A Lower Than Below Deck Down Under
SPOILER WARNING: This recap gets into the latest episodes of Below Deck Down Under: S2, E6 “All Wrong” and E7 “The Turnover Day”! If you don’t want any of that spoiled, come back later. BTW, if you want these regularly, they’re on the Patreon.
I cover Below Deck on the podcast a lot and occasionally get into some of the incredibly weird moments on here. Well, Below Deck Down Under’s double episodes last night were so horrifying that I still haven’t processed everything that happened. I need to write about this. The episode should’ve aired with a warning that it would feature multiple instances of sexual assault, so I’m letting you know now: this is heavier than the usual Below Deck banter. Across two episodes, the series put into question the ethics of reality TV, alcohol and consent.
With stars from Love is Blind suing Netflix and more demand for a union protecting reality stars, it’s no longer possible to separate the entertaining end product of reality tv from the questionable ethics that produce it. When you watch Love is Blind or Too Hot To Handle, you know the contestants are being fed nothing but grapes and alcohol. When women fall asleep in the middle of dates holding bottles of tequila, it’s pretty clear how these things operate. You need people to fall in love in a week? Give them alcohol, mess up their sleep schedule and feed them sporadically. The glossy, final episodes erase this to paint a sanitized portrait of romance, but the truth eventually cracks through when these couples implode.
Below Deck isn’t that far gone on the spectrum of evil. We’re following the same employees season over season, there are strict rules about drinking and sleep hours that are mandated by the yacht industry and the actual entertainment comes from whatever chaos the guests bring and crew drama. That is, until we get to the season’s “Night Out” episodes. These fall between charters and usually feature the crew going on a day activity or spending the night drinking. Below Deck fans are split on enjoying this part of the show. I don’t mind it since it usually gives them a chance to really dig into the crew drama and exploits. Also, the food they eat always looks really good.
Everyone drinks a lot on these outings, but things usually remain pretty tame (depending on the crew). There was the time Chef Rachel got so drunk she took over a live band’s performance. And that time some white girl said the n word. But, USUALLY, it just leads to people being embarrassed and no actual crimes or harm occurs. That is, until Laura and Luke.
These two have been offensively horny all season. Laura is dedicated to finding someone to sleep with and throws herself at any available man. Luke sleeps with her, but then rejects her for a shot with Margot. She starts flirting heavily with Adam who makes it more than clear he just wants to be friends. Luke first starts targeting Margot when she goes to use the bathroom and he sneaks off after her to force her into a kiss. That leads to him pretty aggressively trying to touch her and even shove her face into a cake during a charter. Margot has some feelings for Luke, but she’s also interested in another guy. Either way, she definitely isn’t trying to pick up Laura’s sloppy seconds and focuses on Harry.
During this latest “Night Out” episode, Harry blows it by being so annoying, Margot decides she’d rather just go to bed drunk and alone than deal with either of these boys. She gets into a cab with Aesha and falls asleep on Luke’s lap after making it very clear she just wants to go home, drink water and go to bed (in the other cab, Adam is begging Laura leave him alone). Aesha notices Luke is being kind of weird about and insists on taking Margot to bed and stays with her until she falls asleep. Certain that Margot is now slumbering safely, Aesha goes to the kitchen to make buttered noodles because she’s a Drunk Night Out Hero who deserves it.
This happens while everyone else parties in the hot tub…well, really, it’s mostly Laura assaulting Adam in the hot tub. She’s sitting on his lap, touching his chest and feeling him up as he constantly moves and says “stop, no” and “why can’t you just act like a friend?” Suddenly, the power goes out on the boat. Everyone on deck starts walking around to see what’s happening. Luke, however, uses this opportunity to run into Margot’s room and get into her bed completely naked. Aesha doesn’t see it from the kitchen and only notices he’s in there when producers and camera men are yelling at him to get out of her bed. He seems angry he was caught and tries to ask Margot weird, yes-based questions to convince the producers it’s fine. They don’t fall for it so he tries to close her door. The producers don’t let him. Eventually, he goes back to his cabin and locks himself inside (forcing his roommate Culver to sleep in a guest cabin.)
