Many viewers weren’t so sure about this season of Below Deck. The loss of Kate Chastain in the role of chief stewardess certainly has shaken things up. Newest chief stew, Francesca Rubi surely has her own way. She seems, like, *fine* at her job, but she really doesn’t bring any interest. Say what you will about her, but at least Kate brought some intrigue. And we always knew what she was thinking.
Maybe some viewers enjoy the level, balanced, blah that Francesa is bringing. There’s certainly enough other chaos to go around, after all. Yet somehow, in all the insanity, Francesca decides to shoot her shot to have second stew, Elizabeth Frankini, fired. Is she serious? Of course the answer was a firm “maybe, but not now” from Captain Lee Rosbach. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any less engaging in stew-land.
Not to be misunderstood, Elizabeth has shared her real thoughts on her situation with Francesca. She commented in an interview with E! News, “I was honestly distracted by…the way Francesca answered me.” She added, “I was really starting to feel a lot of condescending animosity from her.”
Of course, in a recent episode, viewers saw Elizabeth mix bleach with soap. She kinda-sorta mustard gassed the interior crew, according to the chief engineer. Previews (and Francesca) would have you think this was a very intense moment. Watching it play out was more like a very slow and non-serious fire drill, however.
Elizabeth emphasized that in the latest episode viewers see her use “the bleach and the soap like [she has] done in [her] four-and-a-half years of experience on boats.” She said, “Unfortunately, I didn’t know that was so toxic and I feel so bad about it…especially ’cause Francesca did say, ‘Take it outside.'”
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So while Elizabeth admits some guilt for disregarding Francesca’s direction, she insists it wasn’t anything intentional. She explained, “I don’t know what happened. There’s so much always that we have to do, and it can get a lot. So, that’s my mistake.” Elizabeth brought newest stew, Ashling Lorger into it saying she was planing to bleach her sneakers in the concoction as well!
Elizabeth said “So, [Ashling] had her shoes in a bucket ready to do as well. You can see the shoes in the bucket in the episode…She didn’t end up going through with it.”
In the end, it seems Elizabeth is “very surprised” Francesca found this chemical mix-up a fireable offense. She claimed, “Not that I didn’t think it was a big deal but, up until that point, anything that she was going on at me about was nothing worth getting fired for. It really came out of nowhere for me.”
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Will these two ever work their shit out? Doubt it. Elizabeth wrapped up her comments on Francesca’s leadership style saying, “Leadership sets the tone for everything. So, a good leader empowers, inspires, sets a good standard for the team, leads by example, you know, delegates properly, communicates…And I found, in my experience, that this was lacking in her.”
Hope that second stew stripe came with lax return policy….
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TELL US – WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON? HAVE YOU EVER MIXED BLEACH AND LAUNDRY SOAP?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]
