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There has been plenty of personal and professional growth on the Katina this season. Jo\u00e3o has come into his new personality as a reliable, sensible second officer; Betul has grown more confident as a deckie; Ellie has gone from washing dishes to cutting sushi. But as the crew reflects on the season before embarking on their final charter, some of them come to\u2026 interesting conclusions. Alesia, for example, thinks she\u2019s ready to be second stew. Alesia came in as an ostensible sous-chef, got demoted to galley-hand, nearly blew a gasket, and demanded to be switched over to the interior department, where she and Mike constantly bickered. But she tends to be a hit with the guests, and with Mike gone, she has been able to focus on work. She has undeniably grown as a professional. Is that enough to get promoted?<\/p>\n
The question at the heart of this week\u2019s episode is: What separates a good job from an excellent one? What\u2019s the difference between \u201cbare minimum,\u201d \u201cappropriate,\u201d and \u201cabove and beyond\u201d? I\u2019d argue that deboning fish for the guests, for example, is the bare minimum. I\u2019m still not sure what possessed Ben to serve bone-in fish on a superyacht, though he maintains that a superyacht server should know how to filet them tableside. He goes as far as to suggest that Daisy is bad at her job for not knowing how to. Why didn\u2019t Ellie come up to help if it was so simple? After dinner, Jason tells Ben that service was \u201ca bit low,\u201d but doesn\u2019t press him too much, because the fish, presentation be damned, was excellent.<\/p>\n
To borrow Jo\u00e3o\u2019s words, Ben and Daisy\u2019s conflict is a \u201cbattle of two very big egos.\u201d Instead of collaborating on a solution to the fish problem, they each insisted they knew better, and the result was that neither of them got what they wanted: Good service. When Daisy asks Jo\u00e3o whether Ben was bitching about her in the galley (he was), Jo\u00e3o assures her that Ben was just venting, much like she is doing now. The tension between Daisy and Ben becomes so extreme that they can\u2019t communicate about basic things, like the morning schedule. During dinner, the guests tell Daisy they want breakfast at 8 a.m., but she mistakenly tells Ellie and Ben 9 a.m. Ellie corrects her, based on what Jason told them. Top-three worst feelings: Making a mistake when you\u2019re trying to prove you\u2019re right. It doesn\u2019t help that Ben refuses to take matters into his own hands and confirm a schedule with the guests himself. Still, what really annoys Daisy is that Ellie doesn\u2019t seem to respect her rank.<\/p>\n
Despite the horrendous vibes in the galley, the evening goes well. The guests enjoy the food and don\u2019t seem inconvenienced by the fish bones. They love it when Jason surprises them by bringing up Garrett\u2019s birthday cake (un)dressed as Adam. When the guests ask Daisy who the second stew is and she replies she doesn\u2019t currently have one, Alesia starts to wonder what Jenna has that she doesn\u2019t; in fact, she thinks she would be an even stronger second stew than Jenna was.<\/p>\n
Alesia\u2019s dream of getting promoted will remain a dream, but Ellie has a real reason to think she might move up soon. She offers to get up early and get the guests\u2019 continental breakfast prepped. Ben gives her an apparently daunting to-do list, but Ellie feels ready to take it on, and when the chef wakes up in the morning, she has nailed every task. In a confessional, Ellie says that this season has taught her how to see things from a new perspective, but it seems more like it was Ben\u2019s perspective of her role in the galley that changed. Pleased with Ellie\u2019s breakfast performance, Ben tells Jason he wants to promote her to sous-chef. Just then, Daisy comes onto the bridge to offer the captain a cup of coffee and overhears Ben\u2019s suggestion. \u201cI\u2019ll throw a fucking tantrum,\u201d she seethes to Jenna in the pantry. Ben\u2019s argument is that Ellie\u2019s role has \u201ctransformed\u201d to include cooking, but as Jenna points out to Daisy, Ellie has yet to make a crew meal or to actually cook anything that\u2019s not Jo\u00e3o\u2019s ill-advised birthday cake. Daisy also thinks that the promotion would be a big \u201cfuck you\u201d to her, since Ellie has tested the chief stew\u2019s authority time and again to no repercussion.<\/p>\n
