Nathan continues to have trouble running the deck team, and their disharmony is starting to spread.
Photo: Bravo

In a crew filled with people convinced of the superiority of their own methods, Cooper just wants to look at peacocks, call his grandma, and engage in some PG-13 flirting with fellow innocent oddball Kat. Last week, I worried that Cooper’s inclusion in the deck team was another attempt at stunt casting: Below Deck has made a habit of casting green yachties to drive us all crazy. But if the first charter is any indication, Coop will not be creating any drama this season. Instead, the issues will come from “industry veterans” with bad attitudes.

When we pick up this week, Nathan is still on the phone with Gael, talking about how he doesn’t “trust” Joe enough to promote him to lead deckhand. It’s not until Sandy vetoes his decision to promote Luke, at least for now, that Nathan actually articulates this distrust: He’s worried that Joe will undermine his authority and disturb crew morale by wreaking havoc on the women. Those are reasonable complaints, but they’re not what he leads with while speaking to the captain. Sandy tells him she’s “having trouble” getting on board with his decision, so they agree to wait until the second charter to delegate the position. Advising him not to let his personal feelings influence his leadership, Sandy makes an excellent point: How can Nathan trust Luke more than Joe, if he’s only known Luke for two days but has worked and known Joe for over two years?

It’s not just Nathan feeling paranoid about his co-workers. By the second day of the charter, Gen is positively convinced that Kayley is angling to become second stew, which she takes as a personal affront, even though that honorable ambition has nothing to do with her. Still, while Kayley can assert herself with confidence and politeness, Gen — bless her — can’t control her tone or her irritation. When she gets the opportunity to correct Kayley for the first time, noticing that some place mats were stored in the wrong place, she snaps, a tremor in her voice: “No more shoving of the place mats, anywhere. I’ve noticed it a few times now.”

Meanwhile, Cooper gets to anchor watch for the first time. Nathan shows him what to watch for, and while he waits, Coop practices his knots. When the wind picks up — Nathan told him to wake the captain if it went over 12 knots — Cooper debates whether or not to wake Sandy. On the one hand, the wind did spike to 14 knots. On the other hand, it went back down to ten. Figuring that he’s better off safe than sorry, Cooper gets Sandy, who thinks he’s adorable and is happy that he’s being attentive. At 4 a.m., Joe rolls up to the bridge to deliver Cooper from his agony, with the idea to demonstrate his proactiveness and overall competence to Sandy. But in the morning, Nathan is mostly annoyed. The fact that Joe woke up earlier than he needed to only means he will have to go down earlier than he needed to. Besides, the last thing Nathan needs to prove that his resentment of Joe is justifiable is for him to work harder. 

The guests enjoy some home-baked bagels and other sumptuous-looking pastries before heading off to an excursion to Lokrum Island, where they have sushi and jump off some picturesque cliffs. Nathan puts Luke in charge of set-up, hoping to confirm his instinct that Luke is ready for a lead position. In a confessional, Nathan laughs when he admits that he needs some “facts” to back up his emotions. The excursion goes great –– much to Gen’s chagrin, Kayley sets up a beautiful table. Gen is peeved that Kayley goes to the beach instead of her, though Kayley was only there for the setup; it was Aesha herself who stayed for service. To add insult to injury, Kayley told Joy about her cake-decorating hobby, and now Joy asks for her help decorating tonight’s anniversary celebration cake for the guests. This only adds to Gen’s impression that Kayley is needed everywhere all the time while she rots in cabins and laundry.

Gen vents to Kat about her dissatisfaction and wonders if she should be more “aggressive,” by which she means, I think, trying to push out Kayley. In a sweet way, Kat advises her to be less aggressive: “Keep your attitude good,” she says. Kat is right that their enmity is a battle of attitudes, which is unfortunate for Gen: Kayley’s whole personality is based on having a good attitude. Worse, Gen is happy to complain about Kayley, but when Kat asks Kayley how she feels about their tension, Kayley deflects politely; all she says is that Gen obviously likes things done a certain way. Put this way, I actually feel for Gen: The deeper she spirals into her funk, the better Kayley seems.

