- “Well, gosh, Marjorie, aren't you sassy today! Did Santa finally bring you that Y chromosome you've always wanted?”— Dr. Cox
"My Own Personal Jesus" is the eleventh episode of Scrubs' first season. J.D. sees a Christmas miracle. Elliot helps a pregnant girl at the free clinic, but she disappears when they diagnose her with HELLP syndrome. Dr. Cox asks J.D. to tape his friend's baby's birth.
Synopsis
Some staff get festive for Christmas
Turk is the only festive one.
As J.D. prepares to break bad news about a patient to the family, the patient wakes up. This leads Turk to believe it is a miracle. Turk tells J.D. and Carla that his religion makes him who he is. Unfortunately, Turk has a rough night on-call on Christmas Eve, and his faith is shaken by the people that he believes God is ignoring.
Elliot is working in the free clinic, and she comes across a girl who is eight months pregnant. When she asks Dr. Kelso to transfer the patient to a family care specialist, Dr. Kelso tells her the patient will be good practice, because the odds lie that Elliot will go into women's care or family care eventually. Elliot does not like this news, and acts rudely to the patient, Meredith. When Elliot discovers Meredith has HELLP syndrome, Elliot knows she must deliver the baby immediately. However, Meredith has gone missing. While thinking about his faith on the roof, Turk runs to Miller Park, where Meredith says she's been every night for the past week. He finds Meredith and helps her.
Dr. Cox recruits J.D. to videotape the birth of his friends' Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler. J.D. accidentally does not record the birth, so Dr. Cox must use a different tape and lie to the new parents.
Recurring Themes
More: Fantasies • Flashbacks • J.D.'s girl names • Janitor's pranks and lies
J.D. is like the Fonz.
J.D. appears in an old-timey video.
Dr. Cox as the Grinch.
Fantasies
- Nurse Tisdale wears a Red bikini and is oiled up as she walks down the hallway, a reference to a similar scene in the 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High with Phoebe Cates.
- J.D. is The Fonz, and he hits a patient who instantly recovers.
- Turk fades from view as he walks down a hallway.
- Turk is the minister at a Baptist church that takes place in the cafeteria. The gospel music makes J.D., Carla, Nurse Roberts, and Janitor dance.
- In a 1950s style video, J.D. explains to an expecting mother and father about how childbirth isn't pretty.
- Dr. Cox talks to J.D. through the television in the break room.
- At a bookstore, Jordan doesn't buy a book entitled "J.D. and Dr. Cox's Shaved the Baby Story".
- Dr. Cox is the Grinch.
- A nativity scene is made with Meredith being Mary.
Janitor story
As J.D. takes down hanging mistletoe, Janitor gets upset, but tells J.D. that he will not let him ruin his Christmas again. Later, J.D. accidentally knocks over a Christmas tree, and Janitor keeps his spirits up, although upset.
J.D.'s Girl Names
- Judy
- “Dear God, Judy, how much product do you use?”— Dr. Cox
- Sally
Sally Sensitive by Jordan
- Marjorie
- “Oh gosh, Marjorie, aren't you sassy today.”— Dr. Cox
Guest Stars
- Paul Connor as Patient (My Own Personal Jesus)
- Granger Green as Meredith
- Cathy Herd as Jackie Wheeler
- Joel Hurt Jones as Randy Wheeler
- Derek Miller as Orderly (My Own Personal Jesus)
- Ted Pitsis as Al
- Steve Tom as Narrator / Doctor
- Monica Allgeier as Nurse Tisdale
Music
♫ List of music featured in Scrubs
- "On Fire" by Sebadoh
- "Sinnerman" by Nina Simone
- "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets
- "Moving in Stereo" by The Cars
- "Deck the Halls" by Jan Stevens
Quotes
Jordan ain't buying it.
Trivia
Turk is like a Baptist minister...
...to a congregation
A 1960s-esque doctor talks about the fight against communism
J.D. can't escape from Cox
A nativity scene
- Although not the first holiday themed episode, it is the first Christmas themed episode.
- If Scrubs was to be cancelled after the first season, the plan was to make Janitor a figment of J.D.'s imagination. However, Janitor actually interacts with a child in this episode, being hit in the crotch by her after asking what she wants for Christmas. The child's mother also seems to acknowledge his existence as she stares at him as they walk away. However, they could be simply part of J.D.'s imagination as well.
- The "J.D. and Dr. Cox's Shaved the Baby Story" book was printed by The Earl Hays Press, a prop making company in Sun Valley, California.
- In the Region 2 DVD, the images for this episode and My Nickname are switched.
- In this episode, Elliot says that she has no interest in babies. However, in later episodes, she is portrayed as loving babies and desperately wanting one.
- This episode marks the first of two appearances of Nurse Tisdale, who is described as the hottest woman in the hospital. Her next appearance is in My Ocardial Infarction.
- In J.D.'s fantasy about Turk being a minister, two women in the choir behind him wave to the camera before they start singing.
- In J.D.'s fantasy about him magically awakening the coma patient, he is Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli from the sitcom Happy Days.
- According to Zach Braff, in the Happy Days fantasy scene, he was very hungover.
- When Elliot says that Meredith has HELLP syndrome, she is referring to Hemolytic anemia Elevated Liver enzymes and Low Platelet count syndrome, a life-threatening obstetric complication.
- In the fantasy in which Dr. Cox is the Grinch refers Dr. Seuss's character, the Grinch, who steals Christmas from Whoville in 1957 children's story How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
- When Jordan says "You made some interesting choices with the camera, Orson", she is referring to Orson Welles, who was an American theatre, radio screenwriter, film screenwriter, producer, director and actor.
- J.D.'s fantasy about Nurse Tisdale walking in the red bikini is a reference to Phoebe Cates's walk out of the pool in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a 1982 teen comedy.
- When J.D. says "God bless us, everyone", he is referring to Charles Dicken's A Chrismas Carol, 1843 novella. Tiny Tim, a character in the novella, says this line at the end.
- The Sacred Heart Verson of Twelve Days of Christmas could possibly be a copy of the version they did on 'Doogie Howser M.D.'
- The Sacred Heart version of Twelve Days of Christmas goes:
On the first day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
A drunk who drove into a tree
On the second day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Two shattered skulls
And a drunk who drove into a tree
Twelve beaten children
Eleven drive-by shootings
Ten frozen homeless
Nine amputations
Eight burn victims
Seven strangled shoppers
Six random knifings
Five suicides
Four beaten wives
Three O.D.'s
Two shattered skulls
And a drunk who drove into a tree