My Brother, My Keeper

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“My Brother, My Keeper”
Scrubs episode
Image:My Brother, My Keeper.jpg
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 14
Guest stars	Dick Van Dyke (Dr. Townshend) D.L. Hughley (Kevin Turk) Robert Beckwith (Roy) Julie Hudson (Dr. Gerson) Paul F. Perry (Randall)
Written by	Eric Weinberg
Directed by	Michael Spiller
Production no.	S137
Original airdate	January 23, 2003
Episode chronology
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"My Philosophy"	"His Story"
List of Scrubs episodes

My Brother, My Keeper is the 38th episode of the American sitcom Scrubs. It originally aired as Episode 14 of Season 2 on January 23, 2003.

[edit] Episode overview

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Turk has asked Carla to marry him, but she is undecided about whether or not he is mature enough, so goes home to Chicago for five days. Meanwhile, Turk is joined by his brother Kevin, a highly successful businessman who made Turk's entry into the medical profession financially possible. Kevin is there due to wanting to see his brother and also because his marriage has just broken down.

J.D. meanwhile is on rotation with a close friend of Dr. Kelso's, Dr. Townshend, who is regarded as the "Anti-Kelso". This is because he is pleasant, friendly, has a much more relaxed work ethic than Kelso, and has good relations with everybody in the hospital, from the doctors to the nurses to the attendings, even including the Janitor and Kelso himself. After J.D. moves the Janitor's ladder away from the door, causing him to fall off the roof revenge is sought but Townshend's words ensure he and his group genuinely act in his best interest.

Problems emerge however when a patient is seriously injured due to Townshend forcing J.D. to carry out an obsolete and unsafe procedure which he has not been taught properly (having learned the newer, safter technique instead). Townshend willingly claims the mistake was his own, but J.D. nonetheless feels compelled to inform Kelso that the mistake was his own, indicating why. Subsequently Kelso audits Townshend's patients and discovers that none are being treated with modern, up-to-date treatments. Confronting him about this, he learns to his horror that Townshend does not consider himself able to keep up with new developments in medicine, but Kelso is unwilling to accept this as an excuse, citing the fact that he himself spends every other weekend at a seminar for precisely that purpose. Reluctantly, Kelso is forced to dismiss his close friend. While not angry at J.D. about this, he informs him calmly that if he is still in the room when he turns around (J.D. is witnessing, along with Kelso, the removal of Townshend's name from the roster) then he too will be dismissed. His friend fired, the Janitor and his group, rather than protecting J.D.'s car, leave it upside down in the carpark.

Turk's relations with his brother sour as he invades the hospital, disrupting surgery. He also aggravates Carla when the latter returns having still not made up her mind. Eventually the two talk openly, and Kevin reveals a previously hidden fact - his wife left him, and his non-reaction to the divorce and hyperactive mood were denial. Taking him out to get drunk in comiseration, Turk himself ends up considerably more inebriated, and brought home by Kevin and a Good Samaritan bar patron. Carla is awake in the living room at the time, and leaves disgusted at the sight of Turk, without having decided on his proposal.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] References

Kevin calls J.D. "Alfalfa" from the Little Rascals
Dick van Dyke in this episode portrays an attending. Among van Dyke's more famous roles is as a doctor in Diagnosis: Murder