Continuing the tradition of anticlimactic “To be continued …” moments on this show, things don’t get much worse with Justin and Terri. Eddie is able to dissolve the situation and put Terri to bed, while Justin has, for some reason, taken his drunken yelling to the galley. (“I don’t give a fuck,” Rachel tells him of the situation, of course.) Another guest, Colin, must have heard the commotion because he’s back up to help the crew get Justin to bed. He can’t pry the thermos of bourbon from Justin’s hands, but he can get him to his bedroom, where he can also say all the things the crew can’t. “Stop being a stupid fucking self-centered piece of shit,” we hear before calling it a night.
“I want my head to stop hurting. Tell me what happened,” Justin declares in the morning after Michael wakes him up. And Eddie is doing just that in the bridge. “Did you hear a buncha screamin’ and slammin’ doors and yellin’ and cryin’ and?” he tells Lee, eventually joined by Heather. Lee is “livid” that the guests treated the crew this way, particularly telling Heather to fuck herself, so he’s planning to give Justin a stern talking-to once he anchors the boat.
In his first move as lead deckhand, Jake tells Rayna and Wes he’s going to set shifts for the rest of the charter: Wes on mornings, Jake on days, Rayna on nights. Rayna is instantly mad about this, saying she’s “gonna die” if she has to work late the whole time. Jake assures her they’ll switch off between charters, and I don’t get what the big deal is anyway. Doesn’t that mean she only has, like, two late nights left, and haven’t other crews done shifts like this before? Wes thinks both Jake and Rayna are in the wrong here; Rayna says she “most definitely kissed him too soon ’cause he’s a jackass now.”
If you’re disappointed that last night didn’t bring more drama or that Lee isn’t outright kicking Justin off the boat, just look at Justin’s face during his meeting with Lee. The pure FEAR and SHAME! “I wish I had context as to why or how that happened,” he says of his behavior toward Heather, but Lee’s not taking it. “Just get your shit together,” he tells them, with a warning that if anything else bad happens, he’ll end the charter. With the fear of Captain Lee inside him, Justin goes off to apologize to his friends and Heather. “Every day’s a new day,” she tells him — before adding that he can fuck himself in a confessional.
The guests are still getting their full luau that afternoon, and Heather still wants it to be perfect to salvage their tip. (And to her credit, she is actually pretty involved with the setup, as is Jess! It’s a big win for interior.) Rachel is roasting a whole pig on a fire, which catches fire for a second but is ultimately fine. So the luau goes off without a hitch — the guests love it and are being pretty nice to the crew after everything. Heather, who is from Hawaii, is happy to see even Justin having fun. “That is the power of the luau,” she says. (My personal theory is that the guests are also behaving so well because there’s no bourbon flowing today.)
Back on the boat, Rayna is telling her mom about her issues with Jake. Later, once everyone’s back aboard and the deck crew is putting away equipment, Jake gets mad at her for whistling and moving slowly, which he says is her not pulling her weight. (She did seem to be doing that to make Jake mad.) It blows up into a huge fight, but they later seem fine on a smoke break. Eddie can tell something’s up and asks Rayna about it once Jake goes to bed. He gets why Rayna is put off but also sticks by the line that Jake is lead deckhand now, and she should “try to absorb some of it.” I agree that they’ve both been in the wrong a bit, but the yelling did get out of hand, especially for Jake’s first day on the job. The situation also has echoes of Izzy and Rob’s conflict from last season — when Eddie didn’t step in hard enough to get Rob to respect Izzy as lead deckhand — except this time going the opposite way. So I don’t see Eddie doing anything about this unless he sees their strain for himself.
Four episodes in, it’s finally time to devote a paragraph to Jess, who has mostly been moving in the show’s background so far. This episode, in particular, has seen a lot of focus on her in the laundry room or talking about how tired she is or how she doesn’t seem to love working as much as everyone else. I can’t tell if this will build up to her quitting or the producers are just scrambling to give her a story line, but I think it’s the latter for now — her complaints about work feel a little manufactured. Everyone’s tired! Anyway, Jess gets to clock off a bit early because she’s feeling nauseous. So she uses that time to flirt with Wes in the crew mess and ends up staying up two hours(!) after her shift ended to talk to him. “I don’t not like Wes,” she says when a producer asks about him.
The next morning, Rachel makes multiple kinds of crab and huevos rancheros because she’s also worried about the tip. (“Just the tip,” in her words.) It’s a hit, obviously, but not everything goes smoothly in the morning. While putting out fenders for the docking, Wes doesn’t secure one, causing the fender cover to fall into the ocean. (And they don’t go back to get it?!) It’s a poor mark on Wes, but more important on Jake, whom Lee is still keeping a close eye on; Lee tells the deck crew during the tip meeting that he’s disappointed. He also relays that Michael & Co. left a hefty $19,800 tip after everything.
So, time to celebrate! The crew goes out to dinner and brings along the Truth or Dare Jenga from the first charter, which leads to Wes all but admitting that he wants to make out with Jess, and Jake giving Eddie a lap dance that goes a bit too far. Jake also, during a side conversation, learns that Fraser is gay. REALLY! “I thought you were straight but you were just very kempt,” he tells Fraser. Fraser’s reply in a confessional? “Bless him.”
The post-dinner hot tub is where the action really is. My notes from that scene read “party, drinking, ass.” (It’s Jake’s, as if I need to tell you.) The alcohol is flowing (literally into the tub); at one point, Eddie picks up Heather and pulls her over his shoulder. Eddie is one of the early departures, though, back to his cabin to call his girlfriend and tell her what happened. Earlier that day, he told the deck crew that hooking up with Rocky in season three was his biggest mistake, and I think he is still feeling guilty after remembering that. His girlfriend seems pissed despite what Eddie is saying in his confessional. “It’s great, yeah. And she’s handling it well also,” he says of him being away for charter. Just kidding! “Fucking lies,” he says with a laugh before we hear what sounds like his girlfriend breaking up with him over the phone. Poor Eddie!
And it’s complicated relationships all around tonight! Rayna, Jake, and Fraser share a three-way kiss — in the hot tub, with Wes and Heather still there, no less. “This Rayna-Jake thing is gonna be a fucking roller coaster,” Wes says. Eventually, it’s just the trio left, down in the crew mess. Drunk Fraser is getting flirty and handsy, telling Jake he’s “a sexy mofo” and casually suggesting they get married. This leads Jake to admit he’s engaged, which, what?! Either he is joking or he and his partner have some open arrangement, but there definitely seems to be more to the story here. (“Technically,” he adds, which … also what?!) We don’t get it, though, because Rayna storms off, mad that she didn’t know this before she kissed Jake and caught feelings (which are clearly still there). Jake doesn’t know what he said wrong, Rayna is “going to cuss everybody and their fucking moms out,” and we’re going to find out what the real story behind Jake’s engagement is … next week.
Tips
• The episode is named after a line Captain Lee says after he hears about Justin, but I think his better line came a bit later: “It makes me want to take a shit in his mother’s dinner plate.”
• Fraser and the rest of his van discuss Heather’s age on the way to the bar, and they all guess she’s in her early 30s. “Imagine we find out she’s like ten years younger than us and I’ve just been bossed around by a child for the past two weeks,” Fraser says. Oh, boy!
• Fraser also demonstrates a perfect douchey-American-on-a-reality-TV-show accent on his way back from the bar.
