My Fishbowl

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“My Fishbowl”
Scrubs episode
Episode no. Season 6
Episode 12
Written by Kevin Biegel
Directed by Chris Koch
Guest stars Michael Weston as Private Brian Dancer
Production no. 611
Original airdate March 8, 2007
Episode chronology
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"My Night to Remember" "My Scrubs"
List of Scrubs episodes

"My Fishbowl" is the 129th episode of the American situation comedy Scrubs. It aired as episode 12 of season 6 on March 8th, 2007.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The day has come for Private Brian Dancer to be released from Sacred Heart, but after a touching string of goodbyes with the staff, they find him unconscious. Finding a letter from the army informing him that his injuries are too severe to return to service, Elliot surmises that his sudden fit of illness was in fact a suicide attempt, and they want to convince Brian to confess to them that it wasn't an accidental overdose so they can keep him in the hospital. However, he reveals that he has overheard them all whispering while he pretended to be unconscious, and says he sees no reason why he should be honest with them when they are lying to each other.

This sparks a series of confessions from Carla, Turk and Elliot, with Carla admitting that she switched several pictures of Dr. Cox for more unflattering ones as a joke, and we see a revival of the issue touched on in 6.03 ("My Coffee"), that J.D. found Turk in bed with his college girlfriend, saying that they had a water balloon fight and huddled under the covers, with Turk finally admitting that he was lying. Finally, in a revelation that shocked her friends, Elliot admits that when she was 16 she attempted suicide by walking into a lake and trying to drown herself.

While everyone is in the room, the Janitor waits outside the room for J.D., holding a fish and fishbowl that J.D. received from another patient, waiting to harass him for "assuming [his] job is so unimportant" that he'd have time to hold that fish for J.D. He soon realizes the fish can talk, and appears to be the reincarnation of Dr. Kelso's squad leader in Vietnam. However, he is probably hallucinating, due to him 'losing a lot of blood fighting a hobo' for some pecan pie. The fishbowl is accidentally smashed when J.D. exits the room and knocks the bowl, currently resting on the floor, into a wall: the episode ends with the Janitor hurrying to save the fish.

Finally, Dr. Cox convinces Brian that even if he has nothing left to live for without his career, he owes it to the staff of Sacred Heart to keep trying, and allows him to be discharged after making him promise to talk to a therapist. Elliot catches him before he can leave and compares her suicide attempt to his. When he rejects this comparison, Elliot confesses that she was an "awkward, lonely outcast" as a child and that she still struggles with low self-esteem. As Brian leaves the hospital, he shares a kiss with Elliot, and promises that if she's ever single in the future, he'll look her up.

[edit] Continuity errors

  • Dr. Cox says to Brian Dancer that the staff has spent three weeks looking after him; however, in "My Therapeutic Month," more than a month of time elapsed.
  • Dr. Cox has a full head of hair after mysteriously shaving it in the last episode. However, this is the result of continuity problems, with Dr. Cox shaving his head in the episode "My Long Goodbye", three episodes later. This has occurred on Scrubs previously, when episodes have been shown out of order. e.g. "My Extra Mile" and "My Chopped Liver".

[edit] Mistakes

  • Dr. Kelso mentions having a squad leader who died in his arms in Vietnam, which would indicate that he served as a corpsman in a Marine Corps squad. Or that he's simply modified his way of explaining it after 30 years out of the service, which may seem a little more logical.
  • When Brian Dancer walks out of Sacred Heart, his name on his uniform says "Pvt. Dancer." The name patch on his uniform would only say "Dancer" with his rank being conveyed on another part of his uniform.
  • Throughout the episode, the door to Brian Dancer's room swings in, but it later opens in the opposite direction to break the fishbowl.

[edit] Continuity

  • Snoop Dogg Intern makes a return, although now he's Snoop Dogg Resident. His first speaking appearance was in Season 3, Episode 13: "My Porcelain God".

[edit] Featured music

  • "Half a World Away" by R.E.M.

[edit] External links

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