Elliot Reid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into List of characters on Scrubs. (Discuss) |
 |
This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.
|
| Elliot Reid | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| First appearance | "My First Day" |
| Created by | Bill Lawrence |
| Portrayed by | Sarah Chalke |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Barbie, Blonde Doctor, Blondie |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 32 |
| Occupation | Doctor of internal medicine |
| Title | Private Practice Physician |
| Family | Dr. Simon Reid (father) Lily Reid (mother), Dr. Barry Reid (brother), Dr. Bradley Reid (brother) , Sally (great aunt) |
| Spouse(s) | John Dorian (husband) |
| Children | unnamed daughter Sam (step-son) |
Elliot Reid-Dorian, M.D., is a fictional character played by Sarah Chalke[1] in the American comedy-drama Scrubs.
Contents |
[edit] Profile
Elliot is the on and off girl friend and former fellow attending physician to series protagonist J.D. (Zach Braff). The boundaries between friendship and romance have often been crossed throughout the show's run. She is a WASP Republican who suffers from cripplingly low self-esteem.
She is also close to Carla Espinosa (Judy Reyes) and Chris Turk (Donald Faison), the series's other chief characters. During the course of the show, she has had several romantic relationships. She became engaged to fellow Sacred Heart doctor Keith Dudemeister (Travis Schuldt) in season 6, but ended the relationship in season 7. As of season 8, she is once again dating J.D.
In the season 8 finale, she "sneak moves in" with J.D. In the final scene, a montage of J.D.'s hopes and desires shows his and Elliot's wedding, as well as them having a daughter. It is left as an open question of what will become of Elliot and J.D., though the way the final montage is different from every other one of J.D.'s fantasies suggests this is what actually happens.
[edit] Family history
She is the daughter of Simon and Lily Reid (Lane Davies and Markie Post), and is of German descent. Her father is Chief of Medicine at a private hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut.[2] She grew up privileged but love-starved; she once attributed her many neuroses to the way she was treated by her parents. Her mother, a cold, self-absorbed alcoholic, constantly pressures her about her love life and her appearance and encourages her daughter's insecurity about sex. Her mother's treatment has also resulted in her being unable to use proper terminology for sexual organs, instead using various slang terms. Elliot also has problems with her father, as she is constantly attempting to get his attention and prove to him that she is a capable doctor. She eventually stands up to him in "My Fruit Cups" after he tries to push her into specializing in gynaecology. Subsequently, her parents cut off financial support, forcing her to fend for herself.
Elliot also has several brothers, all of whom are also doctors. Although none of her brothers have ever appeared on the show, there have been several references to Barry, who is homosexual. At one point in his life, Barry was a male exotic dancer for Japanese businessmen, and would often "come home [with] his pockets stuffed with yen."
[edit] Career
Elliot attended Brown University,[3] where she was in the sorority Omega Beta Gamma (of which writer Janae Bakken was a member, but does not have a chapter at Brown[4]) with best friend Melody O'Harra (Keri Russell).[5] She also played tambourine in a Christian rock band in college. She used to work at Penguin's Yogurt. At Sacred Heart, Elliot begins as an intern and later becomes a resident after a gruelling, year-long internship. She serves as Co-Chief Resident with J.D. during season 4. At the end of that season, she briefly leaves to take on an endocrinology fellowship, which ends five days later after her research partner finds the cure to osteogenesis imperfecta, the disease they are researching.[6] After a brief spell at a free clinic, she returns to Sacred Heart and becomes a senior attending physician. At the end of the episode "My Coffee", she accepts an offer to go into private practice, allowing her to receive double the pay, still work at Sacred Heart, and never have to deal with superiors Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) or Dr. Kelso (Ken Jenkins) again. In "My Full Moon", she ponders her future career after having to tell a patient that they are HIV positive, and tells Turk that if she was lucky enough to get married and had enough money to not have to work, she would "walk out of this place [the hospital] and never look back" because she really hates seeing the expressions upon her patients' faces' after telling them bad news, coupled with the fact that when she has patients who will inevitably die, she can only wish them luck.
