The crew manages to put their differences aside long enough to overcome the boat being stuck on the dock.
Photo: Bravo
The St. David is stuck at the dock for this episode’s charter, and it’s a welcome development that forces the crew to step up their service. The primary is Ron, a restaurateur who is celebrating his tenth wedding anniversary with his wife, Denise. Their friends include a vegan and a pescatarian, which could be a challenge for Anthony. The chef struggled to juggle multiple dietary restrictions last season, but he says he’s learned from his mistakes and is going to be prepared. I wonder if Anthony has an opinion on Eleven Madison Park returning to serving meat.
Anyway, there’s interpersonal crew drama to rehash. Kyle pulls Solène for a smoke break to apologize for drunkenly proclaiming to everyone that sex with her was worse than bathroom sex with rando Martine. She tells us that she accepts his apology because “he’s stupid,” and they shake hands. Solène is taking two high roads today, because she also forgives Bárbara, who feels guilty about canoodling with Jess in their cabin while Solène was trying to sleep. Solène keeps her distance from Jess and says she’s accepting the consequences of her actions. In contrast, Kyle can’t even get that phrase right, saying, “These are the actions of my consequences.” He’s referring to Kerry’s direction that he should avoid interacting with the guests. Kyle feels awkward about it. He’s also lost trust in his buddy Damo, even though he tells Damo they’re cool. How is Damo supposed to know they’re not actually?
Anthony starts the charter strong with two charcuterie plates, one vegan, which might be more aptly called a fruit plate. As the guests are enjoying them, Kerry tests to see if there’s “wash,” or white water, coming from the back of the boat. Everyone is ready to leave the dock, but Hugo reports there is no wash. Dun dun dun! We get a rare appearance from Andrew, the first officer, and Emil, the engineer, so we know it’s serious. They reset the wing station, whatever that means, to no avail. The guests are eager to watch the boat depart, but Kerry has to deliver the bad news to them that they won’t be leaving today. They are rightfully disappointed.
Now that the St. David is reduced to a floating restaurant/hotel, the pressure on Anthony is even greater. For lunch, he nails the different restrictions and it’s a hit. Meanwhile, the deck crew uses the winches to move the boat forward, allowing them to access the water-sports equipment and toys. Kerry explains that this is very dangerous if something snaps or goes wrong. Someone could DIE, he says. Of course, everyone is fine.
Well, it’s not totally fine: The chief officer texts Kerry that they need a new wing station controller and can get one by sometime tomorrow. I imagine producers asking Andrew to deliver this news in person to make more interesting television, and him being so camera-shy that he refuses. Between this week’s mechanical problems and last week’s drunken sexcapades, it’s feeling like Sailing Yacht.
For the first time this season, we see Fraser working hard. He’s trying to appease the guests, who keep asking after the Jet Skis. For reasons unclear, Hugo and the deck crew don’t get out the water toys despite three hours of asking, so Fraser improvises and comes up with a Champagne sunset cruise on the tender. Solène pretends not to know what a cruise is (she must know une croisière? Bateaux Mouches? Non?) and chooses to go over taking a break. She’s making an effort to learn the job.
Back in the galley, Anthony is staring at the preference sheets like he’s trying to solve a murder case that went cold 50 years ago. He says he has no idea what he’s doing … until inspiration strikes, and he solves the case: Th truffle carbonara did it! Unfortunately, there’s a new wrinkle.Last minute, the guests want Kerry to join for dinner. Miraculously, Detective Anthony is able to accommodate.
After toiling away over a successful dinner, all Anthony wants is for someone to take the kitchen trash out. It appears that this is traditionally a task handled by the exterior crew. He radios the request, but Damo and Kyle are in their beds, and Jess is busy cozying up with Bárbara. Hugo is in the crew mess and ignores the call. When Anthony asks again, the bosun says, “Yep, no problem,” but then doesn’t direct anyone to do it as far as we see. Solène, the last person anyone would expect to take out the trash, ends up doing it. She struggles to lift it into the dumpster, so we know she’s working, but still, this is character growth. Rainbeau is especially glad that Solène is doing more work now that she’s given up playing Love Island with Kyle and Jess.
