My Butterfly

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“My Butterfly”
Scrubs episode
Image:My Butterfly.jpg JD, Turk and Carla notice a butterfly (off-screen)
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 16
Guest stars	Martin Klebba (Randall Winston) Charles Chun (Dr. Wen) Robert Maschio (Todd) Aloma Wright (Nurse Laverne Roberts) Frank Encarnacao (Dr. Mickhead) Donald Sage MacKay (Doctor) Zaid Farid (Mr. Strauss) Lily Goff (Gaby) Renee Ryan (Mrs. Janitor) Brandon Waters (Young Janitor)
Written by	Justin Spitzer
Directed by	Henry Chan
Production no.	312
Original airdate	March 16, 2004
Episode chronology
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"My Tormented Mentor"	"My Moment of Un-Truth"
List of Scrubs episodes

My Butterfly is the 62nd episode of the American sitcom Scrubs. It originally aired as Episode 16 of Season 3 on March 16, 2004.

The episode demonstrates how even the smallest changes can alter the flow of fate (the butterfly effect, named after the butterfly in Bradbury's short story "A Sound of Thunder").

1 Episode overview
- 1.1 Story A
- 1.2 Story B
2 Featured music
3 External links

[edit] Episode overview

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

J.D. notices how each of the surgeons has a lucky charm to start his day; this month, Turk's charm is a Tabasco do-rag which, to his dismay, he now cannot find. Elliot promises a young girl that, contrary to what Carla said, the girl can bring her pink stuffed doggy into surgery; she then learns Carla said that because the doggy went missing two days ago. J.D. and Turk meet in the lobby, where a butterfly is flying through the air ...

[edit] Story A

... and lands on the cleavage of a beautiful young woman. Turk and J.D. admire the view, with Carla criticizing them for peering at the girl's breasts. J.D. is so taken with the sight that he runs into Laverne, causing the fruit smoothies she is bringing in to splatter to the floor. Because the Janitor is busy with cleaning up the smoothies, he can't accommodate Elliot's request for help in finding the girl's stuffed doggy, and J.D. finds that he beats Dr. Cox to rounds. As a result, Dr. Kelso decides to make Cox answer to J.D. all day. Tossing the pen at him, J.D. misses, explaining he's a lefty. Cox actually agrees to the experiment.

Carla comes in and complains to Turk about him asking her to go home and find the missing do-rag. Kelso complains that Carla has not punched out; Turk defends her by pointing out Kelso had taken an ambulance to his dinner reservation last night (which he knew because he was the "homeboy" who Kelso screamed at to get his "ghetto mobile" off the road). Carla yells at him for not allowing her to defend herself. Turk apologizes. Carla heads home, and finds a half-eaten Snickers in the folds of the couch. She is about to eat it when Elliot calls, asking if Carla come back to help find the girl's stuffed doggy. Carla returns to the hospital, running past Rowdy (the stuffed dog), who had been left in the bathroom, and who is wearing the do-rag on his head.

J.D. and Cox are treating a patient who is complaining of pain after eating sushi purchased from a gas station. J.D. believes it to be a gastrointestinal bleed, Cox angina. Cox, being in the lesser position, preaches that the "one thing" J.D. needs to remember is that medicine is a collaborative effort, telling him that J.D.'s opinion is just as important as him. "Be me," he encourages, and J.D. does just that, launching into a pitch-perfect impression of Dr. Cox, insisting on a full workup (failing only at the exiting shoulder bump, which ends up knocking J.D. to the floor).

J.D. and Elliot run into each other, and enter the Janitor's custodial closet, which out to be full of numerous uniformed custodial staff that tell them both, "You're not welcome here," and swiftly kick them out.

In the pantry, Turk asks Carla if she remembered the do-rag, and learns she forgot it at home. J.D. enters the sushi-eating patient's room only to learn his vitals are abruptly dropping. J.D. decides on a CT angiogram, revealing the patient is suffering from an aortic dissection. He and Cox rush the patient into surgery (with Turk heavily assisting Dr. Wen), but he dies on the table. The young girl is wheeled into surgery without her stuffed animal. Alone in the cafeteria, Cox tells J.D. that aortic dissections, if not caught early, suffer from a 90% mortality rate. "Newbie," he says, "we didn't have a chance on this one."

Seeing the butterfly land on the glass next to him, we hear J.D. think in voiceover that he doesn't believe in fate, and believes that every reaction has an opposite reaction. As he talks, we see events rewind to that scene in the lobby, where the butterfly is hovering in the air ...

[edit] Story B

... and lands on the fatty cleavage of a very portly man with cleavage exposed at the top of his wifebeater T-shirt. Turk and J.D. are revulsed at the view, with Carla calling Turk "whipped" for focusing on the portly man's cleavage while ignoring the breasts of the girl sitting next to him. The timing of the encounter is thrown off enough that J.D. does not run into Laverne and her smoothies, meaning the Janitor is free to agree to Elliot's request for help in finding the girl's stuffed doggy. J.D. tells the Janitor that he wishes the Janitor would be half as friendly, and the Janitor promptly engages J.D. in a handshake for a "fresh start" ... and doesn't let him go for the next ten minutes. As a result, J.D. does not beat Dr. Cox to rounds, and Cox retains control over J.D. for the day. When Kelso tosses J.D.'s pen at him, J.D. misses, explaining he's a righty.

Carla comes in and complains to Turk about him asking her to go home and find the missing do-rag. Kelso complains that Carla has not punched out; this time, Turk does not defend her, in response to the "whipped" comment, and this time, Carla yells at him for not defending her. Turk apologizes. Carla heads home, and finds a half-eaten Snickers in the folds of the couch. Since Elliot is being helped by the Janitor, she does not call Carla to interrupt, and Carla eats a bite of the Snickers; it evidently tastes so disgusting that she rushes to the sink to spit it out, and sees the do-rag on Rowdy, taking it and running it back to the hospital.

We see J.D. and Cox treating the patient once more. J.D. tells Cox that he believes it to be a gastrointestinal bleed, Cox in response preaches that the "one thing" J.D. needs to remember is that he is in charge and doesn't care about J.D.'s opinion. He instructs J.D. to go get him a cup of coffee; in the elevator, J.D. hears doctors talking about a patient with similar symptoms who had ischemic bowel. J.D. thinks that the sushi-eating patient may have ischemic bowel, and rushes back to Cox, sans coffee.

The Janitor and Elliot enter the custodial closet, where the Janitor retrieves the missing pink stuffed doggy from a lost-and-found box marked "Free Stuff."

In the pantry, Turk approaches Carla, who turns around and holds up the do-rag. J.D. suggests a CT scan because of ischemic bowel; Cox agrees, and they discover the aortic dissection early on. They (less urgently) wheel the patient into surgery (with Turk again heavily assisting Dr. Wen). The young girl is wheeled into surgery with her stuffed animal ... but the sushi-eating patient still dies on the table.

Alone in the cafeteria, Cox tells J.D., "It doesn't matter when we caught it, newbie; it was just his time."

Seeing the butterfly land on the glass next to him, J.D. wonders how things might have gone differently ...