Well, the deaths were of the homeless Spirit and a friendship, and both were pretty dramatic!

Anybody else follow this 'season' of Flipping Out? I highlight season cuz itseemed like the show just started when *boom* it was the finale then the reunion. Man, that went fast.

I felt Jeff definitely showed some emotional growth due to being humbled by the collapsed real estate market. His remodeling projects were still funny--that weird couple who invited him and Jenny to dinner in their PJs were quite a pair, weren't they?! And that woman who couldn't or wouldn't pay her bills--what a stereotype of the SoCal discarded trophy wife.

His team was also amusing. I knew the assistant/friend he hired, Rachel, wasn't going to last. But the second try-Sarah-was a hoot. I laughed so hard when she spilled her coffee all over Jeff and his expensive car. And the sequence when Chase showed up in the short-shorts, oh my goodness Jeff was in full throttle. Zoila was her own solid self; she is getting more confident in dealing with Jeff. Loved her resentment at the new cleaning staff member, Roomba. Jett makes a fantastic second-banana in Jeff's little riffs, especially at those lunches. (Side note-do they order out every single day?! With that lovely kitchen and Zoila a live-in employee it would seem logical to have home-cooked lunches sometimes,) Jenny as always was a riot. Her gecko rap at Chloe's birthday party...priceless!

And the rift with Ryan-wow. I am wondering if anyone more tech savvy than me can explain what the issue was that Jeff kept mentioning about sponsored links. I just didn't get what exactly was the problem there. I could understand Jeff's anger at what he thought was the taking away of business if people called Ryan's shop, but I don't know how sponsored links works.

I came away with the impression that maybe both of them were somewhat to blame: Jeff obviously is mega-paranoid and very upset about the bad market and how it affected his business. So it did seem he was being obsessive on dwelling on Ryan's role in harming him. OTOH, Ryan was a little too innocent and who-me? about denying any culpability. I got the impression that Ryan had perhaps latched on and hung on to Jeff during the boom years, benefiting from Lewis' leadership. Then it seemed he ditched Jeff to go off on his own with the decorating/design individual projects. I'm wondering what others thought.

The reunion blow-up between them was so sad. From previous seasons it was clear there was a long standing and very deep bond of friendship and trust and Jeff's comments were seemingly from the heart about what the rift has done to him emotionally. Ryan too seemed genuinely heartbroken. I'm hoping that by next season they will have repaired the relationship, and that Ryan and his family won't have moved out of LA permanently.

Ann