Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 8, “Quackers,” was an hour filled with duck hunting (not the kind you think), a BFF reunion, some intense “sea-mergencies” (shoutout to Phillipa Soo for inadvertently giving us this name while on Jimmy Kimmel), and of course Avery’s pregnancy. We know this all sounds like a lot, but somehow, it all fit into one hour and was a mid-season finale that tied everything up in the best bow it could, at least for now.
When Doctor Odyssey premiered, we really didn’t know what to expect. We know Ryan Murphy can deliver great TV. That’s a fact. We knew we would like these characters but didn’t expect to love them as much as we do. That’s because of the way Murphy humanizes his characters. And it’s not just Avery, Tristan, and Max who we have come to care about. It’s the Captain and his team that keep The Odyssey afloat. And yes, even the patients they treat (though their time may be short onboard) have tugged on our heartstrings.
Spending so much time onboard a ship in close quarters has created a found family. Max, Avery, Tristan, Captain Massey, and the rest of the crew depend on each other. They’ve all been tested in many ways, experienced many life-altering moments, and survived some of the biggest storms (literally and figuratively).
More: Re-live that emergency appendectomy in the middle of a storm in Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 4, “Wellness Week.”
Quakers or Quackers
Lenore, the wife of The Odyssey’s owner, is back onboard. This time, it’s to welcome the passengers who have arrived to celebrate “Quakers Week.” Before we keep going with this review, we, too, have to point out that we were a little thrown off by the name of this week’s episode. It’s titled “Quackers,” which fits with the duck theme because they quack, right? The name “Quakers” is based on Captain Massey’s confusion about the two because he refers to them as “Quakers.” This misnaming leads to Lenore referring to the captain as a “Sea Snob” because she knows he knows what they actually call themselves. It’s just the Captain being a grouch, but we just love Gina Gershon and Don Johnsons back and forth because they play off one another so well.
Quacker Week is organized by Jerry and Jill Manafort (Fred Melamed, Loretta Devine), the founders of Quackers United. According to Lenore, this event brings in a lot of revenue, so naturally, she would also be on board to make sure that all goes well and that the crew is in tip-top shape (every pun intended). The Captain knows he has to get it together as well, so he makes sure that his staff knows all the rules. What happens during Quackers Week is that a bunch of people spend five days playing one big game of Hide-and-Seek as they search far and wide for little yellow rubber duckies hidden all over the ship. Everyone, and we mean everyone, has to play. The crew even has to paint their special duck to hide. Then there’s the golden duck; if someone finds it, they’ll win $5,000. Captain Massey detests this week because, to him, it’s a cause for chaos and disruption on his vessel. He’s not alone in his feelings. Max is also not a fan, but his reason is more medical-related.
Max is not just big on caring for the human body but also about Mother Earth. He can’t stand the idea of rubber duckies just floating around. He goes on about how they are “germ havens,” and this leads to him going off on a tangent about regular ducks and how they are the “Serial killers of the aquatic world.” it is dramatic, we know, but we love our little dramatic Doctor Max Bankman. It was pretty entertaining to watch Joshua Jackson play those scenes. His annoyance was over the top, but we couldn’t stop laughing at how worked up he was about them. Later in the episode, his statement on rubber duckies and germs comes true because Tristan and Vivian come down with a nasty case of bacterial conjunctivitis after spending some time in the pool surrounded by little yellow duckies. Max was obviously glad about that “I told you so” moment, but then the reality was that he was down a chef and a nurse. Being short a nurse when your medical team is already tiny is probably not the greatest, and we saw why later in the episode when Avery and Max faced some challenging emergencies.
Sea-mergencies
Surprisingly, in Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 8, there was really only one major medical emergency. We think, given the circumstances of Max and Avery not having Tristan, one was enough. After Mr. Manafort collapses, he is rushed to get checked out, and it’s discovered that he has a bowel obstruction. What’s causing it is that he has Pica. If you’re not familiar, Pica is a mental health condition that causes a person to swallow non-food items compulsively. He has to have an emergency endoscopy done. When Max and Avery work on him, they remove a total of 18 items from his stomach, some of which were sharp objects like a screw. When they share the information with Mrs. Manafort, it is clear she’s always been aware of his problem and is in denial about it.
Mrs. Manafort basically says that it’s just his idea of a joke, but we know, and Max and Avery know that she knows what is going on but is too afraid to face it. After Mr. Manafort goes back in for yet another emergent procedure, Max and Avery discover that his bowel is necrotic and that they missed an item during the endoscopy. And what might that missing item be, you ask? Well, it was the $5,000 golden duck. Mrs. Manafort doesn’t know how to handle everything. Though she’s found a community of “Quackers,” she doesn’t really know the people, and she’s still alone. When Mr. Manafort had his emergency, nobody asked where he was, and they certainly were not checking on Jill. It was sad to see. Thankfully, Max, Avery, and Tristan, whose eyes eventually healed up, provided the support she needed and assured her that she and her husband could get through this.
“Stop flirting with me like its sport”
Our girl Chef Vivian (Laura Harrier) returned just in time for the mid-season finale. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see a lot of her dynamic with Tristan throughout the season. Like us, Vivian had an important and valid question for Tristan: “Where do I stand with you?” Since she appeared in Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 4, and we witnessed that kiss and spark she had with him, we wanted to see where their relationship would go. We even thought that Tristan had moved on from Avery (based on that three-way and his emotions afterward, he had not). From what we know, Tristan has feelings for Vivian. Though he tells her he wants to take it slow, that has to count for something. Vivan likes him, and he likes her. We want them to date. We want to see how things progress for them. We will say that, with the possibility that he is about to be a papa, it may be difficult for Vivian to look past that. Then there is the fact that Tristan himself could change his feelings because we got a small glimpse of that once Avery finally told the guys.
“This is the female dilemma”
As Avery is dealing with the life-altering news that she’s pregnant, her besties, who she’s known since third grade and experienced multiple divorces, births, and four trips to the eras tour with, arrive and provide her with the guidance she needs. Avery mulls over her options with the ladies because she’s supposed to attend med school. She doesn’t know if she wants to attend med school while pregnant because she fears failing. Avery likes things to be in control. This news is making her feel like she’s lost some of that. Before, all she had to think about was her career, and now, she has to think of what that might look like if she chooses to be a mother.
Avery’s friends tell her to make a game of telling the guys, and that’s what she does in her way. She sets two baby ducks, one blue and one pink, on Max’s desk, and that’s how she makes her pregnancy announcement. Max’s immediate response is, “Congratulations. From that point on, he’s a ball of fast-talking anxiety, and it’s Tristan who remains in a shocked state of calm if that’s what you could call it. He feels that Max is making the situation about himself. Tristan stresses to Max that It’s not their body; it is hers to make the decision she needs to. And he’s right. Tristan, who has been through this shockingly, twice tells Avery to take the time she needs and that they will be there for her when she wants them to. Avery has a lot to think about, and so do the guys.
Our Doctor Odyssey Season 1 Reviews:
- Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 1
- Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 2
- Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 3
- Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 4
- Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 5
- Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 6
- Doctor Odyssey Season 1, Episode 7
Doctor Odyssey airs on Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.
