Scrubs is about to end its surprisingly long run. Last week, the seed was planted for JD’s exit. This week, that poorly thought out seed bore fruit. It was inevitable. Zach Braff has been itching to prove he could do more than Scrubs ever since Garden State. I;m not sure that Zach is getting good advice, but the decision has been made.

JD is moving away in order to be closer to his son. Claiming its only a 37 minute drive, he attempts to maintain his life at Sacred Heart. In less than five minutes though, he’s found a new job at a new hospital closer to his new house. Clearly the writer’s just didn’t care about exposition here.

Obviously, this episode would be all about how the other principles felt about JD’s departure. Dr. Cox pretends to be excited but obviously he’s not happy about it. Elliot has no real reaction at all (which is right in line with her acting skills). Even the janitor seems to be fairly underwhelmed. Only Turk has the expected reaction of being angry, then sad and then . Its all very predictable. I suppose that its necessary to try to give long term fans some sort of catharsis that will make them feel better about the direction the show is moving in. It just doesn’t pay off.

There are certainly some funny moments. Todd and his new three way relationship with a mullet having couple, Ted the lawyer and his new girlfriend and the Janitor’s ramblings are pretty funny over all. Sadly like much of this season, it just isn’t a very satisfying.

Scrubs is a show that has been an unlikely success. Its been batted around and generally treated poorly by critics and networks alike. I had hoped that Scrubs would get a proper send off this season. With one more episode to go, it doesn’t seem likely.

After the seemingly pointless vacation/wedding episode, I’m happy to report that my prediction last was wrong. I fully expected to see less of the core cast. To my surprise, all the core players where in action and on display.

Turk is up for the newly vacated chief surgeon position, but Perry is being stubborn and reuses to hire him. Finally, an outpouring of support from the staff and a sage-like meeting with a half naked Kelso persuade Cox. Turk is indeed the new Chief Surgeon.

Speaking of Kelso, he checks himself into the hospital with alcohol poisoning masking it as the flu. While essentially treating himself, he wistfully remembers his day in the hospital. It gives Scrubs a chance to pay a minor tribute to the mule-headed dragon of season’s past.

The big news this week is that Kim, JD’s baby momma and Elliott’s Sea ex-boyfriend Sean, are now dating. JD becomes jealous that Sean is spending so time with his son. Elliot is jealous of Kim as well and the whole thing leads to confrontation. In classic Scrubs fashion though, things seem to work out and the former lovers reconcile.  In the final moment, JD realizes that even though he’s doing his best, he simply can’t be the father he wants to be living away from his son. He decides to move. Thus we have the opportunity for Zach Braff to exit the show to pursue his dream of a failed movie career.

This was not a bad episode at all. As always there were some good chuckles with the Janitor and Kelso. It felt like an episode from season five or six, which was nice. The interns where regulated to bit parts as they should be. All around, pretty good TV and I legitimately want to see how this thing with JD wraps up. There are only two more episodes left.

6

Last week, Scrubs finally had an episode in which all the principle cast members were involved. Sadly, it was a disappointment. The whole episode was a half hearted excuse to have everyone outside in the Caribbean sun in bathing suits. The plot, such as it was, was that all three couples had their conflicts while trying to spend a romantic vacation together.

Picking up from last week’s non-cliffhanger, the Janitor is upset that everyone came to the wedding as it was really just a scheme to get presents. There are a few good gags with the Janitor, the brain trust and his soon to be phony-wife “Lady”. Generally though the show was about the couples and the breakdown of their relationships. It was short on gags just like last week.

Turk is upset that Carla is unable to be intimate while on their romantic vacation. Elliot is angry that JD hasn’t given her a grand enough pronouncement of their love. Most ridiculously, Dr. Cox is taunting Jordan because he wants to be more loving with the ice  queen. As you can tell form the descriptions, its truly uninspired writing. Scrubs isn’t exactly well crafted comedy, but this seemed particularly clumsy.

