Is shit about to hit the fan with Eddie and Shane on Below Deck? The preview for the Monday, Nov. 23, episode hinted that some major drama is to come involving a nap scandal, a “do not disturb” sleep mask, and a deckhand that, frankly, doesn’t know what he’s doing. But Avery, the deckhand that almost was, thinks that both the bosun and his employee share equal responsibility for their fraught relationship on board.

After a family emergency sent him home after what seemed like just a few hours on board Captain Lee Rosbach’s yacht in the premiere of Season 8, Eddie and the rest of the cast lost their most capable crew member. With a long career in yachting under his belt, Avery is not just a serious professional when it comes to doing his job, he’s also got a professional attitude to go with it. While chatting exclusively with The Dipp, he shared his take on that whole deckhand debacle.

A Good Heart

“The thing is with Shane, his heart’s in the right place,” Avery, 27, explained. “He wants to do the right thing, and he wants to learn. And he's an awesome kid, you know, and he'll do anything that you tell him. … But he... is very mind focused on, like, everything else compared to what is going on in the situation. He's not very good at reading the situation. I don't think he realized when he first got into this of how much it actually takes to what [he] thought it was going to be.”