Scrubs: 7.11 ‘My Princess’ Recap

Original Air Date: May 8, 2008

Scrubs fans who like continuity and every plotline neatly wrapped up might have difficulty enjoying “My Princess,” especially if they also don’t realize the series is not over — it will continue for another season on ABC, if you believe the general industry consensus. So, “My Princess” is just an NBC series finale, *not* a series finale.

Two things about “My Princess” still seem odd, though, and they demonstrate that NBC aired at least this episode out of order. First, Dr. Kelso is back as the chief of medicine despite quitting two episodes ago. Aloma Wright also returns in several scenes, but no time is spent providing any background on her presence at all; she’s just there.

Another unsatisfying aspect of the installment — if it was a true series finale — is that J.D. and Elliott’s relationship doesn’t get any type of definite closure. Instead, we’re left with the assumption that it could go two ways — either they remain just friends or things heat up eventually and they become a couple. The last scene doesn’t clarify which is more likely; the two doctors just walk away from one another after Dr. Cox states they mutually decided that the kiss they almost had was pretty much no big deal.

The main plot of “My Princess” revolves around Cox’s sarcastic bedtime fairytale made-up just for his four-year-old son Jack. Cox’s dislike of his colleagues at Sacred Heart motivates him to turn annoying parents Turk and Carla into a two-headed witch named Turla that’s continually in conflict with itself, Elliott into a mean but pretty princess, and J.D. into a colossally stupid village idiot (he tries to “save” a fish from drowning — Duh!). Kelso also becomes the evil ruler Dark Lord Oslek, who can make people disappear under his Dracula-ish cape, while Cox becomes the brave knight named Percival Cox, whom Princess Elliott relies on to slay monsters.

Zach Braff directed this season finale, a take on the movie The Princess Bride, and he (or the editors) does a good job interlacing the scenes to show how Cox’s fairytale, which takes place in the village Sacred Heartily, relates to events in real time at Sacred Heart. In the fairytale, the princess’ maiden is held captive and unconscious by an evil, seemingly invincible smoke monster (Lost, anyone?). At Sacred Heart, Elliott has a young female patient named Marion with an affliction she can’t diagnose.

In the fairytale, the dark Lord punishes people by making them disappear when they enter the forbidden forest, while at Sacred Heart, Kelso is sending people home without a day’s pay when he catches them working past the end of their twelve-hour shift.

Although at first it appears the situations at Sacred Heart serve as inspiration for Cox’s story, near the middle of the episode the tables start to turn, at least from the viewer’s perspective, and the tale begins to explain what’s happening at the hospital.

We learn that J.D. and Elliott finally manage to diagnose Marion when the village idiot and the princess heed the Brave Knight’s suggestion to remember what they heard when they weren’t listening. As a result, J.D. recalls two interns discussing an ailment called Wilson’s disease when they were playing Diagnosis Jeopardy earlier.

Wilson’s leaves telltale copper rings around the irises of sufferers, which J.D. discovers Marion has after the village idiot and the princess, following the brave knight’s instructions, retrieve a golden ring from the forbidden forest. We don’t know if Marion gets a happy-ever-after ending in real life, however, because Cox doesn’t confirm she does when his wife Christa asks.

RESOURCES

• Scrubs Episode Guide
• Scrubs Website