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Scrubs recap: “My Princess”

The commercials labeled it as the Scrubs finale. Fortunately for us, it's not really the last episode of the series, just the last one that will be broadcast on NBC (the rest will now appear on ABC). This is good news, not just because it means we get one more season of Scrubs, but also because if this were to be the actual end to the show, it would have been a disappointing sendoff to the series.

The episode mixes real life situations with fantasy, with the latter working as a way to explain the former. J.D. and Elliot are trying to find a cure for a patient whose symptoms are not only hard to diagnose, they continue to worsen as time runs out. Dr. Cox uses the situation as a way to tell a story to his son, putting his own spin on an interpretation of the staff while placing them in a sort of Princess Bride setting.

J.D. is the village idiot (a point Cox can't seem to stress enough); Elliot is the princess whose maiden is the actual patient she's treating; Turk and Carla are combined into a single, two-headed creature called Turla; the Janitor is a giant; the Todd is a fairy; Ted is an obsequious hunchback to the devil, who, naturally, is Dr. Kelso; and of course, Dr. Cox himself is the handsome, brave knight.

While it would appear that Dr. Cox has all the answers and be the most likely to "kill the monster," he doesn't. J.D. and Elliot are forced to figure out what's wrong with their patient all by themselves. Cox only gives the two one piece of advice: remember even that which you weren't listening to. This cryptic message, while it is surely helpful in some kind of way, doesn't add up to much at first, leaving J.D. and Elliot one more thing to ponder over as they try to save their patient.

In the fantasy setting, the two are to find a golden ring hidden deep within the forest. Of course, by trekking that far, they are putting themselves in danger, and here, the devil captures them and places them in a dungeon. Back in the hospital, once Kelso realizes that J.D. and Elliot have done nothing that would come back to him, he lets them go, and they continue to search for an answer to what it is their patient could possibly have.

And then it hits J.D. Dr. Cox's cryptic message suddenly makes sense, as he recounts a couple of interns quizzing each other on symptoms: their patient has Wilson's disease. Once he figures this out, he and Elliot, back in the fantasy stage, find the golden ring of the forest, and they ride off on a white horse to rescue their patient. In the hospital, J.D. checks the patient's pupils, finding traces of gold, copper-like materials around the eye, proving that his diagnosis was correct.

While the majority of the episode revolves around showcasing just how similar the reality and the fantasy worlds are, the last few minutes of the show refute that. In the fable, the patient lives happily ever after, while the village idiot and the princess end up not getting together because, as Cox tells his son, they're both idiots. But once he leaves the room and meets his wife, Cox reveals to her that the story didn't have had a happy ending in real life.

Sure, there could have been a worse way to end a season. There are a few moments that produce some genuine laughs (the Janitor's giant revealing that, contrary to popular belief, he doesn't even children. . .he eats toddlers). But the whole dialect and presentation of of the fantasy world gets old after a while. Elliot periodically speaking in old, archaic dialogue sounds particularly awkward.

The episode's ending is a little uneven as well. We go from a sort of cheesy, PG-friendly finish to a bleak, melancholy one. I understand the need for this. In fact, I know that the series has made its living off of juxtaposing happy instances with sad ones. But the ending here seems a little too abrupt and out of place. I recognize that due to the writers' strike, the season didn't end with the episode it was meant to end on, but whether it's a season or series finale, or it's just something in between, the episode still feels a little lumpy.

It's a good thing this isn't the last of Scrubs. While I guess Cox's explanation of why the village idiot and the princess didn't end up together does mirror J.D. and Elliot's situation, it doesn't feel like an official statement. Whether or not the two will end up together should be addressed more directly and not just briefly discussed in passing. Not to mention, there was hardly enough of Turk, Carla, the Janitor, Kelso or even the Todd in this episode to satisfy the most loyal of watchers.

Here's to hoping that ABC does the show right and produces a sendoff the show and its fans deserve.

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