Captain Sandy Yawn‘s proposal to Leah Shafer was the highlight of Below Deck Mediterranean‘s season 9 finale — but not everyone was invited to help prepare the festivities.
During the Monday, September 23, episode of the Bravo hit, Aesha Scott kept Ellie Dubaich at arm’s length after realizing she was letting her minimal power get to her head.
“I feel like Ellie is gaslighting me in a way. She’s standing there like she’s so unaware,” Aesha told the cameras as the finale picked up amid the chief stew’s argument with Ellie. “She’s so calculated. I don’t feel like I ever truly know what she’s feeling.”
Ellie didn’t have the same perception of the situation.
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“At this point, everything I do is wrong,” she said. “I am trying to prove to my boss that I can do this job. How is she supposed to write a reference saying I could be a good chief stew if she’s never seen any leadership skills from me?”
After complaining that she wasn’t given enough chances to run things on board, Ellie’s wish was grantedas some of the other crew members left to help prepare Sandy’s proposal to Leah.
“Ellie, you are in charge while I am gone. There will be a van arriving shortly to pick everyone up for the proposal location,” Aesha explained on the radio before clarifying to the cameras, “Joe [Bradley], Gael [Cameron] and Carrie [O’Neill], they all work so fast so I can rely on them to do the job. And Ellie is the second stew so when I am not on the boat, she should be running it.”
Ellie, however, felt left out of the big moment, saying in a confessional, “I am definitely feeling down. Aesha didn’t pick me to participate in Captain Sandy’s engagement which would have been such an honor for me. I feel like all the work I have done this entire season is for nothing.”
The crew members who didn’t help stayed behind to get ready for the last group outing later that night. As they got into a van to drive to their location, Ellie complained to Bri Muller, Nathan Gallager, Iain Maclean and Johnathan Shillingford about how she thought she was being treated.
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“If they have done decor without me, I am going to flip out. I have been busting my ass this entire season and then she was like, ‘OK, great. Now Carrie is here so go f— off and go do dishes,’” Ellie noted. “Like she was hired as someone who was going to help us out. Not to come here and replace us.”
Nathan questioned Ellie’s claims — and her rude behavior. “Just because Carrie has come in now and took the attention away from you, you are being bitter? You are being spiteful? Not everything is about you, Ellie,” the deckhand said in a confessional.
Bri, who had her own drama with Ellie, felt the same way. “I can understand why she’s upset that Aesha didn’t choose her to help set up the decor. But at the same time, f—— get over it,” Bri told the cameras. “Aesha is the chief stew so she can choose whoever she wants.”
Later in the episode, Nathan secretly told Aesha that Ellie was “chatting s—” about her.
“Basically as soon as Carrie arrived [she felt] that all her hard work went unnoticed. That pissed me off. You’re the best girl in the world,” he said as Aesha replied, “It is very juvenile to bitch to the boat about how I have been treating her so poorly. If she wants to be a chief stew, she has a lot of growing to do.”
Aesha and Ellie ultimately parted on decent terms but neither seemed thrilled.
“I know we have had our differences but I will never take away from you that you are a very hard worker,” Aesha said to Ellie as they prepared to leave the boat and go home. “And you should be very proud of yourself.”
As for Ellie, she slammed the fact that she only “got one adjective” to describe her, adding, “I’m a hard worker. This feels like when your vibrator dies halfway and you’re just like there.”
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Below Deck Mediterranean viewers have criticized Ellie’s behavior as the show has continued to air. In response to the backlash, Ellie issued a statement where she apologized for how she acted when cameras were rolling.
“Just to sum it all up, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on my actions, and I’m actually glad I’ve had this opportunity to see myself through somebody else’s eyes,” Ellie mentioned during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen in August. “In our daily lives, sometimes we are assholes to other people but we always see it from our perspective. And maybe we feel justified because somebody did something that deserved that. But we never get to see ourselves from the other person’s perspective.”
Ellie specifically addressed the regrets she had about her feud with Bri. (The duo were at odds after ending up in a love triangle with Joe. Neither of them ended the season with the lead deckhand.)
“I realized that sometimes we are the villain in their story. And that’s who I was in Bri’s story and I truly regret that,” Ellie continued at the time. “I should have been professional. I should have put my emotions aside. And I should have lifted her up and made her feel stronger and find strength in herself. So I regret that.”
Below Deck Mediterranean is currently streaming on Peacock.
