The whole crew is exercising poor judgment, but it’s Kizzi who appears on the verge of making a catastrophic mistake with a flirty guest.
Photo: Bravo
One of the best feelings in the world, I think, is proving someone wrong; one of the worst is being proved right about someone’s worst instincts, especially when you’re rooting for them. This week, our cast members continue to free-fall into their bad judgment. You have to give them credit for at least being consistent. Despite numerous professional and romantic red flags, they have forged ahead with inimitable tenacity. As this week’s charter guest/shit stirrer, David, might wonder: Have they failed to prepare, or prepared to fail?
David, a professional boxer, has come on charter at the invitation of his friend primary Cameron. Besides some seasickness during a sailing lesson one morning — who can blame them? Why did Sandy and Aesha schedule this lesson right after French toast? — the charter runs smoothly. Cameron is a former football player who brought some football friends along with David, a rapper and a sommelier. They are nice people who want to relax and watch the America’s Cup, the race for the ultimate prize in sailing, from the yacht. It’s a big deal that their charter coincides with this event. Never one to miss a hyperbole, Sandy compares it to the soccer World Cup. Aesha is familiar with it because New Zealand is big in sailing — in fact, in 2024, when this season was filmed, it took home the title.
Despite everyone having a relaxed, normal time, Kizzi heads into chaos with David. She’s into him even before he sets foot onboard: During the preference-sheet meeting, she points out that he’s fit. The minute he arrives, she starts flirting; by the time he asks for her Instagram handle, it’s game over. While hooking up with a charter guest is a fireable offense, there are no rules against flirting. In fact, thinking about how her talents might be converted into tip money, Cathy encourages Kizzi to give it her all. But Kizzi — starved for attention and willing to discuss her sexual urges with any passing soul — talks a little too much and too often about her attraction to David. Aesha overhears Kizzi chatting about this topic with Josh and can only pray she’ll pull it together and do what’s right. (Anyone else getting Below Deck season 12 flashbacks …?)
Josh himself is less pleased with Kizzi’s priorities. From the jump, her thing with David creates a distraction. The chef becomes aggravated when she sets a time for dinner without checking with him first, but they clear the air in the immediate aftermath of service. Speaking of Josh: He continues to deliver on every meal, from a multicourse fresh-pasta and crab spread to the traditional Spanish paella, but Aesha notices that he has been relying a little too heavily on family-style meals as the season speeds to a close. Family style is great, but not always what guests are looking for. Aesha doesn’t bring it up this week because family style suits paella, which the guests requested. But, as ever, she’s onto something; the guests also ask to enjoy said paella in a formal dining setting.
We have come to expect chaotic behavior from Kizzi, whose mood is significantly lifted by male attention and the daydream of being a WAG — the girlfriend or wife of a high-profile athlete — who drives a Range Rover and goes to Pilates. But she’s not the only cast member to confirm our worst expectations this week. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Joe is starting to freak out about his relationship with V. All the V-Joe developments this week made me want to get on a plane that can go back in time like the Back to the Future McLaren, fly to Barcelona, and tell V to get out while she still can.
The episode opens with V asking Joe about that infamous expiration date since he’s been trying to make plans with her for after the season. He claims the date has already passed; he’s in too deep. V spends all of her charter with a sinus infection she believes is a manifestation of grief. Bon’s death anniversary, as well as her birthday, is now only four days away. I’m a skeptic of The Body Keeps the Score kinds of theories, but anyone with two eyes and a heart can see V is overwhelmed. She tells Captain Sandy about the impending date and how Bon died diving after a shallow-water blackout, which happens when oxygen can’t get to the brain. On the second day of the charter, Sandy notices that V’s symptoms are getting worse and that she’s struggling mentally, so she sends her down to rest for as long as she needs.
Is Joe mature enough to rise to this occasion? Despite his reassurances to V, he begins to retreat as soon as he notices shit is getting real. Panicked, he tells Nathan that he “doesn’t even know” V and that he feels as though a big wave is cresting upon him and he has to duck. It’s Cathy who comforts V in her cabin while she sobs. Granted, Joe was on the clock when Sandy sent V down, and he might not even have known she was crying — but I feel awful for V that, on top of dealing with her grief, illness, and her birthday, she might be disappointed by this guy who promised her affection and support.
