Welcome back to Below Deck Season 11, Episode 7. In this week’s episode, titled “Cat’s Out of the Bag,” Jared pays the price for being drunkenly obnoxious and waking the captain twice in one night. Ben gets a big promotion, and Cat hits such a low point that both Captain Kerry and Fraser are afraid for her mental health. Here are some highlights from Below Deck Season 11, Episode 7.
Cap’s got no tolerance for bad behavior
Last week, Jared made so much noise after his drunken night out that he woke the captain. Uh oh, you know you’re in trouble when you wake up Dad.
“What’s going in here?” Kerry asks. “I can hear you two decks up. I’m up there trying to sleep.”
“Really?” Jared asks blankly. Um, the fact that he’s standing in front of you right now means it’s true, Jared.
“Pack this up,” the Captain says. “Hit the sack, please.” It’s the second time tonight he’s been woken up, and he’s not happy. The yelling and screaming are “unacceptable on my boat.”
The next morning, Jared is remorseful. “Thinking about last night,” he confesses, “I’m not feeling like I handled it all too well. Lot of things on my mind, lot of things stressing me out … but it doesn’t excuse how messy things were. I could have handled it better, for sure.”
In the kitchen, Kyle and Ben are chatting about last night. “I heard you come down,” Ben says, “and Jared was yelling at you.”
“I wasn’t unaware of the fact that I had made a mess,” Kyle explains about spilling pipe tobacco on the deck. “Before I even had the opportunity to try and tidy it up, he was on my ass.”
“F*cking weirdo,” Ben sighs.
A minute later, Captain Kerry radios for Kyle to come to the bridge. Uh oh. Here we go. Jared knows he’s next.
“There was a lot going on last night that I didn’t see,” Kerry interviews. “What I did see was two guys talking loudly in the crew mess. To me, it seemed like Kyle was trying to de-escalate the situation. Jared has a history of getting drunk. I understand he’s going through sh*t, but I don’t have time for it.”
Captain’s inquisition
When Kyle arrives on the bridge, Kerry tells him, “I need you to be honest with me and not hold anything back. I want to know the facts of the evening. What happened?”
“So Jared … I’d left a mess upstairs, right,” Kyle explains. “But we were all drinking. Give me a chance to get up in the morning and correct my wrong.”
Next up is Barbie, who says, “My roomie … whatever … left my room, so Kyle was just, ‘F*ck it, I’ll just bunk with you.’ Me and Kyle are super good friends, so I had no problem at all with it.”
Back to Kyle, who says, “Jared then … stormed into Barbie’s room.”
“He didn’t knock,” Barbie says.
“At any point, did you feel threatened?” Cap asks Barbie.
“It wasn’t directed towards me, so I didn’t feel threatened,” she says.
“Was there threatening behavior directed toward you?” the captain asks Kyle.
“Slightly,” Kyle responds. “More of an angry, demeaning manner. He was angrier than what he needed to be.”
“Was he pounding drinks last night?” Kerry asks.
“Alcohol was involved,” Barbie says.
“We all had a fair bit to drink,” Kyle admits. “I’m not throwing anybody under the bus.”
“I think it was more like a personal thing, you know what I mean?” Barbie observes. “He was mad that Kyle was in my room.” Hmm, I hadn’t thought of that angle. Could be true.
Jared’s not in the right head space
“I’m quickly running out of options with Jared,” Kerry says in a confessional. “He’s made quite a few f*ck-ups … He’s made several mistakes in docking. And the alcohol doesn’t help at all … My primary responsibility is the safety of the vessel and the crew, and this guy is really creating a problem for me.”
Finally, it’s Jared’s turn. “[Last night] I had a discussion with you and the rest of the crew about having a great night but not getting absolutely f*cking hammered,” Cap says. “This is the second time you’ve gone on the piss [and] you’ve had bad behavior. You’re in a leadership role. You can’t be acting like that … it’s not acceptable.”
“I’ve tried to guide you,” Kerry continues. “I’ve shown compassion. But you’ve got sh*t going on, mate. You’re your own worst enemy right now. You need to depart the vessel.”
“I’m gettin’ the boot?” Jared asks, shocked.
“Yes,” the captain says. “You’ve got a lot going for you. You work hard, but your head’s not there, mate.”
“This ain’t the right place for me [right now],” Jared admits.
“Exactly,” agrees the captain. “And I don’t blame you for that. Take this time and work on yourself. Me keeping you here is a disservice to you.”
“Okay, I respect that,” Jared concedes.
“Pack up your cabin and say goodbye to your crewmates,” Kerry tells him. And they part with a handshake.
“I know sending him home is not gonna be easy for the rest of the crew in the short term,” Kerry confesses. “But long term, this is the right decision. When someone’s distressed, or they’re acting out in a way that’s not fair to their crewmates … or not safe, they’ve gotta go.”
Ben gets a promotion
Captain Kerry calls Ben to the bridge. “What’s going on?” he asks, sitting down.
