Line #26 Fridge/Scrubs


1	[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
2	* Doctor Miller gives Turk hell for uninviting her from his wedding, but RuleOfDrama aside, how did she get invited in the first place? She was introduced in the episode in which they mail the invitations, and they obviously didn’t use an A-list and a B-list, as they ended up having to uninvite people because too many RSVP’d yes. How’d she finagle an invite that late?
3	** Dr. Miller was introduced in episode 15 of the season "My Tormented Mentor". The episode in which Turk mails the invitations is 3 episodes later, episode 18 "His Story II". While still a late invitation, it was likely that Dr. Wen (Turk's surgical attending for the past 2 years) would ordinarily have been invited, and she was given what would have been his spot. Especially considering how often the main characters go out of their way to suck up to their respective attendings, and any other characters who can help their careers, it's not at all surprising that she got an invite.
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5	[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
6	* In "My Blind Date", Elliot keeps wanting Dr. Cox to have her help with procedures, but keeps expressing this desire through awkward sexual-esque phrases. As J.D. and Cox discuss the hospital being like a baseball game, wherein Cox is pitching and J.D. is catching, Elliot offers to be his catcher. Catcher is a slang term for the bottom partner in a homosexual male relationship, so Elliot is offering to replace J.D. as Dr. Cox's bottom.
7	** Also in ''My Blind Date'', Dr Cox hypes up the possibility of a "perfect game", keeping all of the ICU patients alive for 24 hours. There are 27 patients in the ICU, the same number as the number of outs needed to complete a baseball game.
8	* Technically, no one can see what J.D. does in his ImagineSpot. The season 2 premiere makes it muddy when Dr. Cox seems to hear Colin Hay singing where J.D. is hiding in the closet, and he gives the man a quizzical look before storming off in a rage. If you take out Colin Hay, however, Dr. Cox realizes he's seeing his protege scared and hiding from in him a closet, going MyGodWhatHaveIDone about sleeping with Jordan. Dr. Cox also knows that J.D. would never intentionally hurt him and thus he doesn't deserve the tongue-lashing he's biting to say. He doesn't want to talk about it and refuses to initially accept J.D.'s apology, but Dr. Cox does have some standards. After J.D. makes a great effort to reconcile everyone, it fails but Dr. Cox sees that J.D. is sincere about his regret. So he comes and smashes him, literally, out of his funk.
9	* In "My Advice To You", Elliot mentions that she has to go perform a "thong extrication" on Ms. Reid (referring to herself). Doug doesn't understand and laughs at the fact that "Hey, your last name is Reid." This episode was the first to guest star Tara Reid.
10	* One can see the main characters (J.D., Turk, Elliot) as undergoing some severe {{Flanderization}} as the show moved on. At the start of the show they had their own quirks but were otherwise [[StraightMan Straight Men]] compared to the overall wackiness of Sacred Heart. But one could interpret that their exaggeration is actually a part of their overall assimilation to the hospital: in the beginning, they were interns and outsiders, but once they actually became respected and important doctors they also became a large part of the quirkiness that is Sacred Heart.
11	* Doctor Cox not caring about the interns complaining about how "awful" their parents makes a lot of sense when you consider how physically and emotionally abusive his own parents were.
12	* In the episode "My Own Personal Hell," Elliot, Carla, and Jordan discuss the less manly qualities of their significant others. Keith knits throw pillows, Dr. Cox waxes his chest, and Turk might be sterile, which makes Carla the "winner." Later in the episode, however, we realize that Turk is not in fact sterile, thereby making him just about the manliest man in the hospital.
13	** This also works as a callback to an episode that involved Dr. Cox, J.D., and Turk discussing their problems with their respective significant others at the time. In this one, J.D. "wins" (meaning that his problem was the worst of the group), because his "peep's on the fritz." It seems that virility is rather important to the Sacred Heart staff.
14	* In the ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' finale, [[spoiler: the ''only'' way Cox could express his feelings for J.D. was if he was using them to ''chew someone else out''. And J.D. ''realized'' that, and used it for his own benefit!]]
15	* Speaking of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', I just now realized that the same actress in different seasons played Laverne and Shirley. TV show reference much?
16	** Quoth Harvey Korman: "Hello Laverne! Shirl!"
17	* In later seasons, J.D. was really obsessed with Dr. Cox being his ParentalSubstitute. This happens after Sam (J.D.'s dad, not his son) dies.
18	** No it doesn't. There are references to Cox being JD's parental substitute log before JD's father dies. Even going as far back as Season 1 Episode 5, "My Two Dads", which features an imagination spot showing JD and Cox playing baseball together in the yard. This is a good 14 episodes before JD's father makes his first appearance (and some three seasons before JD's father dies).
