'Scrubs' Star Reveals J.D. and Elliot's Romance Is Far From Being Over in Season 2
Greer Riddell is a London-based film and television journalist writing about comedy, streaming and the evolving media industry in the UK and USA. She works at Collider, covering the latest in film, television and entertainment through interviews, features, reviews and industry coverage.
Her recent brand collaborations include HBO, Warner Bros., Netflix, Hulu, Sky, Disney+ and DC Studios. She has covered titles including Saturday Night Live UK, Rivals, Scrubs, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, Ludwig, Supergirl and Stranger Things.
Her recent interviews include Florence Pugh, Mike Faist and Christopher Abbott for Netflix’s East of Eden, Taika Waititi and Jenna Ortega for Klara and the Sun.
Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 Episode 7 of Scrubs.Scrubs Season 2 has pulled a classic trick on audiences this week, setting viewers up to believe that J.D. (Zach Braff) and Elliot (Sarah Chalke) have rekindled their relationship, despite being divorced. However, the series employs a chain of misdirections to conceal the fact that J.D. has fallen asleep while comforting his dementia patient, Ms Croft (Clare Coulter). In reality, J.D. and Elliot never went out to dinner; they didn’t share a kiss, and the issues surrounding their divorce have not been resolved.
Instead, their Tom Petty-drenched dinner takes place in J.D.’s imagination, giving audiences an insight into his unresolved feelings and the circumstances around the divorce. Chalke joins Collider to discuss Season 2, Episode 7, “My Story,” including why the series wanted to bring J.D. and Elliot together for just one episode, how the team worked to prevent audiences from identifying the twist, and the incredible practical effects involved in creating the episode’s reveal sequence.
Why J.D. and Elliot Got Back Together for Just 1 Episode
“It kind of opens the door in a really interesting way for what could possibly come.”
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J.D. and Elliot have been divorced since the first season of the Scrubs revival, with much of their story focusing on their attempts to establish new romantic relationships. J.D. appeared to be settling down with Charlie (Rachel Bilson), while Elliot reconnected with Sean Kelly (Scott Foley) from the original series. Both relationships initially seemed to offer the characters an opportunity to move forward, but their responsibilities at the hospital repeatedly took priority. Then, in another twist that draws on the original series, Sean gets together with Charlie after the two are left alone to watch a movie in Pediatrics.
With both J.D. and Elliot single again, the series took the opportunity to revisit one of the original show’s defining relationships, but not for the reason audiences might expect. For Chalke, the episode was a chance to respond to audience interest while finding a different way to approach their history. “One of the things about Season 1 is that Zach [Braff] and Aseem [Batra] and Bill [Lawrence], everybody really went back and listened to what the fans had to say and what they wanted to see more of,” she tells Collider. “And obviously, there was a lot of talk about, well, what about J.D. and Elliot and why aren’t they together?”
Bringing the characters back together for one episode provides some of the wish-fulfillment that audiences have been looking for, but rather than straight exposition through dialogue, “My Story” uses the imagined relationship to explore why their marriage ended and what remains unresolved between them. “I thought it was such an interesting way to really find out more about what happened and why it didn’t work out,” Chalke explains. “And I think it opens the door in a really interesting way for what could possibly come.”
Given the history between the characters and the friendship between the cast, filming their reunion was a particularly immersive experience. Chalke shares that the restaurant and waterfront scenes were filmed on the same day, allowing the actors to work through the sequence together naturally rather than returning to it across multiple days, which may have fractured the emotional intensity. “I thought it was beautifully written,” she adds.
‘Scrubs’ Continues To Get Away With Misdirecting Audiences for Its Biggest Twists
“What blew my mind about it was like the actual technical aspect of it.”
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Misdirection has been an important part of Scrubs since the original series. Brendan Fraser‘s appearances provide some of the show’s best examples, most notably “My Screw Up”, where audiences are led to believe that J.D. and Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) are attending Jack’s first birthday party. The eventual reveal is that they are actually at the funeral of Ben, Cox’s best friend, who suddenly died from leukemia. The camera pans around to reveal the casket, and J.D. asks, “Where do you think we are?” and Ben disappears from the scene. It remains one of the series’ most memorable twists because the audience had been encouraged to accept an entirely different version of events.
“My Story” uses a similar approach, although the emotional circumstances are different. The episode needs audiences to believe that J.D. and Elliot are genuinely reconnecting, meaning the production has to avoid introducing details that might reveal the dream sequence prematurely. Chalke explains that this required considerable attention to the performances, the writing, and even the characters’ appearances. “The conversations go right down to what is Elliot wearing at the restaurant?” Chalke explains. “Because in the script, it’s like, J.D. sees her, she comes in. The way they filmed it, it was kind of in slow motion, but it also has to make sense that he texts her and is like, ‘Come meet me for dinner.’ So it can’t be too much. There was a lot of conversation over even just that level of detail.”
The reveal itself also needed to be as devastating as “My Screw Up”, and this is where the episode’s practical effects become particularly important. “What blew my mind about it was the actual technical aspect of it,” says Chalke. When J.D. returns home with Elliot and sees Ollie (Kellan Tetlow), he asks him to stay and watch a movie. The scene mirrors an earlier moment in the episode when the pair have to give their son “the talk,” but on that occasion, J.D. says he can’t stay and leaves. In the dream sequence, he chooses to stay. But as soon as he grabs Ollie’s hand, Ms. Croft’s voice interrupts. Her hallucinations move J.D. physically back through the wall to the reality of the hospital, where he has been sitting at her bedside all along.
