When a young patient of JD's refuses to give up smoking despite JD's best attempts, he asks Dr Cox for advice only to be coldly turned down. Several people tell JD that Dr Cox has always been that way, but he's determined to make him his mentor. JD continues to try and bond with Dr Cox who rejects him at every turn, only to eventually give JD some advice about his patient; namely that JD cannot save everyone and that letting that bother him will mean he won't be successful as a doctor. JD reluctantly accepts that Dr Cox has a point, only to be scolded for not sticking to his own conviction.
Meanwhile, Elliot angers Carla by telling Dr Kelso that she had made a mistake. Elliot's poor attempt at an apology doesn't go over well, so Carla turns the entire nursing staff against her. It's Turk of all people who stands up for Elliot, pointing out that she's new and could do with Carla giving her a break. This impresses Carla so much that she not only agrees to forgive Elliot she also finally says that she'll go on a date with Turk.
Tropes
- Bilingual Bonus: Carla's angry rant in Spanish about Elliot.Carla: - to watch her little behind, because if she doesn't, I am going to kick all the blonde dye off her head.
- Characterization Marches On: Dr. Cox is shown to have a lot of friends who are willing to come to watch the game at his apartment, a sharp contrast to a later episode where he invites people over but no one shows up as he's steadily been pushing them away over the years with his bad attitude.
- Companion Cube: Turk and JD's dead stuffed dog Rowdy first shows up in this episode.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Elliot apologizes to Carla for telling Dr. Kelso about her mistake and then goes on to say how she would have done things better. There's even an Imagine Spot where she is literally digging her own grave.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Carla being hostile to Elliott is understandable. Not-so-understandable is having the whole nursing staff turned against Elliott. Turk intervenes when Elliott does a nice deed for Carla, asking the two to make up, and orders Elliott to zip it when she starts up again.
- The Door Slams You: Dr. Cox ends up slamming his apartment door closed on JD's foot, though he does briefly invite him in to make sure he's okay.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Turk's mother is stated to be a Jehovah's Witness and Elliot mistakes a picture of her for Morgan Freeman. When she later appears on the show she gives no indication of being a Jehovah's Witness (although it's possible it just never came up a Jehovah's Witness would be unlikely to be happy with her son having pre-marital sex and Turk's mother was fine with this) and she in no possible way could be mistaken for Morgan Freeman.
- Gut Punch: J.D. finds out this his patient is sneaking cigarettes on the side, despite his diagnosis. His face falls with hurt and disappointment.
- In-Universe Soundtrack: JD puts on some music, then notices the hospital has synced up to his song.
- Innocent Bigot: Elliot mistakes a picture of Turk's mother with Morgan Freeman.
- It Gets Easier: Dr. Cox gruffly tells J.D. this, in his typical Jerkass way. There are some patients you can't save, because they have to save themselves first, but you either adjust to it or you burn out.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While she goes about it completely the wrong way, Elliot is correct in that Carla's mistake could have impacted the patient in a negative way had it not been caught. Especially as Carla is a seasoned nurse and Elliot is a brand new resident.
- Neck Snap: Turk does this to Todd in an imagination spot when Todd mentions he might be interested in Carla.
- The Nicknamer: First time Dr. Cox calls J.D. a girl's name. After seeing his patient smoke again, Dr. Cox calls him "Susan".
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Elliot does this several times throughout the episode, establishing a huge part of her character.
- After Elliot ends up insulting Carla in front of Turk, she then goes on to point out that at least she's not one of those crazy 'Jehovah's Witnesses' only for Turk to fix her with a look. He's not, but his mother is. She then later tries to make it up to him by bringing him food only to accidentally mistake a photograph of his mother as one of Morgan Freeman. She can only weakly respond that she loves her freckles.
- Elliot tells Dr. Kelso that Carla made a mistake which in turn meant that she couldn't do her job properly. Her awkward apology ends up with her blaming Carla further, which only makes Carla angrier. When the nursing staff is ignoring Elliot, she condescendingly asks Dr. Kelso if there's a special way to communicate with the nursing staff that only continues to alienate her from the rest of the staff.
- Shout-Out: When playing with the voice machine, JD's patient says “Biddy, biddy, biddy, okay, Doc.”. JD then asks his patient "Do you want to play a game?".
- Smoking Is Not Cool: JD does everything he can to make his patient give up smoking and smoking itself is always shown in a negative light.
- Your Head A-Splode: JD has an imagination spot where his own head explodes due to his frustration over Dr Cox.Dr Cox: I can't believe your head exploded. If your head explodes, you'll never make it as a doctor. I mean, come on, you look ridiculous.
