On last night’s episode of Flipping Out, Jeff Lewis continues to shake things up at Jeff Lewis Design by firing Trace and promoting the fairly invisible Jett to an office job. Zoila returns to her professional duties after a few too many days watching telenovelas on pain meds, and the Chaz Dean Studio Cole remodel finally comes to an end – but not without many hiccups.
It’s employee review time at JLD! Jeff informs us he has no regrets about letting Sarah go; and in light of her firing Gage has convinced him to evaluate all of his employees. Jett will be the next one to take his turn under the magnifying glass, especially since Gage Jeff isn’t sure if he is pulling his weight around the office. Eeks – watch out Jettster! Gage probably wants you O-U-T because you’re a cutie patootie and he’s threatened! Perhaps sensing that Jeff has it out for him, Jett makes a joke about getting fired later while Gage snootily cuts him a look, like: ‘Don’t push your luck, b*tch!’
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At Chaz Dean Studio’s Cole site, there are SEVEN days until the opening and that means C-H-A-O-S for Team Jeff. Jeff reveals he hasn’t even purchased all the furniture and Chaz hasn’t approved the backsplash yet. Nuria, Chaz’s business manager is scrutinizing Jeff and Jenni about the completion date. Jeff blames the delays on Chaz’s micromanaging; claiming when he gets any time with Chaz, Chaz is interrupted constantly.
Back at the office, Trace seems to think new intern Vanina is his super-special assistant and Jeff catches him delegating his responsibilities to her! Jeff wonders if the “hard working” Trace needs Vanina to pick up his dry cleaning or perhaps grab him a drink? Or perhaps Trace needs to check himself before he wrecks himself, because Master Jeff sees that he is abusing his power. Oopsie! When the cats away, don’t try to play him, cause you might be the one who gets played.
Queen Zoila is being usurped by Lupe – Jeff’s temporary maid. Jeff loves Lupe because she actually cleans, and she doesn’t talk, and she does all the laundry. And she doesn’t talk. And she cleans. Gage also loves Lupe, because she’s not Zoila she makes Jeff happy. Zoila let’s Jeff know she will be resuming her duties of putzing around, watching telenovelas, and eaves dropping on Monday. Jeff encourages Zoila to take a few more days, just in case, and wait to see what the doctor says, but uh-uh Jeffrey Lewis. The doctor already cleared Zoila to work – so move over Lupe, Zoila is reclaiming her throne! Jeff is going to miss the smell of Windex in the morning.
Proving Jeff does NOT wear a toupee, he gets a haircut from Chaz (re: alone time) to discuss the remodel. Jeff tries to lay down the law, which is risky given that Chaz is wielding clippers, about Chaz’s refusal to relent creative control – particularly with such a tight deadline. Working with someone who is a control freak (besides himself) is pretty much impossible and Jeff is forced to wait on Chaz to co-sign for every decision, which leads to backsplash drama!
Jeff admits to Jenni he is actually kinda worried things won’t get done in time. Focusing on the backsplash installation, Jeff decides the clear tiles will only work if they paint the wall behind the tiles a darker color, but Chaz is out of town and therefore unable to approve the change.
Back at the office, Trace has replaced Sarah as the office f*ck-up! Jeff confronts Trace about not cc-ing or forwarding him emails pertaining to clients. Trace prefers if Jeff could take over the responsibility by linking their email accounts. Jeff doesn’t see what the big deal is – it’s as easy as washing your hands after using the bathroom – just forward him all the emails so he can use them to appropriately bill clients and calculate payroll. Um, Trace – if the size of my paycheck depended on me forwarding emails to my boss, I would be forwarding EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Trace’s file of infractions is growing by the minute – now that Sarah is gone, doesn’t he realize he’s taking allll the heat?!
Back to backsplash, Nuria has apparently hired another contractor to put up the stalled backsplash; and that contractor instructed Jeff’s contractor Randy to finish the job, which infuriates an already stressed to the max Jeff! Jeff confronts Nuria, who spins some line about how Chaz already trusts Zack, the other contractor. Why does Jeff want to continue working with Chaz, again? Jeff decides he must step on Nuria’s face and kick her to let her know that if she keeps disrespecting him; he will walk off the project, leaving her and Zack to finish! Dah-ramz!
Jeff and Jenni bring in color boards to give a demo of how the backsplash will look against a painted wall. After choosing a grey hue for the paint, Nuria explains she can’t make any promises that Chaz will get back to her with an approval, but she’ll keep bugging him. Once again – WHY does he want to continue working with crazy Chaz? Chaz finally gets back in town and within five minutes of hearing Jeff’s idea for the backsplash, Chaz gives his consent and everyone is relieved the remodel will get done on time!
