S10.E14: Big Deck Energy

[TexasGal]

Quote

Chef Rachel delivers a dinner to remember; the crew throws the pageant queen guests a 1980s party; guest LaQuish continues to annoy the interior team; Tony takes issue with Katie; Ross is forced to reprimand his boat crush.

Airdate: 02.27.2023

[Tanukisan]

Like an irritating, feckless guest who demands turkey club sandwiches, these comments are in the order of the episode scenes broadcast…

I’ve always liked Rachel, but have intense renewed respect for her after the dinner.  Loved her “F-U” to LaQueef by placing gold leaf on everyone’s dish.  Rachel can curse like a sailor all she wants – she *is* a sailor – and she’s also a kick-ass chef.

Hayley – you’re a Chav, but you’re no Geri Halliwell.

Captain Queeg is so full of poo – praising Fraser after having so harshly condemning him.  Fraser hasn’t changed.  Neither has Queeg.  I suspect she’s brown-nosing ahead of the return of Captain Lee, whom we all know likes Fraser.

Spare me the fake wind drama again.  There’s often wind, and the crew know what they’re doing, and their docking position couldn’t be easier.

And at the end of the charter, LaQueef and company leave the lowest tip so far.  Surprised?  These were the worst guests so far.  They remind me of hotel guests who get unexpected free room upgrades and end up stealing as many robes and towels as they can get away with, only to realise later they’ll be charged for them.

What will happen next week?  Will Ross continue to quarrel with Katie?  Will Ben pick up where he left off with the new stew?  Will Queeg finally leave once and for all?  Stay tuned, if you can pay attention…

[rur]

37 minutes ago, Tanukisan said:

 

What will happen next week?  . . .   Will Ben pick up where he left off with the new stew?  

My prediction: By the end of the next episode: Ben: "Camille who?"

[iMonrey]

If I never hear the phrase "In it to win it" again it will be too soon.

What exactly is this metamorphosis Sandy thinks Fraser has undergone? The only difference I see is that he is kissing her ass left and right and every talking head he gets he praises her to the sky like she's some kind of God's gift to chief stews. Now all of a sudden Sandy is so proud of him and hugging him and texting him. It's gross.

Sandy has to cast herself as savior. She has to point to someone or something and say "look how well I turned that around." It would actually be embarrassing if Bravo didn't prop her so hard. Instead it's just disgusting. You can't tell me there wasn't one single person on that boat who wasn't glad to see her go. Just nobody has the guts to say so if they want to keep working for Bravo.

Good riddance, Sandy, I mean Captain Sandy. Don't let the door slam your ass on your way out.

[MyMaui]

Only words I can muster for Sandy.....Capt Sandy is Bye Bitch.  You did nothing but make it miserable for the interior and for many viewers.  Spare me your whole look at Fraser you ego driven maniac.  You were a power hungry bitch who personally went after the chief stew of the boat. You transformed nothing.  Only thing he realized is how to play your game and suck up to you.  Good grief this woman has the ego beyond belief.  

[aghst]

Either that or there was never that much friction between Sandy and Fraser, they blew it up to have this quick redemption and kumbaya.  Some of the deck crew seemed to like her, for refusing to move that time as requested by another boat.

How long has Lee been away, maybe 5 or 6 episodes?  But the whole shooting season is like 6 weeks isn't it?  So how long could he have been away, maybe 2 weeks at the most so he could return in time to shoot the last few episodes of the season?  All recovered in that time?

If he has to use that cane, is he really fit to be on duty or it's good enough for the cameras and maybe he can pretend to steer when it comes to docking and leaving port?

 

[Uncle JUICE]

This was a terrible episode. I wish I had more insightful things to say, but really, that's about it. Featured way too much bathroom information for me. This guy's having a massive wank, that's how he opens a meeting with his staff? This girl loves taking a shit, I mean come on now, is that something anyone wants to know? Same girl picked her ass and her finger stinks now...wtf.

So instead what I'll tell you is I looked up the Classic Mrs. Universe pageant and found that (a) it's still somehow happening in 2023, women are paraded around and evaluated then declared winners by a bunch of men, and (b), my favorite part, it's held in Bulgaria. The winner is the "most honorable married woman." The winner was definitely on board, but the rest of these people look like randos to me. Even the dude. None of them have any real familiarity with each other. It's jarring.  

Edited February 28, 2023 by Uncle JUICE

[RoseAllDay]

10 hours ago, iMonrey said:

If I never hear the phrase "In it to win it" again it will be too soon.

