‘Doctor Odyssey’ Star Sean Teale Teases What’s Next With That Love Triangle

Millions of viewers are already on board with ABC’s Doctor Odyssey. The new cruise liner-set medical dramedy is a breezy procedural with endless eye candy and wildly entertaining cases.

Anchoring the whole thing is a delicious love triangle between Dr. Max Bankman (Joshua Jackson), Avery Morgan (Phillipa Soo), and Tristan Silva (Sean Teale). During Thursday’s (October 10) episode, “Plastic Surgery Week,” Tristan realized that he has feelings of abandonment from his absentee mother. That made him seek emotionally unavailable women, drawing into question his affection for Avery. So does that mean he’s out of the running for her heart? 

“I think Tristan’s reality jumps from place to place. I think several things can be true at one time,” Sean Teale told TV Insider. “That sort of struggle with women in positions of authority is very real, and that abandonment is a very real thing. There’s probably an element of that with Avery. There’s very likely real feelings, too.”

“It’s not black and white,” he added. “There’s a huge amount of gray in there. So we’ll explore that coming forward. But yeah, he doesn’t go down without a fight.”

There’s also a bit of a mystery at play, as some fans wonder whether everything is what it seems with The Odyssey. There’ve been several fan theories bandied about, including that the boat is some kind of vessel to the afterlife, that this is a virtual reality vacation, or even that it’s all a figment of Max’s imagination as he suffers a major Covid fever dream. 

Teale isn’t telling which theory he prefers but instead says he understands the impulse to ask questions: “I love that there are theories. It means that someone is having a thought about it, positive or negative,” he explained. “I was talking to Don [Johnson] about this yesterday — we were doing a scene together — what we talked about is that the more the more we read the show, the more it reveals itself to us.” Teale points to the lighting, the shooting style, and, of course, the mood of the show.

“This boat is the height of all things possible. The staff are the most gifted. They’re beautiful. They’re brilliant. They’re capable. They’re talented. The boat itself is high-tech and lavish and luxurious and extravagant. And everything that you could ask for was provided to you, which I’m sure makes people feel like there’s this heavenly touch to it because it is right. It’s it’s paradise on Earth,” he said. “I understand why people have that theory because it is fantastical.”

Disney/Tina Thorpe

That airy, atmospheric aesthetic has been reflected in the characters’ behaviors, too. For example, the season started with Tristan challenging Max to a dance-off over their shared affection for Avery. By Episode 2, the two developed a secret handshake that they sealed with an air smooch.

That last bit was Sean Teale’s idea — although he gives co-star Joshua Jackson full credit for following through with it — but the dance-off was decidedly not. Still, he found it to be exceptionally revealing about his character’s demeanor and the show at large.

“Normally, that stuff is out of your comfort zone unless you’re gifted, like Pippa, who’s done everything and so she can sing and dance and do everything brilliantly,” Teale told us. “Building characters, the dialogue is obviously such an important part of it, but weirdly… it was actually really helpful for finding [Tristan] because that’s just something that Sean wouldn’t do. And you have no choice. So you sort of surrender to this wonderful thing and you can find a person in there. Sometimes these dances are gratuitous. They’re not particularly helpful, or they’re not particularly informing of who you’re playing. Sometimes they’re just there because we need to have a dance sequence or whatever. And in this situation, actually, it’s sort of was actually quite defining, so it was really helpful. I really enjoyed it.”

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“We’ve kind of got to gauge how to maintain that tone right of — the word ‘grounded’ is always a bit tricky because it’s sort of overused — but there is this rooted, high-stakes, dangerous scenario stuff, and that’s really helpful,” Teale continued. “I think Josh has maybe played 12 doctors in his life, but Pippa and myself haven’t. And so this sort of that whole medical tech world that we aren’t used to really sucks us into the seriousness, actually, and, it’s quite hard to then play the lightness there. But then because we all get along so well, when we do get the levity, it’s there naturally. We are messing around all day. It’s a lot of fun, and there’s a lot of love so that lightness comes naturally. And then we just remember when we’re in those medical situations, that lives are at stake.”

Going forward, Teale said, the Odyssey will expand even more as more crew members are introduced. “We’re gonna open up the world. We’re going to have lots more people to show you,” he said, while promising, “Obviously at the root of this story is the three of us. And that’s never going to change…. The love triangle is a big part of the show, and that competition is gonna stay.”

Disney/Tina Thorpe

For the next two episodes, the weekly themes have been revealed. Next Thursday (October 24) is “Wellness Week,” while the following week (October 31) is a Halloween episode.

Teale teased that both will be a rush for fans… albeit for very different reasons. With “Wellness Week,” the focus is on an industry that is potentially populated by “grifters” who sell things that are harmful to people, Teale said. That storyline will bring in new top-tier guest stars, too: “I can’t tell you who the guest stars are, because that’s gonna be a big reveal. But we had some phenomenal guest stars that got everyone very, very giddy before they arrived. And they only came and proved how brilliant they were. We had the most fun,” he teased.

As for the holiday episode, “Halloween is inherently a very silly thing, isn’t it? It’s lovely. And it’s a time for adults to be children and for people to play dress-up and for us to sort of just be creative and unified in doing so,” he previewed. “The boat becomes a bit of a madhouse, which is really, really fun. And yes, there will be lots of costumes.”

Doctor Odyssey, Thursdays, 9/8c, ABC