Spilled Coffee and Bad Mojo: Scandal on "Flipping Out"

Oh, Jeff. You never learn, do you?

This week's episode of Flipping Out ("Bad Mojo") had Jeff Lewis attempting to find a replacement for Rachel after she quit unexpectedly in last week's installment. But rather than stick to his guns and interview multiple candidates, check out references, and, you know, actually look at people's resumes, Jeff ends up hiring a random guy, Shawn.

Which would be fine if the duo hadn't hit it off over Shawn's story about his stint in prison for drag racing in a high-speed car chase with highway patrolmen and the police.

Could it be that Jeff's hiring ethos isn't quite all that it's cracked up to be and that he has a tendency to act on emotion and impulse rather than logic? You think?

And yet when faced with the same dilemma of having to replace an employee, Jeff does the unthinkable yet again and hires Carrie's sister as his newest assistant, thus again creating an uncomfortable situation in which he's mixing business with pleasure (and soon to be family as well) and hiring not the right person for the job, but the person who's right there at the moment. Oh, Jeffrey...

I knew right away that Shawn would be trouble for Jeff Lewis' office. He seemed almost too eager to please, was way too flirty with everyone from Jenni and Zoila to celebrity hairstylist/client Chaz. Which made me think that he had an angle of some kind. I don't think it was quite what Jeff thought (that Shawn was out to get some sort of job from Chaz) but something less concrete and defined. He appeared to be looking to leverage his employment with Jeff Lewis into a new life and move into the orbit of some powerful and moneyed individuals. Why else go into the salon and try to get invited to Chaz's house for some yoga? A bit odd, no?

It's a shame as Shawn did seem genuinely surprised when Jeff sacked him for his scandalous offense, despite protesting that his conversation with Chaz was absolutely innocuous. (It's slightly unclear to me why he would say he was talking about getting his hair done there--still an odd conversation to have with a client--rather than what Jenni overheard him saying.) I thought it was extremely generous of Jeff not only to cut a check for the hours that Shawn had worked but to also throw in an extra $500 to tide him over for the next week or so.

What motivated Shawn to refuse to accept the money that Jeff gave him? Was it, as Shawn said, pride? Or was it motivated by guilt? Should we give people the benefit of the doubt? Or do we need to be more suspicious and check people out before we hire them?

I hope it's a lesson that Jeff has learned now. Given the specter of Chris Elwood still hovers over his office, one would have thought that Jeff would have become a more stringent employer in terms of hiring, requiring a detailed CV, multiple references, and experience. After all, there's more to being a project manager than just checking things off of a list and Jeff had discussed with Jenni ahead of time that he wanted to interview several people for the position.

Jenni is a saint at the end of the day. How she's put up with Jeff, as funny as he is, for seven and a half years is a mystery to me. The fact that he so casually whacked her in the face with his headset in the car was shocking to me. He did eventually apologize but it took five minutes of him needling her about why the cord was tangled before he realized that he owed her one. I do hope that his experiences with Shawn now show Jeff just how loyal and patient Jenni is and that she deserves some sort of promotion or at least recognition for the role she's played in his business.

Whether the business will thrive under the (not-so) watchful eye of newest assistant Sarah Berkman remains to be seen.

But from Sarah's hysterical introduction--and her spilling the entire contents of a large cappuccino all over Jeff's car and Jeff himself, it doesn't bode well. I get that Jeff is altruistic when it comes to his friends and enjoys helping people out when they can't find work but he also needs to learn that he needs to be as smart and strict with his hiring policies as he with everything else in his life.

At least she remembered the two Splendas...

Next week on Flipping Out ("Jenni 911"), a big deal in Bel Air is complicated by a lack of funds; Jeff falls ill and accuses Zoila of poisoning him; Jenni is put in charge of the Buena Park project.

Flipping Out Preview: Zoila Poisons Jeff