TV-Reviewed

Sometimes the best type of Scrubs episodes are the ones that focus on a single storyline and this was one of them. This episode showed how the hospital is run now that Dr. Cox is in charge and the answer to how the hospital has changed is that it hasn’t changed much at all.

When Dr. Cox took over as Chief of Medicine, I’m pretty sure that we all thought that there would be a big change at the hospital, because Dr. Cox was always a doctor that cared more about the patients than whether the hospital had the budget to afford it. Things don’t happen like that and right off the bat. We start to see that Dr. Cox is getting a bit overwhelmed with the job already.

What I loved about this episode is that Dr. Cox wanted to see some patients the whole day, and every time he tried to leave something else would come up. The day ran so smoothly that you’re not really even noticing that Dr. Cox doesn’t leave his office the whole day.

Neil Flynn as Janitor

J.D. and Carla both go to Dr. Cox in hope of getting the help they need, but Dr. Cox has to tell them both no. The writers gave us this hope that something would change and it turns out that in the end, everything is going to remain the same for the most part.

The job itself is changing Dr. Cox and he doesn’t even realize it. It’s sad to see Dr. Cox spiral down to what Dr. Kelso ultimately became. We’re seeing a change in Dr. Cox and while it’s not one that we like it feels very true to the show. We got a big dose of reality in this episode the dynamic in the hospital hasn’t changed, but it looks like the relationships between the doctors and Dr. Cox might be changed with his new position.

While this episode seems like a downer, there were some funny moments like Ted being treated differently now that Cox is in control. The funniest part was when he walked into the hospital and saw Kelso sitting at the desk and his pulse dropped to zero. The Kelso and Ted relationship never had any depth and most likely never will, but we did get an understanding that Kelso does care about Ted and it was a small, but touching moment when he puts a blanket over him.

The Janitor’s picture prank was kind of funny, but was a bit of an annoyance in this episode. Sometimes the Janitor does that though, his incessant pranking can become annoying in an otherwise good episode. It was funny though when Dr. Cox made him hold the picture for the whole day.

This was a great episode that really showed us that it looks like things will be that same, but Dr. Cox may not. With an episode like this, it really has me wondering what fate lies ahead for the rest of the character at the end of the season, because some of the characters might not get a happy ending.

Rating: 9.8