What exactly is this metamorphosis Sandy thinks Fraser has undergone? The only difference I see is that he is kissing her ass left and right and every talking head he gets he praises her to the sky like she's some kind of God's gift to chief stews. Now all of a sudden Sandy is so proud of him and hugging him and texting him. It's gross.

Sandy has to cast herself as savior. She has to point to someone or something and say "look how well I turned that around." It would actually be embarrassing if Bravo didn't prop her so hard. Instead it's just disgusting. You can't tell me there wasn't one single person on that boat who wasn't glad to see her go. Just nobody has the guts to say so if they want to keep working for Bravo.

Good riddance, Sandy, I mean Captain Sandy. Don't let the door slam your ass on your way out.

Coming here to ask if it’s safe to start watching again. I bailed on this season when Lee left. Yawn drove me away from BDM, and this year it was my fave BD. She’s like an effing plague to me.

My biggest beef with Yawn was, is, and always will be her destructive management style. She blatantly plays favorites and uses that to set crew members against each other. (Heaps — often undeserved — praises on one while the other is within earshot.)  She calls people out for mistakes in front of their coworkers, and treats people like shit then tries to make nice. (You praise in public and reprimand in private.) She ALWAYS has to micromanage down to the gnat’s ass. Unless there was an obvious problem, when have you ever seen Lee camp out in the galley as much as Yawn? Ever see him rudely hover over/intrude on guests wanting to know how their meal was? No? That’s because Lee trusts his people and knows he has his own important job to do, and isn’t so needy/thirsty that his ego needs to be constantly fed by, as you say, playing the “savior.” 

👎with Yawn. Let’s all raise a toast to Lee’s continued good health so that this shrew doesn’t ever, ever come back. She is toxic. 

[jrzy]

11 hours ago, iMonrey said:

If I never hear the phrase "In it to win it" again it will be too soon.

What exactly is this metamorphosis Sandy thinks Fraser has undergone? The only difference I see is that he is kissing her ass left and right and every talking head he gets he praises her to the sky like she's some kind of God's gift to chief stews. Now all of a sudden Sandy is so proud of him and hugging him and texting him. It's gross.

Sandy has to cast herself as savior. She has to point to someone or something and say "look how well I turned that around." It would actually be embarrassing if Bravo didn't prop her so hard. Instead it's just disgusting. You can't tell me there wasn't one single person on that boat who wasn't glad to see her go. Just nobody has the guts to say so if they want to keep working for Bravo.

Good riddance, Sandy, I mean Captain Sandy. Don't let the door slam your ass on your way out.

I was going to comment on the same thing, the only difference with Fraser is that he kissed her ass.  I guess he had to or he would have been off the boat as well.  It will be interesting to see how things go for the next two charters.  I thought the tip was horrible,  I bet that ridiculous LaQuish didn't contribute a dime.  She is one of those that would have you running your ass off and not tip at all in a restaurant. 

Edited February 28, 2023 by jrzy

[kassa]

Was I the only one who thought Fraser was running off the ship to throw himself into Captain Lee's arms, only to see he was getting the cake?

I took Lee's statements to mean he was panicked about his symptoms and the doctor basically told him it was sciatica and it sucked but it was a pain issue not a sign of anything more sinister that needed immediate correction and he decided to tough it out.  (Not dismissing the impact of great pain on one's ability to function, just saying that sitting on a boat in the Caribbean as you suffer increasing pain would be a frightening situation that you'd want to get to the bottom of ASAP.) So maybe all along it was "I need to get home for a drs appt and a CAT scan and best case scenario I'll need to miss 2 charters" as opposed to the open ended situation we were presented with. (Obviously had the testing/examination showed something that would have changed everything).

Both Hayley (finally learned her name this week!) and Rachel need to tone things down. I noticed the last Below Deck rerun show where the old deckies watch episodes most of them visibly and audibly being disgusted by some of Rachel's statements. I hope production takes a hint. Even if they say nothing to her they don't have to air every scatological comment, especially when she's spiraling out trying to be funny.

I was confused by the "they're the nicest people" "I wish everybody was that nice" comments from the crew and wonder if they truly were super nice (except for LaQuish) and maybe a little demanding, but the staff extrapolated their niceness to expectations of a big tip, and once they got the small tip they were angry and blasted them in their talking heads? If it weren't for LaQuish's demands and the gay guy's attraction to Fraser, did they provide any show content at all other than wardrobe changes? 

[iMonrey]

Quote

Captain Queeg is so full of poo – praising Fraser after having so harshly condemning him.  Fraser hasn’t changed.  Neither has Queeg.

Yeah I mean what exactly changed? Did interior improve service at meal time? Did they improve housekeeping? Did they improve communications? The only thing different was that Alissa was gone, and Sandy was responsible for that, not Fraser. First he's a smelly fish head and a cancer and now he's "in it to win it." WTF. It's all such utter bullshit. 

