Welcome back to Below Deck Season 11, Episode 3. In this week’s episode, called “Breaking Barbie,” the first crew night out is surprisingly uneventful, Barbie argues with her boss over everything, and Fraser asks Barbie to “just be nicer” to Cat after learning more about Cat’s backstory. But after too many snapbacks and a “hostile attitude,” Fraser tells Captain Kerry he’s done with the Argentinian princess. Here are some of the highlights from Below Deck Season 11, Episode 3.
A pretty tame night out for the crew
The first night out is relatively mellow. They have a nice dinner and dance in the rain. Barbie tells Jared he’s very “interesting.” Drunk Jared says, “When I look into your eyes, I find truth.” And she laughs at him! Probably not the response he was looking for.
When they get back to the boat, everybody goes to the hot tub, except for Fraser, who goes to bed muttering about “f*cking lunatics.” He’s done. Xandi dances on the edge of the spa until she drunkenly falls in. She comes up laughing, so she’s fine.
“Xandi is pissed as a fart,” Kyle says. I love Scottish people. They have such a colorful way with words.
Ben gentlemanly escorts Xandi back to her cabin and wishes her goodnight.
But then he gets a text message from Sunny, who wants to know, “Is there anywhere we can go for a kiss?”
He quickly texts back, “Meet me in the cabins.”
Sunny tells everyone, “I’m going to my room. Good night!” And she actually does. But then Ben knocks on the door.
Even though she says, “I’m a little shy,” Ben’s not and goes right in for the kiss. But after a quick makeout session, they say good night, and he’s off to his own bed. Probably a good decision, since tomorrow’s a work day. Plus, they’re both on the deck crew and have to work together.
Nobody threw up, nobody got out of control. I’d call that a successful evening.
Jared redeems himself
The next morning, the deck crew is up early getting things ready for the next charter. Jared admits that the first charter was “rough.” This time he needs to “slow down, calm down, breathe, and think past the tip of [my] nose.” Always good advice.
Cat’s having trouble connecting with the rest of the crew. She’s feeling “super alone, and it sucks.”
In the crew mess, Jared runs into Captain Kerry making coffee. Captain says, “I already did a walk around the boat, and it’s like no one was here.” Pretty surprising for the morning after a crew night off. Usually, they leave a huge mess.
“That’s because I was up at six making sure it looked that way for you,” Jared responds. Nice brown-nosing there, Jared. You need some of that goodwill after the f*ck up of the last charter.
“Good job, mate,” Captain says, impressed. “It’s your deck, and the only time I’m gonna rouse at ya is if sh*t isn’t done.”
In a confessional, Kerry adds, “Good on you, Jared! He’s made some mistakes. He dropped the ball this last charter, but I do feel he’s stepping up. I’m happy with where we are right now.”
Fraser learns more about Cat
As he passes the laundry room, Fraser gives a friendly, “Hey, Cat! How’re you doing?”
She responds with a weak, “Okay,” which makes Fraser go, “Hmm.”
Later, Fraser meets Cat on the sundeck. “It’s quite evident that Cat is a very sensitive soul,” Fraser interviews. “I feel like she [needs] to be heard a little bit more. I never had someone to look after me in this scary industry, and so I want to be that for someone else.”
Over Coronas, Cat shares that she grew up in foster care. Fraser gasps, “Oh, my God!”
“My dad passed away when I was nine,” she says. “And then my mom passed away when I was 13.” Oh, poor Cat!
“So me and my brother were thrown into the system and separated,” she says, She no longer speaks to the family she lived with because they were in a very cult-like religion. They wouldn’t let her talk to her brother because he wasn’t religious. That’s so awful.
“So I grew up … with a foster family,” Cat voiceovers. “From 13 to 18, I was a part of this family’s culture … It was almost like they wanted to forget my past life. I felt so suppressed, and I never stood up for myself. Ever.”
But once she turned 18, Cat chose her own life, and she became very independent. Now she and her brother are close again.
“I’m very happy to see you as composed and wonderful as you are,” Fraser tells her. “You’ve come a long way.” My heart breaks for her. I just want to hug her. Fraser realizes that Cat’s overwhelmed and asks Xandi to give her some support.
Fraser relates to Cat
Fraser calls another team meeting. “I have high standards,” he says, and those standards “are not being met. I’m not risking any issues for this trip, so I’m changing things around.” He’s putting Xandi on housekeeping with Cat to help train her, and Barbie will be back on service.
Fraser tells us his first job on a boat was as a Crew Mess Stew, which meant he waited on the crew. “We’re talking bottom of the barrel bottom,” he says. “On my first day, the Chief Engineer had found out that I was gay and was very homophobic. While I was washing up dishes in the sink, he poured his boiling hot tea that I’d just made for him over my hand … I looked down, and I just said to myself, ‘Keep f*cking going, cause one day none of this will f*cking matter, and you’re gonna be the top. And one day, you’ll get him fired.’ And one day, I did.”
