‘Scrubs’ Season 9 Now Exists in an Alternate Timeline

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Many fans disliked Season 9 of Scrubs so much they pretend it doesn’t exist, considering Season 8 the show’s real finale. That was the case, at least, until the recent announcement of a revival. Interestingly, the negative reaction to Season 9 has been widespread, and it seems fans have gotten their wish. Originally launched as Scrubs: Med School, Season 9 now occupies a unique and somewhat separate position within the show’s history.

Zach Braff, known for playing JD in Scrubs, recently told Esquire that Season 9 was originally planned as a spin-off. Although it had a “Med School” subtitle in the opening credits, it wasn’t promoted as a separate show. ABC presented Med School as a continuation of Scrubs, even though it looked and felt very different, and featured a new cast. This might have contributed to the season’s poor reception, but many viewers also simply didn’t think it lived up to the quality of the first eight seasons. Now, after almost 16 years, Scrubs is finally starting to be seen as separate from Med School—at least, to some extent.

‘Med School’ Now Happened in an Alternate Future After ‘Scrubs’ Season 8


ABC

Despite the widely acknowledged failure of Scrubs Season 9, most fans didn’t want it completely ignored. It’s unusual for sitcoms to pretend a whole season never happened, and when they do, it’s usually just small details that are altered. However, when Scrubs returns on February 25, 2025, Season 9 will be as if it never existed for any of the characters. Donald Faison, who played Turk, revealed this in an Esquire interview, the same one where his co-star discussed the original plan for Med School to be a new series rather than a continuation of Scrubs.

I think fans would accept seeing medical school portrayed as an alternate reality or a separate universe. I view Season 9 as exploring a different universe altogether.

– Donald Faison on Med School’s canon status, Esquire

On the Fake Doctors, Real Friends podcast, where Zach Braff and Donald Faison rewatch Scrubs, Faison frequently discusses his passion for comic books. Considering his preferences, it makes sense that he frames Scrubs Season 9 in a similar way. This approach also neatly explains the changes in the show’s storyline. For the fans who enjoyed Med School, all thirteen episodes still technically exist within the Scrubs universe. They haven’t been erased; it’s simply that the characters returning for the revival didn’t experience those events. They followed different paths after Season 8, leading to new developments. Don’t expect a straightforward continuation of the story if you watch the revival after Season 9 – it won’t connect directly to Med School.

Whether Scrubs will address the cancellation of Season 9 when it returns is still unknown. One idea is that Season 9 was actually an elaborate fantasy created by the character J.D. While the events of Med School could be completely ignored, that would be a missed opportunity for a show known for its playful and self-aware humor. The writers likely need to acknowledge the change, at least briefly, for viewers who didn’t follow the story closely and might be confused about why Season 9 seems to have vanished. The situation is a bit too unusual to expect everyone to understand the shift without some explanation.

The ‘Scrubs’ Revival’s ‘Med School’ Retcon Removes Some Big Season 9 Storylines From the New Timeline


ABC

The new Scrubs episodes seem designed to be watched after the original eighth season. Like Med School, season nine picks up right after the finale, but with some time having passed off-screen for the characters. The biggest changes are that JD and Elliot (Sarah Chalke) are married and expecting a baby. However, an interview with Zach Braff strongly suggests that when JD returns to Sacred Heart after more than ten years, Elliot is someone he hasn’t seen. This implies their marriage didn’t last, or perhaps never even happened in this new timeline, and the baby storyline likely won’t be part of the revival either.

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The hospital used in the original series, Sacred Heart, was replaced with a modern version after Season 8. However, the show’s revival has brought back the original building – or at least, a very accurate recreation of it. The original hospital, where much of the show was actually filmed, has since been demolished, so the sets you see now are reconstructions of the familiar location. The original Sacred Heart felt like a character on the show, and bringing it back feels like a significant, but important, change. This also means the new interns we met in Med School likely never interacted with the characters from the original series or the revival.

Zach Braff and Donald Faison have hinted that the strong friendship between their characters, Turk and J.D., has faded because of the time that’s passed since they last appeared together on the show in Season 8.

The storyline where Ted Buckland appeared in the failed ‘Med School’ spin-off unexpectedly affected another show, ‘Cougar Town’. Sam Lloyd, who played Ted on ‘Scrubs’, guest-starred on ‘Cougar Town’ in 2012, a couple of years after ‘Med School’ was cancelled. Both shows had the same producer, making the appearance a pleasant surprise for fans. However, Ted’s character was portrayed as having fallen on even harder times since his appearance in ‘Med School’. Sadly, Sam Lloyd passed away in 2020 and won’t be part of the ‘Scrubs’ revival. While the new episodes might mention Ted is still alive off-screen, his story from ‘Cougar Town’ now feels just as disconnected from the revived ‘Scrubs’ universe as his original arc in ‘Med School’.

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2026-01-15 23:03