Posted by SH
Bob Kelso isn’t letting a little impending forced retirement keep him down. In fact, last week’s big development is given nary a mention as the doctors become obsessed with the diabolical administrator’s latest maneuver. During downtime between chapters of the final “Harry Potter” book, Bobbo has linked Sacred Heart to a website that lets patients rate doctors, and the ratings become just the latest way for alpha males Turk and Cox to compete, while J.D. tries to act like he doesn’t care. That is, until he finds out he’s the top doc. Take that, Chocolate Bear!
Plot B follows Janitor and his new lady friend, the oddly named Lady. Funny, she seemed like just a punchline to a throwaway joke in a recent episode, but here she is, with lines and everything. Apparently Janitor has gotten in her good graces by pretending to be a regular person. That means wearing cardigans and keeping the stuffed-squirrel-army talk to a minimum. But Carla sees trouble ahead, and tells Janitor he better start being himself if he wants the relationship to last. When he finally decides to come clean, he forgets the fine art of moderation, spilling his guts at a furious pace and freaking out poor Lady. Carla steps in, says Janitor is just kidding, then tells him privately that he can’t let all his “crazy” out at once. This is all fine and good, but I’m still waiting for Neil Flynn to break into a ripping solo of the old Styx song “Lady” that, per his comedic stylings this season, goes on long after it’s stopped being funny.
J.D.’s joy in being No. 1 — the only other time he can remember being a winner was during a game of “Nerd Toss” during high school, with him as the nerd — is short-lived. Turk and Cox persuade the Todd, who is also busy promoting his website, thetoddtime.com, to anyone and everyone, to tell all his patients that he’s Dr. John Dorian. This, naturally, leads to a precipitous drop in J.D.’s ranking. J.D. lays on the guilt to Turk, who asks what he can do to make amends. Cue up an extended fantasy sequence of Turk trying to pass various horses off to J.D. as unicorns, only to find that the horn keeps coming off and that sorry, J.D., unicorns don’t exist.
There actually was a serious plot in here somewhere. Elliot makes friends with an ALS patient, who despite her good humor about the situation, is trying to kill herself by overdosing on her meds. Should Elliot stay quiet and be a good friend, or be a good doctor and alert the patient’s nurse to the situation? This is a thorny issue that surprisingly hadn’t been handled on the show before. Elliot’s decision to keep mum isn’t all that surprising, despite her hard-core Republican leanings, cuz really, were they going to show the ALS patient come back in a few weeks, immobile, near-death and hating on Elliot?
As far as series-ending momentum goes, nothing happening here. Strictly a placeholder episode, unless we’re building to a Lady-Janitor commitment ceremony, which seems unlikely. But it’s always nice to see that J.D. mullet.
Comic highlight: Turk and Cox square off in a contest to see who can withstand the stench emanating from a patient’s fungal infection the longest. Turk wins, by a nose.