Who Were the "Mean Girls" of Season 5 of Below Deck

Kate Chastain might be one of the last people fans would expect to defend Jennifer Howell's drunken antics on last week's episode of Below Deck. However, that's exactly what the chief stew of Valor did on Tuesday night's episode of the Bravo podcast, After Deck with Kate Chastain. Jen joined Kate on the podcast and explained that her expectations of her first yachting experience may have fallen a little short, but it wasn't the workload that surprised her the most. 

"I didn't anticipate the amount of, I guess, antagonizing and teasing and stuff. I didn't anticipate that. I wasn't ready," Jen shared with Kate. "I don't want to drop any names or anything." Jen said what frustrated her the most about the teasing was being called out for things other people were also doing themselves. "It seems that there was a lot of I guess judging me rather than others perhaps realizing that they're not too far away from what they're actually saying about me, themselves."

Jen may not be naming any names, but when the conversation circled back to the topic, Kate named names, specifically, Baker Manning, Brianna Adekeye, Bruno Duarte, and Chef Matt Burns. "No, I do agree with you. In a certain way, it seemed like Baker, Bri, Bruno, Matt, when they were off duty altogether, they would become a little clique," Kate said. "None of them are strong enough to necessarily stand alone with their opinions, which you are. So instead, they would band together. They are almost like the mean girls." 

While only two out of the four crew members Kate named were present for Jen's drunken outburst in last week's episode, Kate and Jen agree that the mob mentality was definitely a contributing factor to Jen's actions. "It just seemed that everything that I did or said it was kind of like things were turned against me," Jen explained. "I was annihilated and I responded [. . .]. And then I have the peanut gallery running behind, you know, inserting themselves in something that didn't even involve themselves, coming at me, literally running down the hall, cornered me, and then, what do you expect?"  

The fork incident was also discussed openly. Jen believed Kyle's reaction was a bit dramatic as she said the utensil in question came directly out of a clean silverware setup on the table and hadn't touched anything other than a napkin prior to touching Kyle's food. "I mean, get your panties out of a wad. Eat the damn food," Jen said as she recalled the dinner. 

"I know for a fact that Kyle has put much dirtier things in his mouth," Kate added. 

Listen to the full podcast episode above and find out if Kate chose one of the "mean girls" for Dinghy or Yachtie of the Week. 

 New episodes of Bravo’s After Deck with Kate Chastain are available Tuesday nights after episodes of Below Deck. Listen, like and subscribe to Bravo TV’s After Deck with Kate Chastain on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and anywhere else you enjoy your favorite podcasts. Don’t forget to vote each week on a Yachtie and a Dinghy of the Week by tweeting @AfterDeckTweets and follow @AfterDeckInsta for news about upcoming episodes of After Deck.