"My Scrubs" is the thirteenth episode of Scrubs' six season. J.D. and Turk try to beat the system to treat Dr. Kelso's uninsured friend Maggie Kent. Dr. Cox tries to convince Elliot that a reformed drug addict isn't quite clean. The staff is condemned to wear brown scrubs when Kelso suspects a clothing thief in their midst.
Synopsis[]
At the park, Dr. Kelso eats lunch with his friend Maggie Kent. He notices that her foot looks infected and checks her into Sacred Heart. Carla finds out that Maggie isn't insured, so the doctors do their best to fudge paperwork to get a deceased patient's insurance to pay for her bills. Meanwhile, after Kelso looks over the budget to find room for a new power transformer (because Ted ran into the previous one when a prank of J.D.'s and Turk's went astray), he notices that the hospital has been spending a lot of money on scrubs. Ted tattles that people are stealing them for various reasons: to use as choir robes and shower curtains, and even to pretend to be a doctor. Dr. Kelso decides to fire anybody who confesses to stealing scrubs. When nobody comes forward, he decides to only order disgusting brown scrubs.
The next day, Kelso sees Maggie again at the park, her foot still infected. She tells him that she was released because she didn't have insurance. Dr. Kelso confronts the staff in the cafeteria, asking why they didn't simply fix the paperwork to allow Maggie to be treated despite her lack of insurance while he pretended not to notice. J.D. and Turk explain that if Kelso was willing to fire people for stealing scrubs why wouldn't they assume they'd get fired to treating someone with no insurance; by putting his foot down over the scrubs, Kelso disrupted the unspoken trust they'd built up. In the end, Dr. Kelso allows them their colorful scrubs, and they help Maggie.
At the same time, Dr. Cox tries to convince Elliot that Sam Thompson isn't quite clean. Sam is working as the drug counselor for the hospital, but Dr. Cox believes that a drug addict can never really become clean without a drastic change. Elliot believes in Sam, and her faith is reaffirmed when his urine test shows that he is clean. Just as Dr. Cox vows to leave Sam alone, Lloyd explains that Sam is the best counselor because he made the entire group give up all of their drugs — to him. Sam doesn't deny this. But Dr. Cox decides not to rub it in Elliot's face, because he knows that the hospital will eventually ruin her faith in humanity, and he doesn't want to accelerate it if he doesn't have to.
Recurring Themes[]
Fantasies[]
- J.D. fantasizes about "how much worse just a few years ago" the surgery on Maggie's foot would have been: amputation in medieval times. Within that fantasy, he fantasizes about how much worse medicine was before that: clubbing her to death as a caveman with Turk. After subsequently killing Turk as well, the signature sad theme plays, and J.D. narrates his thoughts in "caveman talk."
- When Kelso allows the staff to have their colorful scrubs again, the entire staff dances with glee.
Flashbacks[]
- Turk, J.D., and Rowdy play a prank on Ted that results in the hospital generator being smashed by a telephone pole.
- Various staff members have begun stealing scrubs for various purposes.
- Ted comes home to his mom in blue scrubs to make her believe he is a doctor.
- Laverne's church choir wears scrubs of various colors.
- J.D. uses scrubs of various colors in the shower as towels. Multiple sets of scrubs have been strung together as a makeshift shower curtain. - The Janitor reminds Carla of the Rowdy/Steven incident.
Janitor story[]
Janitor asks Carla if he can borrow her baby because he is getting into the Baby Brokerage business, prompting Carla to get a baby tracker. Janitor attempts to blackmail Carla over Rowdy, who was actually replaced with a lookalike named Steven. He found the real Rowdy the same day and kept him for two years until he needed something from Carla. In return, Carla gives him salsa lessons and becomes his official taster at Coffee Bucks. But she gets tired of having to keep the secret, so she steals Steven to make it look as though Janitor stole Rowdy. In the end, her guilt wins out and she reveals that there are two dead dogs, and Turk and J.D. are ecstatic.
Guest Stars[]
- Alexander Chaplin as Sam Thompson
- Victoria Tennant as Maggie Kent
- Dan Jongebloed as Guy
- Mike Schwartz as Lloyd Slawski
- Jacki R. Chan as Masseuse (uncredited)
Music[]
♫ List of music featured in Scrubs
- "Theme from A Summer Place" by Mack Discant
- "Courage" by Glen Phillips
Quotes[]
- “Thanks! I started using that new facial cream made from baby foreskins.”— Elliot
- “Thanks! I started using that new facial cream made from baby foreskins.”— Elliot
- “I'm telling you, sir, a lifeless ghost dog glided in front of my car wearing roller skates!”— Ted
- “Nothing ever changes. The Artist Formerly Known as Prince is still just Prince. My ex-wife is still pretty much my wife. Grey's Anatomy always wraps up every episode with some cheesy voiceover that ties together all the story lines, which, incidentally, is my least favorite device on television. Newbie continually will try to violate my No Touching Policy. And Republicans will forever try to raise...”— Dr. Cox
- “Sneak hug!”— J.D.
- “Sneak hug!”— J.D.
- “Of course, I would go kill him right now, but he actually just helped to prove my point.”
- “This might hurt-ith a little.”— Turk
- “Look, m'lady, I know it stinks that we're removing your foot and plan to eat it tonight at the healing feast, but you wouldn't believe-ith how much worse this would have been even a few years ago.”— J.D.
- “Look, m'lady, I know it stinks that we're removing your foot and plan to eat it tonight at the healing feast, but you wouldn't believe-ith how much worse this would have been even a few years ago.”— J.D.
- “Hey, Mr. Rabinowitz just kicked it!”— J.D.
- [Looks at Maggie]
- “Oh, he stuck his peep in an electrical socket. You can't do that.”
- “And so in the end, I knew what Elliot said about the way things were had forever changed the way we all thought about them.”— J.D.'s narration
Trivia[]
- Turk is shown to still be a third-year resident on his nametag (PGY-3).
- Dr. Cox's mentions how he hates Grey's Anatomy summing up story lines, which is what Scrubs does at the end of every episode. This is the second reference made to the show, the first being in "My Buddy's Booty": Elliot dislikes generic voiceovers; J.D. then walks by doing one.
- The advert for the baby tracker reads "for white babies" and claims it "protects your precious one from freaks and weirdos!" Also, the website for the product is "www.babytracker.poo."
- Although Dr. Cox does not normally wear scrubs, he ends up wearing a brown T-shirt after the new scrubs are implemented, and Ted wears a suit in the same color as the scrubs.
- Aloma Wright's line "Let's do this. Laveeern Roberts!" is a reference to famous World of Warcraft character Leeroy Jenkins. He says exact the same words and yells his name just before he does something stupid. (Youtube)
- J.D.'s fantasy of the staff dancing into the hospital to celebrate the return of their colored scrubs is an homage to the 1980 musical film Fame.
- Janitor says that he is part Eskimo, but he wouldn't be because it was his stepmother, not his mother, who was one-quarter Inuit.
- Ted pretends to be a doctor, despite being a lawyer.
- J.D. hugs Dr. Cox for the third time, albeit a sneak-hug.
Images[]
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