19	* Ted's girlfriend Stephanie Gooch. While people may wonder why they'd give an obscene term as a last name, people didn't notice the ActorAllusion to the actress's own dirty last name: Kate Micucci.
20	* In "My Screw Up" Ben says that he will continue taking pictures until [[spoiler: the day he dies]]. He is not seen with his camera for the rest of the episode. In the last scene, it is revealed [[spoiler: that he died halfway through the episode and Dr. Cox has only been imagining him]].
21	** In the same episode, J.D.'s legendary line ("Where do you think we are?") isn't just [[spoiler:reminding Cox they're at Ben's funeral.]] As the resident CloudCuckoolander himself who knows all too well how lost he can get in his head, [[spoiler:he knows better than anyone else that Cox is not all there. Rather than trying to confront the matter with the traditional "Who are you talking to," or "What are you talking about," he specifically uses phrasing that is meant to snap Cox out of what J.D. likely assumes to be Cox's own imagination.]]
22	* In "My Old Lady", Dr Cox impresses upon JD that "everything we do is a stall" on death followed by JD imagining himself playing against Death at Connect 4. Connect 4 is the perfect metaphor as while you can block individual moves, a perfect player can force victory so long as they make the first move.
23	** Adding to the analogy, death is always a factor in a person's life, with doctors often reacting to a patient's symptoms. In other words, death always makes the first move.
24	** And, as we all know, FourIsDeath.
25	* Elliot gets railed a lot for acting like Cox never helped her when he punched Kelso in “My Dream Job”. But look at it from her perspective; she doesn’t know his issues like Carla, Jordan or JD do, it’s in her character to be self absorbed which she’s called out on, she was going through a major depressive episode and it’s easy to assume that she would rather have someone talk to her than a big violent gesture made on her behalf.
26	* Dr Cox's refusal to be seen as J.D's mentor makes sense when you consider that the last guy he mentored slept with Jordan which resulted in their divorce.
27	* Dr Cox wants to keep his daughter Jennifer's birth a secret so that it won't be associated with Laverne's death. This could be because his best friend Ben died on or close to Jack's first birthday. He already associates the death of someone he cared about with his son's birthday, he doesn't want the same to happen with his daughter too.
28	* In season 4, Cox mocks J.D. over the fact that he's the only doctor in the hospital who never killed anyone, as he's "the exception that proves the rule". Fast forward to "My Lunch", when Cox accidentally kills three patients, and by the end of the series, it's actually ''J.D.'' who hasn't killed anyone onscreen, making ''him'' the exception that proves the rule.
29	* Kelso mentions his buddy Johnny from the Navy multiple times. However, he also talks about getting picked up from the LZ. This means he was likely a S.E.A.L. No wonder Janitor couldn't brain him with a mop. Okay, they probably didn't intend that, but it's fun.
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31	[[AC:FridgeHorror]]
32	* [[FridgeLogic Fridge Logic]]/[[FridgeHorror Fridge Horror]]: In the seventh season finale, Cox translates his day at the hospital into a kid-friendly fairytale he tells his son. Most of the episode is thus depicted in the style of ''Film/ThePrincessBride'', with occasional scenes at the hospital establishing the metaphors within Cox’s story (e.g. the mystery disease J.D. and Elliot investigate becomes a shadowy monster). Eventually, Cox's KnightInShiningArmor informs J.D. and Elliot’s fairytale versions that they must find the answer to defeating the monster (i.e. be able to identify the disease) by thinking back to “when you weren’t even listening.” Within the context of fairytale fiction, this advice is all fine and good and makes for a fun story; within the context of the hospital, where Cox’s advice causes J.D. to remember two interns quizzing each other on Wilson’s Disease in the background of an earlier scene, the heavy implication is that ''Cox knew and withheld the diagnosis from J.D. and Elliot'' just to teach them a lesson in paying more attention.
33	** I saw that more as Dr. Cox rewriting the story to make himself the hero. More likely J.D. figured it out but took a while to do so.
34	*** However, J.D. asks what Dr. Cox meant by the line back in the real hospital setting.
35	*** His advice amounted to, "Come on, you guys know this, you just don't realize it." It doesn't mean that Cox knew what the ''answer'' was--he wasn't the one looking at all the data, after all. "When you weren't even listening" can refer to ''anything''. Sure, in the episode it applies to J.D. overhearing something in the background, but it could just as easily mean "when you were half-asleep in med school" or "when you were cramming for rounds years ago."
36	* More FridgeLogic. In one episode, J.D. fantasizes that Eliot and Carla's friendship was cemented when they met Eric Estrada at a convention. Estrada was delighted by the ladies' over joyous reaction to see him with a cocky, "I still got it." However, Turk brings J.D. back to earth by reminding him that it was the two of them who had that moment, not Carla and Eliot. So, then, why would Estrada be happy to see that he made two male fans all giddy?
