Last night’s Below Deck proved that old habits die hard. Case in point number one: Ben Robinson and Kate Chastain face off yet again amidst pressure to cook not one but TWO dinners for some difficult charter guests. Ben‘s irritability was no doubt triggered by other cooking matters though, as he spent a good deal of the charter making food for a dog. Yes, apparently Fido needs haute cuisine!
Case in point number two: Trevor Walker is a sloppy drunk who insults everyone and makes an a$$ of himself while Kelley Johnson practically tears his hair out trying to manage him. So, all is ship-shape up in here, Cap’n!
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After Trevor was ordered to bed last week after his hot tub sparring with Nico Scholly, he emerges from his bunk as clueless as ever the next morning. Nico seeks out support from a friend back home, while Kelley does push ups in his bunk as he ponders how to fix a problem like Trevor. Answer: a plane ticket home! But Kelley doesn’t want to be a man down on deck.
Trevor thinks his comments in the hot tub were harmless and that he’s “the last person ever to get involved in drama!” Trevor also thinks he was some sort of model at one point in his life. So. There you have it.
Lauren Burchnell is #TeamNico all the way. She shares his hatred of Trevor, kind of like every other human aboard this vessel. She thinks Trevor’s comments about Nico’s tattoos were lame and offensive, in that order.
Down in the laundry, Kate is not thrilled to see burnt sheets, courtesy of Sierra Storm not turning off the iron – again. Kate and Emily Warburton-Adam contemplate hanging up a sign to remind Sierra of basic fire safety standards, potentially drawn with crayon stick figure accompaniments so she can mentally process the instructions.
Captain Lee Rosbach calls Kelley, Kate, and Ben to the bridge for a briefing on the next charter guests. They’re yachties! (OMG – Please do not let BD Med’s Danny Z be on the list!!) Okay, these folks own yachts. And own a French poodle, “Scupper,” who will want his own food made from scratch. Ben looks less than thrilled at this news. They also want some sort of net-swim, which is a “dog and pony show” to set up, according to Lee, and a clam bake on the beach, Kate’s fave event! <sarcasm>
For their first day, the guests want a clam bake. Captain Lee dictates an early 4:30 picnic due to the massive bug issue on the beach, but this time slot totally screws with dinner service. Ben all but begs Kate to call the clam bake an “early dinner” so he is not forced to make another dinner at 10pm. Kate’s all, “I’m just gonna call it a CLAM BAKE!” in her best Ethel Merman voice. She doesn’t seem to get Ben’s predicament, or maybe she just doesn’t care? He’s a bit exasperated.
Also exasperated is Kelley, who’s attempting a talking-to with Trevor out on deck. Oh wait – he’s actually laying down the LAW! “You are no longer a senior deckhand,” he tells Trevor, whose job now is to clean, take orders, and stop being the floating turd in this crew’s soup. Trevor accepts his demotion with a nod, but later snarks in his interview that no demotion will keep him down! His ego may disappear for a few days, but it will be back with a vengeance just when they least expect it. Thus, Trevor is essentially the genital herpes of this boat.
Below deck, Sierra opens up to Emily about her father passing away when she was sixteen, an event that tore her family apart. Ever since his passing, she’s been on a journey to find something meaningful in life. Yachting may be part of that for her.
After Kelley tells Captain Lee about Trevor’s demotion (which Lee is happy about), the crew get a humongous net aboard for swimming (snorkeling?) later. The guests arrive next, are greeted with champagne and the customary tour, then settle in for some drinks before their clam bake. Oh, and Scupper the poodle is officially introduced. And he’ll be dressed in a tuxedo at some point, which the lead charter asks Kate to STEAM for him! Oh Lord. Ben’s nemesis has boarded Valor!
The deck crew successfully dock Valor at a local harbor for the clam bake as Scupper pukes on board. Lovely. Provisions are hauled to shore, paper towels are provided to Scupper, an enormous pot of clams and lobsters is schlepped to the fire, courtesy of Ben and Lauren.
It’s all good. Except Kate doesn’t understand why Captain Lee suggested such an early time for the clam bake? There don’t seem to be any bugs here! Cue a literal plague of flies at this very moment – which descend upon the food, the guests, their eyeballs – all at once.
The guests then ask Kate if they can “push dinner back to 9-ish?” Kate slinks over to deliver the unsavory request to Ben, who immediately asks why this clam bake was not presented AS DINNER!? Kate feigns ignorance, then blames Ben’s general grouchiness for the situation. “Three things you encounter in life,” snarks Kate, “Death, taxes, and Ben getting angry when asked to cook food.” Ben is not happy. He reluctantly agrees to do tapas for them at 9, which he hopes Kate will clearly communicate to the guests…this time.
After Ben takes off, Kate tells Lauren that Ben is “just having a moment,” while Ben complains to Kelley and Nico that Kate has basically – to use Captain Lee’s favorite expression – screwed the pooch on this one. He’s not afraid of Kate, although he admits most people are.
When Kate comes back on board, Ben is prepping dog food. Already in a terrible mood about the two-dinner fiasco, this is also not his favorite task. He also snaps at Kate that HE is going to talk to the guests himself in the future, because she’s clearly not capable of communicating with them! She snarks, “Oh, is this your first charter?”
