Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Doctor Odyssey Episode 9.
It has been a long three months since Doctor Odyssey’s favorite throuple steamed up their primetime slot. The midseason finale saw Avery (Phillipa Soo) paying the price for her hook-up with Max (Joshua Jackson) and Tristan (Sean Teale), and “Shark Attack!” wastes no time reminding audiences that Avery has a major decision to make about her unplanned pregnancy.
In the opening scene, Max joins Avery on the beach to discuss how badly he handled the news that she was pregnant. Avery is willing to listen to him to an extent, but she bristles at the mention that he wants commitment and a family, something that she hasn’t decided on yet — despite that being something she has considered in previous episodes. She puts an end to his self-pity, casting doubt on the possibility of Max even being the father, and firmly requests that he give her time and space to make the decision she needs to make for herself. But interpersonal drama is quickly set aside when the Odyssey’s first officer, Spencer (Marcus Emanuel Mitchell), is attacked by a shark while surfing with Tristan.
While the midseason premiere isn’t quite on the same level as 9-1-1’s beenado, Ryan Murphy knows exactly how to thread the needle on a disaster that only gets worse. Max, Avery, and Tristan jump into action to help Tristan, fixing him with a tourniquet on the beach before rushing him back to the Odyssey to treat the nasty chomp the shark took out of his leg. As they hammer home (not to be confused with hammerhead) throughout the episode, sharks are the ocean’s petri dish, and Spencer is in more danger of developing a deadly infection than he is from dying from blood loss.
“Baby Shark” Didn’t Prepare Me for Baby Blues and Killer Sharks on ‘Doctor Odyssey’

Image via ABC

Captain Massey (Don Johnson) sets a course for port, with a plan to beat the two-hour ETA, but a distress call from The Flicka sends them on a rescue mission instead. Avery stays behind to insert a shunt to buy Spencer more time, while Tristan and Max join the search team to treat the passengers of the sunken charter ship after a devastating shark attack. Five souls are brought back to the Odyssey, two with severe shark bites, as well as the ship’s captain, Brooke Lane (Adrianne Palicki)—a former trauma surgeon who hits it off with Max immediately—and her first mate (Liam Johnson). One of the patients, Brodie, suffered two major shark bites, leaving them with no other choice but to amputate both his arm and leg.
The Odyssey is ill-equipped for amputations, but trio and Brooke put their heads together and come up with a plan to amputate the limbs in a way that will cause the least amount of damage to the patient’s future recovery. They turn to the ship’s engineer, Rosie (Jacqueline Toboni), who provides them with a band saw that is a perfect substitute for a bone saw. While Brodie’s surgery is a success, Spencer’s condition continues to worsen as an infection takes hold. Max suggests a tactic that doctors used for COVID patients, where they would lower Spencer’s body temperature, induce a coma, and intubate him, in hopes that they could take pressure off of his organs, so his body can fight the infection. Spencer agrees to it and gives them permission to amputate his leg if they have to, and when the treatment fails they consider doing just that.
While all of this is going on with the shark attack victims, Avery gets a front-row seat for the awkward tension between Max and Brooke. The two are at each other’s throats for much of the episode, before things come to a head after Brodie’s amputation. High off the successful surgery, Brooke tells Max that she wants to take a shower and he (perhaps innocently) offers to let her use the shower in his quarters. After her shower, she saunters out in only her towel and puts the moves on Max. Clearly, she’s hoping for a little fun to ride the high from saving Brodie’s life, but Max is not as keen. Before Max can actually turn her down, Avery interrupts and catches the duo in a damning position, which doesn’t help Max’s situation with her at all.
Avery gives Max no opportunity to explain what she saw, and even when he brings it up later in the episode, Avery seems to have made her mind up about him. In her opinion, she told him she needed space, so he jumped at the opportunity to find someone new. It’s not exactly a stellar look for someone who was talking about commitment and starting a family mere hours ago. Their conversation is interrupted by Spencer crashing out, and their baby blues are put aside for the time being.

Related

“I Had To Plug Some Holes”: Joshua Jackson, Sean Teale, and Don Johnson on ’Doctor Odyssey’s Gnarly Shark Attack Episode

“We’re not big on boundaries, personal or professional,” says Jackson, when it comes to the relationships among the crew of The Odyssey.

Are Sharks Not Enough in ‘Doctor Odyssey’? Try Orcas!

Image via ABC

With the help of Brooke’s first mate, Captain Massey learns that the sharks were drawn to this part of the ocean due to rising water temperature, which is a bit of a double-edged sword. While the water is shark-infested, warm water is also much easier to travel through, meaning adjusting course will get them to land even quicker. Unfortunately, this also means sending them directly into the path of a pod of orcas hunting a great white shark for sport. Massey is no stranger to the damage that orcas can wrought on a ship, regaling the bridge about the time he ran into a pod off the coast of Spain. It was the only time he had ever lost a vessel — and given the way things are heading, he may be in danger of a sequel.
As Spencer’s condition continues to degrade, Brooke suggests that they might be able to save his leg by using Brodie’s severed leg for parts. As they begin the risky operation, the great white shark in question decides it would rather swim straight into their propeller than become an orca snack. Rosie rushes to keep the Odyssey’s generators from combusting, and while she stops the fire, she isn’t able to prevent the ship from completely shutting down.
Doctor Odyssey’s two-part midseason return ends with a major cliffhanger as the cruise ship is essentially dead in the water, surrounded by a pod of pissed-off orcas who think the ship killed their prey. To make matters work, while Max, Avery, and Brooke try to finish Spencer’s surgery in the dark, Tristan finds one of the Flicka patients (Rumer Willis) has seemingly died, and it doesn’t look good for her. Somehow, I have a bad feeling that things are only going to get worse in Episode 10.
New episodes of Doctor Odyssey air Thursdays at 9 PM ET on ABC and next-day on Hulu. Catch up on the first half of the season now.

Doctor Odyssey

Babies and sharks!

Release Date

September 26, 2024

Network

ABC

Pros & Cons

The midseason premiere is the perfect return to the series, with equal parts medical mayhem and personal drama.
The episode takes time to flesh out Spencer more, hopefully setting up the rest of the supporting cast to have more plots.
Adrianne Palicki is a great addition to the series.

Avery continues to be the series’ weakest link, as the writing struggles to make her motives and desires consistent.