Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Doctor Odyssey Episode 17.
After last week’s dreadfully disappointing episode of Doctor Odyssey, Part 1 of the two-part finale manages to salvage what remains of the series’ best elements just in time for a big wave of drama to wash away some of that goodwill. The episode picks up three days after Max (Joshua Jackson) dropped a three-word bomb on Avery (Phillipa Soo) — and she hasn’t forgotten about it. Max gets a text from her suggesting that she come to his room to discuss what he said, and he (understandably) misinterprets the text as a positive thing. So he throws on some cologne, unbuttons his top button, turns on some romantic tunes, all to get completely reamed out by Avery about having “no right” to tell her something like that.
Naturally, Avery gets even more mad at him for daring to read into her mixed messages, and their heated conversation continues into the Great Room, where Captain Massey (Don Johnson) is in the midst of a wedding rehearsal with this week’s happily engaged passengers. It’s a fairly entertaining juxtaposition, considering how happy the throuple was during the last high-seas nuptials. Tristan (Sean Teale) watches as Avery and Max quarrel over how self-centered it was for Max to admit that he loved her. Avery proclaims, “I do not love you, Max Bankman,” right as the confetti goes off, and it seems like she doth protest too much.
The relationship drama doesn’t stop there. In fact, after Max heads to shore with the passengers for their day at port, Tristan seizes on the opportunity to romance Avery alone in the infirmary. He gets quite frustrated when she shuts down his attempts at heating things up and immediately assumes that her recent super-serious attitude is the result of something Max did. His heightened emotions bleed through the entire episode, tainting his every interaction with Avery, until he finally lashes out during the third act. She admits that she’s been off because Max admitted that he loves her, and Tristan snaps.
He is completely justified in his anger, because Avery has been treating him like her second choice. He’s always the person she turns to when she doesn’t get her way with Max. He calls her out on treating him this way, and underscores the fact that he has feelings for her too, and he has sacrificed those feelings in order to play her game. And yet, he still ends up coming in last place. And yet, somehow, the relationship drama isn’t the actual emergency in this week’s episode. As advertised, Doctor Odyssey is going out with a bang and wrapping up what might be its final season with a 9-1-1-style natural disaster.
Max Is Stuck on Land as the Odyssey Faces a Crisis

Image via ABC

After his tense conversation with Avery, Max decides it’s a good idea to join Corey (Rick Cosnett) and the passengers on a hike across the island. He ends up (somewhat) unwillingly bonding with Barry (Jim O’Heir), a talkative coroner who is having his own lover’s quarrel with his fiancé Matty. They hike to a marketplace where Barry tests his Spanish language skills with a kind merchant named Diego (Salvador Lopez) and his dog Peanut. Barry stresses over a couple (Capri-Antoine Vaillancourt, Kyla Nova) taking a photo together too close to the edge of a hill, and his concerns are quickly justified when the island is rocked by a 7.9 earthquake that sends the soon-to-be groom tumbling down the hill. While Max renders aid to the man’s torn ACL, a young girl down on the beach notices the water rapidly receding from the shoreline and, within minutes, a siren sounds off, warning of an impending tsunami.
Corey rounds up the Odyssey’s passengers to head back to the cruise ship, but Max, Barry, and the couple aren’t quite quick enough as they try to hobble down to the port. When Corey gets back to the ship, Avery is waiting (and clearly worried) about Max. While Captain Massey would love to go back for his stranded crew and passengers, he’s forced to make the decision to leave them behind and hunker down where they are at sea to prepare for impact. He makes contact with Max, who completely understands the decision, especially since they have more time on the island to redirect themselves to the highest point to avoid the wave. With Max out of commission, Massey makes Avery the ship’s chief medical officer, and sets her to work preparing for the worst.
And the worst comes quite quickly. One of the couples on the Odyssey (Natalia Cigliuti, Christopher Gorham) is dealing with interpersonal drama with the woman’s daughter, Riley (Spencer Moss), who isn’t thrilled about her mother remarrying. In the midst of the chaos of bringing aboard locals who needed shelter and trying to get passengers to prepare, Riley lost the novel that her late father had gifted her. Seeing an opportunity to win her over, Gorham’s character decides to search for the book… right as the wave strikes the Odyssey. The chandelier in the Great Room falls, impaling him with over 340 tiny pieces of glass. Another passenger (Jee Young Han) falls down the stairs, seriously injuring herself. Avery quickly realizes that they have more patients than she and Tristan can handle, so Tristan puts out a call to arms and rallies any passenger with medical backgrounds — from school nurses to psychiatrists — to help with triage.

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Tissues down, sunglasses on.

Meanwhile, on the island, Max and Barry treat patients who were injured on their way to higher ground. Barry gathers supplies from the local houses and then heads off with Max to look for other patients who weren’t so fortunate. While they look around, Max spots a small boat that washed ashore, and miraculously finds a working radio and flashlight. He makes contact with the Odyssey to assure the captain that he survived the wave, and Massey relays that information to Avery, who tries to act disinterested, but even the captain knows better than that. Max and Barry have a brief conversation about their loved ones back aboard the cruise ship, noting how they both said things they wished they hadn’t said. Their relationship woes are a short-lived topic, as they discover Diego trapped under some debris. They stabilize him enough to carry him on a door to the shelter of a nearby church building, but his condition is fatal. Max explains that even if he had a proper hospital to treat Diego in, he wouldn’t be able to save his life. After receiving this somber news, Barry leaves and later returns with Diego’s dog, who had sought the safety of higher ground during the tsunami. While Diego does react to Peanut’s presence, it isn’t enough to rally him back to life. He dies, and Barry reacts quite strongly to his death. While he is a coroner who works around death every day, he has never actually witnessed anyone die before.
Things Get Even Worse for the Odyssey

Image via ABC

Aboard the Odyssey, Tristan reacts quite badly to the realization that he will always be second fiddle to Max. He relapses and drinks himself into oblivion, and then turns up at the infirmary with a raging hangover right when Avery needs him. Unfortunately, Gorham’s character is in rapid decline because a shard of glass has worked its way into his heart. Avery radios Max for advice, and he has full confidence in her ability to get the glass out, despite her concerns about never having done an operation of that magnitude before. Just as he starts to detail what she will need to do to complete the operation, the island is rocked by a 6.8 aftershock that collapses the roof of the church, presumably, onto Max. Meanwhile, Captain Massey has decided to directly disobey the orders of corporate because he refuses to leave Max and the other passengers behind on the island, when they might be facing yet another tsunami — or worse. It’s a noble pursuit that will inevitably lead to major ramifications for the Captain.
As far as Doctor Odyssey episodes have gone this season, Episode 17 feels very by-the-books, and is quite enjoyable, even if the throuple drama has sorely overstayed its welcome. It will be interesting to see how the season — or series — ends next week, and whether or not there will be a satisfying conclusion. Hopefully, Ryan Murphy will resist the urge to pin Tristan’s relapse on Avery, which would prove to be a sour note to end their erstwhile relationship on.
The season finale of Doctor Odyssey airs next Thursday on ABC and next-day on Hulu.

Doctor Odyssey

An earthquake and tsunami shakes things up.

Release Date

September 26, 2024

Network

ABC

Pros & Cons

The tsunami proves to be a very compelling natural disaster for Doctor Odyssey to end on.
Jim O’Heir is such a delightful co-star for Doctor Odyssey, and a nice foil to Joshua Jack’s Max.

Avery remains so inconsistent and her mixed messages to Tristan and Max are no longer endearing.
Having Tristan’s relapse be connected to Avery feels unfair and oddly delivered.