[edit] Peculiarities
When first introduced, Elliot is portrayed as socially awkward and hyper-competitive, but her personality was modified slightly by the second episode. She became a chatterbox who puts her foot in her mouth at every conceivable opportunity (in "My Mentor", she asks an overweight woman "When's the baby due?", and accidentally insults Turk's Jehovah's Witness mother by describing people of that faith as "crazed, annoying busybodies".).[7] According to J.D. and various patients, her bedside manner is cold and mechanical, although in more recent seasons she's been shown to bond with several patients. Her bedside manner (or lack thereof) is the reason that Dr. Cox decides to split the role of Chief Resident between her and the more sensitive J.D. (saying the two of them together would make "one barely passable doctor")
Elliot has frequently been shown telling "inspirational stories" to both fellow staff and patients that invariably end with someone killing themselves, to the extent that by "My Happy Place" it has become the expected result of any story she begins. In the episode "My Fishbowl", she admits she attempted suicide as a teenager.
In Season 3, Elliot undergoes a noticeable transformation; she begins dressing and grooming herself in a more sexually provocative manner, and adopts a somewhat more assertive and self-assured personality.[8] This was the result of a directive from NBC's marketing department, which wanted the show to have a sexier female star to offer the network's coveted young male demographic. A short feature on the Season 3 DVD set entitled "The New Elliot" explains the reasons for the makeover, and the response it engendered from Chalke and the show's writers.
In Season 8 it is revealed that Elliot has a intense fear of redheads and considers them to be God's mistakes.
Chalke, speaking about her character, has stated how much Elliot has changed throughout the run of Scrubs. She has stated that at the start of the series, Elliot is a competitive and independent person until she realizes that she needs the help and support of her co-workers.[9] Talking about Elliot's transformation in the episode "My Own American Girl", Chalke stated that the transformation didn't really help Elliot's life and that Elliot is still "on a never ending journey to find respect [in season four] and now she's a lot more confident and together."[9]
One trait that Elliot has always had is her extreme neurosis which is mentioned a countless amount of times during the series.
[edit] Relationships with other characters
[edit] J.D.
J.D. and Elliot have a complex relationship, as they are close friends but often grapple with their romantic feelings for each other. In Season 1, J.D. and Elliot start a relationship in "My Drug Buddy", but soon break up. They repair their friendship, but it is later revealed that they still have feelings for each other[10] and they begin sleeping together again in "My Monster". They arrange to sleep together as "sex buddies" without romantic involvement, but this ends after only a few days, with J.D. having realized that he had deep feelings for her. In Season 3, J.D. again realizes his feelings for her as she rekindles her past relationship with her old boyfriend Sean, but later in the season J.D. and Elliot sleep together again.[11] Although Elliot initially decides to stay with Sean, she later leaves him to be with J.D. However, this relationship ends when J.D. breaks up with Elliot after realizing that he doesn't love her.[12] In Season 4 they once again repair their friendship and then move in together in Season 5.
J.D. and Elliot also have a very close friendship, built on their shared experiences as residents at the hospital, similarities in their personalities and the knowledge of each other's quirks and issues. In the episode "My Cold Shower", J.D. realizes that he may still have feelings for Elliot; in the season finale "My Point of No Return", J.D. and Elliot lean in for a kiss after a night of discussing their doubts about their respective relationships. However, in "My Own Worst Enemy", the Season 7 opener, Elliot realizes she is making a mistake and pulls away, asserting that the almost-kiss had nothing to do with her feelings for J.D.
Later on in the season, there are some subtle hints that Elliot and J.D. may be getting closer, and possibly romantic. For instance, the episode "My Waste of Time" ends with J.D. and Elliot sitting in a cafe, commenting on how everyone thinks they're together, then playing with J.D.'s son Sam, as if they were a family. Also, in "My Bad Too" Turk tells Carla (in unsubtitled Spanish), "Those two will be getting back together in two weeks." However, in the season seven finale "My Princess", Elliot and J.D. mutually agree that the almost-kiss, a point of tension between them, had nothing to do with their feelings and was merely a response to stress. In "My Happy Place", Elliot and J.D. reevaluate their relationship after an unexpected comment from Dr. Kelso, admitting their lingering feelings for each other. However, it is only after Dr. Kelso tells them to do whatever makes them happy that they decide to give their relationship another chance. J.D. and Elliot are shown to officially be a couple again in "My Cookie Pants".
In the season 8 finale, "My Finale", J.D. leaves Sacred Heart to move closer to his son, Sam. Though she remains at Sacred Heart, Elliot moves in with him despite the long commute. Before J.D. leaves the hospital for good, he has a prolonged fantasy (which is implied to be a flashforward), which shows that he and Elliot may get married, and may have at least one child together.
