My Screw Up

Plot

Jordan and Dr. Cox are preparing to throw a party for their son Jack's first birthday. Dr. Cox advises J.D. not to attend the party because Jordan's sister Danni, with whom J.D. had recently broken up, is also coming. Also coming to the party is Jordan and Danni's brother Ben (Brendan Fraser), whose cancer has gone into remission; however he has failed to have routine screenings and Cox advises him to get checked out.

Meanwhile, Turk and Carla clash over removing a mole from Turk's face and Carla taking Turk as her last name after they marry, and one of Ted's band members quits. J.D. is taking care of an elderly man with an irregular heartbeat when Dr. Cox instructs him to run tests on Ben while Cox runs an errand. Twenty minutes later, J.D. is called to resuscitate a patient who has gone into cardiac arrest.

When Dr. Cox returns, J.D. hands him a chart and informs him that the patient died. Dr. Cox angrily blames J.D. and sends him home, despite Ben's efforts to convince Cox that it wasn't J.D.'s fault. Two days later, Cox has been at the hospital for sixty straight hours and it is apparent that Jordan is worried he won't show up for Jack's party later that day. Ben follows Cox around the hospital, apparently trying to convince him to go to his son's party. Meanwhile Turk agrees that Carla will keep her own last name and she finally decides that Turk shouldn't have to have his mole removed.

Ben finally gets Dr. Cox to leave the hospital to go to the party, as well as apologize to J.D. for blaming him for the patient's death, and on the way to the celebration tells him to forgive himself. J.D. arrives and asks Dr. Cox if he knows where he is, at which point Ben disappears. Cox and J.D. are shown to be walking into a cemetery where they are joined by Jordan, Danni, and many of the hospital staff. They are not at Jack's birthday party, but instead are attending Ben's funeral. In reality, Ben was the patient who died under J.D.'s watch. Cox, unable to accept the death of his friend, had been seeing Ben's spirit as if he were alive. The episode ends as a heartbroken Dr. Cox uncharacteristically allows those around to comfort him.

Homage to The Sixth Sense

In the special features on the Season 3 DVD, Bill Lawrence says that this episode is a homage to The Sixth Sense. The film, starring Bruce Willis, is famous for its twist ending, when it is revealed that Willis' character has been dead throughout the film. In the film, Willis interacts only with a boy who can "see dead people"; no other characters ever acknowledge Willis' presence. The film allows the audience to assume Willis is alive. Similarly, the audience in "My Screw Up" is led to believe that Ben is alive until the very end, even as close examination reveals that Dr. Cox is the only character who acknowledges him after the point in the episode when he dies. Ben says early in the episode that he will take his camera with him everywhere until the day he dies. After "the patient" dies, Ben doesn't have his camera for the rest of the episode.

Continuity

Footage from this episode was later re-used in "My Urologist," with Dr. Kim Briggs digitally worked into it (replacing Carla) to verify she was there for Ben's funeral.

Brendan Fraser was supposed to appear in "My Long Goodbye" as Ben, when Carla asked Dr. Cox if he had ever seen a ghost. However, Fraser couldn't appear because he was filming a movie. As such, Jill Tracy from "My Lunch" appears instead.

Ben had previously appeared in two Season 1 episodes: "My Occurrence" and "My Hero". It is in these two episodes that Ben was diagnosed with leukemia. In the former, J.D. himself goes through many events with Ben after he is informed Ben is clear of leukemia; however, there was a theory Ben never was rid of cancer and the scene declaring him cancer free was imagined. This was debunked in the very next episode when Dr. Cox declares they did rid the cancer, but was worried Ben had not had any checkups to make sure the cancer has not returned.

Reception