Oh, man. Fraser! Now you’re making me want to cry. Does everybody on this boat have a sad story?
Later, Fraser asks Barbie to “just be extra sensitive with Cat this trip. We need to be conscious of someone’s feelings.”
“I’ll be really, really good,” she sarcastically responds. “Sorry, I’m so terrible.”
“I’m talking about last trip, I’m not talking about right now,” he tells her. “I don’t want to hear that snapback, babe.”
She yessir’s him, but then she continues in an interview, “Here’s the thing with me: I don’t have a filter. But I apologize. I own my sh*t. I’m making such an effort, and he’s still stuck on ‘don’t forget her feelings.’” Barbie thinks she’s the victim here.
Margarita Madness
After the guests arrive, Barbie argues with Fraser about whether orange juice belongs in a margarita. Rather than just making the drink the way Fraser wants it done, Barbie pulls out some recipe book and shows it to him.
“What is that?” he interviews. “Is it a diary? Make the f*ckin’ drink. Take the orange juice, put it away, and let’s go.”
Fraser comes by a few minutes later, and Barbie’s still looking for the OJ. Fraser tells her, “F*ck the orange juice. Let’s get it up.” By this time, the guest who wanted the margarita has been waiting half an hour.
Barbie leaves with the drinks, muttering, “Fraser is stressing me out!”
Meanwhile, Barbie’s still in her whites, so Fraser asks her to go change into her charter uniform. As she’s passing in the hallway, he’s in the galley muttering, “F*cking hell, babe. Don’t give me attitude anymore.”
“I’m sick of him,” Barbie interviews. “He’s such a dick! I’m about five minutes away from losing control.”
A few minutes later, Barbie again passes Fraser preparing for lunch service. He tells her, “Doll, we just need the wines chilling.” She just keeps walking. Oh no, she didn’t.
Fraser follows her and says, “Darling, please don’t ignore me. Just acknowledge [that you heard] what I said.”
“Yes, sir,” she says again, walking away.
“Darling,” he continues. “Do you know you’re [giving] attitude?”
She turns to face him. “You’re really, like, you’re just jabbing at me … And, like, I feel underappreciated.” Barbie’s falling apart.
“Barbie’s great at service,” Fraser interviews. “But if you cannot compose yourself, I’m gonna have some serious issues … If she doesn’t learn that quickly, I’ll be filtering her out of our crew.”
Barbie feels unappreciated
As they’re decorating the table for dinner, Fraser tells Barbie, “I really don’t want to feel like I’m making you feel down, ever.”
“I just feel like you don’t really appreciate me,” she responds. “And it’s really affecting me. Like today, I’m like, working my ass off, and you’re like, ‘Hey, remember, be nice…’”
“That’s your paranoia,” Fraser says. Yikes! Gently, Fraser. “That’s what I’m saying … What I will not accept, is how you respond to me, how you ignore me, and how you’re rude to me. That attitude will not fly.”
“You’re not making me feel phenomenal,” Barbie complains. “You’re treating me like I’m this bitch.”
“You are a bitch to me,” he claps back. Ouch. That one stung, and you can see it in her face. “You’ve got attitude towards me. You’re being rude to me, and I don’t like working with that.”
“Okay,” she admits. “Fair enough. I’m gonna work on my attitude. But, like, I’m not happy.”
“Well, I’m sorry that that’s the case,” Fraser says. “And I hope that changes.”
“I hope so, too,” she concedes.
Later that night on his way downstairs, Fraser tells Barbie, “Thank you for everything today. See you in the morning.” There you go, Barbs. Feel appreciated now?
But then, when he gets around the corner, Fraser’s muttering to himself again. “I just don’t like her. I don’t like the way she is.”
Fraser’s done with Barbie
The next morning when Fraser brings Captain his coffee, he says, “We need to talk. I’m dealing with a lot of snapbacks and a quite hostile attitude from Barbie. We had an incident [during] the first charter. She was a bit harsh and just a little bit disrespectful to one of the other girls. I’ve requested that we’re all as nice as we could be to Cat, and she thinks that we’re all now against her. I said, ‘That’s certainly not the case, but you have been vile to me for the past two days.’
“That’s why I’ve come to you, Captain. I’m a very kind, caring person, but I’ve said my piece, to be quite frank with you. I’m done with this.”
Then we get the good old classic, TO BE CONTINUED…
Below Deck airs Mondays at 9/8c on Bravo.
TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF BELOW DECK SEASON 11, EPISODE 3? WHY DO YOU THINK BARBIE’S HAVING SUCH A TOUGH TIME GETTING ALONG? DO YOU THINK FRASER’S BEING TOO TOUGH ON HER?
