No Means No

After former Real Housewives of New York City star Bethenny Frankel called for reality show stars to unionize – amid a lawsuit filed against NBC Universal for deplorable conditions and claims that producers basically pour alcohol down participants’ throats – this episode of Below Deck Down Under felt a little gross to watch. Granted in this case, the alcohol consumption was done by choice, and producers actually ended up preventing horrible things from potentially happening, but the sentiment remains.

So what went down? We’ll get there, but there are a few things to get to before the (first?) main event. After the preference sheet/red meat mistake, Tzarina fixes her menu and the guests all end up happy. The next day it’s more of the same, and she knocks it out of the park with her Cuban dinner. So in Jason’s mind, and also the guests’, she’s redeemed herself. After spending the night shift with Harry, Laura decides she doesn’t want to hang with him; she’d rather be with Adam. The next day, because the shift was “really hard” and she’s “very tired,” she asks Aesha if she could be on the day shift for the next charter; Aesha says no because Margot isn’t as strong on service. Laura suggest Aesha do the night shift instead, to which Aesha also tells her no. Laura then goes to clean cabins with Margot, and complains that Aesha is being mean to her. This Latvian lady is something else… as everyone will soon figure out.

The rest of the charter goes well; Luke continues to flirt with Margot and says he needs to get her alone when they go out. She asks if that’s because Harry is always hanging around her – and yes, it obviously is. Margot is starting to get annoyed by Harry’s constant attention – he goes to hug her at one point and she’s not really having any of it. Later, in a confessional, she says she doesn’t want the a**hole, but she doesn’t want the nice guy who’s too nice, either.

The guests leave, but – in a Below Deck first, I believe – the primary challenges Captain Jason to an arm wrestling contest. He has another tip envelope, presumably for the crew if Jason won. He doesn’t, unfortunately, but I think the guest gave Jason the envelope, anyway. The tip turns out to be $25,000 (!) and the crew’s quite happy; Adam gets the disco ball helmet, because he’s annoying, I guess? Everyone gets ready to go out to dinner, and Laura has turned her entire life towards getting with Adam. She flirts with him constantly, and he tells her he’s not interested; he only wants to be friends because he doesn’t want to complicate things. On a cigarette break with Tzarina, she tells him he needs to not lead her on – he says he made it very clear he’s not interested. Tzarina in a confessional says she knows girls like Laura who are not used to being rejected; later she even says Laura should “have some dignity” and I have to agree! Tzarina and Culver seem to be getting closer, and it just seems like a great match.

At the restaurant, meals are served, and Luke tells Aesha he probably shouldn’t have hooked up with Laura; the crew drinks and dances afterwards. Luke takes his shirt off, to Harry’s confusion, and starts dancing with Margot; later everyone gets in the taxis to go back to the boat, and Harry tells Adam that when Margot gets drunk she goes for Luke, but “always tries to hook up with him” when she’s sober. That’s not really true, my dude, because you basically just wore the girl down, but I get the frustration. Everyone gets back to the boat and here’s where the tide starts to turn. The crew is just completely wasted; Aesha doesn’t want anything to happen with Luke and Margot because Margot is very drunk. Aesha has had experience with sexual assault (which she first mentioned on Below Deck Mediterranean, IIRC), so she wants to protect Margot. Luke wants to go to the hot tub, and he does, eventually, while Aesha puts Margot to bed.

For some reason, there is a sudden power outage on the boat, and the lights go out. Luke wanders around and is taking his clothes off (I think because they were wet from the hot tub?). He wraps a towel around him and goes into Margot and Laura’s cabin and tries to get into bed with a sleeping Margot. A producer intervenes and tells him to come out of the room, then goes in to physically get him. He’s on the top bunk with Margot and when the power comes back, the producer leaves but Luke shuts the cabin door. The producer opens the door, and Luke leaves. Aesha sees a naked Luke come out of the cabin and goes in to check on Margot. She tells Margot what she saw, and Margot had no idea what was happening; Aesha gets into bed with Margot until she is asleep again. Luke goes into his cabin and locks the door, leaving Culver locked out.

