by Chandra Clewley

Cheers to the start of a new season of Flipping Out! One can never get enough of Jeff Lewis and his team, Jenni, Zoila, Sarah, Trace and the latest edition, Gage.

So what has changed? Well, a lot. Jeff has sold Valley Oak and is now in a *rental* (dirty word for Jeff Lewis!) that is called West Knoll. He has decorated it in the typical Lewis fashion, bold wall paper, dark paint, and black and white photography. The house is considerably smaller and this allows him to keep an eye on Zoila. He has moved Trace to sit next to him, because apparently he was sending tons of emails instead of working.  Jeff has been delegating more responsibility to Sarah, but like last year, she is still pretty slow.  On the other hand, Jenni has been exploring her “other” interests,( being her acting career), so she has really slowed down with Jeff while Sarah has been trying to step it up.

Regarding the business, Jeff is no longer flipping houses at all, but has turned it all toward interior design. He is working on several projects, but we start with Marlo in Studio City, Fuller in Hollywood which is a major remodel, Durand in the Hollywood Hills which is a client named Jeanne who looks like she is going to be hilarious and a total thorn in Jeff’s side, Spring Oak which is in LA and the client is Laura who seems like an eccentric cat lady. They are still working on the salon in Venice where Spirit died last year, plus Cole’s other salon in New York City.

The newest edition is Gage, who also happens to be Jeff’s boyfriend…he is generating a ton of business, managing Jeff, and is a blonde Madison Hildebrand (Million Dollar Listing) doppelganger. In the first episode they go to San Francisco for a speaking engagement that turns into a cocktail party before and a luncheon after the speaking engagement, but Jeff puts the kibosh on it. They aren’t being paid for all those extras. This becomes awkward when a guest at the cocktail party corners Jeff and Gage, to tell them that they cancelled the luncheon that all of her important clients were attending…and oh by the way, she is the one that paid for their hotel room on this trip. Gage takes the fall, but really, the lady was relentless and needed to loosen up. Jeff tried to fix it but she was set on being upset.

Then there is Sarah, who should be stepping up to the plate, but somehow isn’t. (How many times do I have to tweet Jeff Lewis and tell him that I should be his project manager? I could do this stuff in my sleep…). From the outside, it looks like Sarah, who is hilarious by the way, is just too nice for this gig. She doesn’t want to be the hard ass, and she doesn’t feel like it is her place to do so. Jeff repeatedly is pushing her out of her comfort zone to train her to put her foot down, but you can just tell this is complete torture for her. Marlo’s house is late to completion, and when the General Contractor can’t account for why it is behind (the grout they ordered is not in stock, the tiler threw his back out, yadda, yadda, yadda), Sarah has a terrible time trying to come down on the General Contractor, while the client Marlo ends up yelling at her when Jeff is out of town.

This season will be interesting as Jenni is taking a lesser role, the group is working on both coasts, Sarah struggles with becoming a Project Manager, and we get to know Jeff’s new boyfriend.

Flipping Out moves to its regular day and time this Tuesday at 9/8c on Bravo. 

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

Follow Chandra at @ChandraClewley