Below Deck Down Under Recap: Days of Our Lives

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After weeks of anticipation, the first firing of the season has finally happened with only four crew members left. It’s common for people to be let go on Below Deck – it creates drama and makes for good TV, especially given the intense demands of the job and constant filming (remember Chef Lawrence?). However, the pressure wasn’t the reason Mike was fired. In fact, he didn’t seem motivated enough to perform his duties as a deckhand/stew, despite being comfortable in front of the camera. Just like he overused the HOD joke, Mike this week pushed his defiance too far.

He found Daisy at a difficult moment. When the conversation turned to the Head of Department dinner, Ben had just angrily left the restaurant. Daisy and João had been explaining to him how furious Jason had been when Ben was late to a meeting earlier that day. João, clearly smitten with Daisy, assured her of his unwavering support. They then met the rest of the team at the lagoon for drinks. Betul decided to stay home, feeling exhausted from work, but Ben agreed to join after receiving a text from Jenna and Daisy, who wrote that the drinks were very strong. By the end of the night, everyone was speaking incoherently.

By the lagoon, Ben shares with Ellie that Daisy and João warned him about something. Ellie wasn’t surprised, as she distrusts João and repeatedly refers to him as untrustworthy throughout the episode. This comment actually foreshadows the growing fear and anxiety Ellie will experience. Ben is emotional and easily hurt, and past betrayals make him react strongly to even minor things. This makes him a fragile ally, easily influenced. Despite this, by the end of the night, Ben reconciles with both João, who promises unwavering friendship, and Daisy, whom he considers his favorite chief stew.

Jenna is incredibly frustrated with Mike’s constant “HOD” jokes. Ben, who started this running gag, feels a bit like the creator of a dangerous weapon who’s lost control – so it’s fitting that Mike asks Ben to actually write “HOD” on his forehead. Eddy tries to impress Jenna by telling her he scolded Mike, but it doesn’t help. Jenna perks up, though, when Daisy tells her Ben has a crush on her. Eddy ends up alone by the lagoon, feeling sorry for himself. When Alesia comes to find him, he points out that she’s the only one who bothered to check on him. This reminds the narrator of their childhood, when they’d lag behind their family to see if anyone would notice they were missing – a classic middle child move. The narrator isn’t sure if Eddy is a middle child, but he’s definitely behaving like one.

Eddy is really hurt about what happened with Jenna, and Mike is making things worse by deliberately teasing him. Mike spots Jenna and Ben lingering on the beach after everyone else returned to the boat and tells Eddy they seem to be getting close. Eddy is clearly devastated by this news. Back in his cabin, he angrily hits his bed, complaining that he’s tired of always being the nice guy. Despite his frustration, it’s clear he is a genuinely good person – he mostly just vents, and the next morning, he only gives Jenna the silent treatment, but even that doesn’t last very long.

Mike is determined to break up Jenna and Ben’s relationship, much more so than Eddy. Jenna gets upset just being around him. Meanwhile, after admitting their attraction at the lagoon, Daisy ends up sleeping in João’s bed – thankfully, there’s no kissing, just snoring! The next morning, worried about how Ellie will react, Daisy preemptively tells her she spent the night with João, but insists nothing happened. Ellie claims she doesn’t care – something she’s said repeatedly all week without much emotion – but it’s clear she’s secretly furious.

Ben made Jenna an omelette, a kind gesture she really needed before a conflict with Mike escalated. While working on the cabins, Mike complained to Alesia that Jenna was overreacting to his jokes about her role, and then jokingly suggested Alesia should be second stew. Alesia, knowing Mike was trying to provoke her, didn’t respond. Mike, however, continued and told Jenna that Alesia had said she’d be a better second stew. This led to a heated argument between Jenna and Mike, complete with aggressive gestures. Furious, Jenna stormed into Daisy’s cabin, barged into the bathroom, and told Daisy she couldn’t work with Mike. Daisy, who had already spoken to Mike yesterday about his habit of stirring up trouble, confronted him. Mike denied doing anything wrong and repeated the offensive joke. Daisy ordered him to work until 9 p.m. that night, but he refused, and then defiantly repeated his refusal when asked to clarify. Daisy ultimately told him to leave the boat, which he did, whistling as he went.

While Daisy explains the situation to Jason, a montage of Mike’s disrespectful behavior plays. Jason believes Mike has had plenty of opportunities and that Daisy and João did everything they could to help him take his job seriously. The captain is direct when he fires Mike, telling him he’s creating a negative atmosphere on board. Mike apologizes to Daisy, claiming he uses humor to cope, but privately, he doesn’t appear genuinely sorry, stating he’s been fired for being a jokester before and won’t change. He even playfully tells Alesia he doesn’t think he did anything wrong. Despite their arguments, Alesia sends him off with a loving message. Eddy walks him out, just as a chaotic, over-the-top performance by Magic Mike begins, marking his farewell.

