The first day for the new interns at Sacred Heart is today, which means that J.D., Turk and Elliot now have to start practicing what they have learned in medical shool. They soon realise being a doctor was not really how they imagined it...

After one of J.D.'s patients recover from cancer he tried to get the patient to stop chain smoking, which proves to be more difficult than he thinks. Elliot becomes public enemy number-one to the nurses because of her unsociable bedside manner and general attitude. Turk persistently tries to ask Carla out again and again only to get denied.

As Turk now has a girlfriend he has been spending less and less time with his best friend J.D. which has made J.D. feel left out and abandoned, to add to that J.D. suspects that Turk botched a surgery and is afraid that he himself can get into trouble for not reporting it. Elliot tries to get some help from Dr. Cox, but he is far from helpful as he does not want to be the interns' designated mentor.

J.D. treats an old lady whose kidneys are failing but gets too attached to her, and when she refuses to undergo dialysis it is quite clear what will happen. While operation on a very nice hernia patient Turk gets a big chock. Elliot and Carla are not on the best terms with each other but has to work together to save the life of a patient.

J.D. is torn when he discovers that Dr. Cox has falsely appropriated the medical insurance of a deceased patient in order to help another more needy patient, but when he inadvertently informs Cox' rival the two veteran doctors battle for J.D.'s soul during a good-vs.-evil game of golf. Meanwhile, Turk frets that his girlfriend Carla might figure out where he got his new gift for her. Meanwhile Elliot discovers exposing herself heals patients.

Elliot's patient, a psychiatrist whose jaw has been wired shut is put to the test when he has to listen to Elliot ramble and cannot do a thing about it, meanwhile J.D. has a very important patient, a hospital board member by the name of Jordan Sullivan. Dr. Cox future is quite unclear as his fate will be decided by the hospital board. Turk and Carla's relationship is put to the test when Carla blames Turk for an injury her mother sustains.

When everything is going great for J.D., he aces rounds, and is respected by the other interns, a big rival appears, a fellow intern Nick who promises to challenge J.D. to become the doctors favorite intern. Turk looses his confidence after he may have made a mistake but does not tell Carla about it. Meanwhile Dr. Cox expresses a romantic interest in Carla.

J.D. and Turk become reluctant heroes when they sneak off to a strip bar for lunch and instead save the life of a protester in front of TV cameras -- and the crafty Dr. Kelso wastes no time in exploiting their salt-and-pepper images in an ad campaign to tout the hospital's diversity. Elsewhere, J.D. risks Dr. Cox' considerable wrath when he insists that his mentor complete his evaluation form while Elliot feels slighted by Carla.

As Thanksgiving nears, J.D. is stricken with appendicitis and gains a new and horrifying perspective on what it means to be a patient, and to make matters worse, it's Turk who will be doing the surgery. Elsewhere, Elliot resents the fact that J.D.'s patients prefer his care to her cold hands when she has to cover his cases for him, and Dr. Cox makes sure that his former medical mentor gets proper care from the nasty Dr. Kelso.

J.D. gains a new nickname -- Scooter -- and his relationship with Nurse Carla evolves as he begins to out-distance her medical knowledge while Turk trembles when he learns that his secret lunch spot was claimed years ago by the territorial Dr. Kelso. Elsewhere, Dr. Cox gives Elliot the evil eye when she won't discharge a troublesome patient.

As Christmas nears, Turk's idealized notion of the wonderful holiday is challenged by the grim reality of the hospital while Dr. Cox asks J.D. to videotape the birth of his friends' baby -- with calamitous results. Elsewhere, Dr. Cox also has to contend with his abrasive ex-wife Jordan, and Elliot searches for a sickly teenaged woman who disappeared after Elliot told her she was pregnant.

A hyped Dr. Cox challenges the hospital staff not to lose a single patient before his shift ends at midnight while J.D. is enchanted by an unseen female patient who is trapped inside an MRI machine -- and even considers asking her out. Elsewhere, Turk and Carla grapple with a pained patient as they try to re-set his dislocated shoulder.

