If you've never watched Scrubs, there's one episode you must watch at least once in your life. · 2:17pm Apr 29th, 2016
So as my marathon binge of Scrubs progresses, I just finished watching the definitive episode: Season 5, Episode 20: "My Lunch".
It's the one Scrubs episode everyone needs to see at least once in their life. (Warning: Massive spoilers below.)
Even though "My Musical" is the reason I started watching Scrubs in the first place, "My Lunch" is the episode that really got me into Scrubs.
(Don't ask how that works. TV syndication is a weird thing.)
The thing about Scrubs is that yes, a lot of it is screwball comedy, but it's also a uniquely dramatic series that really explores, in depth, the issues everyone has to overcome in life, and the particular dilemmas, decisions, and consequences doctors have to face on a day to day basis.
"My Lunch" is the most depressing episode of the series, and yet also the most poignant, as it digs deep into the well of when absolutely everything goes straight to hell.
Dr. Cox has three transplant patients waiting for organs. Two of them are circling the drain, one is stable enough but needs a new kidney. The problem is transplant/donor lists are, well...chronic problems facing hospitals, and even having one transplant patient at a time is a big enough crisis.
While picking up lunch at a nearby supermarket, JD runs into Jill Tracy, a former patient--a manic depressive who has tried to kill herself once before and always seems to get a raw deal in life. Later that same day, Jill is brought in as a patient, unresponsive after an apparent cocaine overdose. While she's being kept alive mechanically, JD gets her mother's consent to use her organs to save Dr. Cox's three patients since there's not really anything more they can do for Jill--if they unplug her, she's dead. JD beats himself up over not seeing the signs that Jill was about to do somethng stupid again, but Dr. Cox tells him not to beat himself up about a death he had no way of preventing.
Every patient waiting for a new organ gets one, and it seems like Sacred Heart has pulled off a miracle--two patients that were circling the drain have a new lease on life, the kidney patient finally gets to go home once he recovers from surgery, all is right with the world except for the tragic and unfortunate death of Jill Tracy.
But then problems arise. One after another, the transplant patients begin exhibiting a range of symptoms they shouldn't be. Something worse than simple organ rejection is going on here, and the staff is baffled...until Jill's autopsy report comes in.
She didn't die of a cocaine overdose. She died of rabies.
Nobody could have seen it coming.
Dr. Cox blames himself. And goes into a spiral of depression that lasts for the rest of the season.
It's an episode whose ending hits you like a punch to the gut, and it defines what Scrubs is. And everybody needs to see it at least once.
Even though it hurts like hell to watch.
My Lunch... The episode that really made me like Cox.
3905116 His breakdown when the last patient dies makes me cry every time.
That is... Wow. That ending was designed to build you up and then tear you down as brutally as possible.
3905126 I watched that episode ages ago, I felt a bit depressed, but it was also quite good.
3905126 Especially when the song How to save a Life plays in the background. The patient and Coz was kinda friends... But, the moment at Ben's funeral in the episode My Screw Up is just as sad.
YEAH MAN! Scrubs is my shit
3905131 The worst part is that the plot of the episode is based on a true story. In 2004, four transplant patients in Texas died of rabies after receiving organs.
3905134 Scrubs is full of those moments. Ben's death, Mrs. Wilk's death (which Cabbage is DAMN lucky nobody could trace back to him, he should have gone to prison for that), and even the very end of My Musical (which is sad for a different reason entirely).
This was a devastating episode. While Dr. Cox being Dr. Cox is always funny, it's also satisfying when he gets some kind of comeuppance for being such a tool to everyone. This episode is not that.
I feel like Cox's relationship to JD is truly the cornerstone of the series, so it's ironically cruel for Cox to show some real support for JD about not letting death get the best of him, only to drop a disaster on everyone's heads that absolutely breaks him. I would tie this episode along with its eventual resolution as possibly the best episode of the series.
3905185 I've always been of the opinion that Cox is basically JD in 20 years. There are often signs that they're almost exactly the same except for how gay and pathetic JD is.
3905137 Not to mention the ending of My Old Lady... That Hallelujah was heartbreaking.
My personal favourites are My Screw Up and His Story III, the one were the Janitor narrates it.
Btw, who's your favourite character?
3905301 "My Screw Up" is so sad.
Dr. Cox is my favorite character. JD is honestly my least favorite because he is such a fuckwad.
Also, IIRC, this is one of the few times Cox calls JD either by his first or last name (can't remember which, more likely last name) without any anger or malice behind it.
Most other times he says it in an angry tone to get JD's attention, but in this it's so fucking heartfelt
3905631 The number of times Cox has called JD by name can be counted on one hand.
3905391 My favourite character is the Janitor, closely followed by Dr. Kelso and Dr Cox. I love the two different sides they're representing. They need to save people, but they need money to do that and that means you sometimes can't save someone. What's important is that both of them are assholes, but we sympathise with them, because we understand the positions they're in.
..........mein gott in himmel, THIS is why adults watch cartoons.....
3906590
Holy shit, that is "Rose's Scabbard" level feels!
3907000 .....maybe, yeah.
Thought this was gonna be about the Season 3 episode "My Screw Up", but you're right, this is a pretty great episode too.
3907771 "My Screw Up" was not a season finale. It was a midseason episode.
3907775 You're right! My bad.