Doctor Odyssey season 1 episode 16 recap: Will Avery ever choose between Max and Tristan?
As Doctor Odyssey season 1 steers toward its two-part season finale, the question fans have been asking for weeks reappears with greater urgency: Will Avery ever decide between Max and Tristan, or is her indecisiveness the point of the show? Episode 16, Double Booked, doesn't provide a clear answer.
However, after weeks of call-and-response, this episode offers the clearest indication yet that Avery might not want to choose and that the show may not make her do so. Instead, it explores the emotional toll of her ambivalence, cleverly mirroring her dilemma through guest plotlines and character epiphanies.
Doctor Odyssey season 1: A month to decide
This Doctor Odyssey season 1 episode opens with Avery reminding everyone, including Max and Tristan, that she will be leaving the Odyssey in a month to begin medical school. It’s a neat justification for keeping her romantic future ambiguous, but one that’s starting to feel tired. While early episodes portrayed her indecision as understandable, Double Booked suggests that she may be using ambiguity as a shield rather than a space for honest introspection.
The central guest storyline involves a booking mishap that places two ideologically opposed influencers aboard the same cruise: Mona, a s*x-positive author with a raw, empowering message, and Penny, a “tradwife” promoting traditional marriage roles and values.
Avery, ever the observer, tries to remain neutral, claiming to support both women's rights to choose their paths. But this neutrality mirrors her deeper issue, the unwillingness to choose at all. As Mona challenges her audience to experience a “blazing” orgasm by day's end and Penny preaches devotion and stability, Avery flits between both philosophies without committing to either, much like she does with Max and Tristan.
Doctor Odyssey season 1: Penny's medical crisis
The Doctor Odyssey season 1 episode's medical drama centers on Penny's acute abdominal pain. When she and her husband visit the infirmary, Max finds an unexpected reason: an IUD that Penny had kept hidden. It turns out Penny didn't want another child, something she was too afraid to confess to her traditionally minded husband.
This subplot cleverly illustrates the tension between personal agency and the expectations of others. Eventually, the couple reaches a genuine reconciliation. They promise to speak more freely and even set sail in a box of condoms provided by Max. It's a tidy, cheerful ending, something Avery's narrative doesn't have.
Meanwhile, Mona confides in Avery that she has not had s*x in two years due to vaginismus. She's felt like a phony being s*x-positive while quietly suffering. Tests later confirm premature menopause, a treatable condition that allows Mona to take back her identity. At Avery's urging, she flirts with another guest and regains a sense of possibility.
This subplot closely tracks Avery's own journey. Mona's readiness to move on and gain clarity contrasts with Avery, who is stuck emotionally despite having options and people around her.
Doctor Odyssey season 1: Love and another near-miss
Spurred by Mona's challenge, Avery leaps — sort of. She first turns to Tristan, who is completely game, telling her it's a dream come true. Later, she goes to Max with the promise of a no-strings fling. But he says no. His explanation is sincere and heartbreaking: he's not built for casual, much less with someone he loves. Yes, he says the word — love.
The rejection isn't one of judgment but of vulnerability. Max informs her that he can't survive the four weeks of pretending to say goodbye. It's a defining moment not just for Max but for the entire dynamic of the trio.
In a more subdued subplot, Captain Massey informs Max that Heather miscarried their baby before the cruise and has cut him out entirely. His sadness and thoughts about unrequited love speak to the episode's main theme: you can't make people want the same things as you, not in love, not in life.
As the Doctor Odyssey season 1 episode ends, Avery and Max have one final conversation on the upper deck. She tries again to offer him a no-strings arrangement. He turns her down again, gently but firmly, reinforcing that his heart is already committed. Avery is left standing in the sunset, no closer to a decision, and with just two episodes left.
So, will Avery ever decide between Max and Tristan? Episode 16 strongly suggests she may not, or at least not in the way viewers expect. Instead of setting a romantic payoff as the goal, the show appears more concerned with investigating what it looks like for a woman to create space for ambiguity, even as everyone in her life insists on specificity. Nevertheless, with a tsunami looming and only two episodes remaining, that indecisiveness might not last long.
Catch the latest episode of Doctor Odyssey season 1 streaming on ABC.
