This episode of Below Deck Down Under had it all – injured guests, impending weather, love triangles and gold spray paint; what more could anyone ask for in a reality show?

We pick up where we left off; after deckie Adam neglected to rinse the deck underneath the outdoor dining table, one of the guests gets cut on his foot. Luke and Aesha spring into action (without wearing gloves, which I thought was more of a safety concern than anything Adam brought up – but more on that later). Aesha bandages his foot, and all is well.

After the incident, Captain Jason looks at the weather forecast (and out the window) and sees that storms are coming. The guests are supposed to have a picnic on the beach, but because of the oncoming rain Jason makes the decision to bump up lunch by 50 minutes, much to Tzarina’s dismay. Aesha calls Jason to the galley, and Tzarina tells him she’ll have to adjust her plans; multiple guests have tomahawk steaks on their preference sheets, and she really wants to make them for this lunch. Jason tells her he’ll cook the steaks on a grill at the front of the boat – which is weird, isn’t it? Why not just do it in the galley, where, you know, food is prepped? I’m not sure if it was the editing or I just missed something, but I didn’t understand how Jason cooking the steaks on a grill somewhere else on the boat helped Tzarina… Tzarina tells Jason she feels bad for always needing help, but Jason says they’re a team, and it’s all good.

Aesha tells Laura that Aesha will be going to the picnic; Laura asks if she can come along because she “loves” setting up beach picnics – words never before uttered on any Below Deck show (I kid, since I think Aesha did say something like this to Hannah back in the day on Below Deck Med). She tells Aesha that she won’t need a break later, because she’ll be “energized” somehow by this beach picnic…

Culver, Adam, Aesha, Laura and Tzarina race to the beach, set up a tent, table and decorations; Tzarina finishes cooking the steaks, and adds lobsters! The guests arrive with umbrellas by tender, though a few are left on the boat because they’re still getting ready. Even though it’s raining slightly, and the wind is so strong that Adam and Culver have to physically hold the tent so it doesn’t go flying away, the beach picnic goes off without a hitch. The late guests arrive, and everyone loves the food and décor. Margot, still on the boat, gets welcome champagne ready; Jason sees her walking with the tray and tells her to look straight, not down, and she says “that’s good advice!” – no drinks are spilled.

Back on the boat, Laura asks Aesha for a quick break so she can take a shower and wash her hair after all the rain and sand on the beach; Aesha agrees, but then she and Margot run around like crazy while Laura takes her time getting ready. So much for not needing a break!

The deckies all get back, and start putting away the slide; as Culver, Adam, Harry and Luke are working to roll up/deflate and move the slide, one of the hooks used to haul the slide gets close to Harry’s 6’5″ head. He ducks, and it’s a non-issue, but Adam goes all safety monitor and points out that the hook could have hit someone and they need to be more careful. Luke, Harry, and Culver, who’s operating the hook, don’t seem fazed. Harry, in a confessional, says they all know Adam knows the least about yachts… Later, Culver and Luke are sitting in the crew mess and Adam comes in and once again goes off on how safety is being disregarded. Adam is being aggressive in basically telling Luke, his boss, that Luke is disregarding safety; it reminded me of last season’s bosun, Jamie, who also had a super aggressive attitude about safety. I respect that Adam is passionate about safety, but as the most junior person on the crew, he also needs to respect his head of department and trust that he’s doing everything as he should. Luke hasn’t been a perfect bosun, but (swim ladder aside) he’s not careless; in a confessional he says that Adam is overstepping.

The rest of the charter goes well; for dinner Culver gets spraypainted gold (to which Tzarina asks him if he does anything else but go to the gym) and wears a toga to represent… Mykonos, for some reason? The crew chants and Culver does a little speech, and the guests seem to enjoy themselves. The next day, the guests depart, and the crew receives a $15,000 tip! Tzarina gets Jason’s disco ball helmet, and she happily accepts; in a confessional she says all she needs is that helmet mounted on a ring, and the playful thirst continues. After the meeting Laura asks Aesha if she can have more time to get ready before the crew night out; Aesha finally says no, because it’s not fair to the rest of the crew, and that she and Margot had to cover for Laura. So Aesha’s working her way up to “tougher bitch”, as she said in the premiere. As per usual, the crew all gets ready and they’re waiting on Laura, who makes them 50 minutes late for their dinner reservation.

The crew gets to the restaurant, and everyone orders drinks and food; Adam makes up a meal and tries to order it, but the waitress says “that’s not on the menu.” He says he thinks the waitress is into him, which she is decidedly not, while Laura sits next to him and tries to chat him up. In a confessional, she says she likes him, but he doesn’t seem that interested – which he is decidedly not. He gets up and goes to smoke a cigarette with Tzarina, who asks him what he thinks of Laura; he says she’s just a friend. Back at the table, while Harry is awkwardly feeding steak to Margot – with Luke and Aesha looking on – Laura decides to change targets and sits on Luke’s lap. She kisses his face, and then everyone gets up to dance; Harry tells Aesha that Margot’s “gone off him,” and Aesha tells him to just play it cool – he’s trying way too hard – which he decidedly is. As Margot is getting a drink, she spots Laura and Luke full on kissing, and tells Aesha what’s happening; Aesha, unfazed, asks her if she’s jealous and Margot says she is not. In a confessional, she says now she knows Luke is a f*** boy and that’s all there is to that. If only there was a way too skinny, 6’5″ 6’4″ nice Australian chap to console her… but something tells me this love triangle is only going to get messier from here.

MxM