Back at the office, Jeff receives a text from Chaz’s team requesting an inspiration picture Trace was supposed to have emailed. Jeff asks Gage to check Trace’s computer to see if it was sent and to re-send it. Looking through the emails, sneaky Gage finds both the inspiration picture (which luckily had been sent) and something else – a closet redesign Trace is working on as a personal project, done apparently on the clock – and forwarded to his own personal email.
In light of the discovery, Jeff and Gage schedule an impromptu review with Trace; who sees the writing on the wall and realizes that’s the exact same meeting Jeff requested with Sarah before she was fired. Trace, attempting to seem responsible, asks if he should bring anything? According to Jeff, only a diaper. If ever something implies a shitstorm…
Things start off with Jeff suggesting all the props he gives Trace has created an incredible hubris. Jeff then hands Trace a printout of the closet redesign they found in his computer and Trace admits it is his closet. When Jeff asks if Trace has anything he’d like to say for himself, Trace replies he hasn’t had time to gather his thoughts, like Jeff and Gage have; causing Jeff to explode about Trace’s performance and his personality transformation. And without further ado, Jeff fires Trace. Jeff explains despite all the time he has invested in grooming Trace and his reliance on Trace’s skills, Trace’s attitude is unacceptable. Trace is shocked that he was thrown out so unceremoniously, but feels it is time for him to move on, of course. Don’t forget to leave your parking permit, Trace!
After the meeting, Jeff is surprised and upset by his erratic decision to let Trace go, but he felt forced because he could no longer trust him or rely on him. Jeff is astounded that unlike when he fired Sarah, he is angry about Trace, because as Gage suggests, Trace took advantage of Jeff and the opportunities presented to him by working with Jeff. Later, when telling Jenni what happened, Jeff is still sad and hurt – not to mention incredibly pissed that future employers are going to benefit from all the things he taught Trace.
Continuing with the reviews from hell, Jett’s has finally arrived and he is quaking in his boots, because he is Jeff’s least valuable employee now that Sarah is gone. Jeff basically spells it out that Jett is pretty useless, and he had planned to let him go, but the HR department has decided to temporarily promote him to an office job given the recent vacancies. Even Zoila voted to keep him. Gage, not so much, he wanted Jett out. Jett isn’t surprised at all, he knows how Gage rolls – I mean, it’s all in the name of efficiency, right? As penance, I hope Jeff seats Jett right across the office from Gage! BTW: When is the HR Department reviewing Gage? I think Zoila should be in charge of that review.
Jeff immediately gets Jett into the swing of things by bringing him to the salon remodel during the final days. After warning him that Chaz will call him the wrong name, Chaz addresses him as Bobby. Hehe. Unfortunately that’s not the only snafu that occurs – as the new sinks arrive Jeff discovers Trace and Sarah ordered the wrong size sinks. Luckily, Jeff is able to exchange them and have the new sinks overnighted. Good thing Jeff fired those losers!
Nothing like last minute, one day before the grand opening party, Jeff and co. are ordering furniture and then Jeff gets a call that there is a plumbing leak in the basement. After dispatching Gage to check things out, they discover it was just a condensation line and no flooding occurred. After all the last minute issues, Chaz is majorly on edge and blows up on Jeff, who needs his approval for some last minute details. See Chaz, this is why micromanaging is bad for you!
Taking a break from all the stress, Jeff and Jenni prank Zoila by putting a faux coffee spill on the stairs. Jeff threatens to use bleach to clean it up to motivate Zoila to detach from the soap operas and get the real soap. Jeff blames Goofy Gage for the spill. Jeff happily shares that the dynamic between Zoila and him will never change. Like it or not Gage, Zoila’s a keeper!
On the day of the party, things still aren’t done and Jeff is running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Jeff knows if he doesn’t make the deadline he can kiss the NY job goodbye, but at the last minute everything comes together beautifully. The team does a toast to two and a half years of “lather, rinse, repeat.” Leaving for the party, Jeff wants to get there early so all the food isn’t eaten by fat girls. Oh Jeff, always a class act! Everyone is in love with the re-design (and thankfully Jeff convinced Chaz to get rid of those murals) – especially Chaz and it looks sublime. Yay JLD – staff changes and all, they pulled it together and likely will be working on the NY project with Chaz.
Next week: Chaz keeps Jeff in limbo about the NY job, Jeff calls out crazy Stacey for insulting Jenni and she won’t let him “fire” her!
Do you think Jeff made the right decision to fire Trace? Does Gage have it out for Jett and Zoila? Are you excited Jett was promoted? What did you think of the final results of the salon remodel?
