S11.E17: I'm the Captain

[thewhiteowl]

 

The polar ice pack descends upon the fleet, threatening the end of the season. Jake struggles to lead his crew in the worst of conditions. Sig attempts to offload his crab before saving his gear. Casey shows Josh what it means to be a Captain while Keith grinds to the finish.

 

[kassa]

Putting this here because it will be the active thread -- Tony Lara has died in Sturgis.  Not a bike accident, but in a private home, so no details yet.  (I remember him but not what boat he was on -- article said the CM; was he the one who came in after Derrick Ray?)  Very sorry for his family.

 

Probably too close to air time for them to dedicate the episode.

[NEGirl]

Kassa - I put it on the trolling thread the other day. He passed in his sleep in Sturgis. They did an autopsy yesterday. He was the captain on the CM after Derek Ray. He fished opies in Jan.2011. According to the book on Phil, he worked on the CM for 10 years(from 1990-2000) and  knew Josh and Jake since they were both very small boys(4 & 7) and was close to both of them. This must be hard for them and all the other CM crew and fisherman who knew him. He seemed like a really nice, kind, patient and all around nice guy. He was only 50 years old. Very sad.

[Neurochick]

Bring Elliot back? Are these guys on drugs? Don't they remember that Elliot brought his latest girlfriend on the boat last season? Glad that Jake reminded us that Elliot is a junkie/waste of space. Shit, what would they think if they had Josh instead of Jake?

They did mention Tony Lara at the end.

[merylinkid]

They want Elliott who HAD TO BE REMOVED FROM THE CAPTAIN'S CHAIR because he was a danger to the crew over Jake?    Why?   Because he was nice and tried to make sure they had an easy time while making tons of money?    Seriously?????   Makes me wonder if Elliott was the supplier for the entire boat.  Jake, you're the captain, when the boat gets back to Dutch fire everyone of their asses and find a crew that understands how a boat is supposed to be run?

[HoodlumSheep]

Sorry to hear about Tony Lara. :(

Josh needs to get thrown headfirst overboard for the sheer amount of idiocy he displayed. Playing loud music when he should have known Casey would be yelling up directions to test the steering? And worse, hearing a garbled shout and then NOT TURNING DOWN/OFF THE MUSIC TO HEAR CASEY!!!!!!

I'm sorry, but that is some of the dumbest dumb to ever dumb.

Casey almost lost a hand!

The Saga crew is inhabited by a bunch of Neanderthals. Sticking around for the ice is just plain dumb. At this rate you guys deserve Elliot.

This episode made me so angry.

Glad to see Rigel gone.

[Runningwild]

I just gotta say I loved watching the editors throw Josh under the bus. He's an idiot who has no business being a captain.

[kassygreene]

Josh needs to be put on the dock, with his stuff thrown after him in black garbage bags.  Please let Casey take his larger percentage and drop-kick Josh, or at least take away his music, his internet access, and his cigarettes.  That combination should inflict some pain.  Kid don't wanna be grounded, kid should act like a grown-up.

 

Jake sounded like he was channeling Sig, with a dash of Keith.  Finally.  I think Disco finally gave him a good edit too.

[brgjoe]

In mostly a "meh" season for me, watching Captain Casey go off on Josh pretty much made up for most of it.  That was great.  "You bet he was up there updating his Facebook page.."  Heh. 

 

And if you, me, and most of the viewers have been saying all along that Josh needs to go down to the bowels of the ship and learn what Casey is doing with those repairs, you would think that Josh show know that by now as well.  But nope -- he's just still sitting in the cabin, listening to his gawdawful music and smoking his cig's.   Just a total waste of space.  At least the Wizard greenhorn had an excuse why he couldn't leave the cabin.

 

Jake is still painful to watch.  But at least he seemed to grow a pair at the end of the episode.  About time.

[walnutqueen]

Josh is a lazy useless sack of shit.

 

That is all.

[terrymct]

Sorry to hear about Tony Lara. :(

Josh needs to get thrown headfirst overboard for the sheer amount of idiocy he displayed. Playing loud music when he should have known Casey would be yelling up directions to test the steering? And worse, hearing a garbled shout and then NOT TURNING DOWN/OFF THE MUSIC TO HEAR CASEY!!!!!!

I'm sorry, but that is some of the dumbest dumb to ever dumb.

