You know how The Bachelor gets flack for saying every season is “the most dramatic season yet.” That is a sentiment I find myself echoing weekly with Doctor Odyssey, just substitute “dramatic season” for “unserious episode.”
While Episode 6, “I Always Cry At Weddings,” brought out guest stars like Kelsea Ballerini and Margo Martindale to take part in wedding festivities aboard The Odyssey, it also tackled some incredibly dark topics, strongly contrasted by the unbelievable nature of the show.
**Warning, the following article contains both spoilers for Doctor Odyssey Episode 6 and mentions of suicide**
It takes a lot of guts for a show to end an episode by showing a threesome involving the main character trio, only to immediately put up a suicide hotline boilerplate message because they featured a storyline where someone takes their own life. Well, call Olivia Rodrigo because it appears that Doctor Odyssey‘s writers and producers have those guts.
While the episode initially looked to be about a bridezilla (Ballerini) embarking on a wedding cruise and stopping at nothing to have the perfect day, it quickly turned into a nightmare voyage for Ballerini’s character. Not only does her character suffer from an acute bout of pancreatitis after doubling up on her Ozempic dose to shed pounds for the big day, she also loses her husband-to-be in the process. The groom, Eric (Hudson Oz), commits suicide by jumping off the ship after coming to terms with his sex addiction and the irreparable damage his actions have caused — we learned earlier in the episode that he was responsible for helping to spread a nasty case of ringworm. His gruesome death leaves Ballerini’s character in a state of shock and despair (for a first-time actress, the tears were pretty decent) and reconciling with her own infidelity… she was sleeping with the best man, because, of course she was.
Meanwhile, Martindale stars as the mother of the bride who finds herself dealing with a nasty sunburn after laying out in the sun on the deck. Being a woman from South Florida, she thought she was fine but her new antibiotic medication has made her skin sun-sensitive.
Side note: Not only have I also endured a horrific sunburn after taking doxycycline — the medication The Odyssey’s medical team believes Martindale’s character was on when she was burnt — but I also have dealt with pancreatitis. I have to say, both are uniquely unpleasant and I wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy. Clearly, the Doctor Odyssey writers are sadists.
Getting back to the show, the episode contains the usual shenanigans aboard the ship; someone gets injured while getting freaky, Dr. Max (Joshua Jackson), Avery (Phillipa Soo), and Tristan (Sean Teale) build a palpable sexual tension, and Captain Robert (Don Johnson) is there to act as the guide for the crew, albeit briefly this episode.
The one key difference between this week and episodes in previous weeks is that our main characters finally do something about the unspoken sexy vibes in the air. That’s right, after each admitting that a threesome is on their bucket list — or a “good threesome” in Dr. Max’s case as he has already taken part in one — the three medical professionals finally get it on with each other. Honestly, part of me fully believes that executive producer Ryan Murphy is just seeing how far he can push ABC before they step in. Apparently, we’re not there yet as this episode also features a couple getting stuck during sex, experiencing a very-real and not-at-all funny condition known as penis captivus. I wish I was making this up.
As for Tristan, Max, and Avery, I, for one, cannot wait to see the messiness that this becomes. I’m sure everyone is going to act really cool about it moving forward, right? There’s certainly not going to be any weirdness between them, right? Wrong. A trailer for Episode 7, “Oh, Daddy!” features the threesome contemplating if it was a one-time thing or if it should happen again. The short snippet also teases the arrival of Captain Robert’s brother, played by John Stamos, as well as. Cheyenne Jackson, a Murphy-universe staple.
It’s also important to note that Episode 6 began with a recap of Dr. Max’s medical history — remember, he nearly died from COVID-19 and was even in a coma due to the virus. In passing, it seems like an innocuous reference to content from previous scripts but when compared to the content of this episode — particularly the part about the threesome — we can’t help but wonder if he is still in a dream. Especially after Grotesquerie, Murphy’s FX series that premiered around the same time as Doctor Odyssey, revealed its main character to have been in a coma for the first seven episodes. Is Murphy trying to pull one over on us again?
All in all, Episode 6 of Doctor Odyssey proved to be another wild and whacky embarkation, but matched with a more somber tone. The suicide storyline allows for a juxtaposition that feels oddly realistic in the messaging of life’s uncertainty. It didn’t quite land for me because the tone still felt odd — see the reference above to the threesome followed by the suicide hotline phone number — but I do think it’s a step in the right direction for making the show less idiosyncratic.
Doctor Odyssey is now streaming on Hulu. New episodes release on ABC Thursdays at 9 pm.
If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 988.