Second Look: Scrubs Season 1, Episode 13 – “My Balancing Act”

Scrubs Season 1, Episode 13 “My Balancing Act”
Written by Neil Goldman & Garrett Donovan
Directed by Michael Spiller
Aired January 15, 2002 on NBC

Love isn’t easy in “My Balancing Act”, an episode of Scrubs trying to strike a balance between J.D.’s more ingratiating traits with a pair of interconnected backup stories, all centered on its characters finding the courage to be more vulnerable with their friends, lovers – or themselves. Thankfully, it lives up to its title: though “My Balancing Act” still stumbles occasionally when trying to make J.D. a convincing romantic lead, how it pulls its three stories together thematically marks a strong return to form after a couple of uneven entries.

Picking up where “My Blind Date” ends – J.D. pulling social worker Alex out of the MRI machine, and right into a montage of the opening weeks of their relationship. Everything seems to be going great, except for one problem: every date ends when J.D. is inevitably called back to the hospital. While “My Balancing Act” is not entirely convincing as an opportunity to showcase J.D. as a romantic lead, where it does become interesting (and sets the table for the other two stories of the episode) is how it creates friction between the different life paths he wants to pursue. As someone who wants to impress Cox and be the best doctor ever, J.D.’s growing obsession with his work and letting it define him, has already been a point of contention in previous episodes (like “My Old Lady”, or with Carla in “My Nickname”).

Here, the argument is a bit harder to make (even without the retrospective knowledge of how Alex’s arc would abruptly end in “My Drug Buddy”); with Alex’s only real lines of dialogue centered around her lamenting J.D.’s work schedule or making him horny, there’s little legwork done to make her character feel like something other than a brief novelty act. Even though “My Balancing Act” does well to try and get the audience to invest in her character, Alex really exists to push J.D. to consider himself in context of Dr. Cox, who scolds him after he learns J.D. blew off his dinner date to help him with a patient. Having loved and lost for the job he makes his identity, Cox knows exactly what J.D. is throwing away – and despite how it all turned out for him, it’s an unexpected, touching moment to see him acknowledge it, and try to save J.D. from becoming Cox 2.0.

At first glance, it might seem the only thing connecting the three stories together are unsatisfying sex lives; though J.D.’s frustrations are mostly siloed off to his corner of Sacred Heart, the rest of “My Balancing Act” spends most of its time focused on the female orgasm – or more importantly, the lack of them, as Carla and Elliot both contend with their shared inabilities to climax. Elliot’s story more just fits in the vein of what we know about her character – prone to mental spirals and bouts of insecurity – which makes admission of never having an orgasm, even while masturbating, a fun little runner underneath J.D. and Carla/Turk’s stories. Though Elliot’s story really just leads to a goofy moment – her falling off the top of her dryer as she discovers self-pleasure for the first time – it’s a moment of Elliot taking decisive control of her life, something the waffling J.D. and Carla could really benefit from as the navigate their individual conflicts within “My Balancing Act”.

For Turk and Carla, “My Balancing Act” takes a much longer, unexpected road as it unearths its story; for most of the episode, we’re led to believe Turk was the one unable to perform, presumably from the fact he’s tied down in a serious relationship for the first time in his adult life. While I don’t think the redirect is necessary, when “My Balancing Act” reveals that Carla was the actually the one struggling to enjoy their intimate moments, it feels like the episode really starts to kick into gear, taking a bit more of a nuanced approach to the emotions of its characters than the rather straightforward, predictable behaviors of Elliot, J.D., and Cox throughout the episode.

Smartly, Turk and Carla’s sexual hiccup is not something formed as an existential threat to their relationship, even when the episode turns it into a cliched exploration of the “I’m a planner, you’re a doer” dichotomy in their relationship. As J.D. points out over his closing monologue, all they need to find is a little balance; and it’s from there where “My Balancing Act” pulls its disparate threads together – including Cox’s badgering of Kelso, which briefly dampens the latter’s evil spirits, briefly revealing the deep bond lying underneath their antagonistic exteriors. To experience love, one must experience balance – and even though J.D. and Cox are clearly still trying to find that balance within themselves, “My Balancing Act” posits they might not be as far away from inner peace as they might seem, if they’d be willing to humble themselves a bit (as Elliot, Turk, and Carla all do, in their own ways) for the sake of letting a little light in.

But for now, J.D. has dates in the dark hospital rooms of Sacred Heart, while Cox wanders alone, trying to find a way to maybe enjoy himself a little bit more than he usually allows himself to. Though “My Balancing Act” ends on a mostly upbeat notes, the underlying, melancholic tone it briefly strikes with Cox is a strong one, helping to both color his dogged pursuit of shaming Kelso in front of everyone, and also to observe the benefits his advice has on the people around him, pockets of happiness and pleasure he still won’t allow himself to enjoy (not really, even though we see a light smirk when Kelso gets back to his old routine of shaming and scaring interns during morning rounds). In that, “My Balancing Act” becomes a bit more than the sum of its parts – and quietly, becomes one of the show’s more nuanced entries on infatuation and romance, and the sacrifices one must make to truly embrace something (or someone) in life.

Grade: B

Other thoughts/observations:

• Turk calls sex “shrumpdown”? What the huh?
  
• Todd: “Let’s get our talk on… playa to playa.”
  
• Love Carrot Top’s cameo in this episode, where Kelso morphs into him, unable to move any of his interns to either fear or laughter.
  
• Cox: “What are you saying – you want to be like me? You understand I just barely want to be like me?”
  
• Ted telling Cox off is one of my favorite moments of the season. “Walk off bitch.”
  
• “I guess a key to a lot of things is balance. Whether its balance of power, balance in love, or sometimes… just balance.” Sometimes J.D.’s monologues sound more profound than they are in reality.
  
• Todd High Five Count: Todd appears, but does not raise his hand and wrist in anyone’s direction. Todd’s count remains at 9, with the season total resting at 11.
  
• “That was probably the wrong time to ask for a quickie.”
  
• Up next: Alex’s true intentions are revealed in “My Drug Buddy”.