Does Elizabeth Frankini Get Fired on 'Below Deck'?

It looks like this season of Below Deck has created some rough waters for crewmate Elizabeth Frankini. Her superiors have vocalized their disappointment in the second stew often this season. Add to that she seems to be getting very cozy with co-worker James Hough, and it looks like there might be trouble ahead for her.

Did Liz get fired from Below Deck this season?

Viewers have watched Liz and James sneak around this season, shacking up in their bunks and even sneaking into a guest cabin together — despite it clearly being against the code of conduct.

“You sleep in a guest cabin without permission, you can pack your stuff and leave,” Captain Lee Rosbach said in a preview clip.

Viewers further began to speculate that Liz and James would be fired this season when Lee said, “Sometimes you gotta get rid of two people," according to CheatSheet.

It's clear most of the crew aren't fond of the boatmance unfolding this season, as Liz and James have managed to make more than one of their superiors upset. In his blog recap of the show, Lee addressed the couple's behavior, openly reprimanding them.

"Did you really think that Izzy can’t tell when one vs two people are in the bottom bunk? Very inconsiderate of you I felt," he wrote in his Jan. 12 recap.

"And then you decide to use a guest room that someone is going to have to redo again and do that without even asking," he continued. "There is no charter yacht anywhere that allows crew to use guest rooms without permission. But that obviously doesn’t apply to you nor James. Well, we will see about that."

This led many viewers to assume Liz (and maybe James) would be getting the can this season.

Francesca Rubi made it clear to Lee that she was not a fan of Liz's recent behavior on deck this season, and recommended she be fired for it. But despite Lee's own obvious distaste for Liz's attitude this season, he chose not to remove her from the cast just yet.

But that didn't mean she would go without recriminations, and Francesca responded by demoting her from second stew.

The chief stew said that demoting her removed the expectations she had of Liz, leaving her relieved. 

"Well, I can't fire her, and I need to do something about this because she's got this entitled situation going on, and I can't have this," she said, according to The Daily Dish. "I was happy with my decision because it definitely made me lower my expectations of her."

Despite the demotion, Liz said she was "so happy I wasn't fired."

"Being demoted didn't matter to me," Liz said of the incident. "I was gonna work just as hard, obviously harder, like never-ending, of course, to prove myself. Throw a dog a bone. If that's what makes her feel better about me and more confident in her job, she needs to demote me, that's fine, demote me. I'm still here."

Below Deck airs on Bravo, Mondays at 9 p.m. ET.