Below Deck season 11’s Barbie Pascual and Kyle Stillie have settled into their newfound boatmance, but is she pushing too hard against his personality traits for them to stay afloat? Throughout Below Deck season 11, Barbie has had her fair share of drama outside of her boatmance, as well as in her relationship with Kyle. During Barbie’s time aboard the St. David, she’s dealt with issues on the interior team. As a stew, Barbie’s worked beneath Chief Stew Fraser Olender and alongside her fellow stews, Xandi Olivier, Cat Baugh, and Paris Field during the second half of the charter season.
Though Barbie’s issues have petered out throughout the second half of the season, Below Deck season 11’s biggest drama has been between Fraser and the second stew who was hopeful she’d be able to impress her Chief Stew boss. While Barbie’s relationship with Fraser has been rocky throughout the season, her time with Kyle has been allowing her to decompress. Though she wasn’t certain her feelings for the Deckhand were romantic, as the charter season progressed she became more aware that she was developing feelings for Kyle. Barbie and Kyle’s connection has been sweet, but is it too much pressure?
Barbie Wasn’t Sure About Her Feelings For Kyle
Their Relationship Has Been Building All Season
Although Barbie and Kyle have established their relationship by the end of Below Deck season 11, the couple weren’t always on stable ground leading up to the romantic era of their relationship. While Kyle has been certain about Barbie throughout Below Deck season 11, she’s had questions about what she’s felt for Kyle. Early in the charter season, she thought she may have feelings for former bosun Jared Woodin, but ultimately realized that her feelings for him were nothing more than platonic. She set her sights on Kyle, who had been waiting for her to get to the same point.
Though Barbie wanted to make it clear that they weren’t going to do anything to take their relationship further while they were aboard St. David, the rest of the crew had bigger thoughts around the pair. While it appears that Barbie is a more private person than Kyle, it was too obvious to the rest of the crew of yachties that something was going on between the Deckhand and the Stew to let it go. Barbie and Kyle’s connection may be more subtle than Ben Willoughby and Marie “Sunny” Marquis’, but the pair has been able to continue to grow.
Their Relationship Has Been A Power Struggle
Kyle Has Allowed Barbie To Take The Front Seat
Although Kyle has been aware of how he’s felt for quite some time, he’s allowed his boatmance with Barbie to move as slowly as she needed it to. The power dynamics in their relationship have been interesting throughout, as Kyle has shown time after time that he doesn’t want or need to be in a position of power. In fact, he’s let Barbie pretty much take the wheel when it comes to their relationship overall, sitting back and doing his best to let things move at her pace. While Barbie didn’t ask Kyle of this, its been helpful for her.
Barbie being in “control” of her relationship with Kyle does add to the narrative that she’s a controlling person, but overall the ability to set the pace of things has been an asset to the stew. While she’s typically a perfectionist in her work, knowing that she has been able to take a bit of a step back in her perfectionist tendencies elsewhere makes Barbie’s place in her relationship with Kyle different. She seems aware that Kyle has given her more than an equal share of the power, but that he’s trusting Barbie not to hurt him because of it.
Barbie Cares Too Much About What Her Family Thinks
She’s Not Considering Kyle’s Feelings
Barbie and Kyle hit a snag early on in their boatmance after hooking up, as she immediately felt self-conscious and was thinking about how she would explain herself to her incredibly conservative father. Kyle didn’t seem to realize the severity of Barbie’s struggles to let go of the control she was holding around her family’s judgment of her behavior. The stew was having a difficult time even rationalizing to herself that she allowed herself to hookup with Kyle on St. David after swearing to her father she wouldn't get into any sort of romance, but she wasn’t communicating with Kyle.
Kyle, who was trying to be sensitive, didn’t grasp how serious Barbie was about not talking about their hookup to the rest of the crew. While it appeared that Ben and Sunny were already onto the pair, Kyle confirmed their suspicions and Barbie was hurt that he would go against her wishes. When Barbie tried to explain her feelings to Kyle, she came off harsh. She shared that he family was conservative and she didn’t want to have to address her sex life, especially her father, but Kyle’s feelings were too hurt for him to be receptive of her issues.
Should Kyle Move On Without Barbie?
He Shared He’s Falling In Love With Her
While Barbie and Kyle have moved past their first real issue as a couple, with both addressing they made mistakes in how they were talking to each other about the hookup, things still feel off between the pair. Kyle has been open and honest about his feelings for Barbie with both the stew herself and the Below Deck cameras. Having shared that he’s falling in love with her, Kyle has pushed their boatmance in the direction of becoming an actual romance. It’s possible that his feelings are genuine, but Barbie’s behavior may be too much for the Deckhand to handle.
For Barbie, things have been moving at a glacial speed throughout Below Deck season 11. It’s possible that now that things have become more physical for her and Kyle, that Barbie’s feelings may be growing at a more rapid pace, but the Stew has kept her feelings close and been quiet about her plans moving forward. In a recent episode of Below Deck season 11, Barbie shared that she could be falling in love with Kyle, but it seems likely that the Stew won’t know where her heart lies until she’s back on solid ground and can reassess her actions.