Meanwhile, Trevor is b*tching on shore about Kelley not delivering more trash bags to him. He complains to Lauren about Kelley’s overbearing attitude. Lauren is not the appropriate audience for this, Trevor. She advises him to shut up and do his job, but Trevor threatens that he’s going to go crazy on someone tonight! #ShotsFired! #ClearTheHotTub! #CoverYourTattoos!
On board, Ben talks to the guests about having a light tapas menu for their late dinner since they just ate a huge clam boil. They agree. Kate is pissed, thinking this situation embarrasses her as chief stew. “Ben is trying to do my job,” she complains.
When Ben and Kate go back inside, they scream at each other at a level that even the guests can hear. Which is embarrassing for the entire crew. Nevertheless, Scupper has got to eat, so a guest pokes his head into the galley to get his dog bowl filled. At least Scupper got a one course meal out of this mess!
Outside, tempers are flaring as well. Trevor mouths off to Kelley about being ridden to hard. At his breaking point, Kelley snaps that everyone’s busting their a$$ here! Trevor is not being singled out for hard work! “What, you think you’re f–king special!?” Kelley accuses, adding that he’s Trevor’s boss. Mr. Nice Bosun is gone, notes Kelley. Trevor doesn’t understand any of these words, as they don’t include the puffed up praise he’s apparently become accustomed to. His mommy doesn’t talk to him like this!
A tapas dinner is served, which the guests love. But Kate is still upset with Ben, who she thinks needs to be put in a time out. Pleasing the guests at any cost is their job, and she thinks Ben is slacking on his service. Ben resents being dubbed lazy just because Kate didn’t communicate clearly that the clam boil was an early dinner, nor did she approach the guests herself to offer a light appetizer dinner. They are not seeing eye to eye, to put it mildly.
The next morning, Valor sets sail with the help of its able crew – well, except for Trevor, who sits around pouting like the child he is.
Ben prepares a full breakfast that Kate serves to happy guests. “The only person not happy is you,” Kate tells Ben afterward. He wants to talk out their issues, but Kate just jokes around a bit, and they seem to come to a mutual understanding that they will always wind each other up, but eventually unwind in the end. They’re okay with that.
Fast forward through a day of swimming, and we’re already at dinner again! As the guests eat, Kelley calls his sister Amy to complain about Trevor. He regales her with the many foibles of Trevor, which Amy just laughs about. She says she misses Kelley (and I miss HER!), and Kelley admits that talking to Amy calms him down even in the most trying of times. And Trevor’s presence on this boat has indeed created the MOST TRYING OF TIMES.
Speaking of Trevor, he’s hanging out by the hot tub again – which can never bode well – downing a shot with the guests! He dismisses it as no big deal because one shot is nothing to a “guy like me who can drink a full bottle!” Emily is present to witness this breach of boundaries, which makes her uncomfortable. But there’s no stopping the Trevor Train Of Terror once it leaves the station. (The rest of the crew will find this out all too soon…)
It’s the last day of charter, and the guests are happily eating their bagels and schmear while the deck crew successfully docks. The guests say their goodbyes and are all smiles and compliments as they hand over their fat envelope. Hmm, what will the tip look like from this fairly low maintenance group?
At the tip meeting, Captain Lee reminds the crew that communication is KEY. No more breakdowns! Ben agrees. The tip is $12 grand – not their best, but not too shabby either. The crew gets a night off to celebrate. Cue Trevor turning into a raging drunken nightmare in roughly T-minus 8 hours…
After they clean the boat, the crew head out for dinner and drinks. Trevor has decided to #Rage, thus gets his drinks down as fast as possible to ensure Maximum Douche Potential is reached fairly quickly. Exhibit A: Trevor’s response to Sierra ordering a dirty martini is, “Can she get it filthy? Make it hard!”
Exhibit B: Sitting next to Kate after their meal, Trevor offers her some hair tips. I mean, hasn’t everyone heard he was a PAUL MITCHEL HAIR MODEL!?!? In case they haven’t, he obnoxiously reminds them. Repeatedly. Kate’s reaction is one word: “Wow.”
Exhibits C-Z come next, which include Trevor triple-fisting drinks from the bar after everyone else is winding down, then falling off a swing while calling Ben and Kate a “d*ck and b*tch!” Kate laughs it off, joking that she’d actually prefer the title of d*ck, thankyouverymuch.
But Ben doesn’t like Trevor calling Kate names, nor does he like Trevor drunkenly towering over him trying to formulate words that sounds like “Schmegshlurruppit!”
Though he maintains his charm and smile, Ben loses his patience with the brah breathing ethanol all over him, eventually tossing Trevor’s drink behind him. He’s had enough. And, again, Trevor basically needs to be ordered to bed with no dessert.
But Trevor’s tiny brain does not compute! Why does everyone not see the AMAZINGNESS that is HIM!? He thinks everyone on this crew is just a hater. Ben sums it up more accurately: “Trevor is just a complete tosser.” Yup.
TELL US: WAS THE 2-DINNER ISSUE BEN OR KATE’S FAULT – OR BOTH? IS TREVOR HEADED FOR A PLANE TICKET HOME? IS KELLEY IMPROVING AS A BOSUN?
Photo Credit: Bravo