[edit] Carla
Elliot and Carla initially clash over their duties at the hospital and because of Elliot's somewhat condescending attitude, but they gradually grow closer. Carla becomes a source of personal and professional advice for Elliot; for her part, Carla reveals before her wedding (in "My Best Friend's Wedding") that she feels closer to Elliot than to her own sisters. After Carla's marriage, the two begin to drift apart, but when they realize it, they vow to work harder on maintaining their relationship.
Cast and crew have commented that the development of Carla and Elliot's friendship is somewhat parallel to the development of that between the two actresses.[13]
[edit] Keith
Elliot starts a sex-only relationship with intern Keith Dudemeister (Travis Schuldt) in "My Buddy's Booty", much to J.D.'s chagrin. Eventually, however, they begin a romantic relationship, and, after navigating a rough patch, they declare their love for each other. Keith proposes to Elliot at the end of "My Turf War," and she says yes in the following episode. [14] Elliot soon realizes that she does not truly love him, however, and cancels the wedding in "My Own Worst Enemy".
[edit] Sean Kelly
Elliot meets Sean (Scott Foley) in the Season 1 episode "My Way or the Highway", when he is a patient of hers. Knowing that he has the many of the same insecurities as her, Elliot is instantly attracted to him and eventually asks him out. Their relationship ends in "My Sacrificial Clam", however, when Elliot finds herself unable to juggle a relationship with the stresses of her internship.
Elliot meets Sean again at the beginning of Season 3, when he is with another girl. They begin dating again (much to J.D.'s consternation). Although their relationship is strong, Sean attempts to end it in "My Lucky Night" when he has to move to New Zealand for six months, because he does not believe in long distance relationships, but Elliot convinces him that they can make it work. However, in "His Story II", Elliot comes to believe during Sean's absence that J.D. loves her more and sleeps with him, only to immediately realize the depth of Sean's commitment when he returns from New Zealand, and goes back to him. J.D. initially agrees to remain silent, but when Sean and Elliot begin planning to move in J.D. tells Elliot how he feels, prompting her to leave Sean for an ultimately doomed relationship with J.D.
By the end of the series, we see Sean together with Kim, the mother of JD's child, Sam.
[edit] Turk
Elliot and Turk are very good and close friends. Elliot told Turk in "My Full Moon" that if she ever could stop being a doctor she would. Elliot and Turk originally were not friends but when J.D. and Elliot started dating he thought he better start getting to know her. Also when J.D. and Elliot wouldn't talk to each other he tried to get them to hang out again.
[edit] Molly Clock
Molly Clock was Elliot's former close friend and mentor. Eventually Molly moves to Milwaukee, though she does reappear later on in the more recent episodes.
[edit] References
- ^ Alexandra Lee portrays her as a child
- ^ "My Old Man". Scrubs (NBC). 2002-04-09. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List+of+Scrubs+episodes%23Season+1%3A+2001-2002. No. 19, season 1.
- ^ "My Turf War". Scrubs (NBC). 2007-04-26. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My+Turf+War. No. 18, season 6.
- ^ http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Greek_Council/thehouses.html Brown.edu
- ^ "My Cold Shower". Scrubs (NBC). 2007-05-03. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My+Cold+Shower. No. 19, season 6.
- ^ "My Rite of Passage". Scrubs (NBC). 2006-01-03. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My+Rite+of+Passage. No. 2, season 5.
- ^ "My Mentor". Scrubs (NBC). 2001-10-04. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My+Mentor. No. 02, season 1.
- ^ "My Own American Girl". Scrubs (NBC). 2003-10-02. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My+Own+American+Girl. No. 01, season 3.
- ^ a b Sarah Chalke, actress. (2007-02-04) (Stream). Sarah Chalke StarTv interview. TV Star. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bce8WqwBRQ. Retrieved on 2007-12-02.
- ^ "My Overkill". Scrubs (NBC). 2002-09-26. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My+Overkill. No. 01, season 2.
- ^ "His Story II". Scrubs (NBC). 2004-04-07. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His+Story+II. No. 18, season 3.
- ^ "My Fault". Scrubs (NBC). 2004-04-22. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My+Fault+%28Scrubs%29. No. 20, season 3.
- ^ Special features, Season 1 (Scrubs)
- ^ "My Cold Shower". Scrubs (NBC). 2007-05-10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My+Cold+Shower. No. 19, season 6.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
