Warning: Spoilers ahead for the Scrubs Season 2 double-episode premiere!Since Scrubs premiered on October 2, 2001, Zach Braff’s Dr. John “JD” Dorian has been the show’s central protagonist. Well, for the most part. Although some episodes have given other members of the ensemble the chance to take over narrating duties, and the now-retconned Season 9 saw Braff gradually head for the exit, the beloved medical sitcom has never successfully replaced JD on a permanent basis. There was certainly an intent to do so in Season 9, but for many reasons, that doomed run of 13 episodes didn’t go down so well.
25 years later, the show has finally figured out how to do such a thing. After the Season 2 premiere, “My First Time in a While,” caught us up with what’s been going on since Season 1 ended earlier this year, Episode 2, “My Mentee,” took on the Herculean task of providing the audience with a new JD. While I initially thought this obvious attempt to pull off the near-impossible would once more fail, I was surprisingly pleased to discover that, this time around, it appears to be working. It only took a quarter of a century to figure it out.
Why Dr. Grant Summers Is the New JD in ‘Scrubs’
It goes without saying that JD hasn’t gone anywhere, and isn’t expected to. One of the biggest reasons the Scrubs revival has been so successful is the near-complete reunion of the original cast. Zach Braff is a core player in that formula, both in front of and behind the camera. So, it’s important to remember that naming John Higgins’ Dr. Grant Summers the new JD is largely figurative. It’s not a totally poetic description of Sacred Heart’s new Chief Resident, though.
Both have a penchant for quirky nicknames and a talent for leadership. Remember, JD was also Chief Resident at one point, a role he shared with Elliot (Sarah Chalke). Furthermore, JD takes a shine to Grant just as Dr. Cox gravitated to JD – even if the former pairing is a little more open and obvious rather than being buried in semi-false hatred like the earlier stages of Cox and JD’s mentorship. Braff’s character has taken younger doctors under his wing before, but those dynamics have rarely lasted long.
Some of them did last a little while, but they never came close to replicating the relationship between Cox and JD, or even Cox and Kelso (Ken Jenkins). So, for the first time in 25 years, Scrubs has brought in a suitable replacement for JD’s former role in the show: a talented doctor who’s clearly on his way to the top. Meanwhile, JD’s transition into the new Dr. Cox, which began when JD took over as Chief of Medicine in Season 1, feels even more complete with a right-hand man by his side.
‘Scrubs’ Has Clearly Learned From Its Previous Attempts To Replace JD
The most extreme attempt to give Scrubs a new JD came in Season 9, also known as Scrubs: Med School. With Braff only temporarily returning to try and help bridge the gap between eras, the writers created a new crop of interns. Of these fresh faces, Dr. Lucy Bennett (Kerry Bishé) was chosen as the one to essentially lead the cast. She inherited inner-monologue duties and was generally framed as JD’s heir apparent. There were two main problems with this move, both of which the introduction of Grant has avoided repeating.
Lucy was portrayed as little more than a female JD. She was still the same sort of nerdy character as had been leading the show for eight seasons, and that made Med School feel surprisingly unoriginal. If anything, any of the other interns would have been a better choice to focus on. Lucy was a fun character, but Scrubs felt like it was trying too hard to set up the show for the day when Braff would be gone for good. JD’s replacement needed to be different so that things didn’t feel stale, and Grant is that perfect blend of recognizably JD-esque while also having several traits that intentionally sit at odds with Braff’s character. Conversely, Lucy was being given too much responsibility by being asked to be a full-on replacement for the show’s main character.
With the plan being for Braff to leave, it was unfair to ask her to do so much of the heavy lifting. There were still other legacy characters present, but they were also being pushed to the fringes. Thankfully, Zach Braff seems fully committed to the revival era, so although Grant is stepping into a role JD once held, the fact that JD himself isn’t expected to leave also lets Grant shine especially brightly as a fresh supporting character. I doubt the long-term plan is ever for JD to once more leave the show and allow Grant to step fully into the spotlight, and that’s a good thing. JD needs to stay involved for Scrubs to thrive on a long-term basis, and that has already been proven.
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Scrubs
- Release Date
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2001 – 2010-00-00
- Network
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ABC, NBC
- Directors
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Michael Spiller, Chris Koch, Ken Whittingham, Adam Bernstein, Gail Mancuso, Marc Buckland, John Inwood, John Putch, Will Mackenzie, Victor Nelli Jr., Craig Zisk, Lawrence Trilling, Linda Mendoza, Michael McDonald, John Michel, Rick Blue, Richard Alexander Wells, Henry Chan, Joanna Kerns, Mark Stegemann, Matthew Diamond, Peter Lauer, Elodie Keene, Jason Ensler
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Scrubs
- Release Date
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February 25, 2026
- Network
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ABC
- Directors
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Chris Koch, Gail Mancuso, Ken Whittingham, Michael Spiller, Randall Keenan Winston, Zach Braff
