Season 10 of Scrubs might have just hinted at how the reboot is not done with JD and Elliot at all. That season 1 flashback we got? It was certainly not nostalgia baiting as it came in right during the exact scene when JD tried to move on after the divorce and realized that there were no feelings whatsoever with someone new.
That makes the meaning pretty clear, does it not? The reboot is using an old memory to reopen memories, and we’re left asking the question: What could this mean for Elliot and JD now?
Episode 5 points towards their story, one thing which is Elliot and JD’s story is still active, and the show wants us to know about it.
That pizza-box flashback was really about JD realizing he is nowhere near over Elliot
The pizza-box flashback is not only here to remind us about Scrubs from the past. It is shown to us right when JD is trying to get back into dating after his divorce. He meets Lily, a harp player in the hospital lobby, talks himself into the idea that this could be a normal next step, and ends up at her apartment.
On paper, this should prove he is ready to move on, right? Anyone would rightfully assume so.
Instead, he isn’t.
The pizza box on Lily’s bed takes JD right back to a memory of Elliot (from season 1), when the two of them first got together physically.
JD does not just remember Elliot, but remembers the feeling, and with Lily? That feeling is missing, which is the entire point of the flashback.
So what might this mean going forward? It suggests that Scrubs is telling us straight up that JD’s divorce is not just a plot update and that he is still stuck in what Elliot has meant to him.
Elliot’s side of Scrubs Season 10 Episode 5 makes the flashback mean even more for the reboot story
What makes the flashback even stronger is that Elliot is on a similar track in the same episode. She admits she is not excited by the idea of dating again, and she, too, sounds exhausted by the idea of starting over.
This only suggests that they both feel the same way, but neither is willing to talk to the other about it.
Then the episode shifts again. Elliot seems to soften when she meets the organ transplant pilot and walks off with him to get coffee. At the same time, JD watches her leave with another man, and his face says everything.
That is probably what the Scrubs Season 1 flashback really means for the reboot. The show already revealed that their marriage is over, but episode 5 goes further and shows that the anxiety between the two is not over at all.
If Scrubs keeps following this storyline, JD and Elliot may not be heading toward a simple meetup anytime soon. But the flashback reiterates the idea that the reboot clearly sees their unfinished feelings as a major part of the story again.
Scrubs Season 10 did not include this flashback just to serve as a cute callback. JD cannot fake being ready, and Elliot is clearly not as settled as she wants to seem, either.
That does not confirm they are getting back together tomorrow, but it does tell us where their story might be heading next, and if episode 5 is any sign, the reboot does want to revisit that relationship once again with proper time and space, while not just rushing past it.
Stay tuned to Soap Central for more updates.
Edited by Priscillah Mueni