Back in August, Below Deck Down Under was lauded for its handling of sexual misconduct on screen when Captain Jason Chambers fired Luke Jones, bosun of the deck crew, after he — while naked — attempted to get into bed with junior stewardess Margot Sisson without her consent.
The crew returned after a night of drinking in Australia where the season was filming and Luke tried to climb into bed with Margot even though she was asleep. In a rare move on Below Deck and in reality television in general, a producer appeared in front of the camera and broke the “fourth wall” to tell Luke to leave. Luke then got aggressive and tried to slam and lock the door shut before he was removed.
When chief stewardess Aesha Scott informed Captain Jason about the incident, he fired Luke. Stewardess Laura Bileskalne was also fired after she criticized the decision to get rid of Luke, blaming Margot and saying, “He’s a sexual person, I’m a sexual person, you’re a sexual person. We were joking, that thing was probably like, ‘Hahaha, we all drunk.’”
Opening up about the situation at BravoCon, Captain Jason tells Rolling Stone that it felt validating to watch the episode back because it confirmed that he made “the right decision” in letting Luke go.
“I acted on what Aesha told me and then what Laura responded with, those are the only things I can actually react off, so going back and seeing the episodes from another perspective just showed that I made the right decision and I stuck by Aesha’s feelings that night and moved in the right direction,” he says. “I’m still in touch with everyone and trying to make sure everyone learned from that moment.”