As we near the end of the season and leave behind the climax of the Daisy/Colin/Gary triangle, Sailing Yacht is still giving us plenty of drama despite the generally calm crew dynamic. Petty problems may continue to dominate, but this is perhaps the most well-balanced ensemble the show has ever seen, so we really can’t complain.
As Ileisha rushes to get cake plated for the guests after Daisy had her prematurely slice it up, Daisy herself is busy trying to make up with Colin. He ultimately forgives her because “you don’t often hear Daisy say sorry,” but these recent events and revelations will continue to haunt him no matter what, especially since Daisy and Gary’s flirtations aren’t going to change.
Later that night, Alex tells Mads about the fish in the ocean instead of working, and the next morning Captain Glenn isn’t happy with how dirty the boat is. He tells Chase to fix it and reignites an issue I thought was resolved several charters ago, but I guess there isn’t much else going on. Chase goes to Gary about this, and later Gary throws him under the bus again when talking to Alex, who calls Chase a “fucking cuck.” When Chase joins them, Alex confronts him and Gary ultimately tells Chase to “suck it up buttercup.” Gary’s only redeeming quality in previous seasons was his decent work ethic, but this season he’s just been lazy. Rather than being a good leader who guides his team in areas of struggle, all he does is stir the pot. Alex thinks Chase should be direct with him, but it isn’t ultimately Chase’s job to tell him where he’s fucking up, it’s Gary’s! I also don’t understand why Captain Glenn hasn’t spoken with Alex either since the boat is only dirty when he’s on the night shift.
Speaking of Chase, he spends this entire episode acting super flirty toward Ileisha, which gives me the ick. I have to assume that he attempted to act upon his attraction toward her before the producers decided to put it in the spotlight. It begins with him telling Gary that he wishes she would crawl into his bed, and Gary unsurprisingly encourages him to pursue her even though she’s loyal to her boyfriend. Chase, what happened to respecting the fact she’s in a relationship?
Anyway, it’s the day of Lucy’s graduation back home, so she’s sad and moping around the boat because she’s missing it. Once the wonderful charter guests depart the boat and leave a fat $20,000 tip, the crew throws Lucy a party to cheer her up. Daisy even gets her grandparents on FaceTime for the celebration, which is incredibly heartwarming and thoughtful. Lucy is an absolute gem who deserves to have this moment.
After spending several days not interacting with one another, Daisy forces Colin and Gary to speak by making them ride alone with her in a taxi to dinner. The boys think it’s awkward, and it isn’t until later in the evening that they finally talk things out. Gary apologizes for lying to Colin but says it was a “Catch-22 for me,” and Colin calls him a “pussy” for not telling him the truth. He shares that it hurt because he and Gary are close friends and he never would’ve done that to him. I get where Colin’s coming from, but he needs to stop acting like Gary and Daisy owe him anything. Like, everyone on Below Deck hooks up, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that two of your castmates banged, even if it happened offscreen. The boys eventually start joking around with each other, which makes Daisy believe that they’re going to “forget this whole fucking mess.” If only it were that easy.
Back at the table, Alex asks Mads if she and Gary have feelings for each other, and she replies that Gary does but she just wants to have fun. Alex says he would make a move on Mads if Gary wasn’t in the picture, but he should just toughen up and act on his feelings anyway because it would be more fun to see another love triangle descend into chaos. In a confessional, Mads says she made the wrong choice, which, duh, but I think if she wasn’t really enjoying her time with Gary she would’ve shut it down long ago. It takes two to tango, and she’s jumping into his bed just as much as he is acting clingy toward her.
Once everyone returns to the boat, drunk Gary and Lucy take their clothes off and jump in the water, which makes me wonder if Gary would’ve ever pursued her had he not fallen for Mads. Also, can we just talk about how not a single guy on the boat has gone for Lucy? She’s gorgeous, kind, hilarious… what more could a person want? While Mads is upstairs talking on the phone with her mom, Gary walks by and calls her “pathetic,” which rightfully makes her mad. Gary is the perhaps biggest douchebag to ever walk the earth, and I hope Mads finally puts him in his place.
Meanwhile in the kitchen, Ileisha hugs Chase and thanks him for being a supportive friend, which kills him internally because he has a crush on her and thinks she’s “gonna make out with me” every time she’s near him. When he realizes that Daisy is in Colin’s bed, Chase — who can’t stand the fact that his roommates are sleeping with people because he’s jealous or whatever — runs out and has the gall to ask Ileisha if he can sleep in her room, which she of course says no to. What was going through his mind when he did this? Did he think she’d experience some moment of weakness and want to cheat on her boyfriend? I need answers!
And just when we thought things were going back to normal, Daisy accidentally calls Colin by GARY’S! NAME! in the middle of the night and asks, “Why are you in my bed?” Readers, my jaw dropped! Colin, who is furious, calls Daisy a “stage five idiot” and says it made him think there might be more to her and Gary. The next day she acts like it isn’t a big deal and blames it on Gary causing drama that messed with her head, which makes Colin even angrier because it’s “unbelievable” that she’s giving him attitude. Calling the person you’re sort of dating by the name of someone you’ve slept with and had/have feelings for is a massive mistake, and Daisy should’ve just apologized instead of dragging it out by placing blame on others.
Meanwhile, Gary is also caught up in a situationship predicament when Chase tells him that he called Mads pathetic the night before. He blames it on being drunk during his failed attempt at an apology, which causes Mads to reject it. Gary continues arguing with her in the crew mess because he doesn’t get why she’s holding a grudge for this when she forgave Colin and Alex for walking in on them having sex earlier in the season, which is a situation completely different than the current one. Gary is a grown man who should take a few lessons on how to behave like a mature adult.
Chase decides to speak with Alex privately about the dirty boat situation, telling him that Gary was the one who said not to confront Alex about it. He says that the way Gary is handling it has made him look like he’s trying to bring Alex down, which is true, so he’s going to avoid including Gary from now on, which he should’ve done earlier. In a confessional, Alex says that Gary is the reason why there’s tension between him and Chase, because he’s “mucking up the communication chain.” So true, and I’m glad we finally have a crew that finally sees through Gary’s bullshit. Gary’s only really doing this because he hates Alex for hooking up with Daisy and liking Mads, so he’s pitting him against his friend.
Down in the engine room, Daisy apologizes to Colin, who says she has to figure out what she wants. She says she made it clear that she wants to be with him, but he says that if you want to be with one person then you aren’t supposed to be thinking about someone else. In a confessional, Daisy believes that Colin is so “offended and hurt” that he’s confusing her having Gary on her mind because of the recent drama as her thinking about him in a romantic way. Given that Gary is still acting flirty toward Daisy, who isn’t setting any boundaries with him even after all of this chaos, Colin’s feelings might be justified.
At the preference sheet meeting, we meet the next primary, Alisa, who has requested to be serenaded with a guitar “under the Italian moon” and wants a sushi and seafood lunch and Capri-style dinner for the first day. She also wants a Viva La France dinner for the second night, because what better to do in Sardinia than celebrate French culture? Captain Glenn has the bright idea of taking the Parsifal to France, which makes the dumb theme slightly more fitting.
The guests arrive the next day and they’re already a fun group! We’ve gotten lucky with guests lately, knock on wood. Everything seems to be smooth sailing until Gary notices that they anchored the boat too close to another boat as the anchor starts dragging, causing them to get within crashing distance to it. The episode concludes with a “To Be Continued…” that doesn’t mean much, since the back-to-back episode release drains the moment of any suspense.
