Scrubs: 5 Times We Felt Bad For Turk (& 5 Times We Hated Him)
The friendship between longtime best friends Turk and J.D. is one of the best friendships in sitcom and TV history and helps make Scrubs so fantastic, alongside the characters as individuals. Christopher Turk is probably the nicest person in Scrubs, still with flaws, but massively likable.
But, as was said, Turk does have flaws, and throughout all nine seasons, Turk displays these flaws and, for a moment, is wholly disliked by fans. That does not take away from how great he is, though, and with how good of a guy he is, he often inspires sympathy.
10 Felt Bad - When J.D. Sticks Up For Elliot
In "My Sex Buddy," Elliot and Turk get into an argument because Turk has gotten Elliot's patients to switch to another doctor, to lighten her stress.
When it comes to siding with one or the other, J.D. sides with Elliot, confronting Turk. When Turk asks J.D. why he is not sticking up for him, the person he cares about most, it is heartbreaking watching him realize he cares about Elliot more.
9 Hated - When He Nearly Didn't Move In With J.D.
In the pilot episode, "My First Day," we are introduced to Turk and J.D.'s friendship, and it is phenomenal. However, J.D. was struggling on his first days, with Turk seemingly doing fantastically.
Due to this, Turk made out as if he was not going to move in with J.D., instead of going with his jock-esque surgery buddies. Fans had not known the pair for long, but this still stung until Turk finally swallowed his pride, admitted he was scared, and moved in with J.D.
8 Felt Bad - When He Is Forced To Do Grunt Work In Surgery
When Carla has to cut down the attendance of the weddings, she cuts out the unbelievably unlikable Dr. Miller, Turk's boss.
Due to this move by Carla, Turk is not only made late to his own wedding, but he is also forced to do demeaning work in surgery like holding fat flaps, instead of meaningful work.
7 Hated - When He Didn't Tell His Ex He Was Married
Admittedly, Turk seemed to make an honest mistake by not telling Rosanna he was married, we are not shown him denying the fact.
Nevertheless, Turk knows Carla, and knows she would get annoyed at this, so why do it? It seems unnecessary to start contact with an ex again randomly, and to not tell her you are married just seems suspicious, especially since Rosanna stopped talking to him when she found out,
6 Felt Bad - When J.D. Continues To Sleep With Neena Broderick
One of the worst things J.D. does in the history of Scrubs is when he not only sleeps with the lawyer helping to sue Turk but continues to sleep with her when Turk asks him not to, and he says he will not.
It was the biggest betrayal of Turk's trust that J.D. did in the show, and it is a wonder Turk did not get much angrier at J.D.
5 Hated - When He Blames Spence For Going To Work Drunk
When Spence, an old college buddy of Turk and J.D.'s played by Ryan Reynolds, rolls into town, J.D. and Turk seem to view him as having caused havoc in their lives by telling Cox that Jack was his baby, and getting them drunk while on-call.
After going into work drunk, and then getting sent home, Turk and J.D. confront Spence to blame him, when he points out he did not force them into anything, and the two made it out like they hated their jobs. It is one of the few times the audience cannot side with Turk and J.D. because they simply are wrong.
4 Felt Bad - Diabetes
It is a really sad and scary moment in Scrubs when Turk gets diagnosed with diabetes, and he is also terrified of it at first, and then eventually again when he performs surgery on a person with diabetes.
It is not an easy thing to live with, and despite the jokes and advantages Turk takes about it, he is genuinely scared of it, and it is so raw, real, and uneasy to hear.
3 Hated - When He Kicks J.D. Out
One of the most infuriating things to happen in Scrubs is when Carla gets J.D. kicked out of the apartment that he, she, and Turk share.
What is so unbelievably irritating about it, is the fact that it is J.D.'s apartment, he got it and then offered Turk to live there. He should have stood up to Carla and pointed this out to her, but instead went along with it, kicking J.D. out, making him effectively homeless.
2 Felt Bad - When Carla Manipulates/Bosses Around/Controls Turk
Ironically, this piece of hate ties in with the most sympathetic thing about Turk, his insane wife, who really should not be his wife due to all of this.
Carla gets people to spy on Turk and report on what he says, she controls him and bosses him around like when she got him to kick out J.D. or try to give him a bedtime, and she manipulates him, using sex as a weapon against him frequently.
1 Hated - When He Admits He Slept With J.D.'s College Girlfriend
As a hilarious semi-running gag, it was a mystery as to whether or not Turk had slept with J.D.'s college girlfriend Stacy, or if they had really had a water balloon fight.
Thanks to Pvt. Dancer, Turk finally admitted the truth to J.D. that they slept together, and it was the biggest moment of disappointment fans felt towards Turk, not only that he had done that to a friend, but that he had lied about it.