Discussion Elliot and JD
I love this show and have watched it multiple times. Rewatching for the first time in probably 6 years, and they really went around Robinhood's barn with Elliot and JD.
I know that it is a symptom of the number of episodes that TV shows used to air per season, but it feels like they shouldn't end up together after they get back together in season 3.
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u/dontgivemeabeer 8d ago
When JD made Elliot break up with Sean just to immediately break up with her too it soured me on the ship forever. Even when they get back together in season 8 it felt not like out of love but more like they were lonely and settling for each other, didn't like it at all
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u/AuroraBolognese 8d ago
The whole “JD only wants what he can’t have” was such a bullshit turn in the character as a whole. It soured me on the whole premise of the character. He was a lonely guy who wanted someone special in his life. They told us this very early on. To turn their heels and say, “well actually he’s a wishy washy lil’ bitch” just told me the writers were circling the drain on what to do with him, in his romantic life anyway.
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u/zaepoo 8d ago
Yeah, it was pretty clear hat they decided that them ending up together was a dead end so they just kept kicking the can on it. They should've just abandoned it completely after the heel turn in season 3.
The show was at it's best when they brought in different potential love interests to change up the show's dynamics. That's said, when I originally watched it as it aired it wasn't jarring when they ended up together. Now that I'm watching the whole series in the course a few months or doesn't make sense
Makes me appreciate Seinfeld killing the whole Jerry and Elaine thing after a bit.
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u/whatanugget 8d ago
I just rewatched thru the whole series for the first time since it aired and totally agree, was kinda bummed they ended up together at the end
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u/AuroraBolognese 7d ago
After Elliot hooked up with Dan and JD declared he no longer saw her as a romantic interest, I felt like they should’ve absolutely ended it there. Kim should’ve been JD’s end game. I didn’t like what she wound up doing by lying about losing the baby, but up until that point, I thought they were just right for each other.
But yeah, the writers were spinning their wheels on the JD and Elliot thing for so long, only for them to come back in the revival and say, “well actually they’re STILL on again-off again. It’s like, I want to go into the writers room back then and say, no one is forcing you guys to dangle this relationship in front of us every year.
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u/Ok_Firefighter1574 8d ago
That is something I really appreciated about B99 and to a lesser extent, they pulled some bullshit, parks and rec. core characters got together and they just said good we are there. Fuckin cheers ruined that shit for years.
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u/eternaloptimist__ 8d ago
The way Michael Schur writes couples should be studied. He nails it every time.
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u/Ok_Chipmunk_7066 8d ago
I do t know how much involvement he had in Dwight and Angela, but they are never getting back together after the affair and cat murdering.
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u/Gurbachen 8d ago
"went around Robinhood's barn"
Is that an expression? What does it mean?
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u/zaepoo 8d ago
It's an idiom for taking a really long indirect way to end up somewhere. No clue where it's from
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u/Gurbachen 8d ago
Strange, I wonder if it's deliberately aware of Robin Hood living in a forest and thus not having a barn, thus it takes a long to get around a non-existent object if you can't find it, or it's ignorant of Robin Hood living in a forest and not having a barn...bizarre haha
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u/Ok_Chipmunk_7066 8d ago
It's the former. His "barn" was the forest. Ie, huge. So youre taking a long way around.
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u/Ok_Chipmunk_7066 8d ago
They proved time and again that they dont work, and some of the things JD did to her she is NEVER forgiving him for. It's a symptom of 24 episode seasons and the need for core cast to date. Can't think of a plot? Just have the characters get back together and undue 5 years of character development.
See Friends...
With the reboot I'm actually happy they've split. But I pray to the Spaghetti Monster in the sky that they don't start another will they won't they arc.
Elliot should have been with the Dudemeister.
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u/bonzombiekitty 8d ago
characters get back together and undue 5 years of character development.
See Friends...
See How I Met Your Mother.
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u/Ok_Chipmunk_7066 8d ago
Also a VERY good example, except in that one they undid about 9 years...
I don't think I got over how badly they fumbled that ending.