Casey almost lost a hand!

The Saga crew is inhabited by a bunch of Neanderthals. Sticking around for the ice is just plain dumb. At this rate you guys deserve Elliot.

This episode made me so angry.

Glad to see Rigel gone.

 

It was good to see that people on the boats see what many of us clearly do.  Eliot is a junkie who puts his crew in danger (although he did have skills before he went hard into the drugs).  Josh is a prima donna who at best is a waste of space only there for the TV time and at worst is a danger to his crew.

 

Saga:  I was glad to see Jake man up at the end of this episode.  He stopped acting like the Saga was a junior high school lunch room where he had to curry favor with the popular girls.  His speech to the crew in the mess area was MILES ahead of what Josh did a few weeks back.  He had a point.  He was establishing his dominance in the social structure of the boat.  Then, up on the bridge, he finally started to sound like Sig or Keith or Andy or Jonathan.  He broke from feeling like a crew guy who happens to be up in the bridge to feeling like the captain.  Bravo.  That was a massive step forward.

 

Cornelia Marie:   Has Casey finally had enough?  He and the crew all know Josh is a waste of space with no real interest in crabbing other than using it as a basis for his television and social media career.   I noticed that Discovery is starting to not so subtly redefine Josh's title on the boat.  Casey is now called the captain and Josh is called the owner.   More correctly, they should probably be calling him the part owner.

 

Wizard:   Keith, for all his anger management issues, did handle the greenhorn well.  The guy lied on his application and ended up causing more work for everyone else on the boat.  I think giving him 1% was overly generous since he barely worked a single pot.  I thought they had him doing inside work, such as cooking, but then there was a shot of him falling over in the galley.  He might not even have been able to do that well.  It was odd, though, when he was on the dock that he was walking well and even jumped up and over the wooden railroad tie barrier.   Mighty spry once he was on land.   Back to Keith.  Sure, he yelled at the guy, but he had reason to do so, made appropriate points, and didn't lose control.   Good for you, Keith.  It was interesting that he said in the old days he wouldn't have even talked to the guy, would have just thrown his gear on the dock and been done with it.   I thought we saw exactly that happen last season, or ws it the season before with the greenhorn who whined continually.

 

Good episode overall.  Jake is growing into his job.  Casey needs to do something about Josh.

 

(edited because I called Josh Jake a couple of times.)

Edited August 12, 2015 by terrymct

[sigmaforce86]

I hate to say it even though I'm not a Josh defender but...................was he on something?  I'd like to hope it was a combination of being tired and his general not-caring attitude but there were some weird moments, when Casey first said there was no steering Josh barely reacted and when it was repeated the reaction was like slow motion.  Again in the captains seat, not just the playing music and not listening part but right after that Josh was just sort of staring out the window like he wasn't there.  Much as we know he's a fame-whore and mostly in it for the cameras I'd still hate to see he was using in any way but something was very off.

 

Hello "Captain" Jake - nice to finally meet you.  The Saga crew can suck it - do they think if Elliot was there he'd maybe wave his magic meth bag and the ice would retreat in fear?  Being in good crab grounds gets you nothing if your gear is buried under an ice flow.

[NEGirl]

I think it was a good show last night. And, I was happy to see they did a little memorial thing for Tony Lara. The autopsy showed he died from a heart attack.

 

The Saga - Those guys wanted Junkie Elliott over Jake! They have very, very short memories. Jake finally maned up - about time. He handled the chew out of the crew in a very adult, mature level unlike Josh a few weeks ago. He reminded the crew  WHY Elliott was not on the boat. Good job Jake.

 

The Cornelia Marie - Could Josh have been any more disinterested and lazy? He truly showed just how little he cares about being a captain. Loved Casey's comment about Josh probably updating his FB page - he sure has him pegged. It will be interesting to see how next season pans out with the two new owners now in the picture. Anyone else notice that when Casey moved away from the camera he appeared to have taken his mike off and appeared to be freaking out on Josh. It appeared Josh's mike was also off.

 

The Northwestern - Thank God they were not out to sea when that fire happened. I like that Sig gave Jake the ice warning and advised him to move south.

 

The Wizard - I also agree that Keith handled the gh very well. I would not have paid that kid anything for lying on his contract. He sat useless on the boat almost the entire time.

