Doctor Odyssey just ended its big pregnancy storyline, but in a way that left a sour taste in the mouths of fans! Did this mar the show’s chances of a second season?
Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for Doctor Odyssey season 1, episode 14
Doctor Odyssey has been a pretty unusual show. It looked like a new take on The Love Boat, with each episode boasting some guest stars as visitors on a cruise ship captained by Captain Massey (Don Johnson) with Dr. Max Bankman (Joshua Jackson), Nurse Avery Morgan (Phillipa Soo), and Tristan Silva (Sean Teale).
The show has showcased some wild romantic turns including Max and Avery hooking up in the first episode. They played on romantic tension with Tristian with the trio then engaging in a wild night together. That was soon followed by Avery informing the men she was pregnant and didn’t know which one was the father. The episodes since have explored the trio handling this odd dynamic.
This wasn’t the only baby news, as Massey had been hooking up with frequent guest Heather (country music star Shania Twain), who shocked both of them by learning she, too, was pregnant.
So it looked like the series would have to balance two babies on board…until this week.
What happened to Avery’s pregnancy?
After pressure from the guys and saving a cheerleader in the hot tub (part of the latest theme week), Avery agreed to take a paternity test to settle who was the father. When Max and Tristian found her in a hot tub sipping champagne, they knew something was wrong.
Avery revealed the truth: Her “pregnancy” was a false positive test created by a small ovarian cyst. Yep, all that drama and tension in the last five episodes was for nothing, with Avery even laughing about it.
The trio leaned on each other through the episode, which also had Massey affected by shingles and worries about being a dad again. That had him hallucinating his late wife (played by Dianna Agron) with a younger Massey (played by Johnson’s real-life son Jesse) talking to her and Catherine giving him permission to find a new love.
We also had a weird bit with the main trio likewise imagining themselves as kids in the hot tub talking about their dreams. What was meant to be a heartwarming conclusion to the tale instead showed just how bad this turn was.
The Doctor Odyssey pregnancy plot twist was a miss
Maybe a pregnancy storyline would have been a bit much for the series. After all, there was no way Avery could raise a baby on the ship, and she would have had to leave when she got closer to the due date. It could have been a way to write the actress off and introduce a new nurse who would have played into the Max/Tristian triangle.
Playing the card of Avery deciding not to have the child could have been risky and too much drama for the series. Likewise, a miscarriage would have been too tragic. But at least those would have provided some impact, whereas this decision didn’t.
It was just a cop-out. After several episodes of Avery wrestling with her pregnancy and what it meant for her future, she learns she was never pregnant at all. Soo did get a good bit where she claims to be relieved at this but secretly regrets not being a mom. But it didn’t land at all, and it was weakened by the obvious relief Max and Tristian felt from not being dads.
It’s like the writers decided they wrote themselves into a corner with the pregnancy storyline, needed a way out, and settled on this. Maybe it’s easier for Avery than the other options, but it's also a total waste of time. Had they played on Avery thinking she was pregnant after one episode and then revealing the truth, it’d have been silly but believable. But Avery spending the equivalent of a couple of months fretting over this builds up expectations of a bigger resolution.
There could have been a better solution, something that fit the story and brought the characters to a stronger point. Avery becoming a mom was more development for her character as well as humanizing Max and Tristian. Instead, we got as big a cop-out for a big subplot as any TV show has done in a while.
Doctor Odyssey is still on the bubble for renewal and needs all the viewers it can get to justify a second season. Ticking viewers off with such a non-climax to a big plot may only drive folks off and hinder this otherwise fun dramedy.
Doctor Odyssey airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC.