Pier Pressure
Season 13
Episode 2
Editor’s Rating
3 stars
***
With the first charter underway, the crew makes quick first impressions on each other — some for the worse.
Photo: Bravo
It’s built into the dramatic structure of Below Deck that the crew hardly has time to get to know each other before the first charter, so that work can be as difficult as possible, as soon as possible. Save for Moe, who works by himself, every crewmember runs into some kind of adjustment problem this week. Actually, everyone save for Moe and James, who has yet to look alive. The most we get from him this week is a tale about his full-back Thai tattoo, which he got on one of his previous six trips to Thailand, a detail I’m shocked to learn on episode two. Despite not talking much, James’s good looks are enough to make at least one woman cry on the crew’s first night out. Though, to be fair, that’s not the only time Rosa cries this week.
It would take very little to make me cry if there were cameras following me around hoping I mess up on my job, so I sympathize with Rosa. But, as Fraser tells Rainbeau when they’re setting up the beach picnic, first impressions count, and Rosa has unfortunately cried herself into seeming whiny. Her first cry happens after the beach picnic. Kerry is overjoyed to take the guests to a private beach cove with beautiful, dramatic cliffs that remind Fraser of Jurassic Park, but the guests are underwhelmed at best. It doesn’t help that Fraser and Rainbeau set the lunch table only on one side, presumably so the guests can look out at the view, but the effect is that they can’t talk to each other. In fact, slight guest dissatisfaction starts to emerge, coupled with some rationalizations: “I know we didn’t, like, move anywhere since yesterday,” primary Kenny remarks, “but we’re in an epic spot.”
While the guests are on the beach, Rosa tells Kaylee that her first days on the job have felt like “the birth of something great, and birth is ugly.” That’s the mindset with which she receives instructions from Rainbeau upon the latter’s return to the boat. Rosa ostensibly doesn’t appreciate Rainbeau’s lack of manners — she doesn’t say please and thank you — but I imagine what’s really going on is that Rainbeau’s directions are annoying because Rainbeau, younger and less experienced, is the one giving them. Fraser catches Rosa crying. She tells him that she can take direction from “anyone,” but not if they use that tone. Later, with Kaylee, the truth comes out: Rosa says that Rainbeau acts too much the chief stew when she’s only the second.
Kaylee herself has other things on her mind, namely: deckhand Matt, figuring out how to work the juicer (the next day, it takes her 40 minutes with Moe’s help to manage a few glasses of green juice), and learning the difference between a plate and a “charger,” the plate you put plates on. Her flirtationship with Matt begins when he tells Moe, the onboard matchmaker — “pool is too young for me,” Moe explains, “if I can’t swim, I’ll make sure everybody is swimming” — that he likes “Katie” (he means Kaylee). Moe relates the news, and when Kaylee sees Matt, she nearly drops a tray of drinks. Hearing her say that she is a “hopeless romantic” made me want to press a huge red STOP button that would activate sirens and sprinklers on the Azul V. This is not the man, Kaylee. At different points in this episode, Matt tells us that he lost $80,000 trading cryptocurrency and that Rainbeau being taken “doesn’t really mean anything” (as in, he thinks she’s not attractive). It’s giving manosphere. Save yourself, dear girl.
Also, and perhaps most importantly, Matt has an attitude on deck. James likes Alex’s laissez-faire approach to leadership, but Matt thinks he’s too chill; he likes Kerry better, though he admits he has often clashed with captains. It’s an ominous admission, given that Kerry later identifies Matt’s arrogance as a potential problem for the deck crew. Like James, Sen also admires Alex’s approach, though there is more to it than professional respect; she thinks his air of mystery is sexy.
As the second day of the charter winds down, the interior team continues to struggle. Hanging out on the swim platform, the guests ask for chips and dip — Fraser refuses to serve them in the sun because they’ll get “too gross,” but promises to have them on standby once the guests come in. Apparently hungry for chips, they come in right away, like kids ready for their pool-day snack. But the chips never come. Eventually, one of the guests resigns to the fact that they’ll eat dinner soon anyway. I always side with the crew and think guests should demand as little as possible, but if you’re vacationing on a superyacht, you are entitled to have chips with your beer. I mean, it’s only right. These people should speak up!
Like Rosa, who finally speaks up when Rainbeau tries to micromanage her table-setting later that evening. When Rainbeau dismisses the need for gloves to handle cutlery, Rosa puts her foot down and grabs them anyway, “because that’s my standard.” You’d think those would be Rainbeau’s standards, too. At least they manage to set the places all around the table so people can look at each other. Kerry joins for dinner and is gifted a shirt to match the guests’, who have worn matching outfits every. single. day. Also thankfully, Moe nails dinner. His food — tomato and burrata salad; lamb chops with carrot puree; tiramisu — looks delicious, and apparently tastes great, too. When he comes up to talk to the guests, they applaud and cheer. The captain is pleased.
