![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/bd981a0ff375e012571e9e8fd7885b3df2-Below-Deck-Mediterranean.rsquare.w400.png\")
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\n After a disgusting incident with Nathan\u2019s sheets, Luke fumbles breaking things off with Gen.
\n Photo: Peacock\n <\/p>\n
When I hit play on this week\u2019s episode, I worried for a minute that I was seeing things. Was I hallucinating, or did I witness Joe Bradley tell a woman they should each sleep in their own cabin and avoid making hasty mistakes? I rubbed my eyes, and when I opened them again, I had to confront my new reality, which is that Joe Bradley is no longer the boat\u2019s No. 1 tormentor of women\u2019s lives. In fact, so far, all Joe has done is put his head down, commit to mending his relationship with Nathan, and work hard to earn his position as lead deckhand. Of course, you can\u2019t change a man\u2019s essence \u2014 he still has a romantic prospect on board, but his easy situationship with Kayley seems to have zero tension on the horizon.<\/p>\n
Luke has risen to the position Joe once occupied; Joy might call his approach to having sex in front of cameras laissez-faire. Apparently not content with their performances the night before, in the morning Luke lies down next to Gen in Nathan\u2019s bottom bunk, where their way-too-loud hook-up continues in less\u2026 uh, penetrative fashion. I said this last week<\/a>, but I\u2019d like to reiterate it in case any producers are reading this: I don\u2019t need, and indeed I don\u2019t want, this level of graphic detail in my Below Deck. I want to watch a tenacious group of people navigate a challenging workplace and bond over their distaste of entitled rich people; I don\u2019t need, and indeed I don\u2019t want, to see Temu Clark Kent ejaculate all over his boss\u2019s sheets.<\/p>\n The fact that we have already been so exposed to sex only five episodes in is not a great sign of where this season is headed, but an even worse indicator is what happens with Nathan\u2019s sheets, a debacle that stretches over the entire episode despite its preventable nature. After he has been\u2026 satisfied, Gen tells Luke that she will wash the sheets if he brings them into the laundry room later. It\u2019s a turnaround day for the crew \u2014 the new guests won\u2019t arrive for another 24 hours. Joy speculates that Luke and Gen kissed; she can \u201cfeel it in the energy of the boat.\u201d Even then, it hardly matters: Luke made his choice, so that\u2019s that. This abrupt conclusion to their flirtationship makes Joy a little sad, but she resolves to focus on work and keep her eye on the ball: It\u2019s cooking that pays her bills, after all.<\/p>\n Joy proceeds to give Luke the cold shoulder, which makes him realize, at this late hour, that Joy does like him. Apparently, when Joy told him the night before<\/a> that since he\u2019s single he\u2019s free to do whatever he wants, he understood that she meant he should feel encouraged to have super loud sex with Gen, despite the fact that even then he knew that Joy would \u201chate him\u201d if he hooked up with anyone else \u2014 he spoke those very words. Later, he worries about how Joy might react if she found out the full truth of what happened between him and Gen, but his apprehension is another misinterpretation. Joy wouldn\u2019t julienne his penis because she won\u2019t allow herself to get that worked up. What\u2019s throwing off Luke\u2019s game is something which might be unfamiliar to him: Self-respect.<\/p>\n When Nathan arrives from his rental in the morning, his soiled sheets still haven\u2019t been changed. I\u2019d love to swap brains with Luke for a minute so I could understand why, oh why, Luke didn\u2019t simply take the sheets with him when he got up in the morning. Gen tells Kat that she and Luke had sex, but doesn\u2019t mention the dirty sheets until that night, when it occurs to her that she never saw the sheets come through the laundry room. At one point during the day, Luke checked the laundry room, but was dissuaded from acting when he saw the machines were all being used. Oh my God, of course they were. This is a superyacht \u2014 they have a hundred million tons of laundry to do. Nathan doesn\u2019t notice anything different about his sheets all day and goes to bed blissfully unaware that he is sleeping on Luke\u2019s genetic material.<\/p>\n In the morning, Gen asks Luke whether or not he washed the sheets, and Luke replies only that the machines were full. By the time the charter guests are heading out on their first excursion,\u00a0 two days after the hook-up, Luke still hasn\u2019t found the time to clean the sheets. Even Kat starts to get nervous about it. Of course, it\u2019s Luke\u2019s semen on the bed, so it\u2019s Luke\u2019s responsibility to take care of it. That said \u2014 and I really hate saying this \u2014 Gen could have been way more proactive on the sheets front; housekeeping is her responsibility. She took matters into her own hands once; she could\u2019ve done it again. The bosun is outside, like, 18 hours a day. Just put the damn sheets in the machine!\u00a0<\/p>\n To counterbalance the grossness of this situation, we get to see Kat and Coop go on a nice date. Coop even gets Nathan\u2019s blessing to leave the boat with \u201cKatrina.\u201d He is every bit the \u201cSouthern gentleman\u201d we might have expected him to be \u2014 he opens doors for Kat, carries her bag, and asks if she\u2019s ever \u201cbeen in love.