J.D. is frustrated when his budding romance with an ex-patient wilts as their dates are constantly interrupted by emergency calls while the beastly Dr. Kelso becomes less fearsome to the wide-eyed interns when Dr. Cox informs them how to avoid the blowhard's bite. In addition, a perplexed Carla and Turk deal with their first sexual intimacy complication.

J.D. strikes up a romantic relationship with an attractive social worker, but he soon learns that Elliot is not only jealous but thinks his new squeeze is bad news. Meanwhile, Turk discovers that Dr. Cox also has romantic designs on Carla while Carla encounters hard stares from her fellow nurses when she strikes up a car-pool friendship with the hated Dr. Kelso.

J.D. and Elliot struggle to keep their newfound sizzling romantic relationship under wraps while at the hospital, but when the inevitable happens, they boldly display their mutual affection in public -- which only results in turbulence when she thinks he doesn't respect her enough. Meanwhile, Dr. Kelso orders the entire staff to participate in a psychological study about their innermost personal and professional feelings.

When a rampaging Dr. Cox suddenly shows up at his door in a strange funk, J.D. sees a possibility of a breakthrough in their relationship -- until he learns that Cox loses control in almost an annual rite. Meanwhile, Turk elects to partner with Elliot on a research project so that he can maneuver her back with his buddy J.D., and Carla struggles to fulfill a comatose patient's final request -- playing heavy metal music in his room.

A gleeful J.D. can't wait to get his hands on a goofy new medical student so that he can make his life as miserable as he was early on -- but his harsh words have an unintended effect on the mistake-prone young man. Meanwhile, another medical student draws Dr. Cox' appreciative eye and Elliot is paired with the son of the hospital's chief executive officer.

J.D. suffers from guilt-induced insomnia after Carla points out that he avoided a terminally ill patient because the man was a difficult pill. Meanwhile, Dr. Cox' ex-wife Jordan interferes in his new relationship with medical student Kristin and Turk and Elliot obsess over evidence that Dr. Kelso might be concealing a musical past.

While Elliott and Turk's parents pay a visit to see them present at a medical conference, J.D.'s father Sam makes a surprise visit, leaving all three interns in a state of emotional distress as old parental behaviors come into play. Meanwhile, Carla gets the biggest shock of them all when she discovers she is exactly like Turk's mother. John C. McGinley and Ken Jenkins also star.

J.D. gets a lesson in competitiveness when he asks for Turk's support in persuading his patient to opt for medical treatment over surgery, and Elliot develops a crush on one of her patients, but her own fumbling, insecurity and bad timing are compounded by their similar traits. Meanwhile, Dr. Kelso finds Dr. Cox's Achilles heel when he fires the nurse who makes Cox's favorite cup of coffee.

When J.D. accidentally gets stuck with a needle that may have been infected with hepatitis, he starts to shy away from dealing with his sicker patients. Meanwhile, he and Elliot are forced to deal with four doctors who become ill while attending a local medical convention. Elsewhere, Turk pays a high price when he goes to Dr. Cox to help him get in shape.

J.D. sees the human side of his mentor when he has to deliver disturbing test results to Dr. Cox' good friend and former brother-in-law, Ben Sullivan. Meanwhile, Elliot and Turk are both embarrassed by patient mix-ups.

J.D. begins to think Dr. Cox may have feet of clay when his mentor seems unable to deal with his friend Ben's potentially fatal illness. Meanwhile, Turk is upset at the news that he isn't the best surgical intern on the team, but he's even more frustrated when he finds out who is. Dr. Kelso asks Elliot to write a supposedly anonymous evaluation of him -- but the joke's on Carla when she volunteers to ghost-write.

As J.D., Elliot and Turk end their first year as interns, they try to help an elderly man get an operation despite a lack of insurance, which draws the ire of Dr. Kelso in the season finale. Meanwhile, when Dr. Cox and his ex-wife Jordan's relationship reaches a breaking point, she drops a bombshell on the gang.