Aesha checks in on Margot who is still asleep and doesn’t know what just happened. When Aesha tells her Luke was in her bed completely naked she says she had no clue and is terrified about what he might’ve tried to do. Aesha is an absolute PRO and goes straight to Capt. Jason to explain the situation: Luke snuck into Margot’s bed naked when he knew she was passed out without her consent, got caught and locked himself in his cabin. Capt. Jason takes him off the boat IMMEDIATELY and sends him to a hotel so he can come back and get professionally fired in the morning. When he comes back, Luke says he doesn’t even remember what happened, but he’s ashamed of himself. He should be! Fucking pervert! You can see Margot’s relief when she realizes she won’t have to face him again.
The thing is, while all of this is happening, Laura is on her own predator stroll! Even though Adam has been rejecting her all night, she follows him into his cabin. He tells her to leave multiple times before getting into bed to sleep. Does she leave? No! She puts lotion on his back and climbs into his top bunk bed to straddle him and give him a back massage. The same back massage Adam already said he didn’t want 5 times in the hot tub! Adam starts to object when the producers swoop in again! They tell her to get off of him and make her leave. Yes, the producers had to step in TWICE in one night! Adam doesn’t tell anyone about this and the producers don’t seem to mention it to Aesha or Capt. Jason because this isn’t what gets Laura fired.
When they tell Laura what Luke did, she has sympathy FOR HIM. She says Margot was flirting and he was just joking. She says she would’ve been happy if he got in her bed and she should’ve just kept him happy so he would’ve left Margot alone. She says it’s karma because Luke stopped sleeping with her. She asks Margot if Luke’s “penis was standing” when he got in the bed. She’s sad she’s not allowed to say bye to him. She says he only should’ve gotten a warning and blames Margot and Aesha for making it a big deal. Basically: she is a wildly evil woman!
After talking to Adam who politely says he’s bothered by Laura, but doesn’t want her fired, Aesha decides to go to Capt. Jason about this too. After hearing Adam’s side and learning about Laura’s comments to Margot, he promptly fires her, bringing this nightmare to an end.
First, we have to thank god Aesha and Capt. Jason were the crew involved. I don’t know that other chief stews and captains would’ve responded so quickly. But in the end, the only reason either of these assaults stopped was because producers intervened in the moment. What has Luke gotten away with when cameras weren’t there? It also isn’t like the producers were acting solely to protect the crew. If anything, they knew to intervene because this has happened on Below Deck before.
On Sailing Yacht, Gary was assaulted by Ashley after a night out. Gary was rejecting her advances all night. He goes to bed drunk. She got into bed with him and forces him into sex. In the morning, Gary doesn’t even remember what happened and doesn’t even think they had sex. Ashley makes it clear that she “put it in there.” Viewers were shocked by this footage and called Ashley out for taking advantage of him. It got so bad, she refused to come to the reunion. Gary had to issue statements saying he was fine with it, even though we all know what we saw. Since most people don’t like Gary (he has his own issues as a womanizer,) the controversy was forgotten.
Did that experience teach Below Deck producers what to do in this situation? Did it force them to create a new rule? How often is this happening across the yacht industry? Without this Gary/Ashley incident would things have gone differently for Margot and Adam? It shouldn’t take such dire circumstances for producers to realize people who are guzzling tequila shots for our entertainment deserve protection. Whether you like the “Night Out” episodes of Below Deck or not, these kids do deserve to have fun on their days off. Like Chef Tzarina said, “a woman should be able to get blackout and be safe.” I think that’s even more true if that blackout is being recorded via ceiling cams to drive ratings for a major network.
The Laura/Luke situation is at least a positive sign that the powers behind Below Deck made changes in the years since Gary and Ashley. But when we know what can arise in these situations, why is the reality TV industry still allowed to be so reactive rather than proactive? The health and safety of any cast should be a priority and a union is the first step in establishing a new industry norm.
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