen
- Reggie Currelley as Man #1
- Frank Encarnacao as Dr. Mickhead
- Kareem Ferguson as Waiter
- Libby Hudson as Hot Mom
- Shanola Hudson as Woman
- Kattia Ortiz as Nurse Bernice
- Linda Porter as Mrs. Cross
- Wells Rosales as Student
- Geoff Stevenson as Dr. Beardfacé
Music[]
♫ List of music featured in Scrubs
- "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
- "Joy to the World" by The Butties
- "Take On Me" by a-ha
- "What It's Like" by Everlast
- "What the World Needs Now Is Love" by Jackie DeShannon
"You didn't go to the Black family yelling at the movie screen' stereotype, did you?" - Turk
Quotes[]
[J.D. fantasizes]
- “There's a tumor in there! There's a tumor in there!”— Black woman
- “Don't go behind the kidney, Brutha!”— Black man
- “AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!”— Whole Black family
- “AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!”— Whole Black family
- “Don't go behind the kidney, Brutha!”— Black man
- “There's a tumor in there! There's a tumor in there!”— Black woman
[Back in real life]
- “Pppppssssshhhh.”— J.D.
- “Pppppssssshhhh.”— J.D.
- “You didn't go to the 'Black family yelling at the movie screen' stereotype, did you?”
- “Like a Bear to honey.”
- “Like a Bear to honey.”
"They've got such tiny hands. It's creepy" - Elliot
- “Well, uh, Tyler, that stands for "Intensive Care Unit." It's where we put our patients who need extra care, like somebody who might need help breathing because their lung collapsed, or maybe they had a brain aneurysm, which is basically when a vessel ruptures and then blood pours into the- You know what, forget it. You wanna see someone who's worse off than your dad? We call him The Head in the Bed!”— Elliot
- “Well, uh, Tyler, that stands for "Intensive Care Unit." It's where we put our patients who need extra care, like somebody who might need help breathing because their lung collapsed, or maybe they had a brain aneurysm, which is basically when a vessel ruptures and then blood pours into the- You know what, forget it. You wanna see someone who's worse off than your dad? We call him The Head in the Bed!”— Elliot
- “Sure! So... what are you doing this weekend, Laverne?”— Elliot
- “Sure! So... what are you doing this weekend, Laverne?”— Elliot
- “Minding my own business. How 'bout you?”
- “Hopefully lighting the crap out of Saint Martha's auditorium!”
- “Hopefully lighting the crap out of Saint Martha's auditorium!”
- “Yippee.”
"God, I hate Christmas. I really do." - Dr. Cox
- “You know, try and discourage me all you want, because kites fly highest against the wind.”— J.D.
- “What?”— Dr. Cox
- “What?”— Dr. Cox
- “I'm a kite! I'm a big, beautiful kite! Fly!”
- “I wouldn't worry about that. Mr. Milligan only has a son, and Elliot lost him.”— J.D.
- “Awesome!”— Turk
- “Awesome!”— Turk
- [J.D. looks at him with disgust]
- “...for me.”
- “...for me.”
[While Dr. Kelso is on treadmill]
- “No, son. It's work. But this body didn't happen by accident.”— Dr. Kelso
- “No, son. It's work. But this body didn't happen by accident.”— Dr. Kelso
"Yes, this is really Bob Kelso!" - Dr. Kelso
- “Mabel, this is Bob Kelso. Uh, what's say we juggle some things and see if we can't free-ride Mr. Milligan financially for a while, okay?...Yes, this is really Bob Kelso!”— Dr. Kelso on phone
- “...I feel like we're missing something from his Patient History.”— J.D.
- “When he came in, Mr. Milligan said that he and his son had been wrestling and goofin' around.”— Carla
- “Oh my God, he just might have 'Goof-around-itus'.”— Dr. Cox
- “Oh my God, he just might have 'Goof-around-itus'.”— Dr. Cox
- “When he came in, Mr. Milligan said that he and his son had been wrestling and goofin' around.”— Carla
- “We should also check for the 'Silly Willys'.”— J.D.
- “Have you even seen a drunk baby?”— Dr. Cox on J.D.
- “You wanna know what I think?”— Carla
- “No.”— Dr. Cox
- “No.”— Dr. Cox
[Elliot opens a closet, that contains a crying intern]
Trivia[]
Continuity
- In J.D. fantasy about the black family watching the surgery, the items being held by the family changes from one shot to the next.
- The sound effect of the Miracle Five is the same as the sound of the various characters' toilet epiphanies in "My Porcelain God".
- Dr Cox appears to have a line of dialogue dubbed over when he is imitating talking on an old fashioned telephone. The line is louder than the words spoken before and after, and doesn't appear to match what he is mouthing. This could potentially be censoring what was a valid phone number with gibberish.
- The denture gum that J.D. tries to tempt Turk with has Chinese writing on it. This is explained in a deleted scene available on the DVD, which shows that it was originally intended to be what J.D. thought was eggnog gum and bought in Chinatown, only to realize that it was in fact egg gum.
Running Gags
- We find out that Elliot speaks some French as well as German.
- Dr. Kelso's mug has Plomox on it, which is the drug Julie Keaton was selling to Sacred Heart in "My First Step".
- In Kelso's flashback he asks for a 'Bahama Mama'. In "My Soul on Fire, Part 1" when they go to the Bahamas this is all Kelso drinks.
- During Kelso's flashback he tells the ladies he is with that someone had told him "I can't do this all on my own" these exact words being a meta reference to the show's theme song sung by Lazlo Bane.