 

The Bait - I thought  the "conversation" at the end between Josh and  Jake was wasted time. However, I did love Jake's comment about people thinking he is a whiner - yep Jake, we do. You can tell that Keith really has a lot of respect for Amy and how hard she worked. I did not know Zach was so tall - 6'4", he does not look that tall on the boat. I can't believe he got the Neil Armstrong question wrong in the quiz. I love to hear stories like the Navy female commander. You could see all the guys were impressed.

 

One more show next week than that's it till next year. It sure has gone by fast.

Edited August 12, 2015 by NEGirl

[BusyOctober]

We know that editors are good at adding in "appropriate" shots to fit the story, but I don't doubt for one minute that the footage of Josh in the wheelhouse was accurate.  He knew full well his boat had lost steering and was in real danger. It made sense for him to stay in the chair while the engneers worked below.  However, he should have been alert and hyper-focused on his boat & crew. He should have been asking for updates, checking to see what's going on and ready to jump at the commands shouted up to him.  Instead he was kicking back as if he were on a pleasure cruise.  He showed his crew, his co-captain, his co-owners and his investers that he gives ZERO fucks about any of them. What was his reply to Casey?  Something like "if I knew it would happen I wouldn't have done it".  WTF? If you are asked to turn the wheel in a particular direction, the implied consequence of turning any way other than the direction requested is you do not achieve the desired outcome. Josh is too stupid to be on that boat.  I'd equate his lack of knowledge or caring as dangerous as Eliot's drug use.

 

I've never taken any boating courses but even I know when I'm told there's a dangerous situation on board, I turn off the music and I will be ready to react when the experienced person gives me orders. I also know 'port' means left.

[OSM Mom]

I just gotta say I loved watching the editors throw Josh under the bus. He's an idiot who has no business being a captain.

He didn't need any help getting under the bus. He willingly threw himself in front of it. What a douchecanoe. If that doesn't prove that he's only there because of the camera, nothing will. Lazy ass sitting there trying to be Mr cool with the music and the cigs.. Hey idiot. How about you go down there with Casey and learn something. I'm glad Casey went off on him. He deserved every bit of it.

[terrymct]

I hate to say it even though I'm not a Josh defender but...................was he on something?  I'd like to hope it was a combination of being tired and his general not-caring attitude but there were some weird moments, when Casey first said there was no steering Josh barely reacted and when it was repeated the reaction was like slow motion.  

 

I thought he was high, too.  I backed up the video to see if that was a joint he was smoking rather than a cigarette.  I think more than exhaustion, we (and Casey and the crew) were seeing Josh's profound lack of interest in crabbing or the operation and well being of the boat of which he's a partial owner.   He's there for the camera time.  The other thought that sprang to mind is that I wonder how Josh liked seeing himself portrayed so accurately on the show, rather than getting the "noble young man struggling to carry on his father's legacy" edit that he got for a long, long time.

[terrymct]

The Northwestern - Thank God they were not out to sea when that fire happened. I like that Sig gave Jake the ice warning and advised him to move south.

 

I also like that Sig called out to Edgar first.  The brothers have their ups and downs, but they really are a team working to advance the family business.   I liked that Sig warned Jake.  He knows that Jake has a lot going on and may not be checking the location and speed of the ice.  Sig genuinely likes Jake, although I suspect the whining grates on Sig as it does on us.

 

 

 

The Bait - ... You can tell that Keith really has a lot of respect for Amy and how hard she worked...

 

I suspect that Keith and the other people on The Bait also respect her for her ability to honestly assess her own limitations.   She knew and said that this wasn't the fishery for her, no excuses or blaming anyone else.  Just honestly said that both on the boat in her conversation with Keith and later on the show.  I still suspect that Keith wishes on some level that he'd have kept her for the second leg of that trip rather than replacing her with the guy with the knee.  The grass isn't always greener, Keith.

[NEGirl]

Busy, OSM & Terry - I could not agree with you more on everything you have said about Josh. He sure has been his own worse enemy this year and disco has played it front and center. I don't think he was high, I think he just did not care and was not concerned about having to do anything other than just sitting on his ass, smoking and listening to that loud annoying music.