Meanwhile the bosun is banging one of his subordinates in a guest cabin and getting blackout drunk at every outing and trying to get into all the other girls' pants. And Sandy loves that guy. And what about Tyler, walking around with soaking wet, stringy hair. Sandy's OK with one of the crew walking around the boat during a charter with soaking wet hair? I mean Tyler is barely presentable with dry hair, frankly, but I can't imagine a captain being OK with one of the crew going around with wet hair like that. And yet Sandy says nothing.

Oh, but Fraser was the problem here. Sure.

[RoseAllDay]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

Yeah I mean what exactly changed? Did interior improve service at meal time? Did they improve housekeeping? Did they improve communications? The only thing different was that Alissa was gone, and Sandy was responsible for that, not Fraser. First he's a smelly fish head and a cancer and now he's "in it to win it." WTF. It's all such utter bullshit. 

Meanwhile the bosun is banging one of his subordinates in a guest cabin and getting blackout drunk at every outing and trying to get into all the other girls' pants. And Sandy loves that guy. And what about Tyler, walking around with soaking wet, stringy hair. Sandy's OK with one of the crew walking around the boat during a charter with soaking wet hair? I mean Tyler is barely presentable with dry hair, frankly, but I can't imagine a captain being OK with one of the crew going around with wet hair like that. And yet Sandy says nothing.

Oh, but Fraser was the problem here. Sure.

Classic Sandy Yawn. Just look at how she slobbered over Joao, the aggressive, dick-pic-taking crewmember on BDM. He was her golden child,  and she never missed a chance to run down Joao’s boss, Conrad, at every opportunity, most likely because he and Hannah were a thing, and she couldn’t stand Hannah. A boss who plays favorites like that is a shitty boss, and loses my respect permanently.

That guy who filled in for Lee when Lee broke his ribs would have been a better choice than Sandy. Not by much, but anybody else but her.

[rur]

Although I'm sure it's a production-inspired fluff piece . . . For what it's worth: https://www.vulture.com/article/below-deck-captain-sandy-yawn-departure-interview.html

 

[kassa]

Interesting that she said she was leaving whether he came back or not. Hope that doesn't mean he came back earlier than he should have because the show didn't want to hire yet another replacement captain. 

That said, if you're over 50 and being apart on Valentine's Day is "a big sacrifice for your relationship"... grow up!

[gaPeach]

On 2/28/2023 at 11:07 AM, iMonrey said:

Yeah I mean what exactly changed? Did interior improve service at meal time? Did they improve housekeeping? Did they improve communications? The only thing different was that Alissa was gone, and Sandy was responsible for that, not Fraser. First he's a smelly fish head and a cancer and now he's "in it to win it." WTF. It's all such utter bullshit. 

I think, or what I saw change, is exactly that Alissa was gone.  One person in a work setting can be so toxic it does affect everyone involved.  Removing Alissa (and Camille for that matter) completely changed the atmosphere, lifting the negative crap that swirled around Alissa and her overblown self-importance to the crew. Fraser rose to the change by embracing it instead of continuing with the gossip and back talk.  He could have sulked, moaned and groaned that his best stew was fired.  So, I get Sandy's praise to Fraser. 

I am not a Sandy fan and hated her season with the whole Hannah and drug issue.  But this time around I did not mind her as much.  Could she have done some things differently, sure.  It was apparent she liked her deck crew, but those guys and gal, were kicking it and doing their jobs with little, if no drama.  The Bosun sleeping with a crew member is not ideal, but it did not affect their work, well, until this episode that is.  We have to remember this is not real life of a crew on a yacht but a reality show.  I am sure the show pushes drunken hook ups and relationships for the drama.

[aghst]

1 hour ago, kassa said:

Interesting that she said she was leaving whether he came back or not. Hope that doesn't mean he came back earlier than he should have because the show didn't want to hire yet another replacement captain. 

That said, if you're over 50 and being apart on Valentine's Day is "a big sacrifice for your relationship"... grow up!

She said she left before Valentine's Day so that was February 2022?

She stayed for 5 charters or about 2 weeks since most of these charters are 2 days.  But she left because her gf was having surgery.  Bravo could have found another captain if Lee wasn't ready to come back.  It would have been difficult but I can't fault her for wanting to be with someone who's having surgery.

She also said she didn't hear Alissa's comment about the captain sucking deck crew dick.  That was an edit, just as many of us suspected.  The producers are up to all kinds of shenanigans and probably looping in lines that weren't uttered when the scenes were filmed, to contrive drama.

