Second Look: Scrubs Season 1, Episode 7 – “My Super Ego”

Scrubs Season 1, Episode 7 “My Super Ego”
Written by Mike Schwartz
Directed by Peter Lauer
Aired November 6, 2001 on NBC

One of the major throughlines in these early episodes of Scrubs is observing how its ensemble of characters survive the daily grind of hospital life, and what happens when young and experienced doctors alike do when tests produce dramatic results, when examinations go unpredictably sideways – or, as we saw so eloquently in “My Old Lady”, what happens when everything goes wrong, and they’re left with no answers at all. “My Super Ego” is a conflation of all these ideas from the first six episodes – but this time, puts J.D. in the observer’s seat as he watches Turk, and prominent NBC sitcom icon Sean Hayes, go through similar crises of faith.

Turk’s story in this episode – after a surgery is halted, initially because it was though Turk cut someone’s colon (turns out it was just a Todd fart), Turk gets surgical stage fright – is almost a carbon copy of J.D.’s plot from the pilot. Surprisingly, “My Super Ego” doesn’t really tread any new ground when it comes to their role reversal; with J.D. being distracted by the almost-omniscient intern Nick Murdoch’s rise to prominence, the episode doesn’t really take time to explore the confidence J.D. talks about having in his opening voiceover. Even though the obvious parallel between him and Turk flipping positions from the pilot (one abundantly comfortable and confident, the other anxious and insecure) is right in front of Scrubs, it doesn’t really do much with it – except, oddly enough, position Turk and Cox against each other, when the latter takes it upon himself to “punish” Turk for his perceived mistreatment of Carla.

Though the form in which that ‘torture’ manifests is hilariously unorthodox – Cox convinces Turk he needs to masturbate before surgery to relax, then sets up an audience outside the bathroom where Turk ends up doing the “downtown Lester Brown” – it doesn’t add a whole lot to the dynamic the show has started to form between Carla, Turk, and Cox, in fits and starts in its first half-dozen episodes. While it’s great to see Turk pushed to an uncomfortable place early in his career, it almost comes as an afterthought to the J.D./Nick story – which makes the sudden love triangle play by Cox in the third act feel like an afterthought to that storyline, the first underwhelming turn for Dr. Cox, who has easily been the show’s strongest, most dynamic character in these early episodes.

Regardless of the tacked-on romantic contrivances, “My Super Ego” does a solid job in putting Turk and J.D. in each other’s shoes – at least for the first few minutes, until J.D.’s growing obsession with the prodigy known as Nick Murdoch begins to dominate his thoughts. As Nick draws more and more attention from Elliot, seemingly solves patient problems without nary a hesitation, and is confident enough to give J.D. answers so he still looks like the stud intern in front of everyone, it slowly begins to drive J.D. insane; in a way, it drums up some of the competitive energy lost between him and Elliot in the first two episodes, but from a perspective that allows the audience to get annoyed with Nick’s smirking affability and overbearing selflessness (like when he takes the blame for nobody attending Kelso’s news conferences).

It’s definitely one of those subplots that works better with the passage of time; not because of the material, but because watching it in 2026 gives us a few years of distance from Sean Hayes’ last appearance as Will & Grace‘s Jack McFarland, his appearance as Dr. Murdoch feels less showy and network synergistic-y than it did in 2001. This is mostly due to Hayes’s wonderfully understated performance as the doctor savant, which helps mellow the transition from the outsized, iconic performance on Will & Grace; though it would’ve been natural to let Hayes run wild with the show’s sillier elements and cutaways, Dr. Murdoch is a much more measured, contained character, one prone to self-effacing smiles and an unsettlingly calm temperament.

Of course, this is how the character is written – but Hayes does a great job folding himself into Murdoch’s position, setting “My Super Ego” up for its climactic scene, when Murdoch breaks down over a dying child (one he’s calmly been assessing and re-diagnosing with Laverne throughout the episode) and abruptly quits the medical profession altogether. Though the episode struggles a bit turning the episode’s script into reality – Murdoch’s brief breakdown and instantaneous resolution feels like it comes a bit late in the game; perhaps a scene was edited out for time? – it’s nonetheless effective in expressing just how close any intern is to breaking, how one’s physical and mental limits are pushed until they inevitably break.

For J.D., Turk, and Elliot, they’re still finding where those stress points lie, and remembering the support systems they have (and protecting them, as we see with Turk and Carla); as Dr. Cox points out to Carla, it doesn’t always lead to the healthiest places when you’re trying to figure that out – especially if you abandon or sabotage your support system, perhaps the most dangerous mistake any of these three could do in their developing medical careers. Though this idea isn’t really expressed in the cleanest fashion in “My Super Ego” (for one, Elliot does nothing but drool over Nick for 20 minutes), it’s interesting how the series is already finding new wrinkles in familiar stories as it continues to build the foundation for the show’s eight and a half (plus whatever is coming in the revival) seasons still to come.

Grade: B

Other thoughts/observations:

• Although the Carla/Cox stuff still doesn’t make much sense to me,
  
• Todd’s response to Dr. Wen always cracks me up: “I farted, sir. That smell is from the fart I made.”
  
• There’s a cutaway where we learn J.D.’s brother (who he “doesn’t talk to much”, wink wink) used to make J.D. play Hot Lips and the family dog Frank Burns when they played M.A.S.H.
  
• Elliot, regarding Dr. Murdoch: “I’d let him drool on me.”
  
• You can already tell the writers are having fun getting Kelso to say random things: in this episode, it’s “squeezy juice” and “nappy naps”.
  
• Kelso assesses Dr. Dorian: “Your problem is… you’re a pansy.”
  
• Turk, convincing Dr. Wen he’s ready for surgery: “I’ve got so much potassium, it’s coming out of my assium.”
  
• The pee sample montage set to Josh Joplin’s “Camera One” is still great.
  
• first appearance of Snoop Dogg Intern in the morning rounds scene!
  
• The cutaway with J.D. and Nick as dogs being judged by Dr. Cox would work better if it didn’t have 48 sound effects attached to it.
  
• I don’t like Nick’s whole “I’m going to leave you a message asking you out” shtick with Elliot. There is just no chemistry between those two actors.
  
• Cox, convincing Turk: “Take a little trip to Paaaaalm-dale. Give yourself the low-five…. Physician, love thyself.”
  
• Cox getting flustered when he tries to tell Carla that he “needs” her at the hospital is… a weird scene that doesn’t play well at all? It’s easy to forget this whole plot line in season one, and boy, does Scrubs do an awkward job trying to set this whole tension up.
  
• Up next: Turks films some interesting promos for Sacred Heart in “My Fifteen Minutes”.