Not on the same page. With Captain Sean Meagher in charge of the boat while Captain Lee is gone — Eddie Lucas quickly finds himself with too much on his plate.
“This day is kicking my ass,” Eddie, 36, explains in Us Weekly‘s exclusive sneak peek of the Monday, October 25, episode of Below Deck. “Captain Lee better be here soon because I’m not going to be able to do an entire season with Captain Sean. Just doing everything.”
In the clip, the first officer finds himself handling all the preparation for the guests upcoming picnic, while newcomer Captain Sean micromanages over the radio. As the captain keeps requesting items off My Seanna, Eddie grows frustrated with the situation, calling it “f–king stupid” and “such a s–t show.”
Fans were already warned in the season 9 trailer that Captain Lee would be joining the crew later on. The captain clarified that a “condition” forced him to stay back initially, although it wasn’t related to COVID-19.
“I am much better,” he explained to E! News in August after the trailer’s release. “The timing was mainly screwed up. Because we have such a tight shooting schedule, it was imperative that the guests’ charters start and end on time so it didn’t have a domino effect and impact every charter after that.”
Captain Lee revealed that the upcoming season is “unlike any other” and that he was “the happiest guy in the world” when he finally got on board in St. Kitts.
“It was a totally unique year,” he noted. “There was just a lot of different things this year, because of the circumstances in which we had to film. A lot of things that we’re used to doing, we couldn’t do because we had to stay within the confines of our bubble because of COVID, so we had to improvise in some situations, which is not a bad thing. Sometimes you can improvise and get extremely creative, which I like to think we’re pretty good at.”
Viewers will also get to enjoy more of Captain Lee and Eddie’s friendship after the first officer returned during season 8. He was previously on the reality show from 2013 to 2015.
Ahead of the season 9 premiere, Eddie teased that there is now “a different dynamic” between him and his boss.
“I can kind of challenge his way of thinking and better understand his leadership style. No matter how long I work with the captain, I keep on learning new things,” he detailed to Vanity Fair in August.
At the time, executive producer Courtland Cox weighed in on how Eddie coming back to Below Deck in 2020 seemed like the right choice in the wake of Captain Lee’s only child passing away that same year.
“On the heels of this incredibly awful tragedy that Lee and Mary Anne suffered to be able to have someone familiar like Eddie come back, when he has been like a son to Lee, it got magnified into this kind of amazing but awful coincidence,” Cox said during the same interview with Vanity Fair. “While you’re seeing what Lee went through and seeing what Eddie meant to him, it really puts it in perspective how you’re making a TV show with real human stakes.”
Season 9 of Below Deck will also feature chef Rachel Hargrove from the previous season. Newcomer Heather Chase is set to replace season 8 chief stew Francesca Rubi. Jessica Albert and Fraser Olender will be in the interior, while Jake Foulger, Rayna Lindsay and Wes O’Dell are joining as deckhands.
Below Deck season 9 returns to Bravo on Monday, October 25, at 9 p.m. ET.
