Thinking about how important the first two Ben episodes are because they set up two of my favorite parallels/mirror moment for Dr Cox and JD. The first one has most of it in JD’s fantasy as he struggles with the idea of telling Ben he has leukemia, hoping that maybe the tests were wrong. The thing that snaps him out of this fantasy is Dr Cox asking if he is holding the results. JD spending an episode in a fantasy isn’t strange. After all, one of the main parts of the shows comedy is JD getting lost in fantasies. But most of My Screw Up sees it being Dr Cox’s turn to spend it in a delusion. Dr Cox who makes fun of JD for getting lost in his head has a whole episode like that. And then JD is the one to pull HIM out of it. JD spends the whole show needing to be pulled back down, and for once he gets to do it for someone else, and it’s heartbreaking.
The second Ben episode sees Dr Cox avoid Ben for all it after the leukemia diagnosis. And JD confronts him and tells him he has to be there for his friend, and Dr Cox says he can’t distance himself from what’s happening and then later in the episode has a change of heart and sits in with Ben to help him get through it. In My Fallen Idol, JD can’t forgive Dr Cox and so avoids him. Every tells him to put aside his feelings to help a friend but he says he cant. And then later in the episode he has a change of heart and sits in with Dr Cox to help him get through it.
Janitor from Scrubs I think personally could be Jimmy’s brother solely because I thought Neil Flynn would’ve been a great recast for him (it’s fine he’s not the one voicing him btw Bugs Bunny voice actor hits hard) but also because I thought it’d be cute if Jimmy learned all his scheming tactics and business from the man who is one of the most diabolical people in sitcom history.
*writes a 100 page essay on the parallel between the last moments of the first Ben episode and the last moments of the last Ben episode and uses it for JDox propaganda*