From missing the guest arrival to majorly delayed meals, the crew is struggling to stay afloat.
Photo: Bravo
On the first charter of the season, the galley’s main problem was that Ben and Alesia couldn’t get along. On the second charter, the galley’s main problem is that Ben and Ellie are getting along … too well? We know from last week’s season preview — and from prior experience with Ellie — that this peace has no chance of lasting, but for now, Ben and Ellie’s “camaraderie” is seriously putting them behind. It’s so predictable of Ben to start playing nice as soon as he is working with someone he finds interesting in other ways. The official story, and the more generous interpretation, is that he learned from his mistakes with Alesia and is rerouting course. Part of his new plan is to officially ditch the title of “sous chef,” since Ellie, like Alesia, has no professional kitchen experience or training. With Daisy, Ben brainstorms a new title: Chef Assistant. It’s a title Ellie can get behind.
Another step forward is that Ben is not harboring any illusions about relying on Ellie’s cooking skills and is clear with her about her responsibilities: She’ll help him keep the galley clean and organized with room to help with crew food. Eventually, she concludes that her real job is to bring structure to Ben’s chaos. Passing the galley at one point, Alesia asks herself, “Why are they giggling? He’s mean.” Jason warns Ellie about Ben’s fiery temper, but she encounters no such difficulties for now. Ben is conspicuously kind: He introduces João to Ellie as “a captain in his own right” and a “good friend.” Nothing like a new day and the full attention of a beautiful woman to get Ben’s mind straight.
Ben is not the only person crushing. Preparing the cabins for the incoming charter, Jenna and Alesia chat about their prospects, though Alesia — who has a boyfriend — is sheepish, only admitting she has had second thoughts about her relationship since developing a rapport with Eddy, who is still hopeful, if confused, about his chances. Mike, for his part, thinks Ellie is “a bit of [him]” and will “give it a blast.” He asks Ben if he’s gotten any intel on “Ellie’s type” while Jenna runs around the boat looking for him to do his job. Mike seems to have a delusion that if he tries hard enough, he can turn Below Deck into Love Island, a show in which every conversation starts with describing a person’s “type” and takes place by the pool.
Besides, even if Ben has any intel, he’s probably keeping it to himself. He feeds Ellie lines like “I was looking at pictures of Slovenia.” While they discuss that country’s dominance in competitive skiing, Jason repeatedly radios them to get ready in their whites to welcome the guests. Ben assures Ellie they have plenty of time, but soon loses track of it. They talk over the radio so much, they don’t hear Jason’s repeated “galley, galley” commands. Ben and Ellie are so late that the guests arrive before the crew has lined up on the dock. They stand awkwardly in front of the boat. Jason brings them aboard, and they meet the crew on the deck. Jason apologizes for the delay. The primary Christian, immediately seizing an opportunity to demonstrate the kind of guests they will be, assures Jason it’s fine, as long as it doesn’t happen again.
Ben doesn’t like that one bit, not that he’s in a position to like or dislike anything — the fact that the crew wasn’t lined up and ready makes everyone look bad. The captain worries that now they will have to spend the whole charter making up for that mistake. When he comes down to the galley fuming, Ben knows to keep his head down and apologize. This charter will be harder than the last — the Housewives were tough on service but too busy fighting to notice the food. The real work begins now, and it’s immediately infernal for Daisy.
The guests sit down for an agreed-upon 2:30 p.m. lunch. They are peckish and, as we’ll see, helmed by an intrepid complainer. If fussiness were an Olympic sport, Annette would be a legend. She complains there is no fresh grapefruit juice; when she switches from her grapefruit drink to a Bloody Mary, it’s too sweet. She asks to see the Bloody Mary ingredients to check on what flavor she is picking up on, then decides the culprit is Worcestershire sauce, which is neither sweet nor an unusual addition to a Bloody Mary. Even Jason notices the guests are fidgety. Ellie moves fast in the galley, but Ben takes his time. Their chatting drowns out Daisy’s increasingly aggravated check-ins over the radio. By the time lunch comes out, it’s nearly 30 minutes late and not Annette’s cup of tea (everyone else is happy).
