Posted by SH
Male breast cancer, lost testicles, sensitive man-hugs and, of course, banana hammocks are all in the mix as the Sacred Heart gang struggles with issues of masculinity. Well, the dudes do. Carla and Elliot simply wonder how men can be so shallow (seemingly forgetting all their own stupid fights).
After a dressing-down from Cox over his penchant for snapping his fingers during West Side Story (it’s happened before), and a beat-down from Turk in an old-fashioned bout of Remote Wrestling, J.D. worries he’s not the best male role model for baby Sam. On the bright side, the kid gets the most screen time in his young life, assuring for one more week he won’t fall victim to neglectful sitcom parenting.
J.D. notices Turk seems to be unleashing his inner alpha lately but doesn’t bother to ask why. Undeterred, he challenges Turk to a rematch and accidentally comes out on top after an inadvertent elbow to the face knocks C. Bear out cold. J.D. shows off for the audience, but knows Turk will want some payback. Before the throwdown, though, J.D. finds out Turk recently had a testicle removed thanks to an errant kick from his daughter. They eventually decide to stage a Rocky III-style freeze-frame photo of them about to punch each other, and each can make themselves the victor in front of captive audiences.
Elliot and Carla treat a macho dude who finds out he has breast cancer but doesn’t want to tell his brohams. This really is a means to an end, for it allows Elliot to realize that when she earlier eavesdropped on Kelso talking about his upcoming mandatory retirement, he was really reaching out for her help. I don’t think the cancer dude ever got mentioned again. Elliot recruits Carla and the whole hospital (save Cox) to plead Kelso’s case to the board.
It’s good to see that after seven seasons, we can still learn something about the characters and not just rely on the same-old near-kisses and Cox-gets-serious moments to pull us through. Especially nice this episode was the joining together of Janitor, Murphy, the Todd and Ted (as the invisible investigative reporter!) to produce a thrice-daily newsletter called The Janitorial. It led to some funny gags and offered a creative solution to how to get more screen time to the “Scrubs” day players.