 

[snarts]

Sandy keeps using insubordination as rationale for Alyssa's firing. Just like the the other rules she's touted as justification for her actions (maritime law, which seems pretty subjective considering how other Captains have handled similar situations), I don't think it insubordination applies in this case.

Insubordination is defined as defiance of authority; refusal to obey orders. Further, in the workplace it's defined as an employee's intentional refusal to obey an employer's lawful and reasonable orders.

Alyssa definitely had a stank attitude but she didn't defy any direct orders. In fact, Sandy called her in, told her to improve her attitude, sent her on her way and then decided overnight to fire her without any other interactions/issues/etc. Sandy likely thinks that throwing out the big word makes her look smarter but what truly happened was Sandy was butthurt and wanted revenge. 

[aghst]

Like I said, the firing can be for any reason the producers dream up.

It's clear by now that every season of every BD show is centered on who might get fired, who deserves to be fired, etc.

Bravo wasn't shy about showing montages repeatedly of Camille kissing Ben or swimming or drinking repeatedly as it led to the firing.

They didn't have similar montage for Alyssa.

There doesn't have to be a valid reason.  It's a TV show.  It's all performative.  Might as well be The Apprentices at Sea since that show was specifically about people getting fired.

Of course other reality shows have this as a central plot engine, people going home, people being voted out, people losing some contest and being sent home.

BD casts aren't sticking around to try to win some grand prize so not sure what's at stake any more.  Do people who get fired on BD have problems finding real charter jobs?  Even if they do get fired from a show, it seems like Bravo keeps them close, do the Gallery Talk show or something (I never watch them so not sure).  Or maybe they go to those dumb fan conventions.

 

[kassa]

4 hours ago, aghst said:

She stayed for 5 charters or about 2 weeks since most of these charters are 2 days.  But she left because her gf was having surgery.  Bravo could have found another captain if Lee wasn't ready to come back.  It would have been difficult but I can't fault her for wanting to be with someone who's having surgery.

I definitely agree she should have been there for surgery. Maybe it was the way it was edited - something like "I had to leave the day before Valentine's Day and that's a big sacrifice for a relationship" not "My wife had surgery scheduled in the near future, so that's a big sacrifice to be away at that time."

I came way with the impression that going in she either had a hard deadline to be back for the surgery or the surgery came up while she was away. 

[BusyOctober]

I just caught up on these posts after being away for work…I didn’t get a chance to watch yet.  My biggest question….

Did Kween Klassy get her 24k gold steak?  And did she comment on how the gold made it taste 24 times better than a steak with 0 gold on it? I will be so happy when these fools are gone, and all their plastic tiaras.

[dleighg]

1 minute ago, BusyOctober said:

Did Kween Klassy get her 24k gold steak?

It was a surf and turf, so Rachel put a smallish piece of gold leaf on everyone's shrimp/lobster thing that was on top of the steak. 

[iMonrey]

Is gold even edible? I can't imagine it's good for you. Or is there some kind of edible gold I'm not aware of, like those edible flowers they use sometimes on Great British Bakeoff?

[rur]

From Wikipedia: "Edible gold is a particular type of gold authorized by the European Union and the United States as a food additive, under the code E 175. It is used in the haute cuisine in a gastronomical trend towards extravagant meals. It can be employed in foods and beverages such as in cookies decoration, wines or liquors; as sushi garnishment; or over ice cream. There are neither negative effects nor benefits from eating high-carat, food-grade gold since it is biologically inert, and it is usually suitable for use in food since it does not oxidize or corrode in moist air, unlike many other metals."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edible_gold

[dleighg]

I just hate the whole ideal of edible gold. So it ends up in the sewer system. It has ZERO TASTE. So what on earth is the point. As someone upthread said "eat the rich." And in full disclosure, many would say that I'm rich.

[JH Lipton]

On 3/1/2023 at 11:23 AM, aghst said:

They didn't have similar montage for Alyssa.

She was a Black woman literally fired for being "uppity" (which is what Sandy was saying -- via dog-whistle -- with "insubordination").  

[SemiCharmedLife]

I didn't like the way Sandy kept referring to Fraser as coming up out of the "abyss," both in her talking head and in the text she sent him.  That seems way too dramatic for what he was dealing with.  I personally would have been offended by someone thinking I was in an abyss.  Of course, she takes credit for inspiring him to change course and become the success story she always knew he could be.  Yeah, right.

[Cherry Styles]

On 3/4/2023 at 5:42 AM, JH Lipton said:

She was a Black woman literally fired for being "uppity" (which is what Sandy was saying -- via dog-whistle -- with "insubordination").  

Or she had a bad attitude and it had nothing to do with race.