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Scrubs: My Lunch
by Joel Keller, posted Apr 26th 2006 10:35AM
(S05E20) Chris' TiVo is full -- yeah, you
heard me -- so I have gladly volunteered to review the latest episode of my favorite show, Scrubs.Which makes it even harder for me to type this: For the first time, I had a real problem with an epiosde of the show.
It's not that the humor wasn't there: the subplot where Carla and Elliot try to get The Todd to admit he was gay was pretty funny. Their description to Turk of their great emotional session where Todd French braids Elliot's hair, then takes it out "because he said it doesn't work for me." was classic. Even Todd's "transformation", where he comes out making lewd remarks to both sexes ("he's seen the girls!" says Elliot after she finds out he was still lusting after her as they tried on bras in his presence), was pretty good, though I feel the same way that Janitor felt when he saw Todd: "What are you, anyway?"
I also liked the fact that they brought back Nicole Sullivan as annoying but troubled former patient Jill Tracy, who tries to open up to J.D. and Cox in the supermarket after another guy stands her up and her shrink checks himself into the hospital. Cox doesn't care; once they're outside the walls of the hospital, he only limits his help to those in dire need. J.D. tries to listen but can't get past the fact that Jill's a pain.
But what I didn't like is the fact that, after Jill gets admitted and later dies due to a supposed overdose, they immediately transplant her organs into three waiting patients; two of whom are in very bad shape and one, who needs a kidney, has bonded with Cox. Turns out Jill didn't die of an overdose -- which was starting to make J.D. feel guilty for not helping her the day before -- but of rabies. Rabies? Did she mention that she got bit by a dog? Since all three organs -- a liver, a heart valve, and a kidney -- are infected, all three patients go downhill and eventually pass away, including the kidney patient that didn't need his transplant right away.
I don't get it. How did all three patients match on one person's organs? I'm not a doctor, but for most transplants, blood types and other factors need to match before an organ is granted to a patient. What are the odds that Jill matched all thre patients? Also, organs are put on a UNOS list so they go to a) the neediest patients, and b) get screened for just the problem that Cox and company encountered. Organs NEVER go straight from one patient in a hospital to another in the same hospital (kidney and partial liver transplants with living donors are the exceptions).
What bothers me about this is that one merely needs to watch an episode or two of ER to understand this concept; was it that necessary to completely break reality in order to push a plot forward? We don't expect Scrubs to adhere that close to medical reality -- it's a comedy after all -- but if a plot is so ridiculous that the average viewer can spot the holes a mile away, that means that the episode probably needed another rewrite before they started shooting.
(UPDATE: Commenter dtrain let me know that something like this really happened. Look here. Knowing this makes me feel a little better about the Cox storyline, then... because I really did think, medical plot holes aside, that it was one of the better episodes of the season.)
The medical inconsistencies did take away from the power of the plot, where Cox finally gives J.D. the lunch he always wanted, in order to tell him that if he starts feel responsible for the death of every patient, including Jill, it's time for him to go. When J.D. turns those words around on Cox after the the kidney patient dies, Cox agrees and storms out of the hospital. Has he finally lost it? Will he quit to take care of his son? Well, hopefully Chris will have made room on his TiVo by next week so he can tell you.
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