15 Best Scrubs Episodes
7. My Old Lady (Season 1, Episode 4)
"I'm ready to go."
Though Scrubs' pilot, My First Day, is one of the first season's true stand-outs, and one of the best TV show pilots of the decade, it's not until My Old Lady that the show was able to fully balance the comedy and the drama and let audiences know exactly what they're getting themselves into. With the episode, the writers proved the show would be funny as hell, but also real and tragic.
The episode sees JD form a bond with an elderly patient called Mrs Tanner, who says she is ready to die and is happy with the way she lived her life. Turk performs surgery on a hernia patient with whom he formed an attachment. And Elliot treats a Spanish woman with the help of Carla.
In the end, all three patients die despite the doctors' best efforts, giving them each their first experience with death as doctors in Sacred Heart. It's an important moment for each of their stories, and shows off just how affecting was willing to be despite the silly jokes and oddly funny daydreams.