last week<\/a>. Aesha and Sandy are also happy to see Gael, if not as touched; Joe is hesitant, given Gael\u2019s intolerance for his treatment of women; and Kizzi is annoyed. Gael catches us up on what she has been doing for the past ten months: She became a licensed scuba-diving instructor and a master of yachts 200 ton, which qualifies her to captain several smaller kinds of boats. She has come a long way, so much so that Sandy says she could easily see Gael running her own vessel.<\/p>\nIn other words, Gael has done some growing up; the jury is out on whether Nathan has done the same. Aesha gives him some words of encouragement: \u201cThis is the first day of the rest of your life.\u201d Nathan can barely contain his excitement; he literally runs around with joy. After bringing Gael up to speed on the Joe\u2013V\u2013Kizzi drama, he admits to having kissed Kizzi \u201con a night out,\u201d though he has kissed her on at least a couple nights out. He tells Gael that he and Kizzi don\u2019t talk, which is not not true. Gael assures him she\u2019s not worried about it one way or the other.<\/p>\n
In fact, Gael is hesitant to jump back into anything with Nathan. There is real hurt in her voice when she talks about their breakup \u2014 she can\u2019t discuss it without crying. In a confessional, she tells us that when she went back to Australia after traveling around with Nathan for a couple of months, he ghosted her for five days\u00a0and then resurfaced to tell her he couldn\u2019t commit to their long-distance relationship. Given Nathan\u2019s jump-for-joy reaction to Gael\u2019s presence, you can\u2019t help but wonder, What is wrong with these men?! Sandy even notices that Nathan put on cologne for Gael\u2019s arrival. He tries to draw her in with sweet nothings, like \u201cI need you\u201d and \u201cI think I love you\u201d and other sentiments of the like, but she gently pushes him away. When he comes into her cabin one night, she lets him lie with her for a few moments before sending him back to his own bed. If Nathan truly is a reformed man, he\u2019ll have to do a lot more than just follow Gael around like a puppy to prove it.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because Gael is a self-respecting woman with a functioning bullshit detector \u2014 she has zero tolerance for Joe. He pulls her aside to clear the air, as they left things on a sour note last season. Joe had a tendency to micromanage, which made Gael feel disrespected. He apologizes for that, and they put on a nice enough face for each other \u2014\u00a0sounding like every sleazy guy who has ever lived, Joe swears he has changed \u2014\u00a0but individually, they both admit they don\u2019t trust the other. Joe has the gall to judge Gael, and pretty harshly at that, for kissing Nathan before officially breaking up with her boyfriend last season. \u201cI lose a lot of respect when people cheat,\u201d he says unbelievably. \u201cOnce a cheater, always a cheater.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an effort to reassure the viewer that she is not hallucinating, the producer conducting this confessional interview pushes back: What about what happened with Kizzi? Joe trips on his words, sputtering and stuttering until he can get out a delusional version of events in which what he did is \u201creally different\u201d from what Gael did. \u201cI\u2019m a nice guy,\u201d he insists later. \u201cI just like women.\u201d And that\u2019s not even the worst thing he\u2019ll say this episode. The worst thing comes out on the following day, when he\u2019s setting up an excursion picnic for the guests with Max. All episode long, people ask Joe and Kizzi whether they have heard from V or are in touch with her. It\u2019s the Day, after all \u2014\u00a0her birthday and the anniversary of Bon\u2019s passing. Joe texts her in the morning saying they miss her (no happy birthday); Kizzi writes her something similar. Otherwise, Kizzi deflects, saying that Joe will speak to V once she\u2019s back. To Max, at the excursion, Joe says, \u201cI\u2019m going to tell V [about the kiss] because I\u2019m a man, I don\u2019t hide anything.\u201d That\u2019s the worst thing. Then, just for good measure, he appends, \u201cI just don\u2019t want to hurt her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whatever hopes and illusions Kizzi may have harbored that the kiss could\u2019ve been kept secret are shattered within two minutes of this episode. Nathan is the first to start talking: He tells Aesha, who is disappointed but not surprised. When Josh asks Kizzi how her conscience is faring, she replies simply, \u201cI hate myself.