Below Deck‘s Kyle Stillie landed himself in hot water after claiming — and later denying — that he hooked up with a married charter guest. Despite evading any serious consequences, the St. David deckhand still has some things to clear up with Captain Kerry Titheradge and his fellow crew members, though.
In the above first look at Season 12, Episode 12 (airing on August 18), Damo Yorg checks in to see how Kyle’s doing after the allegations put his job on the line.
Kyle says that he’s “good” and plans to “just keep the head down and not say anything stupid,” moving forward, while Damo admits to feeling “guilty” for addressing the issue with chief stew Fraser Olender, resulting in Kyle’s uncomfortable one-on-one with Captain Kerry.
Though Kyle insists that he understands his fellow deckhand’s position and encourages him not to “stress” about any potential beef between them, before hugging it out, he is more forthcoming with a producer, afterward.
RELATED: Captain Kerry & Fraser Tease Kyle Stillie’s Alleged Hookup With a Married Charter Guest
“It’s a wake-up call in a professional sense and also in, like, how you trust other people,” Kyle says in a confessional, referencing Damo. “He could’ve just kept his mouth shut. He’s not got a good track record anyway. It just proves that I have gotta watch where I keep my alliances.”
Elsewhere, as a new group of charter guests arrive, Kyle notes that he’s “not allowed to speak to them” and has to “stay away from guests,” in general.
How the Below Deck crew reacted to Kyle Stillie’s alleged charter guest hookup
Kyle first alleged that he secretly had a brief sexual encounter with co-primary Helen “in the sea” to Chef Anthony Iracane, Hugo Ortega, and Solène Favreau while en route to his birthday celebration on Sint Maarten during Episode 11. He repeated the claim, “bragging” in front of Damo, Fraser, and Rainbeau de Roos, later on, leaving all of the above stunned and in disbelief.
“Maybe he did do it, maybe he didn’t,” bosun Hugo stated in a confessional. “But we can’t have crew that are crossing that boundary and getting too familiar with guests.”
Fraser shared that sentiment, opening up to a producer, “Are you crazy? That would be stupid, irresponsible, and insane. Regardless, that’s inappropriate. So, I am worried that this might put Kyle in the firing line.”
Later, the chief stew added, “Do I think it happened? I don’t know. Plausible deniability: You’re surrounded by every single other guest and crew member on a public beach. It might have just been a slip in and slip out situation. Regardless, that’s inappropriate. That’s unacceptable.”
RELATED: Captain Kerry Shuts Down Drunk Charter Guest After Being “Threatened”: “You’re off the Boat”
Damo, meanwhile, explained he was coming from a place of concern for Kyle possibly having some deeper issues.
“He’s still hurting on the inside,” he said, citing both the Helen rumors and Kyle’s mid-birthday-dinner hookup with a stranger he met at the bar. “I’m seeing somebody that’s crying out for help. So, yeah, I am concerned.”
While addressing the issue with Fraser, Damo continued, “I’m not seeing the fun party boy. I see it as, like, somebody in pain.”
After their conversation, Fraser worried that keeping the secret could put all of their jobs on the line.
“Now that these rumors can spread and possibly Captain can hear it, talking about something that’s actually incredibly unacceptable and a fireable offense, I think that it’s far better coming from Kyle himself,” he stated. “We have to be accountable for our own behavior, whether it’s true or not.”
So, Damo agreed to approach Kyle and suggest that he bring the situation to Captain Kerry’s attention before someone else did.
How Captain Kerry Titheradge investigated if Kyle Stillie hooked up with charter guest Helen
After insisting to Damo that he was joking about the whole thing, Kyle agreed to face Captain Kerry and share his side of the story.
“You know me, I’m a bit of a loudmouth. I kind of say things without thinking sometimes,” Kyle explained to St. David‘s leader. “On the beach yesterday with the primary, we were rather close. Nothing did happen. But I’ve maybe said things that would suggest that something did happen.”
As he added, however, “Dead-set looking you in the eye, nothing happened at all. … I really hope you do believe me because genuinely nothing did happen. But I understand your position.”
Noting that the “boat has a reputation,” Captain Kerry told Kyle that he needed to “chat with the crew” before he made any decisions.
“Are you f–king kidding me? Why would you make up a story like that?” Kerry said in a confessional. “My immediate reaction is, ‘You’re full of s–t and you’re lying to me.’ This is unacceptable. I need to investigate this further, and if he did it, he deserves to leave the vessel.”
One by one, he sat down with Damo, Fraser, Hugo, and Rainbeau, all of whom were skeptical that anything actually happened between Kyle and Helen, chalking up the whole situation to drunken chatter.
“At the beach, Helen was requesting him to go in the water with her and hold her up,” Damo described to the captain. “And he was doing that. And she was topless. But there was always, like, two or three other guests around him.”
As Hugo added in a confessional, “I really would like to think that Kyle is professional enough that he wouldn’t do it, but I’m pretty disappointed by the whole thing, regardless. We don’t want the boat to have a reputation that when you charter that yacht, the crew are gonna sleep with you or the crew are going to be hitting on you. Like, that’s not a professional type of environment that I wanna be a part of either.”
Why Captain Kerry Titheradge didn’t fire Kyle Stillie
After concluding his investigation, Captain Kerry sat Kyle down again and told him, “Everyone I’ve spoken to thinks you’re full of s–t, that you were just talking s–t.”
Still, he asked one final time, “Did you do it?” to which the Scotland native responded, “I definitely didn’t do it, no. 100 percent, dead straight in the eye, I did not do it, Cap.” (However, Kyle played coy when a producer asked him the same question afterward, instructing them to “give Helen a call,” if they want answers.)
Kerry concluded, “With the evidence I have, I want you to stay. But pull your head in [and] get the job done. I don’t want you that close to guests anymore.”
In a confessional, he elaborated, “I can’t fire the guy on a hunch. He can be reprimanded, but at the end of the day, everyone says to me they don’t believe it, they didn’t see anything. And I can’t prove it. What can I do?”
Find out what happened with Helen’s friend Kelly after their “out of control” Below Deck charter.