After dinner, the crew puts on a talent show at the guests’ request. Jessenia and Alex do some half cartwheels and backbends or something. Rainbeau yodels horribly (Moe: “I never heard yodeling before and I never want to hear it again), and Matt pulls a condom through his nose and out of his mouth (Moe: “what the fuck?”). It’s all disturbing enough to send the guests right to bed. Earlier, Fraser told Rainbeau to watch her tone with Rosa, who is “sensitive.” He also said that he had an undepicted chat with Kaylee about “sense of urgency.” At first, Rainbeau has no time for Rosa’s “sensitive English girl feelings” and would prefer Rosa to have come to her directly, but, later that night, she asks Rosa if she did anything to “piss [her] off.” Rosa admits to feeling patronized, and Rainbeau tells her briefly about her horrendous experience last season. She apologizes, and they hug. It seems like everything is going to be fine. Rainbeau goes to bed, and Rosa flirts with James for the rest of her shift. James feels some chemistry between them, but then again, he says, he flirts with everyone.
In the morning, Kerry is on edge about the first docking. The current at the marina is strong enough to make whirlpools, and the Azul V doesn’t have a ton of horsepower, so they need to leave early to beat the tide swings. The night before, he makes sure to tell Alex this. Still, Alex only has himself and Sen up early. They need to bring in the NautiBuoys and haul the anchor, a big job for only two people. Though she appreciates his trust, Sen doesn’t feel fully prepared to be in such a high-pressure position. She and Alex fight with the anchor chains long enough for Kerry to come out to the bow. He’s irritated; not only are they behind schedule, but Alex has also gone radio-silent. Kerry fixes the problem in 30 seconds only to realize, once they’re leaving, that Alex and Sen left the anchor ball up.
Before they get to the dock, Sen stops by the wheelhouse to apologize to Kerry for the delay; he doesn’t blame her and even tells her she did great. But he’s not as lenient with Alex, whom he instructs to come up with a better system. Kerry gathers the whole deck team to show them how they’re going to dock the boat. Hoping to redeem himself, Alex goes over the process in painstaking detail with the crew; he even draws a diagram. As he’s talking, Matt interjects and takes the pen from his hand. Still, the docking goes beautifully, with the help of Kaylee and Rosa (a former deck/stew) on the fenders. After the guests leave, Kerry and Alex debrief. Kerry tells Alex that they need to communicate better, and that he needs to keep an eye on Matt’s confidence, which verges on arrogance — the captain noticed Matt’s interruption when they were going through the docking logistics. I’m loving this shrewd, proactive side of Kerry. When Alex retorts that he is happy letting others “take initiative,” Kerry warns him that taking initiative is not taking over; there’s a hierarchy for a reason.
There was nothing in the guests’ manner to suggest they were anything but happy with their experience. At the very last second, Christina tells the crew that though they “bring great energy into their jobs,” it’s clear that they have “never worked together before.” Everyone looks stunned. “That being said, the food — no notes,” she amends. They still leave a decent $25,000 tip, which comes out to $2,083 each, but amazingly, no one brings up Christina’s comment at the tip meeting, not even Kerry. In fact, he congratulates his crew on a great first charter. Instead of discussing the feedback, Kerry has the crew pray for a good season at a Buddhist temple. “I’m praying for money, love, and everyone gets along,” Kaylee says, sounding like Bubbles.
At dinner, Moe continues to matchmake, encouraging Alex to go for it with Sen. Both of them want to tread carefully because of their power imbalance, but by the end of the night, they’re making out in the tuk-tuk. Alex tells Rainbeau that his strategy is to let Sen set the tone. Everyone, including Fraser — who is always puzzlingly encouraging his stews to get involved with crew — pressures Kaylee and Matt to make out, which they do, happily. That’s two Moe-engineered couples exchanging saliva; Moe did advise Rosa to take initiative with James, but she doesn’t like to be the one leading the charge. As far as she’s concerned, anyway, Rainbeau got in the way. She sits next to James at dinner and flirts a little — just because she has a boyfriend, Rainbeau says, it doesn’t mean she can’t flirt — which annoys Rosa. But the real hurt comes when they continue to flirt at the club, even after Rainbeau has encouraged Rosa to go for it in the bathroom.
Rosa’s frustration is understandable; less understandable is the fact that she and James ride back to the boat in a tuk-tuk by themselves and she doesn’t say a word to him. In her cabin, she cries as she tells Sen that she made it “abundantly clear” that she liked him, and only wasted time and energy. Someone — Sen? — needs to gently tell her that she made nothing clear at all, at least not when the cameras were on. I want to be on Rosa’s side, but she’s making it difficult. Meanwhile, Kaylee and Matt are doing things behind the closed doors of a guest cabin. She tells him that they’ll be exclusive for six weeks, which is definitely precocious. It makes me so nervous that this obviously good-spirited, gullible girl is going to put her feelings in the hands of a guy who, in response, can only say: “I have that effect on women.” I need that red button, stat!
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