\u201d\u2019 Even Gael, just arrived, tries to gauge if Joe might be afflicted by similar self-reproach. But Joe is already on the mend. He tells Gael that V gives off \u201crelationship vibes\u201d for which he is not ready, though he has spent the last several days insisting that V has changed him. Later, he asks Kizzi if she feels bad, but doesn\u2019t admit as much himself. It honestly stretches the imagination. If there is one couple who is growing into real affection and trust, it is, improbably, Cathy and Max. Telling Kizzi about how much she has been touched by Max\u2019s affection makes Cathy cry \u2013\u2013 and she never cries in front of anyone. I\u2019m really rooting for them. I think it\u2019s cute that Max calls her \u201cmy little Cathy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The preference sheets for the incoming guests portend nothing good. Primary Carlyn, who owns 17 real-estate companies, is taking one of her brokerages on charter. To Josh\u2019s dismay, her employees have all manner of dietary restrictions \u2014\u00a0some are vegetarian, some pescatarian, someone\u2019s vegan, another gluten free, another lactose intolerant. To make matters worse, the boat has to stay docked again for the first night of the charter, because of a storm. Sandy breaks the news to the guests as soon as they arrive but promises they\u2019ll check the weather first thing next morning so they can get moving. The obvious protagonist of the charter is a mustachioed man named Joaquin who arrives ready to raise hell. He is taking so many pictures and ordering so many margaritas.<\/p>\n
The day is kind of a dud as the weather isn\u2019t good enough to go swimming and the boat has to stay docked. At night, the guests and crew get ready for an \u201980s-themed dinner, which is not Josh\u2019s preferred decade. He\u2019s more of a \u201970s guy, and to prove his allegiance, we see a clip of his \u201970s-inspired, clown-clad music video (no comment). For dinner, Carlyn requested \u201cAsian,\u201d that most specific cuisine, but Josh delivers, as always. As Carlyn and her friends\/employees enjoy various rolls and crudos and caviar and tostadas and miso-braised eggplants, Kizzi stumbles into PoopGate. Her night was already off to a weird start when one of the guests told her that he wanted no service at all in his cabin. It gets worse when she asks Cathy to come down to another one of the cabins to help her identify the source of a vile smell, and they find a literal piece of shit in the shower. \u201cAll crew, there\u2019s poop in the shower,\u201d Kizzi calls on the radio, barely able to contain her laughter.<\/p>\n
Soon, the whole crew takes an interest in the pooped shower. Josh becomes increasingly aggravated that the situation is distracting the stews in the middle of dinner service. Say what you will about Kizzi, but she is game enough to deal with it, even if it makes her retch and shriek. Things escalate when she pushes the drain cover aside and discovers even more poop inside. Kizzi runs to get Aesha. No one likes talking or laughing about poop more than Aesha \u2014 \u201cI have a high tolerance for rectal issues,\u201d is how she eloquently puts it \u2014\u00a0but this is too much even for her. Leader that she is, though, she offers to do the dirty work of cleaning out the drain herself. She and Kizzi team up to quadruple-bag this shit and move on.<\/p>\n
A person\u2019s sense of entitlement and disregard for others has to be truly off the charts to do something like this and expect it to be cleaned up. Aesha generously frames the whole thing as an accident that the guest was hoping they wouldn\u2019t notice; maybe I\u2019m jaded, but I\u2019m thinking they literally don\u2019t give a shit whether somebody else has to clean up their bowel functions. Aesha has fun after dinner trying to suss out who might have been responsible for such a vile act; the next morning, before they leave for their picnic at Calella Lighthouse, production conspicuously leaves in a sound bite in which Carlyn admits she\u2019s been \u201chaving diarrhea.\u201d A clue, perhaps?<\/p>\n
Speaking of the picnic: Max is not happy that Nathan sends him to set it up with Joe just so that he can spend more time with Gael on the boat. Though it\u2019s an overreaction on Max\u2019s part to be so wounded that he has to do his job, his pettiness sharpens his observations: He clocks Nathan slacking around the boat, trying to recapture Gael\u2019s heart, and Nathan admits in a confessional that he did purposefully give himself a few hours with Gael back on the boat. Still, most of the crew likes getting off the boat \u2014\u00a0Kizzi, for one, is happy to get some air. They keep calling it a \u201cbeach picnic,\u201d but it\u2019s not really on the beach; rather, the guests will have lunch by the lighthouse at a high point that overlooks the beach. While Gael tenders the crew there, Aesha asks Nathan how the two of them are getting along and if they\u2019re going to \u201ctry again.\u201d Nathan says he wants to, but Gael is hesitant. As the episode draws to a close, Cathy gets a text from her mom asking her to call ASAP. She gets some horrible news: Her stepfather, who raised her, has just passed away. Cathy is shattered. It\u2019s really sad to see her so bereft, but for what it\u2019s worth, her mom seems great. She encourages her daughter to keep her head up and avail herself of the love that the crew has for her \u2014\u00a0and indeed, both Sandy and Aesha run to comfort her.<\/p>\n
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