Scrubs Season 2 Can Make the Janitor’s Return Even Better by Confirming the Best Revival Theory

After making audiences wait until the very last episode, Season 1 of ABC and Hulu’s Scrubs revival finally brought back the Janitor (Neil Flynn). The character returned to Sacred Heart Hospital to once again torment poor J.D. (Zach Braff), who is now the Chief of Medicine after Dr Cox’s (John C. McGinley) retirement. If J.D. thought his newfound power would mean he was free from the Janitor’s hijinks, he was sorely mistaken, something that should continue now Scrubs Season 2 is confirmed to be in the works.

It’s not yet confirmed whether Flynn will return as the Janitor in the second season, but the hope is that he’ll be involved in some capacity, even if it does just end up being a single episode: when talking about potential Scrubs characters and actors returning, showrunner Aseem Batra said, “We want to see more of Neil Flynn.” Of course, one change in this is that the Janitor isn’t, well, a Janitor anymore – he’s the Chief Custodian of the Joint Commission, responsible for evaluating healthcare organizations. That alone could set up more storylines in Season 2, but there might be more twists to come.

Was The Janitor Lying To J.D. In The Scrubs Revival’s Season 1 Finale?

It’s a fun wrinkle to have the Janitor working for the Joint Commission, since it gives him a certain degree of power over J.D., but there’s actually very little evidence it’s true. All we really have is him saying it, and then the phone call J.D. makes. We know he’d lie, and he could’ve plausibly swapped numbers in the cell phone while at the hospital as part of his plan to mess with him. In fact, this perhaps makes more sense than him being promoted all the way to Chief Custodian (a position that does not even exist in real life, but certainly sounds rather lofty), and his focus being… a toaster.

The same might well be true for the Scrubs ending’s other big Janitor twist, which is that his son is Maintenance Guy (Darcy Michael). Once again, all there is to go on here is the Janitor’s word, and they certainly don’t look alike, so there’s the potential for it to be a ruse. Batra has also proposed this possibility, telling Deadline:

“We don’t know if that’s his son, he lies about everything. He kind of, like throws a wrench in all of J.D.’s peaceful plans, so yes, we want to see some conflict there, for sure.”

Not only do I think it’s likely he’s lying on both counts, I also think it’s the best possible outcome for Scrubs Season 2. That way, the show can have the Janitor – and Maintenance Guy – continue to screw with J.D. throughout the season in classic fashion, with Maintenance Guy around more to continue things in the episodes Flynn isn’t available, and seeing how J.D. has to adjust and tries to navigate that landscape, only for the payoff to be it was never true. It sounds exactly like the kind of thing the Janitor would do, and perfect for the character going forward.

Scrubs will return for Season 2. Season 1 is available to stream on Hulu.

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