Jason rejects Ben\u2019s plan. He reminds the chef that Ellie\u2019s freak-out was only four charters ago. By working hard, she hasn\u2019t done anything that wasn\u2019t required of her, by the job or the need to redeem herself from inappropriate conduct. Besides, it might affect the team\u2019s morale to promote Ellie so close after demoting Jenna, and it\u2019s not like Ellie\u2019s hard work is going unrecognized. Ben is constantly singing her praises, and just that morning, when the guests oohed and aahed at the breakfast spread, Ellie\u2019s enemy Daisy made sure to give Ellie credit. In the pantry, Jenna jokes with Daisy: If the standard to get a promotion is \u201cdo your job,\u201d can she have her stripes back?<\/p>\n
Despite being categorically shut down by the captain, Ben continues to build up Ellie\u2019s expectations by calling her chef and asking for help with the lunch sushi. Meanwhile, Alesia vents to Barbie that Daisy has made it clear she\u2019s nowhere near getting second stew. If any stew other than Jenna is poised to be second, it\u2019s obviously Barbie, who can tell that Alesia is not ready. Daisy\u2019s point that Alesia has to work on her \u201cforgetfulness\u201d before getting a second stripe is proved a little later, when the guests ask Alesia to make the jacuzzi cold before lunch. She opens the water and forgets it running; the guests notice it when it\u2019s about to overflow. The water is also\u2026 still hot.<\/p>\n
Tensions between the galley and the interior continue to escalate over lunch service, when a radio mishap fumbles the order in which the food should go out. When Ben radios that \u201csalad goes first,\u201d Daisy radios back: Do it yourself, \u201cor get your assistant to bring it up.\u201d Jason and Jo\u00e3o, elsewhere on the boat, murmur, \u201cThat\u2019s not good.\u201d Ellie brings up the salad and seizes the opportunity to take credit for her part in making lunch. Thankfully, none of these skirmishes affects the guests\u2019 satisfaction with the trip. Their five-star feedback cards shout out both Daisy and Ben as MVPs, and they leave a good $23,000 tip, which comes out to $1,700 each for the crew. Despite the positive feedback, Jason encourages Daisy and Ben to improve their communication. He awards the disco helmet to Eddy for bringing his personal issues into the job. Jason says \u2014 and I think most of us agree \u2014 that Jenna is well aware of her misbehavior, and it\u2019s time everyone moves on.<\/p>\n
The crew, used to two days off, looks shaken when Jason tells them they have a 24-hour turnaround: The next charter guests will arrive the next day. Daisy gathers her team to debrief in one of the cabins and asks Barbie to get the comment cards so they can go through them. But Ben is still reading them, and he refuses to share. Daisy stomps down the stairs to ask him herself, but he still refuses. Annoyed, Daisy says the interior needs to get to work, while he and Ellie will probably \u201cfuck around\u201d for a few hours before getting back in the galley. Indeed, after finally giving up the cards, Ben and Ellie go down for a nap.<\/p>\n
Ben wakes up when Jason calls the heads of department to their final preference sheet meeting. Incoming are Brandon and Carmen, two \u201csocialites and best friends\u201d in the habit of bringing photographers to a steakhouse dinner. These are returning guests, and last time they were on a vessel captained by Jason, Brandon nearly got kicked off the boat for swimming drunk. \u201cAnd you let them come back?\u201d Daisy asks the captain, as if the decision were his. Later, in their cabin, Daisy asks Jo\u00e3o to back her up when she talks to Ben later about not promoting Ellie. Jo\u00e3o says he will, if\/when warranted. Daisy and Jo\u00e3o have gotten more lovey-dovey since their What Are We talk last episode<\/a>. They\u2019ve been regularly sleeping in the same bed and, at dinner, they kiss in front of everyone. Ben doesn\u2019t like it one bit. If Jo\u00e3o was already prone to siding with Daisy before kissing, now he has no chance.