#Ben Sulliven

[swozor]

Scrubs, Death, and Grief: An Essay.

Scrubs is a sitcom about a group of doctors and nurses in their progression through a hospital career. In this essay, I will examine the representation of death and grief in the show, focusing on the death of Ben Sullivan and the consequences of his passing.

While working in the hospital, death is a frequent thing for our cast of characters to encounter. However, we only see the casts more clinical approach to death and patients dying in their care- at least until Ben died in season 3, in the episode My Screw Up. Ben is Jordan's brother and is Dr. Cox's brother-in-law and best friend. Ben had come back into their lives to visit for Jordan and Perry's sons first birthday. He had appeared previously 2 years prior and was diagnosed with Leukaemia by J.D. It is then revealed that he has not sought treatment since he went into Remission.

After this, the situation in the hospital returns to how we usually see it in other episodes- generic and clinically cut off. And then a patient dies just after Dr Cox left J.D in charge- a situation that has happened a few times before in the show- and Perry seems to completely snap and focus all of his anger and rage at J.D. He even goes so far as to steal his patients. This is shown over the course of a few days. We see Dr. Cox in the hospital, trying to control all of his patients as well as J.D's, all while he is becoming more erratic, more stressed, more extreme. During all of this, Ben is seen to be with Dr. Cox providing tension breaking humour with his weird antics and also trying to convince Dr. Cox to go to his sons birthday party and to forgive J.D, creating a very subtle and effective switch of mood.

Eventually, on the day of Dr Cox's sons birthday arrives and asks Ben a question, only for J.D to cut in. Cox looks to J.D and then Ben, only to see no Ben. We see Dr. Cox completely deflate before the camera angle shifts and we see Dr. Cox and J.D walking through a graveyard towards a funeral- Ben's. It is suddenly revealed that Dr. Cox's uncharacteristic breakdown and rage was because the patient that died was Ben, not the generic old patient that it was implied to have been.

The episode very cleverly disguises its big reveal that Ben is dead, but after revealing this fact the entire episode makes more sense- from Dr Cox's uncharacteristically high level of anger to his extreme devotion to helping patients and punishing J.D. This is the struggles of a man who has lost his best friend and can't handle it, can't face the truth. It is the moment we see what happens when the cast have their personal lives and work lives put together and they aren't used to having to be so involved and attached to their patients.

The whole episode changes to reveal a broken man drowning in his grief, while lashing out at the people trying to help him. We see more of Dr. Cox's psyche in how he deals with the death. Imaging Ben's ghost trying to cheer him up and also trying to persuade him to accept the truth and forgive J.D who was not to blame at all. The episode ends with the funeral, in which we finally see Dr. Cox let down his guard and allow himself to be vulnerable with those around him- allowing both J.D and Jordan to physically comfort him- showing he has support from both his personal life and work life.

In the next two episodes, we see Dr. Cox trying to return to his normal life after Ben's death. However, we see that he still does not fully forgive J.D for what happened, but also that J.D does not forgive himself either. Most of the cast, including Jordan, are seen to have moved on and be returning to normality. Jordan seems to be taking her brothers death very well, and is enjoying hanging out with her friends who arrived for the funeral. Meanwhile, J.D follows Dr. Cox around and tries to coax him into opening up about his feelings regarding Ben, trying to get him to continue with his pain and recovery. It is finally revealed that Dr. Cox has been struggling with Ben's death, and it is being made worse by Jordan's friends being around so long after the funeral. After a confrontation with J.D, the friends reveal that they are staying around for Jordan and to ensure she is okay. It is when Dr. Cox finds out about this that he realises he is not the only one struggling and impacted by Ben's death. He returns home to Jordan, who is sitting in the dark without her friends in silence. She and Cox speak and comfort each other, finally acknowledging Ben's passing. This is where the episode allows Dr. Cox to see that, while Jordan has been comforting him, she has been needing him to comfort her too. It is revealed he has reverted back into himself and cutting himself off, but realising he doesn't need to do that. He has people near him and he can be there for them too.

In the final part of the act, we see a situation follow in which another generic patient under J.D's care dies. Being right after Ben's death, J.D is shaken by the event and is comforted and saved by Dr. Cox when he tells J.D that the patient would have died no matter what treatment they did and only extremely unlikely luck would have allowed them to save him. However, J.D fails to believe this, still seeing himself as guilty for both Ben, and Mr Strauss' deaths. He envisions how everything could be different if one tiny thing changed. We now see a situation play out in which everything goes completely correct for everyone, from small decisions and conflicts to larger complications. However, Mr Strauss still dies, despite all the “problems” leading to his death are averted. In this ending, Dr. Cox gives J.D the same speech and comfort, showing that sometimes these things just happen and nobody can do anything about it. He manages to convince J.D of this, at the same time adding on that sometimes people just have a time to go. This is the moment in which we finally see the three episode arc come to a close, and J.D and Dr. Cox fixing their relationship.

This is a deliberate mirror of the situation with Ben, except Dr. Cox has now realised how it could so easily happen and J.D is the one who is struggling with two deaths on his watch. It allows Dr. Cox to look back on his own actions and realise how badly he messed up J.D's confidence with patients and has made him feel so guilty, and finally help guide him away from that state of mind. Dr. Cox shows he has no blame aimed at J.D any more.

In My Screw Up, the episode focuses on the reactions of Doctor Cox right after Ben dies, but specifically while under their care. Doctor Cox is destroyed by the fact that he couldn't save his best friend. And he focuses that rage onto JD, insisting that it is his fault and that Dr Cox could never have made a mistake, it's not his fault at all. It is about Doctor Cox's denial of the truth and denying himself the chance to make his peace and say goodbye until he has no other choice at all. The following two episodes continue to progress this story and character development in showing how the different characters all come together to help each other while trying to deal with situations in their own way too and eventually, everyone being able to move on.

These three episodes take a very drastic change of pace and tone to what is normally seen in the show. It allows the episode to become more serious and show a very hard situation for the cast, while also making it seem like any other day in the hospital.

This is the first time we see Dr. Cox be so vulnerable and defeated. The first time we see him generally blame J.D for something. Death, and especially death of close friends and family, is a very serious topic which the show took a great approach to lowering the comedy and seeing the breakdown of Dr. Cox and how the death of a close friend can cause people to damage their relationships out of grief.

The humour is mostly provided from Dr. Cox's imaginary ghost of Ben in the first part, which is fitting as it is how Dr. Cox is trying to deal with the situation and convince himself that everything is fine and normal. Meanwhile, we see the other characters being more sombre and serious, dealing with hard situations made more emotional by the death.

From there on out, we see the humour from most characters as we normally would, except J.D and Dr. Cox's humour with each other is framed as being immature and childish- subtly showing that Dr. Cox still blames J.D a small amount until the end, when he realises he needs to come back into the world again and be there for people.

In the final act, the humour has mostly returned to normal for all characters. While there is still the sombre overtones of the previous two episodes, it is a lot more watered down, showing the progession of events and time for everyone. The humour returns to normal between everyone, with Dr. Cox giving J.D reassuring advice and comfort, taking the characters in reverse of the ending of part one but also taking them back to their old routine and their old closeness, allowing the relationship to continue between them.

In conclusion, this three part story arc is a very tonally different arc to what the show has given before, and while the show has dealt with death, illnesses and such before and after this, this is the first time the show has gotten so deep and real, showing as very truthful and honest response to losing someone close to you. It is a defining and emotional arc, which destroys the emotional barriers of everyone effected.