Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 3 Review: ‘Plastic Surgery Week’
I’m not going to lie. Going into Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 3, ‘Plastic Surgery Week,’ I felt a lot like Avery. I looked at every person who set foot on The Odyssey wrapped in bandages and thought, what is wrong with those people, and why should I care about them convalescing on a cruise ship after they chose to alter their bodies in ways that were never intended? But, by the end of it, I felt a profound sadness for the guests. This may be one of the most emotional episodes of Doctor Odyssey I’ve watched so far.
Lenore Laurent (guest star Gina Gershon), the wife of Maury, who owns The Odyssey, arrives on board with all of her friends in toe. But these friends are a bit different. Everyone on board has had some cosmetic surgery done, and they are on The Odyssey to heal in peace away from the eyes of everyone on land. I’m not sure that getting surgery and then hopping on a luxury liner that takes you out into the middle of the ocean, essentially away from society, is such a good idea, but here we are.
For Avery, plastic surgery week goes against everything she stands for. She believes that all of the people on board need mental health help and not cosmetic surgery. She has zero qualms about hiding her feelings at all. When it’s time for dinner with the captain, which consists of the guests being asked if they will be having “solids or liquids,” she refuses to dress up, and then after she expresses her displeasure when Lenore’s personal shopper, Vanna gets a nasty case of 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her breasts from frostbite, that is the last straw, and she gets fired.
Avery isn’t the only one dealing with their emotions this week. Tristan gets a surprise visit from his mother, Caroline (guest star Constance Marie). She’s undergone a few procedures, and Tristan is looking after her. Their relationship is a rocky one. Avery mentioned that he had “mommy issues,” which were on full display. But, we feel for him. Tristan is seeking love and validation from his mother. He wants her to be there for him. While on The Odyssey, Caroline has a medical scare of her own, and Tristan learns she has Huntington’s disease and is dying. Interestingly, this didn’t bring them closer together, but, in some ways, it’s good because it then didn’t become a cliché of “the dying relative makes amends because they’re dying.”
“You see the people in people.”
Max, on the other hand, is in fanboy heaven in Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 3 ‘Plastic Surgery Week’ when he learns that the “Human Ken” (guest star Justin Jedlica) is on board. This is surprising to Avery and Tristan because Max is really having a moment. He knows everything about “Human Ken” and is a fan of his reality series. The two get to spend some time together in cryotherapy and in between Max handling Vanna’s frostbite and a woman’s nose literally falling off, he’s able to have a bonding experience with him while checking his surgical sites for sepsis. Ken is moved by Max’s kindness and his willingness to help all of the patients on board without judgment. The scene then switches to a montage of Ken doing all of his nightly prep work to the tune of “Three” by Sleeping at Last. As I watched it take place all I thought was “That is so much work to maintain” and I was trying to figure out if the audience was supposed to feel sadness. I got my answer immediately when the housekeepers found him unresponsive in his hotel room the following morning.
“We’ve constructed a paradise here but never forget that’s all it is. Construction. An illusion. The world is still the world and all we can do is sail on.”
Max, Avery, and Tristan spring into action but it’s too late and they are not able to save Ken. Max is definitely affected by this loss, even as he’s delivering chest compressions and trying to get the team to intubate, he’s being hit with flashbacks of his time in the isolation ward when he was battling COVID. The situation doesn’t get any better when he learns what steps have to be taken to conceal Ken from the other passengers. The whole process is macabre and Captain Massey is fully aware of this. But, he has to keep the illusion going. Watching Max, Avery, and Tristan cart Ken’s body down to the “morgue” in a laundry cart as they passed guest after guest laughing and having the time of their lives, I felt their sadness. Working in the medical field myself, I know what it feels like when you lose patients and have to carry on as if everything is fine and normal. Only Max, Avery, and Tristan know what they have just gone through together.
The loss of Ken is great for Max and Avery checks in because she saw how hard it hit him. She gets a better understanding of why Max was so affected by Ken’s death when he tells her that watching his show is what got him through COVID. When he was all alone, Ken, Barbie, and their friends became his friends. Ken’s show helped him. It helped him figure out who he was, what he wanted, and how he wanted to be remembered. Max sharing his story with Avery only increases their bond and based on their disheveled state as they ran out to help Tristan with a medical emergency, they’ve taken their relationship a step further.
Despite what Tristan has interrupted, he is the picture of professionalism as he, Avery, and Max work together to save Vanna with an emergent precision debridement after she developed necrotizing fasciitis in her breast implants. Avery leads the charge on this procedure and Lenore witnesses the entire thing. She’s so impressed by Avery taking the initiative that not only does she give her job back, but she also tells her she’ll provide her a recommendation for her scholarship for medical school.
If you’re wondering whether that truce Tristan and Max called in Doctor Odyssey episode 2, is still in place, have no fear, the bromance remains intact. At least for now. When Max told Tristan to let him have it over what he saw between him and Avery, he brushed it off as nothing more than infatuation and not love. But the way he says it comes off like he’s saying what he thinks Max wants to hear. Given the fact that Avery didn’t seem in the slightest bit affected or concerned about the kiss she and Tristan shared, his reaction though sad, made sense. I wouldn’t want to pour my heart out about my feelings for someone knowing they have feelings for another person. HARD NO. Do we think that this is over and Tristan is just going to throw up a white flag and move on that easily? Absolutely not.
Lenore Laurent was laying it on real thick with Captain Massey.
“Malala is inspiring. He is a plastic toy.”
Oh, Captain Massey was not having any of Avery’s attitude on his watch.
The dude on the elevator with Max yanking tape out of his nose. GAG!
“I don’t like to put synthetics in my body.” Ummm, tell that to your fake boobs Vanna.
Reading Frankenstein on a cruise full of passengers who had plastic surgery is comedy.
No… but… her nose actually fell off.
“I’m not your mom, I’m not your girlfriend. Don’t put your abandonment issues on me,” Geez, harsh Avery. No wonder Tristan is all “I never loved her” right now.
If even Max is saying Avery was being harsh with Tristan, she definitely was.
Tristan told Max he’s got his blessing to date Avery. We don’t know if that’s going to last long.
“People meet at work.” The accuracy of this statement, because we spend more time at work than we do at home.
Max meeting Barbie and friends when they went to pick up Ken’s body was bittersweet.
“You saw him. That’s enough.”
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 3 ‘Plastic Surgery Week’? Share with us in the comments below!
Nurse by day. Writer by night. Survives on coffee. Cali girl with Southern roots. Loves the color blue. Fangirl for life and proud of it. Bibliophile, Cinephile, Melophile. Can be found hunting down new coffee shops, bookstores, or probably at a PVRIS concert.