\u201d They go for a swim, kiss in the ocean, and feel fireworks around each other. Meanwhile, Luke, who couldn\u2019t be any farther from this wholesomeness, calls his mom for some advice on his love triangle. Reasonably, his mother tells him to \u201cstick to [his] integrity,\u201d speak to both women, and apologize. He feels better after talking to her, though he is quick to reflect that \u201cwe all mess up,\u201d so he shouldn\u2019t be so hard on himself.<\/p>\n The guests do arrive at some point in the middle of all this literally nasty drama. Primary Pat embarks with his fianc\u00e9e, Karen, to celebrate their engagement with friends. These guests love Game of Thrones, which is perfect for this trip because so much of the show was filmed in Croatia. They\u2019ll only be onboard for two days, but they\u2019re planning to make the most out of it by requesting both a picnic and a walking tour of Game of Thrones shooting locations in Dubrovnik, all in one day. Aesha sends Gen ashore with Joe to set up the guests\u2019 lush-garden-themed picnic, and they realize too late that Luke packed the wrong chairs \u2014 they are too low for the table. To Joe, that\u2019s proof that Luke is distracted by his love triangle, but Gen couldn\u2019t care less. She\u2019s riding high on the painfully wrong feeling that she and Luke are on the same page \u2014 she even tells us, in a confessional, that not being second stew is actually a weight off her shoulders and a good excuse to \u201cenjoy the season\u201d and \u201cconcentrate on Luke\u201d \u2014 and the fact that Aesha and the guests applaud her when they see the set-up. The guests notice the too-short chairs as soon as they sit down. Luckily, Joy\u2019s picnic food is so good \u2014 their dessert is shaped like a gift box for Pat and Karen \u2014 that the guests don\u2019t mind them.<\/p>\n Almost as soon as they\u2019re back on the Akira One, the guests head out again for their Game of Thrones tour. Kat, who is half-Croatian and a GoT lover, leads the excursion with characteristic enthusiasm. At a medieval-looking staircase, Luke dons a cloak as he descends the steps while the guests chant Shame! Shame! at him, in a recreation of a Game of Thrones scene. I\u2019m sorry to disappoint my readers \u2014 I\u2019m sure many quips and jokes could be made out of the parallels between Luke\u2019s plight and this moment, but I have never seen an episode of Game of Thrones in my life. Shame!<\/p>\n Back on the boat, Joy plans an elaborate feast for dinner; focusing on work helps keep her mind off Luke. Even Aesha mentions to the chef that she could tell right away that Joy had no intention of \u201cplaying games\u201d with Luke and Gen. \u201cI\u2019m playing this game,\u201d Joy says, gesturing at the galley. Her meal looks nothing short of phenomenal, and even more impressive set on Kayley\u2019s virtuosic tablescape. After dinner, Joe dresses up as a \u201cdragon slayer\u201d and Coop as a dragon, or at least something resembling it, and they perform a bit for the guests, which culminates in Coop getting \u201cthrown\u201d overboard.<\/p>\n In other words, dinner is such a success that the guests could never imagine the extent of the mess going on in the galley. Shortly after dinner, Luke asks Joy if she has \u201cspace and time\u201d to talk to him, but she tells him no, \u201cI don\u2019t care.\u201d In an act of repentance, Luke begins washing dishes. About 45 minutes past the end of his shift, and right before Joe and Coop are about to do their thing upstairs, Gen catches Luke helping Joy in the galley and becomes annoyed. She wonders if he\u2019s not supposed to be in bed, and off to bed he goes, but not before rinsing every last fork. In the crew mess, unable to help herself and admitting to being \u201can insecure bitch,\u201d Gen tells Luke that it bothers her that he\u2019d stay up to help Joy finish her tasks, but when she does \u201call this cute shit\u201d for him \u2014 I suppose she\u2019s referring to the Post-It notes and the like \u2014 she gets \u201cnothing\u201d back. Luke smiles nervously. In a confessional, he calls Gen\u2019s behavior \u201cpsycho stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n The guests go to bed early-ish, but Gen stays up until Luke\u2019s night shift begins at 2 a.m., so they can talk. When he finds her in the pantry, she tells him that the guests just went to bed, a flat-out lie. Luke tries to break things off with Gen, or else he imagines that that\u2019s what he\u2019s doing, but their conversation \u2014 much like Jo\u00e3o\u2019s talk<\/a> with Ellie in the last season of Down Under \u2014 means one thing to him and the completely opposite thing to her. When Luke says that there is \u201cno love triangle anymore,\u201d Gen takes it as great news \u2013\u2013 it means he has finally, decidedly picked her over Joy. When he says he needs to take a step back, Gen thinks that\u2019s wonderful \u2014 if he needs space to break the disappointing news to Joy, let him have it! Hearing him say there\u2019s no love triangle anymore is all Gen ever wanted. She leaves the conversation satisfied that they\u2019re on the same page, but hoping they can \u201cbe there for each other\u201d a little more going forward. For his part, Luke leaves the conversation dumbfounded. He wants to break things off, but doesn\u2019t know how to do it. Here\u2019s a tip for next time, Luke: Just say \u201cI want to break things off.\u201d In the long run, it\u2019s much less hurtful.<\/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