![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/f6643dca3093da9faf627f1f01e442696f-Below-Deck-ep-15.rsquare.w400.png\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n Gen\u2019s new \u201cvillain era\u201d might make for fun television, but targeting the beloved Joy is a risky end-of-season move.
\n Photo: Bravo\n <\/p>\n
Before diving into this week\u2019s episode, an update from Gael and Kayden: Last weekend, Gael posted<\/a> an Instagram Story thanking the audience for their support. She said she is focused on rebuilding \u201cfor little man\u201d and herself and working on finding herself again and \u201cmoving forward.\u201d It\u2019s great to hear that she\u2019s safe and feeling supported by the Below Deck audience.<\/p>\n In this week\u2019s episode, Sandy relentlessly scolds Nathan. As Brian Moylan wrote in his canonical ranking<\/a> of every Below Deck cast member, \u201cthere\u2019s no more divisive figure in the franchise than Captain Sandy.\u201d Some people love how much she gets involved with the crew; others hate it. This week, she gets so involved in the insufferable ego battle between Nathan and Joe that you half-expect her to take sides; for most of the hour, she leans Joe. Some readers have pointed out how quickly blame gets assigned to Sandy even about aspects of the show, like casting, that are out of her control. It\u2019s true that, despite her sometimes-questionable judgment, Sandy is not only the franchise\u2019s most criticized captain \u2014 she is also its only female captain. Make of that what you will.<\/p>\n During the first day of the charter, Sandy notices that Nathan is punishing Joe for pouting in the previous charter, which wins her over to Joe\u2019s side. After undocking, she praises Joe\u2019s performance on the bow and offers to have him steer the boat, which makes Massi and Nathan jealous. To Joe, the opportunity is proof that Sandy is choosing him \u201cover Nathan.\u201d Earlier in the day, he called his mom to vent about the strain of his relationship with the bosun. In an eerily prophetic moment, he expressed relief that after the season, he\u2019ll never have to see Nathan again.<\/p>\n Joe will misstep soon enough, but for now, the interior is going through its own crisis. Gen storms downstairs after finding out that Luke sent Joy flowers, and Aesha follows. Gen feels humiliated: She didn\u2019t get Luke, didn\u2019t get second stew, Kat is mad at her, and her wrist hurts. Unfortunately for her, these are all direct consequences of her actions. Aesha gives her a hug and offers to put her in housekeeping for the next charter so she can take a breather without having to constantly put on a smile for guests. The switch will also give Kat a well-earned opportunity to shine in the spotlight of service: As Aesha points out, Kat\u2019s delightful personality is well-suited to interacting with guests.<\/p>\n Gen admits she\u2019s a petty person; she still holds a grudge against a fourth-grade teacher. Kat, on the other hand, can sit back and enjoy the stunning view from the high road. Seeing Gen upset, Kat offers her a hug, asks if she\u2019s okay, and offers to pick up her work while Gen takes a minute to recompose. Kat is proof that when you act with genuine kindness, there is no edit in the world that can make you out to be a villain. That makes me all the more disappointed in Cooper, who is fumbling this lovely girl. He complains to Joe that Kat was \u201con [his] ass\u201d about Gen flirting with him. Worse, on the second day of the charter, Cooper invites Joe to hang out with him and Kat in Dubrovnik after the season is over, hoping Joe\u2019s presence will signal to Kat that he is not interested in a romantic vacation. Remembering the catastrophic love triangle he was in last season, Joe advises Cooper to be honest. You know you\u2019re in the pits when you\u2019re getting not-bad romantic advice from Joe Bradley. He has struck a wholesome relationship with Kayley this season, but I\u2019d venture that\u2019s more because of Kayley than Joe. She sees him as an \u201cacting boyfriend\u201d much in the same way she was \u201cacting chief stew\u201d; she might even say their fling has an expiry date<\/a>.<\/p>\n The flowers ruin Gen\u2019s day, but they make Joy\u2019s. By putting in so much effort, Luke has redeemed himself in the chef\u2019s eyes, though it\u2019s still unclear how much she knows about Sheetsgate. As the charter gets underway, Gen spirals. Primary Karen, who goes by Kaz, arrives with her guests and Kelli, the blow-up doll, who is a sensation among guests and crew; the stews set a place at the table for her, and she is served marzipan food that Joy sculpts to look like a plate of pasta (Kelli later sustains an injury and has to be surgically taped together by Coop). Gen is oblivious to this wholesome fun because she is in laundry \u201ccrashing out,\u201d as she would say. \u201cI can\u2019t believe I used to go out with pro athletes and am losing my mind over Woody from Toy Story,\u201d she laments, before firing off three insane texts to Luke. She tells him that \u201cwhat [he] did with the flowers\u201d was \u201cextremely disrespectful,\u201d that it almost made her leave the boat, and that he is \u201cimmature for a middle-aged man.