While João and Mike take the guests out on a snorkeling excursion, Betul, who has been having some trouble understanding Jason’s instructions, asks to speak with the captain. In a confessional, she tells us that the plurality of accents onboard is making it hard for her to do her job. It’s funny — the accents really are thick and diverse — until it strikes a chord. Betul opens up to Jason about her difficult upbringing and how not understanding what people are saying triggers memories of her family’s dismissal of her intelligence. She kindly asks the captain to enunciate when speaking to her. Betul’s determination to work hard and well, and her openness, move Jason, who thinks of his daughter. As a fellow English-as-second-language-er, it nearly brought me to tears, too. There’s no worse feeling. Betul forever.
Language, and particularly talk, are big themes in this week’s episode. On the snorkeling excursion, Mike’s passion for chatting nearly contributes to a disaster. Eager to please the guests, Mike chats with them about the turtles, stingrays, and fish, but there is a strong current that makes swimming a struggle for some guests and almost takes one of them, Liz, away. They end up finding Liz pretty quickly, and she has a life jacket on, but the whole thing puts João on the verge of a heart attack. Setting out, he asked Mike to keep an eye on the guests, but Mike was mostly distracted. When they get back to the boat, João makes a plan with Jason that next time he will go ahead of the guests to check on the current and be better prepared. Liz, for her part, is not shaken at all. She was following a stingray!
Later, João gathers his team to go over safety guidelines and their importance. He asks them to be attentive; it’s not enough to have “banter” with the guests, you also have to look out for them. Mike feels attacked. He has been itching to be on deck more — earlier in the day, when Alesia asked him to show her around the bar, he complained about being “stuck in interior” — though his idea of working on deck seems to be a fantasy in which he would chill with “the lads” all day instead of sweating over lines and running up and down stairs. Again, go on Love Island. Still, he takes João’s feedback in stride. It’s not until later, when Daisy gathers her own crew to address the day’s problems, that Mike becomes actively defensive. It could be that he’s in that phase of a new job when you feel like you can do nothing right, which is why he feels cornered. But it is curious that he talks back to his Lady Boss — who rejected his advances — but not to his Guy Boss. I’m not accusing him of anything; I am merely pointing things out.
If I were Mike, I’d be scared of Daisy: By the end of the day, there’s steam coming out of her ears. In the interest of improvement, she tells Ben that lunch service was too slow, and they agree to pick up the timing for an 8 p.m. dinner. She puts Jenna, Alesia, and Mike in charge of decorations and goes about her work. When she returns to the sundeck, it’s dinner time and the three musketeers are still decorating. And the horses they brought out for “Polo and Pearls” night are country horses, not race horses, according to primary/terrorist Christian, so they have to put them all back. At 8:05, they are still doing last touches and the food is not on the table. Daisy lights a fire under Jenna’s ass to pick it up, and they do, but the galley is not on tempo. 25 minutes go by between the first and second courses; even Jason plants himself in the galley to put ambient pressure on Ben. Thankfully, the guests skip dessert; otherwise, they would have been up until five in the morning.
After the painfully slow service, Daisy gathers her team to clarify that it cannot take three of them two hours to set up a table. Mike retorts that it’s his first time on the job and he feels pulled in every direction, despite his earlier complaint that he hasn’t been on deck enough. Daisy has no patience for it: He needs to take initiative and learn how to multitask. She assures him she’s not targeting him, but there will always be something to do. Everyone else takes the feedback quietly. In the morning, Daisy gives Mike an opportunity to redeem himself by having him get a head start on the beach setup for later. Credit where it’s due: The table is nicely set when the guests arrive.
It’s a new day and Christian’s birthday; the whole crew vows to do better. The previous day was hectic, but today, they will sail smoothly. The guests will be ashore at noon and lunch will be served at 1 p.m. That is, if Ben can decide what kind of wrap to serve. Lobster salad? With capers or without? What about a tuna-poke … wrap? These ideas come to him like so many strokes of inspiration about 30 minutes before lunch is supposed to be served on the beach. Meanwhile, Annette is making an unbelievable fuss about it being too hot. She is lying on the ground. She is overheating. She is miserable. Inexplicably, she did not wear her bathing suit to the beach. Daisy sends Eddy out to fetch it, but they misunderstand each other. Eddy is under the impression he can bring it back with the food once it’s ready — which it is not — but Daisy meant for him to come right back. She sends a strongly worded voice message to Jenna asking Eddy to get back right this second with the food and the swimsuit, both of which she needed 30 minutes ago. Meanwhile, Christian and Annette’s friends have a drink and enjoy themselves, like regular people on vacation. It’s been 45 minutes since Annette requested her swimsuit, and Ben is still rolling wraps while Jason watches uneasily. It’s a disaster.
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