All the progress Joe, Nathan, and Gen have made all season falls apart just as the crew wraps up the final charter.
Photo: Bravo
Gen was so close. She was so close to having a trajectory that showed an increase in maturity over time, but the preview of the finale — in which she throws a glass of something (tequila soda?) at Luke on the crew’s final night out — suggests she’ll walk away having completed a perfect circle. At season’s end, we’re right back where we started. And it’s not just Gen back at square one. Joe and Nathan’s doomed bromance started off tense, got better over time, and worsened again once Joe found another bro to romance with.
In the long view, this season has been all about patterns. Though variety is necessary for an engrossing season of reality television, it’s also paramount that our characters play their roles: When I see Cirie Fields descend on an island, I know she’s going to Cirie. But new characters have the harder task of proving themselves to the audience; reality-TV charisma is an imprecise, unpredictable science. After 17 weeks, watching Gen try and fail and fumble and try again has become one of the most compelling parts of the show for me. Weekly readers of these recaps know I’ve taken to her like a little sister; another way to think of her is as a seabound version of a striving Edith Wharton heroine, a selfish and materialistic girl who deeply craves acceptance.
Joe and Nathan’s feud is not as compelling, not only because of what we know about how Nathan conducts himself off-camera but because it doesn’t have the je ne sais quoi that makes you want to root for either of them. Watching them finish that awkward confrontation in the van with Gael, I felt like Massi: It’s neither here nor there for me. For everyone except the three people involved, this fight has lost all appeal. Joe struggles to get a word in with Gael, but even if he did, it wouldn’t have fixed anything. By now, we know the beats of the argument by heart: Gael and Nathan feel disrespected; Joe acts shocked, etc. What do Nathan and Gael even want from Joe? For him to say they’re right, he’s a bad person?
Later, after Gael and Nathan have relieved Aesha of her babysitting duties, Aesha tells Nathan the reason Joe holds such a grudge against Gael is that “she broke up the bromance.” The irony of Nathan questioning someone’s grudge holding aside, this comment by Aesha is more incisive than it might initially appear because it gets at the heart of Joe’s own character pattern. His bond with Nathan was premised on its insularity, then Gael arrived like Yoko and threw everything out of whack. So this season, Joe moved on to Cooper — who all but broke up his own romance with Kat to prioritize Joe. All Joe needs to be happy on deck is a buddy whose full attention he can count on 100 percent of the time. When and if Joe returns as a bosun (the rumor is in the air, but it hasn’t officially been announced yet), that’ll be his challenge: Can he stand on his own two feet?
At least for now, he can lean on Cooper’s college-football frame. Let’s call a spade a spade: It’s basically over between Coop and Kat. They’ve gotten to a point where they greet each other with an awkward side hug. Despite admitting Cooper is “waving red flags like he just conquered a country” and running a pro-and-con list with a friend over FaceTime, Kat still thinks they can end the season on a high note. Cooper, for his part, acts all scared when Kat mentions visiting him and Gen in Fort Lauderdale. If Gen’s trajectory is a circle, Cooper’s is a rainbow: started at the bottom, soared to great heights, then plummeted down to Earth.
On the final pickup day, Gen commits to her bit as New Gen. Apropos of nothing, she tells Joy she is the best chef Gen has ever worked with and has taught her “how to handle situations with grace.” Joy wonders in a confessional if Gen was possessed by a zombie. But Gen isn’t done yet: Making cabins with Kayley, she admits the main lesson she learned from the season is to put her ego aside and be a better team player. It’s her own version of a Vanderpump Rules–style apology tour. These yachties aren’t as calloused as the erstwhile SURvers, so for the most part, the tour goes well. Everyone is kind of gobsmacked at New Gen. Her positive attitude pays off after the guests arrive: They are, as Aesha puts it, “obsessed with Gen,” and her performance finally earns her some praise from the chief stew. “It just shows you should never give up on people,” Aesha reflects in a confessional.
In fact, when Sandy sits down the crew for a pre-pickup meeting and urges them to leave their baggage behind, Gen nods knowingly. But Sandy isn’t talking to her; she’s addressing Joe and Nathan, trying to encourage them to move on. “I’m done with allowing this rivalry to get between them,” the captain muses in a confessional, but it’s obviously too late. Earlier, during their last preference-sheet meeting, Sandy put on her serious face to tell the deck team to pull it together for one more charter, but at this point, the tension between Joe and Nathan has become so inculcated in the foundation of the team that these appeals to reason hardly make a difference. Joe cannot take direction from Nathan, no matter how straightforward. A simple request that he pump up one of the inflatables is enough to make Joe check his pulse and tell the captain he is “experiencing a rise.” Nathan may suck, but he’s still Joe’s boss, and it’s his job to ask him to do things.
