Part 1 of the Below Deck Sailing Yacht reunion aired last night. And in the quickest turnaround in Bravo history, we got Part 2 just one day later — in lieu of a new Real Housewives of New York City. And after watching an hour of arguing over pita, this is the episode we’ve all been waiting for. Will questions finally be answered? Will the mystery of Dani Soares‘ surprise pregnancy finally be solved? Is Jean-Luc Cerza Lanaux the father? Let’s find out!
But first, we have to endure more relationship drama from Parisfal’s resident throuple. At the end of Part 1, Gary King claimed Alli Dore didn’t have feelings for him, just like he didn’t have feelings for Sydney Zaruba. Huh? Apparently, the math of love triangles is too far out of the first officer’s academic depth. Alli fires back that of course this isn’t true. If she didn’t have feelings for him, she never would’ve dated him on the boat. Furthermore, the third stew also points out that she seemed to be the only one taking anyone else’s feelings into account in this whole mess. Or, like, what’s right and what’s wrong. Then she drops a bombshell: Gary actually had a girlfriend when he hooked up with Sydney on the first night.
What?? This is news, and I don’t understand why production didn’t include this little tidbit in the season’s narrative. Or how Gary so successfully kept it off camera. But that’s why Alli didn’t feel like she was breaking any sort of girl code. Because Sydney had already put herself in the middle of Gary’s relationship. In Alli’s eyes, Sydney’s tearful explanation for her behavior doesn’t count as an apology. The deckhand is much more upset over how she was portrayed on the show than how she treated her bunkmate.
Then, once Sydney does attempt to apologize, Alli calls it out for being insincere. After all, if she really cared about Alli as a friend, why wait until the reunion to speak with her? Why not pick up the phone and apologize one-on-one for all your callous, mean-spirited confessional sound bytes? However, the one piece of good news is that both women seem to be over Gary. Thank goodness. Sydney’s apparently dating a captain now. And Alli announces that she’s 20 weeks pregnant with her new boyfriend! This last surprise is absolutely news to Gary, but he handles it in stride and seems genuinely happy for Alli. Now can we please lay this love triangle to rest? Forever?
Of Crossings and Closure
Next, Andy Cohen is as curious as the rest of us as to what happened during the crossing to Spain once the season wrapped. Gary, Alli, Sydney and Natasha de Bourg all stayed on with Captain Glenn Shephard. But we only saw bits and pieces of the journey through self-filmed snippets on the crew’s phones. Gary claims that the crossing was where he and Alli finally solidified their relationship status. And yet, it only lasted until they spotted land. Because at the end of the day, Alli was always headed back to Australia.
At this point, Colin Macrae pipes in to inform us that he and Gary remain good pals. It just became clear to him during filming that he was wasting his breath when it came to giving Gary advice he never had any intention of taking. As for Alli and Sydney, there’s no closure there. It’ll take more than one segment of a virtual reunion to fix those wounds. (Daisy Kelliher, meanwhile, is three sheets to the wind at this point and hilariously knocking her camera over.) To just put a pin in this, Alli admits she ultimately forgave Gary for something she shouldn’t have. But thee point is, it’s all over and done with now. Let’s move on.
Dani’s Having a Baby!
Finally, it’s time to discuss wha we’ve all been waiting for: Dani‘s pregnancy! Once the charter season ended, Dani and Jean-Luc spent some time together, with the stew trying to convince the deckhand their relationship would never work in their real lives. Then, surprise! Dani discovered she was pregnant while quarantining alone back in Australia. When Andy asks point blank if JL is the baby’s father, she has a simple answer. The baby was very clearly made during the season, and she was only sleeping with one person. However, despite some initial enthusiasm, JL now refuses to believe it’s his child and hasn’t supported Dani in any way during her pregnancy.
Around New Year’s Jean-Luc even had the audacity to demand a paternity test. But since Dani told him to pay for it, he’s conveniently put it off and put it off. The rest of the crew seems completely appalled by JL’s actions. Any respect any of them once had for him during the season is long gone. Gary says his former deckhand “doesn’t have a spine,” though Dani insists she’s not trying to slander him or drag him through the mud. If anything, she wishes he had shown up to the reunion to share his side of the story and defend himself. And with that, the crew essentially says their goodbyes and it’s a wrap on the reunion.
Jean-Luc’s Side of the Story
Except, it’s not. Five days later, Bravo finally manages to track Jean-Luc down for a virtual one-on-one sit-down with Andy. He blames the charter he’s working on in Mexico for why he missed the reunion. He couldn’t take work off on the day of the primary’s daughter’s birthday party, OK? JL defines the current status of his relationship with Dani as “uncertain” and accepts that the bad blood is mostly his fault. He defends wanting a paternity test, but refutes Dani’s claim he didn’t want to be involved. According to JL, if the baby is his, there’s nothing he wants more than to be part of the little girl’s life. He just wants to be sure first.
To be fair, Jean-Luc does seem distressed and upset by a lot of Andy‘s questions. You can practically see him shut down inside as Andy plays the clip of what Dani had to say during the reunion taping. Nothing the rest of the crew has to say matters to him — he’s way past caring what any of them think. The deckhand even claims he’s considered moving to Australia to be closer to Dani and the baby, but just doesn’t know what the best course of action to take is. During the chat, Andy becomes a therapist, encouraging JL to reach out to Dani and fix the situation he’s put himself in. If he really means everything he’s saying, then prove it.
But ultimately, it seems Jean-Luc‘s promise to do right by Dani and their baby was nothing but empty words. Dani’s baby was born on May 28, a little girl she named Lilly. However, she and JL have yet to communicate at all since the birth. And with that, Season 2 of Below Deck Sailing Yacht ends on a frankly depressing and dour note.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK JEAN-LUC IS THE FATHER OF DANI’S BABY? WILL HE EVER TAKE A PATERNITY TEST? WAS HE BEING SINCERE DURING HIS INTERVIEW WITH ANDY?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]
