Elliot Reid

J.D. and Elliot have a complex relationship; they are close friends and often grapple with their romantic feelings for each other. In an interview, Sarah Chalke said that Bill Lawrence, the creator of Scrubs, wanted to avoid a "will they or won't they get together" plot for the series, instead opting for a running gag where they hook up once a year and have "everything blow up in [their] faces and not work out."[10]

In the Season 1 episode "My Drug Buddy," they start a relationship, but break up in the following episode upon realizing that they don't work as a couple. They mend their friendship, but it is later revealed that they still have feelings for each other,[11] and they begin sleeping together again in "My Monster." They decide to be "sex buddies" without any romantic involvement, but this ends after only a few days, with J.D. realizing that he has deep feelings for her.[12] In Season 3, J.D. again realizes his feelings for her as she rekindles her relationship with an old boyfriend, Sean. Later in the season, J.D. and Elliot sleep together again.[13] Although Elliot initially decides to stay with Sean, she later leaves him to be with J.D. However, J.D. soon breaks up with Elliot after realizing that he doesn't love her after all.[14] In Season 4, following Elliot's brief fling with J.D.'s brother, Dan (Tom Cavanagh), they once again repair their friendship and then move in together in Season 5, after J.D has nowhere to live.

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 their knowledge of each other's quirks and issues. In the episode "My Cold Shower," J.D. realizes that he might still be in love with Elliot after she gets engaged; in the Season 6 finale, "My Point of No Return," they 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 in Season 7, there are some subtle hints that Elliot and J.D. might be getting closer, and possibly romantically involved. For instance, the episode "My Waste of Time" ends with J.D. and Elliot sitting in a cafe, commenting on how everyone thought they were 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 five weeks." In the Season 7 finale, "My Princess," Elliot and J.D. agree that the almost-kiss, a point of tension between them, has nothing to do with their feelings and has merely been a response to stress. In the Season 8 episode "My Happy Place," Elliot and J.D. reevaluate their relationship, 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. In "My Cookie Pants," J.D. and Elliot are shown to be a couple again.

In the Season 8 episode "My Cuz," J.D. leaves Sacred Heart to move closer to his son. Though Elliot remained at Sacred Heart, she moved in with J.D., despite the long commute. Before J.D. left the hospital for good, he had a prolonged fantasy (implied to be a flash-forward) that showed him and Elliot getting married and having at least one child together. By the start of Season 9, set a year after the Season 8 finale, they were married and expecting their first child-a daughter.[15]

Elliot and Carla initially clash over their duties at the hospital and Elliot's somewhat condescending attitude, but they gradually become close friends. Carla becomes a source of personal and professional advice for Elliot; for her part, Carla reveals before her wedding[16] 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 friendship.[17] Elliot lets Carla stay with her when her marriage to Turk hits a rough patch, while Carla supports Elliot through her various breakups and is overjoyed to see Elliot and J.D. become a couple again.

Cast and crew members have commented that the development of Carla and Elliot's friendship was somewhat parallel to the development of that between Chalke and Judy Reyes, who played Carla.[18]

Despite clashing initially, Elliot and Turk grow to be friends, a relationship begun in "My Mentor" when Turk tells Carla to give Elliot a break. In "My Heavy Meddle," he convinces Elliot, who had just broken up with J.D., to mend their relationship for the sake of the group dynamic. Throughout the series, Turk watches out for Elliot, J.D., and Carla, and occasionally acts as a go-between. The flash-forward scene at the end of "My Finale" shows all of them together as a happy family.

In Season 1, Elliot is alternately terrified of and eager to please Dr. Perry Cox, Sacred Heart's acerbic chief attending physician (later residency director and chief of medicine). Cox responds by constantly berating her, a trend that would continue throughout the series. He occasionally shows signs of support, however; in "My Blind Date," he relies on her as a replacement "go-to guy" when J.D. is busy, and in "My Dream Job," he defends her from Kelso's verbal abuse by punching him.

From Season 3 on, their relationship is one of mutual contempt, based mostly on trading quips and insults. Even so, Cox continues to give her personal and professional advice (albeit in the form of mockery), and in "My Déjà Vu, My Déjà Vu," they admit that, while they don't like each other, they do respect each other.

Molly Clock (Heather Graham) is Elliot's close friend and mentor in Season 4; in "Her Story," Elliot sees Molly as a role model even after Molly makes some questionable choices. Molly moves to Milwaukee in "My Last Chance" and tells J.D. to ask Elliot's permission for the two of them to sleep together; Elliot uses the situation to get even with J.D. for breaking up with her.

Elliot and the Janitor have a friendly if asymmetric relationship; she views him as a nice hospital employee, while he harbours an intense schoolboy crush on her. She finally realizes his feelings for her in "My Best Laid Plans," when he confesses them outright and goes on to say that she is the only doctor who treats him like a person. The Janitor's nickname for Elliot is "Blonde Doctor."

In Season 1, she dates her former patient Sean Kelly (Scott Foley). In Season 2, she dates Nurse Paul Flowers (Rick Schroder). In Season 3, she meets Sean again and starts a new relationship with him, but when J.D. reveals his feelings for her, she leaves Sean. In Season 4, Elliot dates J.D.'s brother, Dan (Tom Cavanagh), and then a man named Jake (Josh Randall). They break up when Elliot realizes that he does not really know her. In Season 6, Elliot gets engaged to fellow Sacred Heart doctor Keith Dudemeister (Travis Schuldt), but breaks it off when she realizes that she does not truly love him.

Elliot starts a sex-only relationship with intern Keith Dudemeister in "My Buddy's Booty," much to J.D.'s chagrin. Eventually, they begin a romantic relationship and, after navigating a rough patch, 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.[19] However, Elliot soon realizes that she does not truly love him, and she cancels the wedding.[20] He despises her for the rest of the season, but they finally bury the hatchet in the Season 8 episode "My Jerks," when she apologizes for hurting him.

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 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 tries 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. Elliot nevertheless 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 realize the depth of Sean's commitment when he returns from New Zealand. She then goes back to Sean. J.D. initially agrees to remain silent, but when Sean and Elliot begin planning to move in together, J.D. tells Elliot how he feels, prompting her to leave Sean for an ultimately doomed relationship with J.D. After breaking up with Elliot in "My Self-Examination," J.D. finds a depressed Sean and tries to get him to take Elliot back in "My Best Friend's Wedding." Sean arrives at Turk and Carla's wedding to talk to Elliot about their relationship, but they do not get back together — to the disappointment of J.D., who was trying to repair their relationship and, in turn, his own friendship with Elliot.

Sean appears again in the Season 8 episode "My Cuz," in a relationship with Kim Briggs (Elizabeth Banks), the mother of J.D.'s child, Sam. It is revealed that Sean and Kim had been introduced by Elliot before she and J.D. got back together, irritating both J.D. and Sean, who still harbour a mutual dislike.