Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Doctor Odyssey Episode 5.

With Halloween right around the corner, ABC has delivered exactly what the doctor ordered: a Halloween-themed episode of Doctor Odyssey. Episode 5 arrives hot on the heels of 9-1-1’s similarly spooky episode, and sees the crew of the Odyssey facing an unthinkable situation on the high seas. As the teaser for the episode promised, Doctor Odyssey’s “Halloween Week” turns holiday shenanigans into a zombie virus.

Episode 5 opens on a dire situation on land, as Max (Joshua Jackson) and Avery (Phillipa Soo) rush to the aid of a passenger (Michelle Núñez) who has managed to wedge herself between a rock and a hard spot — literally. The cold open ends with Max’s rather ominous suggestion that they will have to remove the woman’s arm in order to get her out before high tide comes in. But all of this took place forty-eight hours prior, meaning we have to wait to see what led to this scenario and how it is resolved.

After the reveal that Episode 5 is mixing things up with the order of events, Doctor Odyssey kicks off “Halloween Week” with the aforementioned passenger, Julia, and her wife, Sarah (Marija Abney), excitedly discussing the events planned for the week, which includes a hunt for buried treasure in the haunted caves where a Spanish galleon sank 284 years ago. In addition to the doomed couple celebrating their anniversary, the cruise also plays host to a pair of couples who have a very drowsy week ahead of them.

Tristan and Max Are at Odds (Again) in ‘Doctor Odyssey’ Episode 5
Image via ABC

With each new episode of Doctor Odyssey, viewers can almost always count on two things: Avery’s narrative arc being wildly inconsistent and Tristan (Sean Teale) and Max being in a one-sided competition with each other. This week, rather than fighting over Avery, Tristan is at odds with Max over the costume contest.

At the top of the episode, while Avery is discussing the costume contest with Captain Massey (Don Johnson), Max strolls into the office dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow. It’s an oddly outdated costume, but it screams brand synergy for ABC’s parent company, Disney, and gives Jackson an excuse to do his very best Jack Sparrow accent. Max isn’t the only one who’s been thinking about pirates, as Tristan bursts into the office rambling about his jar of dirt, only to discover that Max has outdone him. And so begins the competition that only Tristan seems to be truly invested in.

As the festivities begin, Tristan later shows off his Neptune costume but then learns that Max has donned an impressive Poseidon costume that is leagues better than his own. In her limited screen time this week, Vivian (Laura Harrier) tries to mitigate Tristan’s jealousy, but the larger, overarching medical crisis aboard the ship keeps Tristan agitated the whole way through.

The Love Boat Turns Into a Zombie Boat on ‘Doctor Odyssey’ Episode 5

While Julia and Sarah’s plight on land gets plenty of focus in Episode 5, the apparent zombies are the central medical dilemma that the team has to solve. It starts with the two wives dealing with a pair of drowsy husbands who are putting a serious damper on their party plans. Since their names are never mentioned in the episode, they shall be henceforth referred to as Morticia and Gomez and the Fox and the Hound.

Gomez is the first to start showing symptoms of something. He’s falling asleep mid-sentence and nearly falling asleep on his feet. But, after his beautiful bride brings him to the infirmary to be checked out, his symptoms are deemed to be regular run-of-the-mill exhaustion. It isn’t until later, when Gomez and the Hound both abandon the dancing and merriment in favor of sleeping, that things start to go seriously awry.

When Gomez jolts “awake” and starts lurching through the corridors of the cruise, it looks like something straight out of a zombie apocalypse movie. Especially when the Hound’s unsuspecting wife returns to their quarters and her husband takes a bite out of her arm! At this point, Max and the team decide to place the couples under quarantine in the infirmary until they can figure out if they actually have a contagious disease on their hands. Tristan makes a glib comment about this being “just like COVID,” which Max reacts to, as one would expect from a man who nearly died during the pandemic.

