Scrubs: 5 Times We Felt Bad For J.D. (& 5 Times We Hated Him)

The characters of Scrubs have massively helped it become so beloved over the years, and central focus J.D. is a big part of that. Told through J.D.’s narration, eyes, and fantasies, the sitcom cannot be imagined without him. While he is generally a good guy though J.D. has a lot of issues.

Numerous times throughout the show’s nine seasons, fans are drawn to momentarily hate J.D. for whatever it is he has done, with those wrongdoings coming from his realistic flaws. Nevertheless, he is still the protagonist, and so inspires sympathy very often during the show also.

10 Felt Bad – When He Gets Overly Abused By Perry, Carla, & The Janitor

J.D. is the source of a lot of friendly and unfriendly harassment during his time at Sacred Heart, from three main sources.

Carla definitely the least so, but as the show goes on, she treats J.D. awfully. Dr. Cox’s mentorship is great for J.D. until he takes the abuse too far, and the Janitor is hilarious, but locking J.D. in a water tower, or abandoning him in the desert is too much.

9 Hated – When He Blames Spence

Ryan Reynolds guest stars as Spence, an old college friend of Turk and J.D.’s, and the two doctors end up blaming him for stuff that was not his fault.

The three got drunk when Turk and J.D. were on call, resulting in them getting sent home. They then blamed Spence, even though Spence points out he did not force them to, and that they had been looking for an excuse to blow off work. It is one of the few times fans do not side with J.D. and Turk.

8 Felt Bad – The Entire Kim Saga

Played by Elizabeth Banks, Kim Briggs seemed to be one of the only real challenges to Elliot’s status as J.D.’s perfect partner.

Then J.D. got her pregnant, she left for a new hospital and lied about having a miscarriage. When J.D. finds out, he initially struggles but goes on to support Kim, even being with her despite not loving her. Nonetheless, fans hate Kim.

7 Hated – When He Broke Carla’s Trust

Early in the show, J.D. tries to pry some secrets from Carla, realizing he does not know much about her.

Carla says she is insecure and scared people will think she is crazy if she opens up to them. When she does open up to J.D. it seems as though they have grown as friends, but J.D. had just turned around and told Turk everything, even calling her a can of crazy.

6 Felt Bad – When He Gets Used By Elliot

One of the most infuriating moments in all of Scrubs is when Elliot sleeps with J.D. and mere minutes later jumps into her boyfriend Sean’s arms after he returns from New Zealand.

On top of that, after this, Elliot flipped it all round to make J.D. feel guilty for Elliot cheating, telling him that she thought they were supposed to be friends. All this, coupled with the constant rubbing in of her relationships, made us feel awful for J.D.

5 Hated – When He Chooses Elliot Over Turk

When Turk and Elliot get into an argument because Turk is getting Elliot’s patients to switch off of her service to relieve some of her stress, J.D. ends up caught in the middle.

Rather than stick up for his best friend, J.D. sticks up for his sex buddy. When Turk questions why J.D. is not sticking up for the person he cares about most, he looks heartbroken when he realizes that is what J.D. is doing.

4 Felt Bad – When He Gets Kicked Out

Carla is a character that is really hard to deal with sometimes, and one of her worst moments is when she kicks J.D. out of the apartment.

This is annoying not only because it is not Carla’s apartment, but because it is J.D.’s, and J.D. invited Turk to live there, and J.D. allows Carla to live there. He is made homeless for no good reason.

3 Hated – When He Continues To Sleep With Neena Broderick

It is not just Carla and Turk who do bad things to J.D., and one of the worst things J.D. does ever is when he sleeps with Neena Broderick.

It is not even that he slept with the lawyer suing Turk, it got established that Turk did not mind, but what was an issue was when J.D. continued to sleep with her after he had asked him not to.

2 Felt Bad – When His Dad Dies

There are not a whole load of big deaths in Scrubs when you take away the patients, but in terms of J.D.’s life, the most significant death is unquestionably that of his father.

We do not see much of John Ritter’s portrayal of Sam Dorian, but we are still sad when he dies, and J.D. struggles to come to terms with, and be okay with it all.

1 Hated – When He Doesn’t Love Elliot

After months of pining over Elliot, and getting insanely jealous of Sean, J.D. manages to get Elliot, convincing her to leave her blossoming life with Sean, and be with him.

As soon as he gets her, though, he realizes he does not want her, and he does not love her, telling her as much when Carla and Turk’s rehearsal dinner came round.