And like dominoes, they fall on Below Deck! Last night the crew lost not one, but two members! It may be for the best, but good lord was everything a hot mess of crazy! My head is spinning.
Following disaster, after disaster, and dropping a guest, then pissing off Kate Chastain over ice cream, it’s Chandler Brooks time to go. Despite being fired Chandler actually waved his pink slip high in the air as he pranced off the boat hoping never to see the red hair of Rhylee Gerber again. Chandler is a free bird – ready to fly right into Jamie Jason‘s arms. He swears he’ll never leave the high seas behind, so maybe we’ll see him on Below Deck Med!
About the only person sad to see Chandler go is Caroline Bedol, who like kinda like-liked him, but kinda just like-liked having someone to funnel her dysfunction onto. BUT now that Chandler is gone Caroline has inherited his entire freezer drawer full of ice cream pints! It turns out ice cream consumption is the nail in one’s coffin on My Seanna, though! You have been warned that frozen dairy kills careers if mixed with Kate.
Captain Lee Rosbach quickly promotes Ross Inia to bosun. Which is where he should’ve been all along. Ross decides he’s going to learn from Chandler’s mistakes by communicating with Rhylee … if only she’ll let him (She won’t). You can take the bosun off the boat, but not the Rhylee out of the deckhand! She’ll be smart-mouthed, smart-assed and rude to anyone willing to listen and pay her a salary. Which is why reality TV is her soulmate.
With the disapproving prick Chandler gone, Rhylee is eager to prove she can do more. She believes Ross will basically bump Ashton Pienaar out of the way to promote Rhylee’s superior excellence. Or something. Unfortunately, they’re 1 deckhand down with less than 24-hours before charter. Ross will need Rhylee to keep on keeping her head down and working, but he’ll at least say nice things about her work!
RELATED: Below Deck After Show: Bosun Blunders- The Cast Breaks Down Chandler’s Mistakes
Mourning for Chandler gives Caroline the sniffles – or that could be a sinus infection. Literally right after she gets over Marshmallow Foot Caroline’s nose swells up so she has to go back to the doctor. Kate is just exhausted by Caroline’s revolving door of problems. She predicts that Caroline will come down with shingles next. Or heebie-jeebies brought on by hard work. While Caroline is on a luxury outing at the doctor, Kate and Josiah Carter are sick of doing her work.
Back on board, Caroline ignores Kate’s directive to finish the laundry. Instead, she sits down for a big bowl of ice cream. Then she leaves the evidence dish out where Kate’s wrath-filled evil eye can spy it. After Kate loses it over pistachio ice cream, Caroline mutters “f–king bitch” under her breath while folding towels. Then she takes a smoke break (!!) and begs Ashton to sit on the deck. Inhaling second-hand smoke, while listening to her vent about the cruelties of Katesiah, Ashton suggests Caroline stop focusing on them and just work. She interpreted this to mean that she should unceremoniously quit her job minutes before the crew leaves for the bar.
While Kate is guzzling champagne and pondering whether she wants to wear a strapless bra with her tube dress, Caroline bursts in with an announcement. She will no longer tolerate Kate and Josiah’s disrespect and hatred. She gave her 2 days notice. Also, she won’t be joining the crew out on the town. So there! Caroline was in her cabin with a case of the sad-sniffles as opposed to the sick-sniffles, because Kate barely even blinked while everyone else just sat there, trying to pretend they were disappointed to lose her.
RELATED: Captain Lee Rosbach Chastises Chandler Brooks & Caroline Bedol For Mishaps On Below Deck
There’s been so much stress that Ashton needs a release – in the form of any (literally any) willing and able female body. He convinces one fetching young lady to come back to the boat. This makes Rhylee jealous. And you won’t like Rhylee when she jealous. Rhylee smash! Rhylee Smash Ve! After mocking the girl’s accent and name, and being told to shush by Ross, Rhylee flips out on Kate for telling her what to do. Then, she gets hostile with Adrian Martin as they exit the taxi. As a final f-u she spits on the ground as she’s stomping away. “If given the opportunity to spit or swallow, you should probably swallow,” drones Josiah, who notes that in butler school they were taught that spitting was uncouth and crass. uuuuuugh.
Welp, you snooze you lose, Rhylee! Clearly, she is jealous that Ashton met a side-piece who would choose him over sleep, leaving him to cool his nuts down with a pint of ice cream. And scoop his blue balls into a cone? What is it with these people and ice cream?!
After a hocking a loogie and cursing everything Adrian ever cooks to smell like fish breath, Rhylee drunkenly cries to Caroline that she’s stronger than a 200lb halibut in the Alaskan wild. Meanwhile, Ashton, sweet gentle Chippendales dancing Ashton, is making beautiful love to his lady friend in the back of a van. That was just… unsanitary and sad, Ve!
RELATED: Below Deck Recap: Shipwrecked!
The next morning everyone is hungover, but Captain Lee needs to leave the boat for some docking drama. This means he is NOT there to put the smack down on Caroline’s split-second decision to sleep instead of reporting for work. When Josiah enters her lair to inquire about when she plans to join them in the laundry garrison. She snottily tells him she is done working as of this second. Then, she orders him to leave. Apparently, Kate and Josiah were haunting her nightmares. Since dream analyzing can predict the future, Caroline took it as a sign to escape their evil before she was shoved into a giant dryer and melted like a plastic chapstick tube into Captain Lee’s manties. Needless to say, Kate is not pleased.