 

On another note(mods I hope you keep this here) - The DC FB page has a nice memorial to Tony Lara on the CM. There is one scene where Jake says how much he loves Tony and yells to the wheel house "Tony you're the man. Your a fucking rock star".  There is another scene where Tony lets Jake drive the boat and Jake LISTENS to what Tony has to say, and starts driving while Tony walks on deck. I mention this because that one scene showed that a clean Jake was far more serious about captaining than Josh has shown himself to be this whole year.  There was another scene where Tony tells Josh how to discuss a mistake with a crew member - calmly tell them what they did wrong, complement them on what they did good, then tell them not to let it happen again. Far different from Josh's  "I'm the captain" shit  fit a couple of weeks ago.  I'm sure it must be hard for both of them with his passing. They spent their summers on the boat with him for 10 years.

Edited August 12, 2015 by NEGirl

[Runningwild]

He didn't need any help getting under the bus. He willingly threw himself in front of it. What a douchecanoe. If that doesn't prove that he's only there because of the camera, nothing will. Lazy ass sitting there trying to be Mr cool with the music and the cigs.. Hey idiot. How about you go down there with Casey and learn something. I'm glad Casey went off on him. He deserved every bit of it.

I kno he doesn't need help. I was just saying that Disco showed it instead of trying to make him look good.

[Xena]

"THE OTHER PORT!"

 

I think that pretty much sums up Josh's abilities as captain.

 

[terrymct]

"THE OTHER PORT!"

 

I think that pretty much sums up Josh's abilities as captain.

 

Casey needs to write PORT and STARBOARD across the toes of Josh's sneakers.

[kassa]

Or teach him to swipe "port" and "starboard".

 

My mom is staying with me for a couple of weeks until she can move into her new place, and she's not a viewer.  So she had no idea why I was bouncing up and down in my chair in glee as that skinny guy was complaining about his workers and then telling those young men he was the boss, then went back to bitching about them.  I said the viewers had been waiting for this moment for YEARS.  

 

I also pictured Sig and Edgar bouncing up and down in their chairs with glee watching it.  

[millennium]

"But I bet his Facebook's updated" was one of the most perfectly delivered lines I've seen on this show.

 

I didn't get the same feel-good from Jake's "I'm the Captain" scene.   It came off as desperate (to me, anyway) and begged comparison to Josh's similar scene a few weeks ago.   That both men felt it necessary to shout "I'm the Captain" at their crews doesn't speak well of their leadership abilities.   Respect isn't something you can demand, it's earned.    Jake's problem is, he doesn't respect himself and the crew sees it.  

 

Jake was in the wheelhouse wringing his hands over having to inform the crew that the ice was shutting them down.   Why?   It wasn't a judgment call on his part -- nature made that call.   Jake was simply the messenger.   Yet he was awash in self-doubt and guilt at having to impart what was basically a weather report.   If he's that torn up about relating things outside his control, what will he do when the choices he has to make, especially choices that could mean the difference between success and ruin, are 100% at his own discretion?

[NEGirl]

Millennium - A very interesting take on Jake and to an extent I agree. While Jake is competent in driving a boat, mentally I don't think he was what it takes to be captain. He is too emotional, too insecure, too immature, too indecisive, and not a "take charge" type of guy. He will be 35 next month and if he does not have those skills by now he probably never will.

Edited August 15, 2015 by NEGirl

[Neurochick]

Someone needs to tell Jake that it's not his business what other people think of him.  I think he's too worried about what others will think of him.  Yes, they were on good fishing but Mother Nature had other ideas and you don't mess with Mother Nature.  Period, end of story.  Here's what needed to be said:

 

"I know we're on good fishing, but the ice is coming.  We have to head South.  I know it sucks but my priority is getting everybody home alive and in one piece."  The end.

 

And Elliot would have stayed out there because Elliot didn't give a shit about his crew; he only cared about, getting high/trying to get Val back/hanging with his newest girlfriend (someone who probably just wants to be on TV).

Edited August 15, 2015 by Neurochick

[NEGirl]

Neurochick - Exactly!

[kassa]

I agree that he is definitely not there yet when it comes to handling himself with the crew. But I think we witnessed the internal shift of "these guys have no clue" that wasn't there before. If he now truly appreciates that he not only has the book knowledge but also the real life fishing experience that his crew lacks, that might enable him to assert his authority.

It's also hard to judge by the crab count, but they were near the top, so however bad it was... It wasn't that bad.