I have to admit that I've had a little trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year. I have had to make myself go through my normally much-anticipated rituals, and I haven't even watched some of my very favorite Christmas specials. So, tonight I'm watching an episode about people who are having trouble getting into the spirit, which is what JD opens this first-season episode telling us. Spending all your time in the hospital, including Christmas Eve, kind of puts a damper on holiday festivities. So he's coping with inappropriate bikini fantasies. Of course.
Elliot is working in the free clinic, where Dr. Kelso is being mean and sexist, because that's what he does. Oh, and she has a 19-year-old patient with abdominal pain who turns out to be eight months pregnant and didn't know it. This is only mentioned in dialogue, but it will become important.
JD has an amusing fantasy about being able to fix a patient like the Fonz fixes the jukebox, and then his patient actually does wake up and surprise everyone, which Turk proclaims a miracle. Turk is portrayed as very religious in this episode (not Conservative or obnoxious about it, just very devoted to his faith), and I can't think of a single other episode where that was the case. Maybe it's just not something he talks about except at Christmas time. He tries to get JD and Carla into the spirit by pointing out a bright star in the distance and comparing it to the star of Bethlehem. JD is like, yeah, whatever, that's the Christmas tree in the park. Because symbolism means nothing to him.
Elliot's patient is rhapsodizing about the very tree that the others were just looking at when Elliot drops the pregnancy bombshell. Then, because she wants to prove Kelso was wrong when he said she would eventually turn to a "female specialty," she ditches the patient. Whose name is Meredith, which is my middle name.
In the cafeteria, Turk is wearing antlers and a Rudolph nose and still trying to rally the troops. Laverne, who will later become the show's token outspoken Christian, is as despondent as everyone else. Turk wants JD and Carla to go to Christmas mass with him between night shift and morning shift. Wow, that is dedication. JD is whining about not wanting to go to mass and knocks over a Christmas tree. Yeah... one guess which character is not at all happy about that.
JD is videotaping a birth, but that doesn't have much to do with anything...
Elliot's patient took off; that's not the least bit surprising.
While Turk is trying to sleep in the on call room, we get a little song about what goes on in the hospital on Christmas Eve:
Twelve beaten children
Eleven drive-by shootings
Ten frozen homeless
Nine amputations
Eight burn victims
Seven strangled shoppers
Six random knifings
Five suicides
Four beaten wives
Three O.D.'s
Two shattered skulls
And a drunk who drove into a tree
I think that's kind of the textbook definition of crossing the line from funny into NOT EVEN FUNNY.
By the time the night's over, Turk's spirit has been beaten out of him. He calls off the plans for mass and declares he's NEVER going back. Elliot is trying to track down the pregnant girl, even though it's her day off, but she's not having any luck. And Dr. Kelso is making fun of her. What an ass.
Carla takes Turk up to the rooftop at dusk to try and lift his spirits, but it doesn't work. Just after we see Elliot tell JD that she reached a 911 operator who got a call from a girl in labor but then lost the signal, we're back on the roof, where it's now night time, with Turk, who is sadly playing with his cross necklace when he looks up and sees the star in the park. Something unseen moves him to action. He runs all the way to the tree in the park, where sure enough, Meredith is in labor, alone and scared. They skip over the delivery, so next thing we see is the whole gang surrounding her and her newborn, as well as EMTS. Carla asks Turk how he knew Meredith was there, and he doesn't know how he knew-- he just knew. JD's voiceover states that Turk was right all along, and miracles do happen if you're willing to look for them. He has a weird little moment of imagining all the people there as a nativity scene. We don't see where Meredith and her baby go, as after the fantasy, it's just the four main characters gazing up at the tree. JD earnestly says, "God bless us, every one." And they all call him a big dork, which I guess he deserves. I love him though- except for the inappropriate bikini fantasies.
Visuals: 2 out of 5
Spirit: 3 out of 5
Nostalgia: 1 out of 5
Humor: 4 out of 5
Music: 1 out of 5
Overall: 3.5 out of 5
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