The Partying Finally Goes Too Far On 'Below Deck Down Under'

By Emma Chance | TV | August 8, 2023 |

By Emma Chance | TV | August 8, 2023 |

The Below Deck formula is as follows: a bunch of hot strangers work on a luxury yacht, they fight about boat stuff and complain about their customers, they drop those customers off at the dock and then go out and get drunk and hook up with each other, then they do it all again. The franchise has long been praised as Bravo’s most authentic collection of shows, with even some of the biggest reality tv haters admitting fandom.

But as with so many reality shows, the troubles come with casting. With each passing season, it becomes increasingly clear that hotness is the chief concern when it comes to casting yachties. The episodes are mostly composed of boring boating intrigue, and they don’t really get interesting until the crew goes out on the town for tequila shots and tongue-kissing at the end of each charter.

Well, on last night’s episode of Below Deck Down Under, it all got way too interesting. Bosun Luke Jones, who had been flirting with third stewardess Margot Sisson throughout the course of the season, got into Sisson’s bed uninvited and completely naked while she was passed out drunk. Producers stepped in and made him go back to his own bunk. Captain Jason Chambers intervened and Luke was sent to a hotel and then fired and escorted from the boat.

Before it came to that, Chief Stewardess Aesha Scott saw the way that Jones was acting with Sisson in the van ride back to the boat and made it her mission to get Sisson into bed safely.

“I’m feeling very protective,” Scott told Sisson.

“I’m glad that you’re here,” Sisson said in response. “All I want is water and bed. No Luke.”

That same night, stewardess Laura Bileskalne climbed on top of deckhand Adam Kodra while he was trying to sleep in his bunk and attempted to give him a massage, and was also sent back to her own bunk by producers. Kodra could be seen attempting to reject Bileskalne’s advances at multiple moments throughout the episode.

Bileskalne then went to Scott and Sisson to express her sadness at Jones being fired and said that she didn’t think it was fair. “He wouldn’t rape you or anything,” she told Sisson.

Scott asked Chambers to talk to Bileskalne, a conversation that resulted in her being fired as well.

The silver lining here is that Aesha Scott and Captain Jason both demonstrated textbook examples of team leadership and conflict resolution.