Not surprisingly, it ends with good feelings, a fake wedding, romance and a bizarre cover of Outkast’s “Hey Ya” sung by Ted the lawyer to finish. I think this may be the last time Scrubs may ever been intern-free. It would not surprise me if this where the last episode featuring every member of the original cast. That would be a shame. Let’s hope I’m wrong.

After weeks of complaining about the lack of focus on the principle cast, Scrubs must’ve heard my complaints because this week saw the interns pushed aside.

The Janitor and his “Lady” invite everyone in the hospital to a wedding in the Bahamas. Despite the Janitor’s hopes, everyone decides to go. Set up as a spring-romance themed episode, the relationships between all the principles are front and center. JD and Elliot are looking forward to a romantic trip and Turk is hoping to rekindle the romance with Carla.

After much hand rubbing, the couples all make it to the islands. Though the others are able to enjoy the surroundings, Carla worries constantly about her kids back home, ruining it for Turk. Meanwhile, Elliot professes her true love for JD. She in turn expects JD to reciprocate in grand fashion. When JD disappoints her at the resort bar, she stomps away in anger. Unfortunately, we’ll pick this back up next week.

For the most part the episode is funny and sweet. Elliot’s constant forced drama is tiring though. Carla’s separation anxiety is also boring. It seems like the writers where just trying to come up with reasons for conflict beyond the hospital. Sadly, though it was a welcome sight to see everyone without the pesky interns the first episode of this two-parter was a disappointment.

Once again, Scrubs sets us up with another broken-cast episode. Elliot and Turk are working the night shift with the new interns. Thus, JD and Carla are missing from the episode altogether. This wouldn’t be much of a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that Scrubs has been pulling this for weeks. Scrubs has been consistently putting the new interns, rather than the traditional cast, in the forefront. So far, its been pretty lame. This week wasn’t much of an improvement.

Its a full moon night at the hospital and the interns have finally begun to get their footing. Unfortunately, this also means they’re getting cocky and are more prone to screw up.

Elliot has a woman who she believes has anorexia but actually is HIV positive. Intern Katie has a unstable homeless person who has to be restrained from chewing his bandages. Intern Sunny has to convince a woman to fart in order to discharge her. Turk’s new surgical intern is egotistical to the point of hubris and almost collapses a patient’s lung during a procedure. The various intern plots revolve around Elliot and Turk discussing their place in the hospital and their careers.

Eventually most of the patient’s problems are handled and we do get some solid acting out of the HIV positive patient. The interns weren’t bad, but in reality, this is not the Scrubs we were promised. It’s Scrubs version two, and like Jaws 2, it just isn’t what it should be.

Scrubs is in an interesting place as a series. Its been kicked back and forth between NBC and ABC and while NBC was ready to bury it, ABC seems ready to give it a fair shake. ABC though has seen fit to try to push a new cast onto old fans of the series. The new interns have been a mixed bag. Some have fit right in, others seem to be stage props.

JD has now assumed the mantle of agitator that Dr Cox left behind when he became the new chief of medicine. Flush with his new sense of respect, JD proceeds to annoy and frustrate everyone around him. Elliot is tied up once again with Katie the intern who has no feelings. After Katie makes a wrong call on a biopsy test, she learns the reason why interns aren’t allowed to make those kinds of calls on their own. Sunny the overly positive intern comes into conflict with the Janitor. As usual, interactions with the Janitor are the comedic high point of the show.

Basically, other than JD getting his jollies being the new head man in the hospital, there was very little interaction with the traditional cast. ABC’s concerted effort to push the interns as possible replacements for Carla, Turk, JD and Elliot is pretty clear. I’m not sure if its a good idea. Though I think it makes a certain amount of sense, its really difficult to get an established audience to accept this many new cast members at once. If Scrubs isn’t careful, it could lose its built in audience without finding a new one to replace it.

Can a brother get a Mozeltov?

In the opening episode, JD is on vacation leaving Turk without his heterosexual man crush. Turk and Carla are having another baby. This is nice and all, but you really can’t get too excited about it. There has been almost zero impact from the various kids already populating the show.