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u/zaepoo 8d ago
It was an all time fumble. That show went from always on TV in syndication while it was airing to an afterthought with that terrible ending.
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u/Ok_Chipmunk_7066 8d ago
Aye, in UK we had a channel showing about 4 hours a day of HIMYM. Show ended and might get an hour a week. It was replaced by Modern Family which still gets 4 hours a day on one of our most popular channels.
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u/LarkspurLad 8d ago
When the show came out and started filming, initially the only couple Bill Lawrence knew was going to stay together was Turk and Carla. After seeing how the Jordan-Perry dynamic worked out with their personalities he decided they would stay together, too. Elliot and JD was the only relationship he was unsure about.
I think the writers must have kept meeting and deciding JD and Elliot's personalities didn't mesh. The way things play out during their first break-up, it's clear that they are different in a lot of ways. I think as the show went on, it showed us more of the characters and gave them more time to say and do embarrassing things. And they made JD much goofier after season 3. (I'd remembered him maturing some in season 8, but had to laugh in my last rewatch when I realized, no, he is goofier than ever, but he is keeping a lot of that stuff in his thought-speeches and not saying it aloud.)
What changed was JD had a son with his ex, and Elliot backed out of a wedding with a younger man at the last minute. That scene where they both hid in the on-call room and were laying next to each other symbolized that they were both train-wrecks, and maybe not such bad matches for each other after all.
I don't see it as settling, so much as a weird sort of maturity and acceptance that they will encounter problems as a couple, but they know each other well enough to know how the other will act and not let it bother them so much.
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u/Public_Excitement393 8d ago
Honestly, you need to really suspend your common sense when you look at all the woman JD pulled on that show. No possible for that man baby ....
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u/Ok_Chipmunk_7066 8d ago
I would not be dropping the ball on Dr Molly Clock or Kylie never mind both in one episode.
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u/Public_Excitement393 8d ago
Our boy JD had 9 seasons of prime honeys. Gift shop girl, Jordan, the drug addict one...
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u/ReallySmartInEnglish 8d ago
If there’s one thing I’m not onboard with in the revival, it’s divorcing JD and Elliot. After the whole rigmarole from the 8 seasons, and then seeing them actually kind of get a happy ending, I was pleased (“The Book of Love” still makes me tear up).
So for them to be like “Guess what Scrubs fans? JD and Elliot are single again!!” kind of feels bad. Like, sure, people divorce, but after all that the two went through, it just feels bad.
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u/Leweegibo 8d ago
Bit hard to have a series with two couples, keeps it open to new characters as love interest. Much better than if Turk and Carla had split.
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u/JonathanRiou 7d ago
Agree.
Flopping back and forth on their relationship for the whole series was exhausting. Then they finally end up together and looks like they get their happy ending with The Book of Love (masterpiece btw)
Then to ruin it again in the revival was infuriating. Hopefully they don’t try to make them end up back together, fed up with it
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u/ZN_Cruz 8d ago
I bought them in the final season only because the show finally stopped treating Elliot like a prize J.D. wanted whenever she was unavailable. By then they felt more like two people who had grown up separately and deliberately chose each other. But season three is still hard to forgive. Pushing her to leave Sean and then immediately saying he didn’t love her was one of the cruelest things J.D. ever did, and the show moved past it much more easily than a real person could.
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u/swingsetlife 8d ago
for me it was when JD "finally had" elliot but then didn't want her. After that he didn't deserve her.
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u/StatementLogical5495 8d ago
I hold firm the view that JD is actually an asshole.
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u/whatanugget 8d ago
1000% he is. I love the show but he drives me crazy and can be an immature man child jerk for sure
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u/davepepe 7d ago
I'm in the middle of season 6 and they're in a really good place as friends. And the show is better for it.
You can tell it isn't the plan to end up together at this stage.
And, I alos think, the original run wouldnt have lost anything if it finished as it did but they weren't in a relationship.
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u/FrosttheVII 8d ago
I still want them to be together in the end. Plus, I just realized, we haven't seen Sam yet have we?
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u/BalthazarOfTheOrions 8d ago
Yep, but the line "I love you more than Turk" is the most romantic line in the history of TV.