“Michael Spiller, who is an incredible director who we’ve worked with for 25 years, has such incredible technical knowledge, and he was working for weeks preparing for that episode,” Chalke explains. Earlier in the episode, the production built an entirely upside-down set and incorporated a stunt in which J.D. walks up the side of a wall. However, Chalke identifies the sequence in which J.D. is pulled away as one of the most technically interesting parts of the episode. “He’s standing on a platform that’s moving, and they built a set that’s just like long walls, and if you watch, it’s like the two light sconces. They then continued those light bars all the way along the wall. So it’s this really interesting visual effect of him getting pulled back, but that was all shot on an actual physical set that was built in the couple of days before we shot it.”
The production also made last-minute changes to achieve the effect. Chalke explains that art director Roger Fires suggested that J.D. needed to be standing on a moving platform, which would allow the actor to be physically pulled away from the scene. “He actually built this whole thing 12 hours before we shot it so that Zach could physically be standing on this floor that had wheels that just went back all the way down the long tunnel.”
The connection between Ms. Croft’s storyline and J.D.’s personal life is another example of how Scrubs uses its patients’ cases to explore the personal lives of its doctors. Chalke particularly appreciates this approach, explaining that the writers consistently find ways to connect the two sides of the series. “It’s so clever, and it’s what blows my mind about the writers all the time, and I don’t understand how they do it, and I certainly don’t understand how they do it week to week,” she says. For Chalke, Ms. Croft’s storyline is an effective way to approach J.D. and Elliot’s relationship because it gives the writers a reason to explore his feelings without relying on a straightforward conversation between the characters, “I thought it was an incredible way to use as an entry point to get into everything that happened with J.D. and Elliot.”
Will J.D. And Elliot Ever Get Back Together for Good on ‘Scrubs’?
“That’s her plan, but obviously in life the best laid plans, right?”
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Although the reunion is revealed to be a dream, “My Story” provides some important information about J.D.’s feelings towards Elliot. During the waterfront conversation, he tells her, “I don’t think I’ll ever really be myself without you.” Later, his internal monologue reveals, “My love for Elliot would have to live on in my mind.” It seems as if J.D. has not fully moved on from his marriage, and he may never be able to. He still considers Elliot an important part of his identity, but appears to believe that keeping his feelings to himself is the best way to avoid hurting her and Ollie again. Will J.D. ever tell Elliot how he really feels?
“I don’t know what the writers have planned long term. I hope we get to have a chance to have a Season 3. I hope we get to explore more of that,” Chalke tells Collider. She also points out that J.D.’s decision to protect Elliot by keeping his feelings to himself could have the opposite effect if she ever discovered the truth. “If Elliot knew that he felt that way and that he was then saying that, that he was not going to tell her in order to protect her, that would only make her fall in love with him more.”
“My Story” was also an opportunity to explore another part of their relationship that has received less attention in the revival — their responsibilities as parents. J.D. and Elliot have been seen working together at the hospital, but Episode 7 gives audiences more insight into how they interact as co-parents. Chalke believes there is considerable scope to explore this further: “The young actor that they cast as our kid is fantastic and just can roll with all the twists and turns that happen on Scrubs all the time. If it’s last-minute changes or you get the script and the writers are there giving him, you know, alternate jokes, he just rolls with all of it.”
This season, Elliot also has a separate storyline developing around her professional ambitions. Her conversation with intern Dr. Tosh (Ava Bunn) encourages her to consider how she could make a greater contribution to healthcare. This leads to her plans for a mobile clinic, which would improve access to healthcare for women. Chalke believes this storyline reflects an experience that many women will recognize, particularly when balancing professional ambitions with raising children.
“I thought that storyline was so relatable for so many women who, you know, you have to put part of your life on hold while you’re raising your kids, and you’re trying to balance both. And that’s so hard so much of the time,” she explains. “She’s getting to a point where, okay, her son’s 11, she’s coming up for air. She’s like, ‘Oh, wait. I actually wanted to do more here and have more of an impact and knows that she can.'” When asked whether Elliot should put her romantic relationships to one side to concentrate on her career, Chalke suggests that her intentions might not necessarily determine how things develop. “I mean that’s her plan, but obviously in life the best laid plans, right?”
“My Story” is one of the strongest examples yet of how the Scrubs revival can draw on the original series’ storytelling strengths to develop its characters in new ways. The episode’s misdirection allows the writers to explore JD and Elliot’s divorce without relying on straightforward exposition, while Ms. Croft’s storyline provides that beloved connection between the hospital’s patients and the personal lives of its doctors.
It also leaves JD and Elliot’s relationship in an interesting position. Their reunion may have been imagined, but JD’s admission that he still loves Elliot gives audiences a reason to question whether their story is really over. And if the revival takes its time bringing them back together, all the better. That leaves room for more episodes, more stories at Sacred Heart, and hopefully a much longer run for the Scrubs revival.
New episodes of Scrubs air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, and stream the next day on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers in the U.S.
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