With JD missing, Elliot spends much of her time wishing he was there. Its sweet but slightly unbelievable considering the on again status of their relationship. In spite of that, Elliot and Kelso (whose ability to hang around the hospital is titanic) get misty eyed over a woman passing away. The patient had been lamenting the death of her husband of fifty years and Kelso believes it was from a broken heart. With Kelso’s guidance Elliot appears to realize the specialness of her re-found relationship with JD. I hope this episode can finally cement the JD and Elliot relationship. It would be far too painful (and eye roll inducing) to go through another breakup.

An elderly coma patient is going to die imminently. Sunny, the super positive intern, takes an interest. The coma patient’s sister is trying to make it from overseas to be able to say goodbye to her brother and Sunny is intent on keeping him alive until then. At first Carla doesn’t help, but after a tongue lashing and then an apology (gasp) from Dr Cox, she returns to her nurturing ways. We get reminded of Carla’s place as mother hen in the show’s structure. She may be the only character who is almost completely likable.

In the evening’s second Scrubs episode, we get a break from Dr. Cox’s and his anxieties over his new role as the hospital’s grand puba. The intermingling plots however seems so desperate and distant that it feels like the writer’s put it together with a book of Madlibs.

Elliot continues to attempt to dole out bleach blonde wisdom to her interns. The mean one (I have yet to learn all their names) is regularly invited out with the other newbies but she refuses. She’d rather stay and work than hang out with the ever happy fellow intern Sunny. Elliot insists that she get a life and start socializing before the hospital’s demands crush her. As usual, a patient’s illness somehow gives them the slightly lame opportunity for revelation and learning.

The writers enjoying deploying the uncomfortable “bro-mance” between JD and Turk whenever they can. Fans got a double helping tonight. The two are planning sacred Heart’s annual sketch show and have set up a variety of insult humor jokes that look likely to fall flat. Most do, but the performance is highlighted by the fully expected “look how gay they are” joke about JD and Turk. Yes, its guy love all over again.

We continue to get a steady diet of Scrubs’ interns. I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a hope that Scrubs can continue without a few key cast members. It certainly can’t be to promote the god awful webisodes that ABC has been throwing up on their website. I can see loosing Zach Braff to his nonexistent film career if negotiations with ABC aren’t fruitful. The way ABC is moving Scrubs around and the double-header style of programming may kill the show either way.

Scrubs’ eighth season has seen only one significant change from the previous seven. Dr Cox is replacing Kelso as chief of medicine at Sacred Heart. Its a satisfying move and it continues the set the mood of cyclical change. Kelso moves out, Cox moves in and JD moves up.

Cox stubbornly believes that he won’t be changed by his new position. His regular bouts with budgets, angry nurses and arguments with the board turn his already surly mood to near psychosis. Everyone he knew as a doctor comes to him asking for handouts. JD comes for his own favor, asking if a pneumonia patient could be held over another day despite his insurance. Cox reflexively denies him. Ever one to bow to Cox’s wishes, JD accepts it and leaves. Kelso, now acting as grandfatherly patriarch, returns to give JD the needed pep talk. Free of the burden of the job, Kelso explains the whole relationship between the chief of medicine ad his doctors to JD. Its clear that Cox is going to need an agitator in the same manner that he once was for Kelso. JD seems ill suited to be Cox’s foil, but we’re meant to believe that he’ll grow into it like a too big pair of shoes.

On part two of this weeks double header, Cox is settling in to his soul sucking new job and JD is settling into his new role as hospital agitator. Kelso and Cox have bonded into a secret friendship, which I have to say is hilarious. Kelso tries to explain that Perry has to let somethings go in order to function, but Cox ignores him.

Ted the lawyer has had something of a renaissance since Kelso retired, gaining some small scratch of dignity. He even develops a crush on the lovely woman who sings songs to the sick kids in pediatrics. His romantic ineptness becomes a catalyst for JD and the Janitor to form an uneasy alliance to help. Using his barbershop quartet the “Worthless Peons” Ted gains some confidence and spends time with his crush. Its nice to see the beaten and broken Ted get a minor victory.

