"My Cookie Pants" is the sixth episode of Scrubs' eighth season. J.D. and Denise continue to work on her demeanor. Elliot worries about making a night special for J.D. Dr. Cox tries to decide whether or not to take the Chief of Medicine position.
Synopsis[]
After Elliot bakes two dozen cookies for herself and J.D., she goes to change into her 'cookie pants', sweatpants with an expandable waist to correspond to the growing stomach. While she is changing, J.D. eats all twelve of his cookies quickly, in an effort to keep them from Turk. As J.D. takes off to work the next morning, they talk about how they haven't had sex yet even through they'd been dating for a week. Elliot promises him that when he gets home that night she will give him the wildest night of his life.
Dr. Cox's new job[]
As he enters Sacred Heart, Cox complains to Kelso that without a Chief of Medicine, the hospital is falling apart. Later, in the cafeteria, Dr. Cox receives a call on his cell phone from the board of directors asking him to come in and interview for the Chief of Medicine job. Jordan is excited to hear the news. Later, Dr. Cox runs into Dr. Kelso, who tells him that the position involves a lot of desk work, bureaucracy, and scrutiny. Cox skips his meeting with the board, infuriating Jordan. She talks with Kelso, who later encourages Cox that he is going to take the job because he would do it perfectly, and was simply forewarning him of the worst parts of the job. Kelso also reveals that he nominated Cox for the position. At the end of the day, Cox walks out of the conference room as the new Chief of Medicine.
Denise's bedside manner[]
J.D. and Denise have a patient, Mr. Lawton, who J.D. takes a liking to. After Denise shows some crass bedside manners, J.D. argues with her that she needs to treat her patients nicer. When she suggests ordering a painful procedure on Mr. Lawton, J.D. disagrees, wishing to spare Mr. Lawton of any pain. Later, a nurse informs J.D. that Denise ordered the procedure, but as he is yelling at her for disobeying him they find out the procedure revealed Mr. Lawton has stomach cancer. J.D. later apologizes to Denise for riding her so hard, but is surprised when she yells at him for doing so and storms out.
When J.D. confronts her afterwards, Denise reveals she has been relying on J.D. to push her to be more caring, and views his backing down as him giving up on her. She admits her desire to be a doctor comes from her fascination with physiology, but she does not think she can translate that into empathizing with her patients. J.D. tells her all doctors at Sacred Heart have some kind of flaw, including himself: while Denise is not caring at all, J.D. cares too much, since he nearly let Mr. Lawton's cancer go undetected just to spare him from pain. Denise claims this makes J.D. a better doctor, but J.D. argues the reverse is that Denise is not weighed down by her patients' conditions, using Jack Fremont's death and his own reaction to it as an example. He tells Denise that he cannot personally fix her empathy problem, and that it is a challenge she will have to confront herself.
In the end, Denise tries to be nicer to Mr. Lawton, by attempting to console him about his cancer diagnosis.
Elliot's quest for help[]
Meanwhile, Elliot frantically seeks help from Turk about sexually pleasing J.D.. After discussing some ideas including strangulation and other fetishes, Turk tells her during a surgery, that the reason he and Carla are so connected is that they don't let anything inhibit their feelings and that they just "be with each other." When J.D. returns home he finds Elliot on the bed reading a magazine and states that he finds her incredibly sexy, especially in cookie pants.
Recurring Themes[]
More: Fantasies • Flashbacks • J.D.'s girl names • Janitor's pranks and lies
Fantasies[]
- Turk gas-bombs Elliot and J.D. and runs in once they fall to the floor and steals their cookies. While the room is still filled with gas, he decides to take off his own mask to risk eating the cookies. Although he also succumbs to the gas, he notes it was "worth it". Turk later steals the cookies for real, while J.D. and Elliot are in bed. Elliot later says that Turk "owes her" for taking the cookies.
Janitor story[]
- Janitor is dressed in surgical kit while an operation is going on, and tries to touch a patient's heart because the lack of Chief of Medicine means he has no one to punish him.
- Janitor proves to J.D. a statement that when any angry woman leaves a room, another one will enter.
Guest Stars[]
Music[]
♫ List of music featured in Scrubs
- "I’d Rather Be With You" by Joshua Radin
Quotes[]
- “Stop saying sexy things!”— J.D.
- “Stop saying sexy things!”— J.D.
- “Don't worry Mr. Haforn, a lot of people are afraid of needles. I was only surprised because you're the first one I've come across that doesn't have a vagina. [Leaves the patient's room] Did you know that guy was a priest?”— Denise
- “I did. I'll see you tomorrow. If you're not here I'll just assume that demons dragged you down to hell to chew your face off”— J.D.
- “No, I just don't have makeup on.”— Elliot
- “No, I just don't have makeup on.”— Elliot
- [Looks up]
- “I need your approval to cut down some lollipop trees outside the seamonkey hut.”— J.D.
- “What are you talking about?”— Denise
- “What are you talking about?”— Denise
- “These decisions have to go through you because you're the mayor of crazytown.”
- “Look, the nurse said Mr. Lawton is having a breakdown about his cancer. I want you to go over there and help him through it.”— J.D.
- “You really want me talking to him? If he cries I'm gonna hit him.”— Denise
- “You really want me talking to him? If he cries I'm gonna hit him.”— Denise
- “I can't imagine what it's like to have cancer, but I bet it sucks.”— Denise
- “It totally sucks”— Mr. Lawton
- “It totally sucks”— Mr. Lawton
- [Denise reluctantly comforts Mr. Lawton by placing her hand on his shoulder]
- “You all right?”— Mr. Lawton
- “You all right?”— Mr. Lawton
- “Yeh, I'll get through it.”— Denise
Trivia[]
- Judy Reyes does not appear in this episode.
- The tune J.D. plays on the piano mat is "Superman", the Scrubs Theme Song.
- The amount of sugar in the cookies Turk stole would likely harm him pretty bad due to his diabetes.
- Mr. Cookie Pants was the name of the Puppet owned by Dr. David Norris in "My White Whale".
- Dr. Kelso says he had been rocking his "muffin slacks" since he retired, even though he had never before seen wearing them even when he was retired.
- The cast mispronounces "endoscopy" throughout the episode. Instead of endo-scopy (which is a logical way to pronounce it), it is en-dos-kuh-pee.
- The prior episode, "My ABC's", was written and filmed to be the season premiere, but when the decision was made to make Courteney Cox's arc the first three episodes some lines were added in post-production to turn it into the fifth episode. A similar change occurs in this episode: J.D. refers to the death of Jack Fremont, his and Denise's patient from said-episode, having occurred "last Monday", but it is obvious on second viewing that Zach Braff has dubbed in his line due to J.D.'s mouth being off-screen. Knowledge of this inconsistency explains Denise forgetting Fremont's name—while it could be taken as showing her callousness, it would make more sense for her to forget a patient's name after several weeks, and why J.D. would express it is not okay for him to still be thinking about a patient.