Doctor Odyssey, you did it again. I, for one, cannot believe TV’s best unserious drama is almost done with Season 1, and possibly forever if ABC makes the wrong choice and cancels the show.
Episode 16, “Double-Booked,” is the perfect example of why the Doctor Odyssey deserves a second season (not to mention a whole five-season run, a movie, and a fanbase to rival Severance‘s). Yes, I said what I said because where else on television are you going to find “trad wives” selling raw milk on a pool deck next to sex-positive cruisegoers selling vibrators?
Where, I ask you? Nowhere, that’s right.
In the latest installment of Ryan Murphy‘s medical procedural aboard a cruise ship, big confessions and big confrontations are coming to light, especially between Dr. Max (Joshua Jackson) and Avery (Phillipa Soo). Confessions like Max telling Avery that he cannot get involved with her on a purely sexual level — Avery’s just trying to have a little fun before heading off to medical school — because he knows his heart will break when she leaves. This leads to him telling her that he is in love with her, finally saying the quiet part out loud and worrying Avery in the process. Sure, Avery is down to have no-strings-attached fun with Tristan (Sean Teale) but she may actually love Max back, and that’s terrifying to her.
Elsewhere on the ship, it’s a week of cruising chaos as the corporate overlords have booked two very different book tour groups to board The Odyssey. One group is comprised of women adhering to traditional homemaking and childrearing values — a.k.a. the “tradwives” — and the other exploring their sexual pleasure and not being beholden to any man or person. Neither group wants to have to brush elbows with the other and it makes for an incredible dichotomy that leads to a full-blown food fight on the leisure deck.
This is Doctor Odyssey, though, so it wouldn’t be an episode unless the writers remind us that we have more in common than we do that separates us. That comes in the form of Penny Hollister (Kelli Berglund), the leader of the more conservative camp who falls ill during one of her talks on motherhood and home values. We later come to find out that she has been hiding the fact that she got an IUD from her husband, and the device has perforated her bladder.
On the other side is Mona Yeager (Whitney Cummings) who leads the sex positives but confesses to Avery that she has not had sex in two years because of pain from vaginismus — a medical condition where the vagina tightens up when you try to insert something. This, we later come to find out, is because she’s experiencing early-onset menopause, which Avery diagnoses after fangirling over the sex author.
For those not keeping track, the Christian values wife is hiding decisions about her bodily autonomy from her husband and the sex expert cannot have sex. What’s that age-old expression about throwing the first stone? Alas, we all might learn a little something from each other as Penny ultimately has to come clean to her husband and get surgery for her issue while Mona has to face that she is having issues with the thing that has made her famous.
It’s the kind of neatly packaged story that makes me want to start counting the days until the next episode. Then again, there are only two episodes left so I’m just going to enjoy what I’ve got while I’ve got it.
I guess the lesson here is that we should all just try to accept everyone as they are, even if they are completely different from us. As for Avery and Max, though, who knows if they will run into each other’s arms or if they really will be two passing love ships in the night. Sorry, I had to.
The first 16 episodes of Doctor Odyssey are currently streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. New episodes premiere Thursdays on ABC and stream the next day.
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