Can you re-jump the shark?

It seems everyone (even my mother-in-law) knows about jumping the shark. Happy Days, blah blah blah, The Fonz, yadda yadda yadda, water skiing in a leather jacket. It also seems that everyone, in the interest of sensationalism, is quick to write off shows and trends at earlier and earlier points. Desperate Housewives? Jumped early in season one. The O.C.? Maybe late in the second season, but definitely in the third when Johnny entered the picture (though some say the Oliver fiasco was the tipping point). I've even heard people declare that the phrase "the tipping point" has jumped the shark, or "tipped" according to Gladwell.

(Non sequitur extraordinaire: I think the lead singer from Wolfmother just passed Gladwell as the best white-fro in the world.)

Now, back to the O.C. and jumping the shark. For background, until recently, the O.C. was one of the shows my DVR recorded, along with the Sopranos, Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy, the Simpsons, Sons & Daughters, and My Name is Earl. However, I lost track of the O.C. back in November, just when those crazy kids were applying to college, Marissa was in public school, and Johnny's surfing career had been wiped out by a car.

Fast forward to March; I deleted a bunch of the older episodes to clear room on my DVR, but I kept a few from February. Last month, bored and home alone one night, I decided to knock out one of these newer, but still months old, episodes. Within minutes, I learned that Johnny died, what's-her-name from Chino was back, and something else was going on. It was so bad, I had to turn it off immediately.

Then, the other evening, my wife and I were talking with another friend, and she said that the O.C. got so much better in April--and from the story lines she described, maybe it did. Therefore, I wonder, can something re-jump the shark?