37	** Because it's J.D.'s imagination-memory and an exaggeration, maybe?
38	** Or because being attractive to two gay men is still a compliment?
39	* Another slight bit of FridgeHorror courtesy of Dr. Cox: at the end of "My New God", he tells his sister Paige that he doesn't see why she can't be there for the major events in his son Jack's life—with one said major event being his funeral. He's obviously being facetious and tends to be pretty blunt most of the time anyway, but a parent saying with any degree of either humor or seriousness that their healthy toddler will be outlived by their middle-aged sister is uncomfortable at best.
40	** This Troper is pretty sure that Dr. Cox was referring to ''his own'' funeral. Which is still pretty depressing when you think about it.
41	** The conversation goes 'I don't see why you can't be there for the major events of Jack's life'/'I'd love to see him turn three'/'The MAJOR events, Paige: his graduation, his wedding, his divorce, and his funeral.' So Cox was referring to Jack's funeral.
42	** Or he might have just been listing what he considers are the "major events" of Jack's life, and not necessarily implying or expecting his sister to be alive to be there for it.
43	* In ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', the supporting character Doug disappears partway through the eighth season. He is notable as the only frequently recurring character who is absent from the GrandFinale as well as the PostScriptSeason. What happened to him? Well the last scene of the last episode he was in, "My Soul on Fire", he was depressed that Janitor didn't invite him to the Bahamas [[spoiler: for the wedding]] and had gotten into one of those autopsy drawers for dead bodies, having someone push him in. The implication seems to be that he's going there to be alone to sad, but his never appearing again raises the possibility that he was never let out...
44	** In the later episode, ''My Chief Concern,'' the Janitor mentions that Doug had been present at the previous day's Brain Trust meeting... and removed from the group yet again. This implies that he got out of the morgue drawer.
45	** Doug himself is essentially a Fridge Horror Station Attendant. Consider that it was a few years after the beginning of his internship that he became a mortician. A few years in which his incredible incompetence directly caused the deaths of ''dozens of patients''. That Doug long ago crossed the line between "malpractice" and "murder" was only ever hinted at once, and ''it was PlayedForLaughs''.
46	* In the Episode "My Musical", If the patient hadn't begged (in song) Dr. Cox to do another test, he would have passed her [[spoiler: aneurysm]] off as the common crazies, and [[spoiler: she probably would have died...]]
47	* Carla lampoons Turk for not knowing his ancestry. However, depending on when his ancestors first arrived in America, it's entirely possible they may have been slaves and subsequent generations were not allowed to know their initial country of origin.
48	** J.D. later claims that Turk is one eighth Japanese. This becomes a little discomforting when you realize that this places Turk's great-grandfather in the same generation as World War II... where Japanese individuals were placed in ''internment camps''.
49	*** This isn't really Fridge Horror, since it's pretty much spelled out. It's brought up because 'internment camps' were mentioned in the episode this was revealed, and Turk was rather upset about the mention of those camps. It was pretty much spelled out that his Japanese great grandparent had lived through the Japanese Internment during WWII.
50	* In Dan's last appearance in Season Seven, he talks about how he is flipping houses for a living. Season 7 aired in 2007 but in 2008... well let's just say something happened that might make flipping houses harder. And since we never see Dan again, well he might have wound up missing his part time bartender job.
51	* In Season 5, Episode 3, J.D. tries to run a triathlon and collapses during the running part. If Elliot hadn't been showing up to talk to him for relationship advice and then inviting him to move in, J.D. could have died there.
52	* In Season 6, J.D. develops a condition where he'll pass out when he poops. It's PlayedForLaughs, but the horror comes when you think about what might have happened if he hit his head on the toilet or sink. And Dr. Cox ''laughs'' at it.
53	* In "My Coffee," Turk claims he won't tell his newborn daughter, Izzy, that she has a vagina until she turns 18, and berates everyone else for assuming he's joking. Even though it's [[PlayedForLaughs played for laughs]], as a doctor Turk must be aware that (statistically) abstinence-only sex education is not very effective, not to mention the fact that children with poor understanding of their own anatomy are more likely to be victims of molestation. Denying Izzy knowledge of her own body is not protecting her, it's potentially setting her up for serious trouble.
54	** Turk is presumably not 100% die-hard no-chance-of-reconsidering-whatsoever serious about never teaching his daughter anything about sex at all. He is being serious ''in that specific moment'' because he doesn't want to think of his baby girl having sex in eighteen years or so and is getting in early on being a BoyfriendBlockingDad. In other words, the fact that he is being serious is part of the joke.

Context Fridge / Scrubs