“A couple of things,” Kerry says. “Jared’s leaving, and we’re gonna be down a crew member … If I leave this dock with a person down, can you handle … being the bosun on the boat?”
“Hundred percent,” Ben says. “I can do it, Cap.”
“Ben’s a natural choice,” Cap interviews. “Ben knows the boat, he knows what needs to happen … but now he’s gotta lead. He’s gotta make decisions that he may not agree with ‘cause I’ve said so.”
“Damn right, I’ll accept the position of bosun,” Ben says in a confessional. “Finally, I’m able to show Kerry what I can do. I know I can do this job. Let’s go.”
The captain reminds him that he’s in management now, and his interactions with his crew need to change. “The division of friends and leader … needs to be a clear line,” he says.
But this means you’ll have to stop fooling around with Sunny, Ben. She works for you, and it’s not appropriate.
As he’s packing, Jared confesses, “I thought I was in a good head space coming into this. I’m really not. As much as I would like to be, I’m just lying to myself. Although the situation sucks, I actually do feel a little bit lighter.”
Once Jared is gone, Captain Kerry gathers the crew in the Sky Lounge for a meeting. Since the deck team’s down a person, Cap says he’ll be helping out even more than he does now. While I appreciate the closed captioning this show usually provides for Kyle, I actually have more difficulty with Kerry’s accent. He kind of mumbles and runs his words together. I love Kerry, but damn, he’s hard to understand sometimes.
Cat melts down
Cat gets a hysterical phone call from her friend Megan. Cat removes her mic pack and takes the phone into the bathroom for privacy.
“So I got a call from my friend Megan,” Cat interviews. “My friends are my family. So, it feels really sh*tty not being able to be there for her.” Cat is so upset that she goes to bed crying and is still wiping away tears the next morning.
Barbie’s in the crew mess when Cat walks in and says, “I’m f*cking done, dude. I’m over this sh*t.”
“Do you want to talk?” Barbie asks.
“No,” Cat runs sobbing back to her cabin.
Barbie asks Fraser, “Is Cat okay? She’s crying again.”
“Again?” Fraser says. “Something’s really wrong with her. I’m worried.” He goes to check on her. When she doesn’t respond to his knock, he opens the door gently. “Are you okay, my love?”
“No, this is not good,” she sobs. “I really wanna push through for you guys, [but] I’m just losing my mind right now.”
“I’d rather you put your … mental health [first], and we get you the help you need,” Fraser says. “Is that something you’d like me to arrange for you?”
“I feel like I might need to do that,” she admits. “I’m really sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, you’re fine,” he says, hugging her.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Fraser says in a confessional. “But you can look into someone’s eyes sometimes and see that there is no more that they can give … I need to do what’s right for her.”
To Cat, he says, “You’ve been amazing. Listen, if you just get all your stuff together, we’re gonna make this happen, all right?”
Captain Kerry makes the right call
Fraser’s next stop is Captain Kerry. “I don’t think Cat can make it to the end of this trip,” he says. “She’s in tears. She doesn’t want to disclose any information, [but] I asked her, was it something you need to deal with immediately, and the answer was yes.”
“All right,” Kerry responds. “Thanks for bringing that to my attention. That worries me.”
“Same,” Fraser agrees.
“I’m really worried about Cat’s mental state right now,” Kerry interviews. “For him to come to me and say, ‘She’s ready to go,’ she’s gotta go.”
“It could be something horrific, or it could just be something not,” Fraser continues. “We need to give her the benefit of the doubt.”
“Well, to her, it’s horrific,” Kerry says. “My focus is what it’s doing to her.”
When Fraser leaves, Kerry calls a water taxi, saying he has a crew member who “needs to get off the vessel.” Then he tells Ben to drop anchor so they can get someone off the boat.
Captain knocks on Cat’s door and asks if she needs a hand. “Maybe with the suitcase,” she says, apologizing again. So he carries her suitcase, something I’ve never seen any other captain do. Sweet.
“My number one job is to take care of my crew and their health,” Kerry interviews. “She’s gotta go.”
Full circus mode
Captain radios the crew to the aft deck to say goodbye while the guests are confused about what’s going on.
“I wish I could have stayed,” Cat interviews, with a smile on her face, obviously already happier. “But the thing is, like, there’s no way that I could have … I need to be with the people that need me … I need to protect my own mental health. My support system’s at home, not here.”
Back on the boat, Kerry is stressing. “Being one person down was going to be hard for us,” he says in a confessional. “Two people down? [deep, heavy sigh] I’ve been in tough situations before, but this is one of the toughest. Regardless of her personal issues, the guests deserve seven-star service. So, am I concerned? Yes, I am. We could all be in trouble.”
“We’re a stew down and a deck crew down,” Ben observes. “[We’re in] full circus mode.”
Below Deck continues Mondays at 9/8c on Bravo.
TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF BELOW DECK SEASON 11, EPISODE 7? DO YOU THINK JARED SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED?
