Below Deck Recap: When Rookie Mistakes Hit the Deck

Forget MVPs; this week’s episode is all about LVPs. I’d be willing to bet that the St. David won’t go two more charters without someone getting fired, and for my money, it’s Caio on the chopping block. By the end of “Fight Island,” Kerry can tell that Caio is in way over his head, no matter how thoroughly he has convinced himself otherwise. The only person doing worse than the bosun is Solène, who is not a talented or dedicated yachtie, and though lack of experience doesn’t necessarily portend poor performance, she looks less than eager to learn. But unlike Caio, she gets away with it: Fraser seems to have no idea how slow her progress is. At one point this week, he hugs her tightly and says how happy he is just because she didn’t throw a tantrum when she had to make a bed.

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Hanging out with Kyle before the guests arrive, Solène tells him about a bracelet she has kept from her ex-boyfriend Dylan , the Johnny Bravo–esque deckhand from last season. It’s kind of chilling to think of two such self-centered personalities together, but now it makes more sense how and why Solène got a spot on the show. Part of what makes Below Deck compelling is that yachting is the cast’s job, before and above reality television, rather than their jobs being reality television with a job set-up , like in the middle seasons of Vanderpump Rules . It’s only been three episodes, but so far, this season stays true to the franchise in a way I find persuasive: The conflicts are emerging from the inherent stress of the job rather than relying too heavily on cyclical interpersonal fighting, like in Down Under .

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This is why Solène stands out from the rest of the cast and why her presence is so grating: She couldn’t care less about yachting. Obviously, it’s normal to hate your job — especially when it’s such a demanding one — but the rest of the cast have built their careers on yachts, and they take pride in their professionalism. It’s no wonder Rainbeau nearly loses her shit on Solène when she refuses to learn how to work better or smarter — not only does that end up making more work for the second stew, it’s disrespectful for Solène to act like she’s above making a bed or doing dishes faster.

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Their bickering starts before the charter begins, as they’re preparing the cabins for the guests’ arrival. Rainbeau tries to explain to Solène that when a bed has been pulled tight and Febrezed, it won’t need to be ironed, therefore making the whole process more efficient. But Solène’s approach to housekeeping is like a kid’s doing chores: She just wants to be told what to do and to do it at her own pace, with no regard for how her slowness might impact the rest of the team. It’s rich of her to talk back to Rainbeau when Fraser had explicitly told them that morning that the point of Solène doing cabins with Rainbeau was for her to learn how a stew thinks, and they agreed to skip pleasantries. It’s even more frustrating when, later that day, Rainbeau apologizes for “yelling” — she didn’t — and Solène dismisses her apology. More startlingly still, they have this conversation in front of Kerry over dinner in the crew mess, who just sort of watches without saying anything.

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This dynamic unjustly sets Rainbeau up as the “bad cop” for the rest of the charter. Bárbara, who adjusted her approach in the first couple of days, praises Solène in front of everyone and makes light of her slowness — it took her two hours to make a bed, she jokes, but at least she did a good job. Because Bárbara treats her like a kid, Solène actually listens to her, which creates the impression she is making progress. This is what leads Fraser to tell her how proud he is of her, which only shows how ably Solène has manipulated all of the interior to bend to her inexperience rather than dedicating herself to learning. She has made her inexperience a source of power, and she punishes Rainbeau for not yielding to it.

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I’m quick to defend Fraser, but it’s crazy that this is all sliding past him. In fact, he seems distracted; he fails to have the captain’s uniform ready three times in a single day. The first time, Fraser is pissed, and he tells us in a confessional that it may be time to stop relying on people and to make sure that he gives more explicit directions. After Kerry has to ask for his clothes for the third time, Fraser tells the girls that this can’t happen again, but doesn’t try to understand why it happened or how to avoid it in the future. Bárbara blames herself — it may well be her fault since she’s in laundry — but it’s incumbent on the chief stew to create a system that would protect against this kind of slip-up. I don’t know, maybe do it yourself or assign this task to someone? Solène? Want to look alive?