<\/p>\n Speaking of \u201ccouples,\u201d during the charter, things between Eddy and Jenna got better. Eddy feels embarrassed for letting his emotions have the best of him and even somewhat responsible for Jenna\u2019s demotion. He tells her he\u2019s sorry about her losing her stripes, and over dinner, Jenna vows to take \u201cfull fucking responsibility\u201d for what happened. As they\u2019re talking, Alesia asks them to be \u201cpresent\u201d for the evening, since on the last crew night out, they were anything but. Ellie joins in, telling them they need to \u201cstop bringing the vibe down\u201d every time they\u2019re out. Ellie and Jenna get into it a bit, but it blows over. Meanwhile, Ben and Barbie, sitting across from each other, have a running gag \u2014 every couple of minutes they pull their table a bit farther from the group, so that by the end of dinner, they\u2019re over three feet apart from the rest of the crew.<\/p>\n The fact that everyone is drinking espresso martinis freaks me out. They have work early in the morning! The evening started out pleasantly enough, with Jo\u00e3o praising Alesia for how far she has come and Ellie lying to Eddy that her tension with Daisy is \u201ccompletely one-sided\u201d on Daisy\u2019s part. Jo\u00e3o\u2019s praise emboldens Alesia to ask Daisy why she\u2019s not second stew material. Daisy tells her that she needs to learn how to be calmer and more collected. \u201cJust by being frantic, it doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re working harder,\u201d she says. Alesia ultimately accepts Daisy\u2019s assessment that she\u2019s not ready to be a second stew, and they hug it out and say I love you. If only Ben and Daisy\u2019s conversation could have such a happy ending\u2026<\/p>\n Seeing Ellie and Jenna get into it reminds Daisy that she had a bone to pick with Ben. She asks him to go somewhere, but sensing a confrontation, he tells her that if she wants to talk about work, it\u2019ll have to wait until the morning, as he\u2019s \u201cnot working\u201d right now. In a confessional, he says that he feels like a kid with a mean Irish nanny. They start cursing at each other, and Ben heads back to the boat. Jenna follows him \u2014 whether it\u2019s to comfort him, tell him that Ellie was coming for her at dinner, or defend Daisy, it\u2019s unclear. But the result is that she sees him going into a made-up guest cabin. She runs after him, begging him not to \u2014 the cabins are all ready to welcome the guests in less than 13 hours. But Ben is determined to sleep on a nice bed, and he locks the door behind him.<\/p>\n Ben insists that it\u2019s no big deal to sleep in a made-up guest cabin, but it\u2019s straight-up sabotage of the interior team. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s hyperbolic to suggest it would be like if one of the stews went into the walk-in fridge and ate whatever Ben had prepared for the guests. Besides, Ben knows what he\u2019s doing; there\u2019s a reason he used to check with Daisy every time he wanted to sleep in a guest cabin. Daisy is so done with Ben that, when she learns that he\u2019s in a made-up bed, she can hardly muster up the energy to care. \u201cGo pull him out,\u201d she shrugs to an exasperated Alesia. She doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s worth it to get into it with Ben, since he\u2019s unlikely to budge. Jo\u00e3o offers to handle the situation. He sees Ben\u2019s behavior as disrespectful to everyone, so he wakes up an engineer to get a key to the room Ben is in. It startles Ben to get woken up, and he\u2019s immediately angry. \u201cYou can\u2019t sleep on a bed that\u2019s been made for charter,\u201d Jo\u00e3o says, in the tone of a disappointed father. But it only takes two \u201cfuck offs\u201d for Jo\u00e3o to lose his patience. \u201cDon\u2019t ever talk to me like that again,\u201d he warns, when Ben keeps calling him names. By the time Ben is unmaking the bed, lying in it, and cussing Jo\u00e3o out, the fight is bad. \u201cI\u2019ll remember this,\u201d Ben says. We get one of those ominous \u201cto be continued\u201d title cards. Honestly, there is one charter left. Can\u2019t they keep it together?<\/p>\n Sign up for the Housewives Institute Bulletin<\/p>\n Dame Brian Moylan breaks down all the gossip and drama, on- and off-screen, for dedicated students of the Reality Television Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n