Even then, the implications of their dynamic resonate beyond what’s on the screen. Joe tells Kayley his father was an aggressive alcoholic and he has worked to distance himself from that kind of attitude his whole life. It triggers his memories when Nathan gets in his face, which is horrible to consider given what we know now. It’s big on Joe’s part to take Sandy’s suggestion to unburden himself of this resentment, and his approach disarmed me — instead of leading with his usual line, which is that Nathan is too sensitive, he pulls Nathan aside to say he misses their friendship. He feels ready to respect that Nathan has entered a new phase in his life. His words don’t mean anything to Nathan, who doesn’t believe them. He thinks Joe is jealous because he is “worth a woman who is strong and independent” — hard words to type and another illustration of the cul-de-sac nature of this relationship: There’s nothing Joe can say to Nathan to make amends. They shake hands anyway, and Nathan tells Joe he appreciates the talk. Nathan writes to Gael that he and Joe agreed to finish the charter and never work together again.
There is a reason closure is on Sandy’s mind — she celebrates her 36th year of sobriety during the charter. Speaking vulnerably, Sandy tells us about her journey, and she is moved when Aesha gives her a necklace with a pendant engraved with the number 36 and an anchor. Aesha herself gets emotional when she tells us in a confessional that her mother was an alcoholic when she was growing up. Happily, Aesha’s mom is ten years sober, and everyone is okay. But unfortunately, touching stories of perseverance do not an episode of Below Deck make. Eight beefy gay guys are coming onboard, and they are hungry for chicken.
Primary Tristan, a hospitality executive living Gen’s dream life, brings his fiancé, Melvin, and five GPS-tracked boyfriends on charter, along with their random friend Cory. One of the boyfriends is called Vitor; he’s from Brazil, and he’ll be bleeding from his forehead before the episode is over. Joy plans the menu according to the guests’ high-protein, high-volume, low-carb, margarita-sugar diet, but she underestimates just how much chicken these guys can eat. She Googles, “how many grams of protein a day of intensive gym guy,” [sic] and when she gets the answer — 200 grams to start — she realizes she’s low on chicken breast. For dinner on the first night, Joy makes chicken 70 ways, but the guys still think the meal is more like lunch than dinner. They’re not wrong: a chicken Caesar is lunch food, unless it is accompanied by starchy, greasy fries (and a martini — that’s how we roll in New York City).
The guests aren’t really satisfied, but they don’t complain, either, which earns them low-fat, sugar-free brownie points. Later that night, after the hot tub and several rounds of shots, they feel freer to complain to Gen that there isn’t enough chicken in the sandwiches Joy prepared for their late-night snack. Gen finds them some protein bars to tide them over, but at breakfast, even a steak-omelet sandwich is too much bread and not enough protein. Joy checks in with them and politely says she respects how “disciplined” they are with their bodies. It’s an interesting snapshot into the derangements of wellness culture that Michelle’s similarly macro-focused diet doesn’t have the same positive connotation. They agree on filet mignon and crispy chicken for dinner; thankfully, chicken provisions get there in time.
The guests go swimming and snorkeling in a nearby bay, where Joe and Coop work for their tip: They get in Speedos and offer their abs for body shots. Joe dives headfirst into the water, hits his head on a rock, and bleeds a little but is fine. The same isn’t true for Vitor, who, back on the boat, gets so excited to jump onto the inflatable slide that he bonks his head against the side of the boat, cutting a gash on his forehead. Much to Gen’s joy, the sexy teacher–medic is called back to bandage up my fellow countryman. Two injuries in two charters is not a great indicator of success — to Massi, it gives “Final Destination vibes” — but hey, two is a coincidence. Besides, there won’t be any more chances for people to get hurt because this is the last charter.
Well, at least not physically hurt. Throughout the episode, Luke texts Joy words of encouragement and romantically announces that a plate of vegetables at a restaurant reminded him of her. At the end of the hour, he calls Joe to say he is in Dubrovnik and wants to surprise Joy on their last crew night out. Joe promises to keep it a secret and to let Luke know where they’re going so he can join. Joe immediately knows this surprise is going to cause an issue, even though New Gen was just telling us how great she felt helping Joy with her dishes, something she never would have dreamed of doing even two days ago. It’s the calm before the storm — the finale looks eventful, to say the least. See you there!
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