\u201d<\/p>\n That Gen would feel unsettled by Joy and Luke\u2019s continued involvement makes some sense; that she would take offense at it is baffling. What is so disrespectful about Luke sending Joy flowers? Luke finally texts her back (\u201cYou don\u2019t have authority to decide what I can or can\u2019t do\u201d), and Gen replies that she doesn\u2019t care enough to have a conversation with him, despite being the one to start the conversation. As Gen\u2019s surrogate older sister, I desperately wanted to reach into the television and pry the phone out of her hands. When Joy calls Luke to thank him for the flowers, he mentions Gen\u2019s texts, which Joy can\u2019t explain, especially not when Gen was all over Cooper on the last night out. Gen overhears some of their conversation and vents to Cooper, in the crew mess, that she was made to \u201clook like a jackass.\u201d Joy walks by to get into the walk-in fridge and sticks her tongue out at Gen\u2019s back.<\/p>\n It\u2019s when the guests are in the water after lunch that Sandy gets involved in deck politics. Massi, who has been working on boats since he was 16 years old, is mostly relieved that he doesn\u2019t have to get involved: As a deckie, he only has to do what he\u2019s told. Not every deckhand has the same attitude. Still, to Sandy, Joe\u2019s whining is no reason to write him off altogether. When she overhears Nathan instructing Cooper to tow the guests on a tube, she steps in to tell Joe to drive the tender instead, reasoning that he is \u201cbetter at towing\u201d (she will prove to be sorely mistaken later). Before dinner, Nathan tells her about the new anchor watch schedule. \u201cNot gonna happen,\u201d she says about Joe\u2019s six-hour graveyard shift, in front of Cooper and Massi. She worries that Joe will fall asleep on his watch, which is a fireable offense. In the bridge, she tells Nathan that it\u2019s obvious he\u2019s trying to punish Joe, and that he needs to stop. In a subtle punishment of her own, maybe, she asks Nathan to revert to the anchor watch schedule Joe himself drew up while Nathan was away. Later, when Joe comes up to switch with Nathan at midnight, Nathan tells him about the schedule change so quietly, you can barely hear him.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the stews set up for the guests\u2019 1970s-themed dinner. Gen vents to Aesha about the texts she was exchanging with Luke; Aesha tries her best to console her, but finds it hard to muster up that much sympathy for Gen. It\u2019s true that Gen doesn\u2019t help herself. After she overhears Joy telling Sandy about the flowers, she launders Joy\u2019s uniforms with the kitchen rags. She labels the machine \u201cJoy + rags :),\u201d and mutters that she\u2019s in her \u201cvillain era.\u201d I have a suspicion that Gen thinks this would be seen as \u201ciconic\u201d reality-TV behavior, but this kind of cunning is only rewarded by the viewer when the receiving party deserves what\u2019s coming for them. Joy has done nothing but delight us, so a villain Gen shall become.<\/p>\n When Joy sees the note in the morning, she vows to make Gen cry \u201cand send her to psychiatry.\u201d But she\u2019s classier than that, so she simply tells Aesha what Gen did. Later, after telling her that she\u2019ll go on the excursion with the guests to the blue caves (thereby being separated from the rest of the crew), Aesha tells Gen not to wash crew uniforms with rags; Joy\u2019s clothes smell badly because of the mix-up. Gen shamelessly acts like it was an accident. Though she doesn\u2019t fool Aesha, she is committed enough to the bit to tell Joy it wasn\u2019t on purpose, passive-aggressive Post-it notwithstanding. The chilling indifference of Joy\u2019s reaction (\u201cGood,\u201d she says, before turning around) sent a shiver down my spine.<\/p>\n Deck-side, Sandy asks Joe to get his watch schedule, which he does with a shit-eating grin. She asks Nathan to change it back to that on her computer, and when Nathan protests that he has his own computer, she snaps at him to just do as he\u2019s told and stop annoying her. But soon, Joe\u2019s judgment begins to show some serious cracks. During the cave excursion, Kaz and some other guests ask to swim back to the boat. Joe asks Massi to radio for the captain\u2019s permission, with the caveat that he\u2019ll follow on a seabob; Sandy grants it, as long as Massi also follows in the tender. But Kaz and her friends don\u2019t wait for Massi\u2019s go-ahead, and by the time Joe and Massi realize they\u2019ve already left, they\u2019re way out in the channel. Joe takes off after them on the seabob. From the boat, Sandy sends Nathan to pick the guests up with a Jet Ski. He explains to them that the danger is not drowning \u2014 Kaz, apparently an Olympic swimmer, is irritated at the implication she wouldn\u2019t be able to swim the distance \u2014 but the boat traffic.<\/p>\n The slip-up gives Nathan reason to criticize Joe\u2019s judgment. Massi admits he should also be held responsible \u2014 he didn\u2019t stop the guests, either \u2014 but because of their history, Nathan is content to blame only Joe. Earlier, when Aesha mentioned that Massi has a refreshing humility to him, Nathan pointed out how unlike Joe he is. For his part, Joe brushes it off as \u201cone of those situations where you can\u2019t pinpoint the blame,\u201d though he complains that he \u201cput [his] life at risk\u201d (okay, Joe) only to get shit from Nathan. Later, Joe makes another mistake. The guests ask to tube again, but because only three of them are going, they ask Cooper and a very eager Kat to join and balance out the weight. Joe tows again, but this time, he drives so fast that the tube flips over, and guest Michelle\u2019s shoulder pops out of its socket. They should have had Massi drive!<\/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