Echoing Nathan’s situation last week, things may be falling apart personally for Joe, but professionally he’s improving. (By the way, at the beginning of this week’s episode, we see Nathan calling Gael. In a confessional, he swears he doesn’t want anything to do with Kizzi anymore, though they continue to flirt throughout the charter.) Nathan gathers his team before the charter to appoint him as the lead deckhand. Nathan makes a mistake, I think, in justifying his choice on knowing Joe the longest and having worked with him previously. Max had been waiting for this promotion: Not only was he on deck when things were really bad with Christian and Tessa and filled in for Nathan the first day of the season, when Nathan was sick with food poisoning, but he remembers Nathan said he could see him as a lead deckhand.
Although Max’s reaction to Joe’s appointment is immature — leaving the meeting, he literally screams — Nathan should have expected it. Max is such a grudge holder that he is still keeping his distance from a puzzled Cathy, whose biggest mistake was to want some time for herself, though he also thanks her for making the world a more beautiful place. The fact that he can see the value Joe brings to the team (before the charter begins, he praises Joe for his initiative) does nothing to dispel his sense of personal injury.
Part of being a good leader is being attuned to your team’s ways and emotions; Aesha compensated for the blow to Kizzi’s ego when she named Cathy a second stew by praising her efforts and checking in on her constantly. Aesha was probably annoyed that she had to do this babysitting, but she knew it had to be done for the sake of the team. By comparison, Nathan is annoyed that Max is annoyed. It’s evident from the get-go that he’s not processing Max’s reaction when Sandy asks how Max took it. Nathan says he’s fine, but really, Max is doing breathing exercises in his cabin. A heaviness comes down on the deck. It is not helped by the fact that no one on the team, except for Sandy, seems worried about V’s health, physical or mental. This matters because V is the team’s MVP: always game, always ready, always in a good mood.
Joe demonstrates his readiness to be a lead deckhand by asking one of the real (non-cast) members of the boat’s staff to show him how to do the anchor drop in case he needs to jump in. Sandy is impressed with his initiative and heartened that Nathan and Joe’s friendship has given way to professionalism. However, Joe’s show of proactivity felt performative to me — maybe I’m the one holding a grudge. Meanwhile, Max sabotages minor operations. After the seasick sailing lesson, he goes to pick up the guests, V, and Cathy on the tender. He doesn’t warn the crew that he is returning — much to Aesha’s annoyance, who spots them with binoculars just in time to pop the Champagne — and, worse, lets one of the guests drive the tender again. Only last charter, he and Nathan got in trouble for having a guest behind the wheel, and you can’t convince me he didn’t do it on purpose. Nathan suspects it too. He asks Max about it right away, but Max insists he was in full control of the tender the whole time. Later, in front of Joe, Nathan tries again, even telling him he knows Max is lying. But their conversation is cut short by Captain Sandy, who, clueless about the latest TenderGate, wants them to wipe the boat. Later, Max pushes back on Nathan as they put the Jet Ski away. It looks like the beginning of a turbulent period for the two of them.
The episode ends with a cliffhanger. On the first night of the charter, David and Kizzi had an awkward, innuendo-filled conversation during which he called her a “thrill seeker” and she told him about her taste for breaking rules. She told him she would demonstrate such propensity the next night, to avoid setting off the rumor mill while still on charter. In a confessional, Kizzi admits that David “doesn’t have banter” but that he’s hot enough to make up for that fault. The next morning, he sends her a “Good Morning Sunshine” DM, which she proceeds to tell everyone about. We close the episode on Kizzi and David together after everyone has gone to bed. The question is: Will they go through with it? I don’t think they will. Kizzi may be “naughty,” as her compatriots might put it, but she’s far from dumb. She told everyone and their mother that she wants to get with this guest; if she hooked up with him, she wouldn’t get away with it in secret. I think she’ll ultimately protect her job and her relationship with her boss. It seems she likes Aesha enough not to want to put her in that kind of position. Whatever happens, we know she won’t get fired, at least not right away — the preview for next week teases her flirting and sneaking around with Joe. God help us!