During a crew meeting, Jason informed the department heads that Mike’s replacement, arriving tomorrow, seems very laid-back. This might be the first real difficulty for João’s deck team, although they’ve been handling docking and anchoring well without Mike. The new guests appear friendly. Honestly, I’ve always found the pre-trip guest introductions unnecessary – I just don’t feel invested in their lives back home. They also give the show’s producers too much room to create misleading storylines, like last week when Joanna was initially portrayed negatively but turned out to be lovely. However, meeting Dr. Sujay Patel, his wife Brenna, and their family was genuinely touching. Sujay is bringing his parents, Vinod and Jayshree, on the trip and surprised them with the news via FaceTime – they were thrilled, as they’ve never been on a superyacht before. When they boarded, Alesia offered to help them unpack, but Vinod shyly insisted on doing it himself, explaining he wasn’t used to accepting help. He chuckled while sipping Champagne, and I instantly liked him.

That nice moment was a welcome distraction from the tension of the night before. After Mike left, things felt strangely calm, and Ellie quickly took charge. On their night off, while Daisy, João, and Jenna relaxed with wine in the hot tub, Ellie spent time with Ben in the crew mess. Daisy went to bed, and Jenna and João confessed to each other that things with Ellie and Eddie had moved too quickly. Ellie and Ben watched them on the monitor, and Ellie playfully teased Ben, pointing out how close Jenna and João seemed. Daisy came to get a snack and mentioned that Jenna and João were asking for Ben, but he seemed bothered. He went to the hot tub, intending to show his annoyance, but held back from saying anything. Later, Ben tried to talk to João about it in their cabin, but struggled to express himself clearly, only saying, “I know a lot of things.” João assured him he hadn’t been flirting with Jenna. Ben admitted he was being extra cautious because he’s looking for someone to settle down and start a family with – quite a leap forward, considering how recently things started!

Okay, so things were getting wild. Ellie was filling Alesia in on some supposed drama between Jenna and João, and honestly, I was shocked. She straight-up said Jenna was just a mean person and apparently was trash-talking Alesia to Daisy. I literally had to rewind because it came so out of nowhere! Apparently, Jenna once said Alesia was a little rude, and Ellie jumped to the conclusion that Jenna ‘fucking hates’ her. The irony? This is coming from the same Ellie who threatened to send a picture of Alesia and João to Alesia’s boyfriend! It finally clicked the next morning when Daisy pointed it out – I think Ellie was actually trying to cause trouble for Daisy by stirring things up with the crew.

That morning, Alesia shared what Ellie had said with Jenna and Daisy, hinting strongly that Ellie was causing trouble, though she didn’t say it directly. Daisy quickly figured it out. In a strategic move, Daisy changed the cabin assignments to accommodate the new stewardess. She moved João in with her, Eddy with Ben (which was uncomfortable!), and paired Ellie with the new girl. Ellie admitted in a private interview that the cabin change felt deliberately targeted. Later, in the kitchen, she angrily complained about João, calling him inconsiderate and immature. She told Ben she was proud of herself for staying calm despite certain provocations. Ben, still hesitant to speak up, noticed Ellie’s focus on João was unsettling and distracting. Meanwhile, guests had arrived on board!

As a fan, I found the simmering tension between Daisy and Ellie really building throughout the episode. Twice, Daisy just happened to walk in while Ellie was talking about her – once about whether to confront Daisy over João flirting with Jenna in the hot tub, and another time detailing a dream where Daisy was attacking her! But things really came to a head during dinner service. It was an ’80s night, and Ben was making shrimp cocktails. Daisy offered to help, which seemed nice enough, but then all three of us – Daisy, Ben, and Ellie – were suddenly plating shrimp. Honestly, that’s just too many cooks in the kitchen! But Ben conveniently disappeared when Ellie took the shrimp out of Daisy’s hand and finished the job herself. It felt like a clear signal of where his loyalties lie, and it was pretty awkward to watch.

Okay, so Daisy was seriously annoyed! She went straight to Alesia to figure out what the heck Ellie was going on about last night. She even joked, “Seriously, is this some soap opera?” but Alesia had no clue what she meant. Then, back in the crew mess, Ellie – who seemed worried about her job but was still super intense – actually asked Daisy if she had done something to upset her. Daisy explained she didn’t like being kicked out of the galley, and Ellie snapped back that she could work faster on her own. Honestly, it wasn’t so much what Ellie said, but how she said it. She was just really sly and talked down to Daisy. And then, get this, Ellie told Daisy to “calm down”! It made Daisy so furious she told Alesia that if Ellie didn’t stop, she’d be the next one fired. I’m honestly bracing myself for Daisy to finally use her authority. I wouldn’t blame her one bit!

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2026-05-05 05:56