After the dour, unnecessarily twisty “My Occurrence”, it’s no surprise “My Hero” wants to get back to Scrubs‘ bread and butter, separating its three interns back into their own storylines and returning to overarching mix of goofiness and light profundity that define the most typical of Scrubs episodes. But in the wake of revealing Ben’s leukemia, “My Hero” and its attempts to push back to the status quo are incredibly strange, sidelining a story that had suddenly taken on a lot of dramatic weight, for a pair of underwhelming sitcom plots that nearly drown out the fantastic character work and performances happening between the foursome at the center of these two episodes.
While it makes “My Hero”, in ways, an even stranger proposition than “My Occurence” and its unnecessary third act rug pull, as Ben is cordoned off to a back corner of the episode as he deals with, and presumably heals from, his leukemia. While elsewhere, Turk is learning that Todd is an idiot savant and Elliot and Carla are playing goofy games with Dr. Kelso (drawing his wrath when they decide to write a prank evaluation of him), J.D., Ben, and Dr. Cox are contemplating the very meaning of life – at one point, Ben says “I’ve been thinking about death a lot lately… do you think it’s like New York?”. In these scenes, Scrubs is at its best, Ben and J.D. interjecting moments of levity alongside McGinley’s incredible performance as he struggles to reconcile with the limits of his own seemingly heroic abilities; there’s a great balance between the lighter and darker elements of Ben’s story, clarified through Fraser’s increasingly uneven, subdued performance as Ben settles into his new reality, to Cox’s admission that of the many things he struggles with in life, dealing with watching loved ones die is about as far down the list as it could possibly get.
These moments are pure in a way Scrubs rarely aspired to be; unfortunately, they are also all tangled up with the other pair of plots in the episode`, all of which seem reverse engineered to fit Dr. Cox and Ben’s story, rather than stand on their own two feet and organically come together for a poignant ending. To its credit, “My Hero” does what it can to try and tie these things together – bits of visual flair like separating into thirds to watch Carla, Ben, and Cox stew on their thoughts, or The Blanks providing 1980s cartoon theme songs as acapella backdrops – but ultimately, the other stories don’t fit, thematically or emotionally, despite them all landing neatly in the same place, where Scrubs reveals the true hero to be the one within, not the one you look for in times of crisis.
In Elliot’s story, the idea of a “hero” is tethered to Kelso’s increasingly antagonistic treatment of both herself and Carla. While I appreciate how it continues to build a friendship out of the antagonistic beginnings of their interactions, Carla being Elliot’s “hero” feels an entirely undercooked idea, her only stepping in out of guilt after Elliot and Carla both fall into Kelso’s trap (he insists on staggering anonymous feedback, or there “would be no accountability”) and have to deal with the fallout of his anger at their jokey, insulting responses to her question. There’s so little conflict here between the three of them, it really pales in comparison to the very life and death story happening just across the hall with J.D. and Cox – which, by the same token, is why Turk’s realization that he isn’t the surgical department’s golden child and has to prove himself, also feels a bit miscalibrated next to the episode’s A story.
Again, I appreciate that they all land in parallel places, built around the idea that acceptance of others and their help is a reflection on one’s perception of themselves, but the fit of tones and stories are awkward together, which is noticeable every time the episode pulls back from a cutaway (of which “My Hero” has an abundance of quality cutaways) or J.D.’s voiceover steps in to make sure everything is incredibly explicit. It even builds to something pretty great – a somber conversation between Cox and Ben, where both actors deliver arguably the most well-acted scene of the season, as the two share a vulnerable moment expressing their shared fears around Ben’s situation.
But then the strangest thing happens; Ben (and Jordan, who is mostly window dressing in a few select scenes, her presence completely neutered from “My Occurrence”) literally fades out of scene, with his health recovering in a single line of dialogue as the episode races towards finding a shared resolution between all three stories. It just ends – and while it unintentionally foreshadows perhaps the finest, most harrowing episode of the series to come, it is nonetheless an unsatisfying ending to where the episode’s narrative shifted, accelerating through the most interesting, challenging parts of the Cox/Ben dynamic, in what feels lie the dramatic equivalent of skipping the final two bosses of a video game and going straight to the ending credits.
So while I like where “My Hero” ultimately lands – we may be inspired by others, but the only people we live with are ourselves – how it gets there is clumsy as all hell, conflating unnecessary diversions with one of the more critical, thoughtful dramatic arcs of Scrubs‘ early seasons. So while I like enjoy a lot of the individual elements of “My Hero”, how the episode comes together and resolves itself is quite undercooked, reducing one of the most interesting guest spots in the entire series to a mere whiff of an idea, in what amounts to one of the show’s more awkwardly fitting freshman entries.
Other thoughts/observations:
- J.D. gets his first eagle in this episode, courtesy of Ben himself. Hate the eagle and how it would come to dominate the worst of this show – but still love how its tied to Ben’s legacy.
- Do we really need to discuss Turk causing a stir when he asks Dr. Wen if he gave Bonnie preference because they’re Asian? It is one of the most out-of-character moments for him, if we’re being honest – but ultimately, his story just kind of falls by the wayside, rendering it a moment Scrubs and the audience is better off forgetting. Fun fact: Bonnie was supposed to be a long-term rival for Turk, but Lela Lee left for a role on the Tremors series (which only survived 13 episodes in 2003, in part thanks to a bunch of angry Farscape fans).
- Another Scrubs/Cougar Town crossover! Paul the oncologist is, of course, played by Bob Clendelin, who would later feature as the iconic Tom Gazelian.
- The Blanks’ job introductions remains iconic.
- “Jumpin’ Jupiter, I do like the tough love.”
- We see J.D. writing in his diary for perhaps the only time in the whole series? Then again, Janitor steals it right after, so maybe it disappeared in space and time.
- Up next: Scrubs blows it all up in “My Last Day”.