Cox tries to balance keeping tabs on a favorite patient, training the interns and keeping up his chief of medicine duties with some success at first. Eventually it all goes wrong and he loses control of everything, even forgetting to pick his son up from school. Despite all these pressures, Cox is intent on keeping all the balls in the air. Sadly, this means he fires my favorite intern Ed. It does mean that though Cox will be in a new Deluxe penthouse, he’ll still be roaming the halls and doing that angry face for the foreseeable future.

Scrubs has been back on the air for two weeks now (4 episodes) and its doing everything in its power to remain exactly the same. This isn’t a bad thing as it allows their fan’s to enjoy that broken-in slipper feeling a show has after years in syndication. The janitor is wacky, Carla is kind, Turk is goofy, Todd is horny, Elliot is neurotic, Dr. Cox is mean and JD is a borderline pansy. It all just works. The problem is, because of this familiarity, sometimes you can watch a whole episode and have no idea about an actual plot.

Such was the problem with the first of the two episodes this week. The new batch of interns continued to be a theme. I guess their using the new interns as a way of showing the cast’s growth and maturity. In reality it comes off as boring and the new characters are less than compelling. JD chooses an intern with no empathy, Dr Cox chooses one who is brilliant but lazy and Elliot choose one who is conniving and devious.

There really isn’t much to see here and most of the episode was a bust for me except for the addition of the Muppets. Yes, you read that right, the barrel of guest stars for Scrubs has now reached down to the Sesame Street Muppets. I do have to admit that I enjoyed Dr. Cox’s intern Ed (played by Aziz Ansar from Human Giant) and his successful but lazy ways. Aziz is hilarious on Human Giant and I hope he’s given some more screen time as the intern theme lumbers on.

The second of the two episodes was at least slightly more tangible. JD struggles with his heartless intern. Calling her “Jo” in an homage to the Facts of Life, JD tries again and again to show her how to be sympathetic to patients without much success.

The hospital has been without a chief of medicine since Courtney Cox was fired. I was sure they’d find a way to put Bob Kelso back in his grumpy chair, but I was wrong. After much debate, Dr Cox becomes the new chief of medicine.

It seems as though Scrubs is setting up for its ending. Dr Cox replaces Kelso, JD and the crew replace Dr. Cox and the various interns replace JD. Its a pretty satisfying (if unimaginative) way to wrap this series up, I just hope we get some more curve balls to keep things interesting. Plus, we haven’t gotten to a seemingly inevitable meltdown of the Elliot/ JD relationship.

Aside from JD’s beard, the only real update to Scrubs from its cross network migration is the temporary addition of Courtney Cox as an even more nakedly ruthless replacement for Kelso. Kelso is still lurking around the hospital coffee shop though and I have a hard time believing that he won’t return to his position soon. Its understandable for the producers to want to inject a little star power into a show that limped into its eighth season, but Cox as Dr Maddox doesn’t really add anything except a pretty face. It is a very pretty face, but other than that she seems wasted.

Carla wasn’t much of a factor last week, wisely Scrubs puts her upfront this time. Carla has always been perhaps the only reasonably believable character on the show and I always enjoy her sassy folksy-ness. Frustrated with a snotty intern Carla seeks to knock her down a peg and succeeds in once again being the spicy latina with a heart of gold.

In the usual tug on the heartstrings moment, JD and Elliot try to help an MS patient without insurance and is thwarted by the uber-evil Maddox. Kelso, the fired janitor and Cox decide to form an uneasy alliance to successfully oust Dr Maddox. Though things aren’t entirely back to normal, its good to see Kelso, Cox and the janitor back into their normal banter.

During all this Scrubs finally gets to the old JD and Elliot romance question that’s been in place since the very first episode. Kelso even makes the mistake of assuming the two are dating. After eight seasons of this, its about time for some closure. The two have a grown up conversation about their relationship and decide to rekindle it officially. Its a moment that fans clamored for last season and where pretty much robbed of. Unfortunately, because of how quickly in the season this happened it lacked some of the emotional payoff and there are sure to be some ugly bumpy moments ahead.