Speaking of Tristan, in the midst of the apparent zombie outbreak, something is clearly going on with him too. He’s disoriented, his vision is blurred, and he’s acting super paranoid about Max. He goes to the Captain with his complaints that Max is pulling pranks on him, but when the Captain tells Max to lay off them, Max reveals that he’s been in the infirmary all night—not tormenting Tristan. Coupled with a knock-off Wolverine sweating blood, all of these symptoms seem to be designed to make the audience think that the zombie situation might be spreading. But there is no zombie outbreak aboard the Odyssey. As the episode draws to a close, Max and Avery have an epiphany over Sarah and Julia’s plight, which leads them to discover that Gomez and the Hound were bitten by tsetse flies while on vacation in Africa, leading to them contracting the African Sleeping Sickness. Once they’re treated for this, their symptoms clear up and the couples are able to salvage what’s left of their cruise.

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All You Have to Do Is Unclench in ‘Doctor Odyssey’ Episode 5
Image via ABC

Picking up where the cold open left off, Avery volunteers to go into the cave system to treat Julia. During the cruise’s treasuring hunting excursion, Julia and Sarah went into the caves in search of the gold, and they found it! The only problem is, when Julia reached into a crevice to snatch up a piece of gold, which caused a rock to shift and crush her arm.

Max presses Sarah to decide if they should cut off her wife’s arm in order to save her, and she makes the unthinkable decision. Thankfully, right as Avery is about to make the first incision, she notices the tension in Julia’s arm which indicates that she is clenching something in her fist. Avery coaches her through releasing her grip on the gold, which allows her to free her arm from beneath the rock, saving her life. While Julia walked away with her life, she also walked away with a dislocated shoulder and broken arm. It seems the theme for ABC’s Halloween episodes tonight were curses and dislocated shoulders!

Unclenching certainly seems to be an unexpected theme for Doctor Odyssey, because Tristan finally lets go of his grudge towards Max at the end of the episode. At least for this week. Vivan seeks out Avery and Max to help her figure out what’s wrong with Tristan after she discovers him rambling madly in his quarters, glue gun in hand. When the trio arrives, Tristan accuses Avery and Max of being demons, but Max is able to quickly figure out that Tristan accidentally gave himself carbon monoxide poisoning by burning lanterns in his quarters for spooky aesthetics. It was another close call for a member of the medical team, but it provided new fuel for fans of Doctor Odyssey who hope that the love triangle might be resolved by becoming a throuple. As Tristan receives life-saving oxygen, he takes hold of both Max’s and Avery’s hands, which makes for a lovely moment.

‘Doctor Odyssey’ Gives Tristan His ‘Love Boat’ Moment
Image via ABC

After nearly dying, the Halloween-hating Captain Massey decides to loan his uniform to Tristan so he can charm passengers into voting for his Captain Stubbing (from the Love Boat) costume—and he wins. Captain Massey reveals that he hates Halloween because he missed all of them while his children were growing up. He gives Tristan a little sage advice, should he ever become a father someday, and Tristan ruins the moment by asking if he can call the Captain his “Ship Dad.” While Captain Massey is a hard no on that, it seems as though his feelings about the holiday have changed (at least to some degree) by the end of the episode as he watches his crew celebrate together.

As all the couples treated throughout the week enjoy the last vestiges of Halloween Week, Tristan and Vivian pair off together to dance, as do Max and Avery, who have been outfitted in an adorable pair of not-quite couples’ costumes: Nurseferatu and Doc Dracula. Given last week’s episode, which seemed to suggest that Max and Avery weren’t going to pursue a romantic relationship, the ending of Episode 5 feels like mixed messaging, because the pair are definitely sharing flirty looks and crazy chemistry. One has to wonder if matrimonial bliss might be on the horizon for members of the crew as Doctor Odyssey sets sail for “Wedding Week” in two weeks.

Doctor Odyssey will return in two weeks. New episodes air on ABC on Thursdays at 9 PM ET and next-day on Hulu.

The Love Boat becomes the Zombie Boat in Doctor Odyssey’s Halloween Week episode.ProsDoctor Odyssey seems to be toying with the idea of a throuple ? or at the very least baiting the audience into thinking it’s a possibility.This week’s medical cases were delightfully on-brand for Halloween and quite creative. ConsThe show is relying too heavily on the Tristan and Max conflict, and it feels very artificial.Once again, it’s narratively unclear if Max and Avery intend to continue their romantic relationship.

Release Date September 26, 2024 Main Genre Drama Seasons 1 Character(s) Dr. Max Bankman , Captain Robert Massey , Avery Morgan , Tristan Silva Expand

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