As the excursion winds down, Nathan continues to test Luke’s lead potential by having him drive the tender with which they’ll pick up Coop — looking at peacocks, having a good time — from the beach. Luke does well until it’s time to dock the thing, which he isn’t able to do, and which forces Nathan to admit to himself that Sandy is right. His lead deckhand needs to at least know how to drive the tender. Later, Cooper mentions to Nathan that Joe said something about their turbulent history. It annoys Nathan that Joe is talking about him to the crew, but his hands are tied: Joe is the only reasonable option for lead.

For his part, Luke seems less focused on getting promoted and more worried about fueling that Men’s Health-cover physique, which he is apparently hoping to maintain by working out on the bow at the crack of dawn. Right before dinner service starts, he comes into the galley saying he’s starving. Joy offers him an extra steak from service, not realizing that she misread guest Emilie’s preference sheet, thinking she wanted lobster when in fact, she wanted steak. Luckily, Joy had more steak in the fridge, but the slip-up is a lesson that work should come first, “lust after.” Joy’s food looks amazing. I kept imagining how I would react if I were on an all-expenses-paid yacht vacation and got served my own personal cocotte filled with French mashed potatoes for dinner. I think I would have levitated.

During service, Gen continues to complain about her housekeeping duties, which are part of her job. Her vibe is so egregious that Kayley tells Aesha that she’s happy to “float” if Gen is going to be happier in service. Aesha’s unequivocal response: “It’s not up to her.” It makes her feel nervous that Gen is leading with this attitude one day into the job. The next morning, Aesha checks in with Kayley about how the night shift went. Kayley and Gen butted heads lightly, but Kayley reassures her chief stew that she can handle the situation, at least for now. More points for Kayley. Look alive, Genevieve!

On deck, Nathan, still traumatized from that disastrous test run, is nervous about going into another docking. This time, it goes marginally better, though it’s still not up to standard, which makes Joe question whether Nathan is “fit” to be bosun. He tries to interject with opinions while Nathan and Sandy communicate through some strong cross-winds; they end up parking fender-to-fender with another boat. The guests leave happy with their experience and tip a generous $25,000, which comes out to $1,900 each for the crew. During the tip meeting, Sandy praises Joy and the interior team for an excellent first charter and reassures the deck team that they will figure out the docking process together… eventually.

After that stressful experience, it’s a balm to Nathan that Gael and Kayden — wearing his Akira One uniform — come to visit the boat. Sandy and Aesha, ecstatic to see them, reflect on the “beautiful anomaly,” to use Aesha’s words, that is a success boatmance story; boatmances usually end in disaster. Everyone is happy to meet the baby, except maybe for Joe, who actually looks frightened looking into a baby’s eyes. Or, maybe, it’s the baby’s mother he is scared of: He hadn’t seen or spoken to Gael since their last season together.

Speaking of boatmances: Let’s take the temperature of the flirting so far. Kat and Cooper have an endearing, Disney Channel vibe going, while Luke is flirting with both Joy and Gen. At dinner, he sits himself between the two women, a terrible omen of things to come. Before they head out, Gen tells Kat that she doesn’t think anything will happen with Luke just yet — little does she know she has another competitor in Joy. Joe seems to be flirting with Kayley a bit, but he’s not his usual self tonight.

Earlier, Joe got some sad news: His mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Joe is really close with her, and the news distresses him. He wants to hop on a plane to be with her, but she asks him to stay and finish the season — the disease is still in an early stage, and she is confident she will be okay. Nathan offers Joe his support, hugging him, even saying he loves him, and encouraging Joe to take all the time he needs. Sandy, for her part, puts Joe and his mom in contact with her friend, Dr. Pam Wright, who is a surgical oncologist. Dr. Wright reassures Joe that early-stage breast cancer usually has a good prognosis and excellent survival rates. Sandy shares her own history with the disease, having survived kidney cancer ten years ago. Everyone rallies to make Joe feel better. I can’t imagine how awful it must be to get this kind of news while you’re away and, worse, being filmed, but Joe handles it well. It’s nice to remember everyone has a heart.

The wholesomeness lasts all of ten minutes. At dinner, Nathan picks a fight with Joe when he overhears Joe telling Kat that he doesn’t get along with Gael. From the way Nathan reacts, you’d think that Joe had called Gael a nasty name. Joe tries to tell Nathan he didn’t say anything bad, but Nathan is not particularly inclined to listen to reason, at least not a few tequila shots in. Nathan is going to have to find his bearings if he is going to get through this season as a stronger, more confident bosun. Maybe not picking random fights with your deckies is a good place to start?

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