When we last left the group, J.D. (Zach Braff) was playing part-time Dad to his son; Elliot (Sarah Chalke) had called off her marriage and Kelso (Ken Jenkins) has been forced into retirement. This last bit means that Sacred Heart is in need of a new Chief of Medicine, and while the season starts off with Courteney Cox replacing Bob as Dr. Taylor Maddox, the crew soon finds that she may be even worse than Kelso was. Of course, just because Kelso is retired, that doesn't keep him from being in the show. Now he spends his days in the hospital's coffee shop. As long-time-watchers of the show would expect, the mutual lack of significant others for J.D. and Elliot means that they are inevitably getting back together (yet again), and once Courteney Cox is out of the picture, Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) decides to apply for the position and ends up realizing that most of his days will put him behind a desk instead of teaching and treating. But as an odd side effect of his new position, Cox and Kelso become friends (at first as secret friends, but that secret doesn't stay hidden long). Turk (Donald Faison) and Carla's (Judy Reyes) relationship continues forward as Carla announces she is pregnant with their second child this season, but when Turk finds that no one seems to get excited about a second kid, he gets a bit bummed out.
Most of this season is filled with Scrubs' normal hospital sit-com scenarios. I especially enjoyed "My ABC's" where J.D.'s day-dreaming in infused with various Sesame Street characters like Oscar the Grouch and Elmo. One of the major themes this season is the new round of interns which introduces a bit of new personality into the series, and, unlike most previous groups of students, these characters are actually developed quite a bit (they even get a "Their Story" episode of their own). This has led a lot of fans into believing that the new seasons of the show will focus on them. These new interns include the tomboy Denise (Eliza Coupe), the girly-girl Katie (Betsy Beutler), the way too happy Sunny Day (Sonal Shah), Howie (Todd Bosley), and the new surgical intern, Derek (Lee Thompson Young). Each one becomes a fairly unique character, and not just some carbon copy, younger versions of the show's current cast ... which is really nice if the show will continue on with them as the focus.
A lot more happens this season besides these few tidbits. Along with Cox's promotion, J.D. takes on Cox's old role of badgering and annoying the Chief of Medicine to get him to do the right thing, even though budget and board are working against him. Turk ends up becoming Chief of Surgery, The Janitor (Neil Flynn) marries Lady (Kit Pongetto) and Ted (Sam Lloyd) even finds a girl in the ukulele-playing Stephanie Gooch (Kate Micucci). But it all leads up to the season's final episodes in what feels much more like a series finale than a way to end a season, but I don't want to ruin anything. It was actually one of the best finales I've seen in a while.
Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season also comes with the standard assortment of bloopers, deleted scenes and alternate lines that the past seasons have been released with, but it also comes packaged with the coinciding webisodes, Scrubs: Interns which develops the new characters even more. There is also a segment on the filming for The Janitor's wedding in the Bahamas.
As a final season for many of the main characters of the show, Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season does a good job of wrapping things up. It allows the show to go in a few different directions, and also acts as a good breaking point for fans of the series if they end up not liking where it goes from here. While many episodes don't require a whole lot of background knowledge of the characters, there are too many callbacks and references this late in the series to even think most people could hop into the series in its eighth season.
Clips
Got Tension?New Chief
My Intern Class
Made It Happen
Bahamas
Working In Paradise
Janitor