Kate storms down to Caroline’s cabin and tries to barge in, only to find the door locked. Kate will not be deterred so she asks the universe, “Who gave the crazy girl a lock!?” It’s not a standard feature? Then she and Josiah decide to smoke Caroline out by playing a breakup song, extremely loudly, on repeat just outside her door. Caroline crumbles like one of her dirty tissues. Everyone stands around snickering, and salivating for drama – they don’t have TV after all! Ross gently knocks, is allowed entrance, and counsels Caroline to pull herself together and wait for Captain Lee. She changes her story as she demurely plays victim about being oh-so-sweet to the evil dragon Josiah whom she begged to please, please please leave her room so she could rest. Um, or not!
RELATED: Below Deck Recap: Dropping Like Flies
What is shocking is that Caroline apparently has NOTES. Like lots of Clifnotes of all the times Kate and Josiah have ostensibly been mean to her! Or maybe she was out of Kleenex? After witnessing that mess, Ross sighs that “bullying is never OK.” True, true!
The very second Captain Lee returns Kate radios him that Caroline is having a psychotic break and needs to report to his cabin for therapy. OK, she didn’t really say that but it was heavily implied. Sobbing, hiccuping, and clutching her notes, Caroline tells Captain Lee a tale of woe about Kate and Josiah tormenting and torturing her until she feared for her sanity in the worst of ways.
Conveniently, Caroline left out the part of the story where she refused to work that morning, which is what caused Kate to break out the iPod of Audio-Torture. But finally, after gathering all her stuff – including her cigarettes which are not at all linked to sinus problems – Caroline flees the boat with a final F-U to Kate Chastain whom she calls “an evil person.” Um, I mean, that’s maybe up for debate!
And now that Below Deck is down their two biggest drama causers, Rhylee better pump up the antics! Don’t worry she won’t disappoint. Ross has inherited a wealth of problems with her and she’s about to crash into his calm like a tidal wave.
Of course, this is also just the time to welcome charter guests who not only OWN luxury yachts but promote them. One of the guests also happens to be Captain Lee‘s friend. “These people could make or break you,” muses Kate.
RELATED: The Below Deck Crew Assess Their Shortcomings… Again
Captain Lee realizes that he has to confront his precious Kate about the allegations Caroline made, but even he looks afraid of Kate’s steady glare. After acknowledging that he’s pretty much aware that there is at least some validity to Caroline’s accusations, he ultimately decides that now is not the time to rock the boat. I mean, it’s already practically drowning so they better preserve resources! However his trust in Kate — snapped.
Here’s the thing, I do feel sorry for Caroline because she seemed like a fragile person, unprepared for the wilds of reality TV, but she was also a total and utter mess, and a constant victim. Kate and Josiah were definitely nasty, but unless things were way, way worse than what we saw on the show, I think Caroline could’ve overcome a lot of their snottiness by simply being a hard worker and focusing on forming her own friendships to combat their high school co-dependence.
RELATED: Below Deck’s Captain Lee Rosbach Says Chandler Brooks’ Antics Are “Wearing Thin”; Doesn’t Think Yachting Is A Good Fit For Caroline Bedol
It seemed like Caroline and Rhylee were close, Ashton was her “confidante” and Ross is kind to a used condom, so – she had people. But then Caroline went and did some asshole things like lash out at Adrian, or call in sick and helpless every other 15 minutes. This lessened my ability to have sympathy for her. In short, I think she was just in over her depth (pun intended!). That coupled with personal problems, made for a perfect storm. It was definitely the right decision to leave, and for that I commend her.
Now, back to the recap! Within seconds of Ross assuming command, Rhylee is pestering him about how she wants to do more hard stuff, then huffing and puffing when she is treated like the third deckhand that she is. Albeit Ross is infinitely calmer than Chandler, has a firm grasp of communication and organization. He is really trying to establish an open channel of dialogue and order, but it’s still NOT ENOUGH. Even with challenging guests, Rhylee refuses to stop focusing on herself and her desperate need for validation as ‘one of the guys.’ Ross was so patient. He organized a waterfall picnic and ferried several loads back and forth, including guests. He maintained his stoic demeanor as Ryhlee got more and more upset over being left out. Who is she? Caroline?
RELATED: Captain Lee Says Rhylee Gerber Is The Below Deck Cast Member Most Likely To Hook Up On The Boat
After her volatile outburst the night before Adrian decides he can no longer allow Rhylee into his orbit and haze the purity. He must gravitate away from her negative maelstrom. Probably the safest bet. Too bad Ross (and Ashton) also can’t escape!
Back at the waterfall, Kate sets up the picnic. Then Adrian arrives with his zen all out of whack to throw a tantrum about how he has to like lift things which might bonk his chopping finger. Luckily the guests don’t notice all the tension amid the splendor and good food, because at the very least Kate can always pull it together to do her job competently!
However, back at the boat, Rhylee rips into Ross. She screams at him for not giving her MORE RESPONSIBILITY and recognizing that she was a BOAT CAPTAIN in Alaska. Clearly, she’s capable of important stuff, you guys! They need a tranquilizer gun for this girl. Honestly, what is her problem? She can’t wait like 10 seconds after Chandler leaves to start with her messiness?! Rhylee is the lowest crew member, they are short-staffed, and someone, unfortunately, has to organize the water toys – get over it!
Also, I have seen her Instagram. Rhylee’s precious boat is about the size of my SUV. It has a crew of TWO people. And suddenly Ross is the ‘new Chandler. ‘ Let’s see how he handles it…
TELL US – ARE YOU RELIEVED OR SAD TO SEE CAROLINE AND CHANDLER GONE?
[Photo Credits: Bravo]