Harry, Adam, Tzarina, Culver and Laura are all in the hot tub, where Laura proceeds to aggressively come on to Adam. Culver and Tzarina leave, and Adam shuts Laura down. He goes to his room and closes the door, but SHE FOLLOWS HIM and even after he goes up to his bunk, she puts something (sunscreen? lotion?) on his bare back. A cameraman tells Laura a producer says she needs to go to her cabin. After some prodding, she does. Aesha is visibly upset, and after speaking to Tzarina, goes to tell Jason what just happened. They go to the bridge, and Aesha tells him what she saw; he hugs her and says “not on my boat.” He goes and gets the key to Luke’s cabin, wakes him up and tells him he needs to leave the boat and that he’ll stay in a hotel for the night. Luke gets dressed and Jason escorts him to a taxi.

The next morning, the deck crew is looking for Luke, and Jason calls Culver to the bridge to tell him what needs to be done. Culver asks about Luke but Jason says they’ll address it later. Aesha talks privately with Margot and Tzarina about what happened. Margot asks how long Luke was in the room with her, but Aesha doesn’t know. Margot says she feels stupid, but the ladies reassure her she’s not; she thanks Aesha for looking after her. Margot is upset, and goes to her cabin and calls her mom and sister; they also reassure her. Jason calls the team to the main salon to discuss the situation; he stresses the importance of boundaries and that Luke crossed the line with his behavior – he tells the crew he’s terminating Luke’s employment. Laura, after still flirting with Adam, asks if they’re allowed to say goodbye; Jason says no.

Luke comes back to the boat, and tells Jason he doesn’t remember what happened the previous night; Jason fills him in and tells him he has no choice but to terminate him. Luke actually “accepts” that and packs his things. The crew waits in the salon while Jason waits below; Luke apologizes to Jason and leaves. Jason returns to the salon and gets the crew back to business; he tells Culver to step in until a new bosun arrives. Later, Culver struggles to come up with a game plan, and Harry and Adam get annoyed.

Harry hugs Margot as the crew gets back to work; she says she wishes she hung out with him instead. Margot and Laura go to clean cabins, and Laura says she’s going to miss Luke; Margot tells her what happened, and that she doesn’t know what would’ve happened if no one was there to step in. Laura says “poor Luke,” and that she should have kept him happy but he rejected her; she tells Margot if he came into her cabin naked she’d enjoy it (!). She makes light of the situation, and gets back to work. In the laundry room, Aesha talks to Adam and says if Laura is making him uncomfortable, she also has his back.

Laura goes to Aesha and says she’s upset that Luke is gone; Aesha says he crossed a line. Later, Laura tells Margot she feels bad for Luke and that he was probably joking; he would never do anything to her. She basically blames Margot for making him seem welcome. Margot leaves and talks to Aesha about what Laura is saying; Aesha is horrified by Laura’s comments. Aesha goes to Jason and tells her about Laura’s comments to Margot and her aggressiveness with Adam; Jason calls Margot and confirm she’s upset by the comments made by Laura. He tells Aesha and Margot he’ll take care of things.

Jason then calls Adam to talk about Laura and tells him he’ll take care of things. Jason calls Laura to the bridge and tells her about Adam’s complaints; he asks if Laura made the comments as Aesha/Margot told him, and she starts to try to wriggle out of the situation. Jason says because of the derogatory remarks made towards Margot, she did not listen to his earlier speech about boundaries, and he is terminating her employment (!). After she says she doesn’t think she should be fired and asks for a warning instead, he declines and says she doesn’t fit in with the environment he’s trying to create. He asks her to pack and leave; he calls Aesha and tells her the situation and Aesha agrees it’s the right call.

Aesha tells Margot and Tzarina about Laura; she then tells the deck team as Jason escorts Laura off the boat. The deck team understands and watches as Laura drives away in a taxi. Jason calls the crew to the main salon again, and explains that Laura was let go because of her behavior; he tells them he has a second officer coming in for the deck crew and he’ll get a replacement stew. The day winds down, and Margot tells Aesha she feels the love from the crew; she’s shocked but grateful and ready to move on.

The mid season trailer is then completely nuts! The new bosun is… Aesha’s fellow Below Deck Mediterranean alum Joao Franco! Aesha says they didn’t leave off on the best terms (after 5,000 of these shows, who can remember – not this viewer), and new stewardess Jamie has her doe eyes set squarely on Culver. Margot gets caught drinking on charter, and is showing making out with Joao (poor Harry)!! A guest collapses, the anchor breaks, and someone else may be getting fired… Looks like more storms a-brewing for crew; let’s hope all the really dark stuff is left behind us and everyone escapes this season intact!

MxM