Anthony confronts Hugo about the trash, but Hugo is not having it. He writes this off as one of Anthony’s spirals. I think Hugo is being rude, but during breakfast the next morning, Rainbeau indirectly supports Hugo’s claims. Anthony asks Rainbeau how breakfast is going, and she says there’s nothing to report; the guests are loving it. Anthony says that he needs to know everything because everything stresses him out, but Rainbeau cuts him off: “Oh, I don’t have time for this speech.” She walks away, leaving a stunned Anthony. It sounds like the chef is throwing fits more often than we’ve seen. If his resentment is simmering on low, these back-to-back dismissals turn it up to medium heat.
On day two of the charter, the St. David is still stuck at the dock, but the guests finally get to play with the water toys and go snorkeling. Denise gets her requested photo op of jumping off a boat in her wedding dress. It’s off the tender, but still cute.
Kerry is left waiting for updates on his Amazon delivery, and it’s not looking good. A person is literally flying from Miami with the ship part, and he gets the unfortunate news that it will arrive too late for the current charter. This sucks for Ron, who we learn paid $60,000 for the three-day charter. It’s out of Kerry’s control if the charter company will give them a discount, but he proposes 20 percent off to the yacht agent. Kerry is concerned about the reputation of the yacht, which is hard to take seriously as a concern when it is on a reality-TV show.
Ron and his friends debate how much to tip and contemplate giving none at all. Remember, Ron is in the service industry, too. He knows that when you mess up someone’s entrée, you comp it, or at least give them a free dessert. Kerry says the yacht agent won’t talk to Ron about a discount until after the charter, which feels unfair to Ron and to us viewers. We want to know what they end up paying! Kerry stands up for his crew, emphasizing that “when the house makes a mistake, the staff shouldn’t suffer.” This works (or the potential shame of not tipping on TV works), and Ron tips $19,000.
The crew is disappointed by this low tip. Except, we know the charter cost was $60,000, so this doesn’t seem low at all. It’s 31 percent! Or, if we assume they’re receiving a 50 percent Bravo discount and a normal charter price of $120,000, it’s a 16 percent tip, which still seems respectable.
Exhausted from the charter, Anthony makes sandwiches for crew lunch. They look like basic school lunch triangles, and Damo isn’t impressed: “Eh.” Anthony is offended: “It cannot be Christmas every day.” The chef gets defensive and angry. He’s working 16-hour days and says the tip is credit to him. Anthony feels like he’s the employee of the crew and his resentment is close to boiling.
At the tip meeting, Bárbara, unaware of sandwich-gate, asks Anthony what time lunch is. This sets him off. He already made lunch! He curses everyone out and storms downstairs to make more food. Fraser and Jess go after him and bring him back to the meeting. He apologizes to everyone for overheating. Later, he makes tacos, which look much more gourmet than the sandwiches.
With Anthony’s resentment set back to a low simmer, it’s Kyle’s turn to stir the pot. As soon as the charter is over, he starts drinking. He tells Jess that he knows it’s a problem, but he also says he’s never asked for help before, and it doesn’t seem like he’s going to now. Past sound clips dramatically play over close-up, shaky shots of him pouring whiskey into a glass. Are these the demons raging in Kyle’s mind?
At the crew’s dinner out, Kyle makes a toast. He’s glad he’s still there. Okay, we’re off to a sweet start. He continues: He’s proud that he got away with something he wasn’t supposed to. Uh-oh, this toast is taking a turn. Kyle says he thought Fraser would’ve done him in. Fraser’s like, What do you mean by that? It’s no longer a toast and devolves into an argument. Damo tries to defend Fraser, but Kyle blames both of them. Fraser swears in French and leaves the table. He’s pissed off that Kyle isn’t being held accountable and wants to go back to the boat. Jess follows Fraser outside, where she asks the cameras to move away. We’ll see if they do next week.
What’s going on with these two? Will they ever get together? We got three instances of them flirting this episode:
• Rainbeau squeezed Damo’s bicep.
• Damo complimented Rainbeau’s butt in her ’70s-themed jeans.
• They sat next to each other at dinner, where she admired and stroked his stubble. Won’t they just kiss already?!
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