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Ultimately, though, the interior’s imbalance falls on Rainbeau. Fraser puts her on the late shift for the charter, and when she tries to give Solène more tips on how to work faster, she only gets dismissed. As a result, Solène doesn’t finish all of the tasks on her checklist before going to bed, which means Rainbeau has to pick up the slack. By 2 a.m., she’s crying; by 2:15, she is having a panic attack. It takes her until 3 a.m. to finish everything, though she tells her team that she was done at 2:15, so that she can get up earlier and help with turn-ups. Rainbeau is tough — she tells Jess about her upbringing, which prized stoicism and physical fighting as a way to express your emotions, and how she has learned to “manage” her temper by bottling it up. But she needs to tell Fraser about how overworked she is so that he can open his eyes to what’s happening in his own department and give Solène the kind of talk she deserves — not praise, but pressure, like the kind Kerry puts on Caio.

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As for the five-day porn-star charter, it starts out fine, with some rain and wind that make Kerry nearly have a heart attack as they go through the narrow bridge at port, but ultimately the yacht is anchored without crisis. The pressure is on for the deck team to take primary Skyy and his seven guests to three islands and make sure there are things happening every night, including sculpting “a massive dong” out of sand on a nudist beach. (Something tells me Kyle will be up for that job.)

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Things seem to be going smoothly, except Caio either doesn’t know he has to have a break schedule for his deckies or hasn’t cared to make one. Jess has to bring up the fact that nobody has had lunch twice on the first day of the charter — when she tells him that she hasn’t eaten yet, he is surprised , as though she should have just figured out when to go on her own. Later, Jess tells Damo that she’s going to express the crew’s frustration with the disorganized break schedule to Caio and that she’ll take it to Kerry if necessary. When she does bring it up to the bosun, he takes it fine — he tells her he’s “open to suggestions” — but the break thing is only one of a series of small disasters that befall the deck crew.

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On the second day of the charter, they sail to Anguilla, where Caio tells Kerry about a good snorkeling spot near anchor. When Kerry offers to take the guests there, Caio realizes he miscommunicated where the spot was. Kerry is mad that correcting himself in front of the guests will make him “look like a clown,” his number-one fear. Had Caio been solid at his job, Kerry might not have had such a reaction: It’s disproportionate since it doesn’t really affect the snorkeling trip — the guests have a good time anyway, and I doubt they care who is right or wrong about where the snorkeling is — but it tries Kerry’s patience when combined with all the other “schoolboy mistakes” Caio has been making. While the guests are out snorkeling, Kyle spots the banana float drifting away from the boat. Then, Caio brings the guests back to the St. David 30 minutes ahead of schedule with no warning. All of this leads Kerry to call the bosun to the bridge and ask him, honestly, whether or not he’s up for the job. Caio says yes, of course, but Kerry doesn’t seem so sure.

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Not that Skyy and his guests would ever be able to guess all the stuff that’s going on with the crew from their vantage point. They’re loud and out there — to housekeeping’s dismay, they requested a bottle of lube in every room — but nice, respectful, and hilarious. Lawrence and Anthony kill it as a team in the kitchen, delivering a delicious and fresh lunch and a killer menu for the French cabaret-themed dinner on the first night.

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In the galley, Lawrence lays down the law of the menu and of the cleaning, and by the time he’s ready to go on the second day of the charter, Anthony says he’s going to miss him. Lawrence has made some of the best-looking and best-sounding food of the Below Deck franchise at large, so it’s a bummer we won’t see what else he can do. Kerry gives Anthony a pep talk after Lawrence leaves, which Anthony welcomes: The pressure is on for him to deliver and redeem himself.

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I’ll close out with what I thought were the two most befuddling moments in this episode. At the after-dinner talent show, guest Marcel literally put his entire fist in his mouth. That still wasn’t as disturbing as the sight of Solène washing her feet in the crew mess sink .

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