ARC Memory Management Changing Per Example - ios

Question

Note: I created a Test program so I can better understand how ARC works - I am having trouble implementing it in my real project.
I created a Test program to determine how ARC works - it works great! Here it is.
ViewController1:
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {
weak var vc2:ViewController2?
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
print("VC1 Initialized")
addButton()
}
func addButton() {
let button = UIButton(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.view.frame.width, height: self.view.frame.height))
button.backgroundColor = .red
button.setTitle("Go to VC2", for: .normal)
self.view.addSubview(button)
button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonAction), for: .touchUpInside)
}
#objc func buttonAction(sender: UIButton!) {
let vx = ViewController2()
vx.VC1 = self
vc2 = vx
self.present(vc2!, animated: false, completion: nil)
}
}
ViewController2:
import UIKit
class ViewController2: UIViewController {
weak var VC1:ViewController?
weak var VC3:ViewController3?
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
print("VC2 Initialized")
addButton()
}
deinit {
print("VC2 Deinitialized")
}
func addButton() {
for i in 0..<2 {
let button = UIButton(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: self.view.frame.height*0.5*CGFloat(i), width: self.view.frame.width, height: self.view.frame.height*0.5))
button.backgroundColor = i == 0 ? .red : .blue
button.setTitle("Go to VC\(i*2+1)", for: .normal)
self.view.addSubview(button)
button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonAction), for: .touchUpInside)
button.tag = i
}
}
#objc func buttonAction(sender: UIButton!) {
let tag = sender.tag
if(tag == 0) {
self.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
}
else {
let vc3 = ViewController3()
vc3.ViewController2 = self
VC3 = vc3
self.present(VC3!, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
}
}
ViewController3:
import UIKit
class ViewController3: UIViewController {
var ViewController2:ViewController2?
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
print("VC3 Initialized")
addButton()
}
deinit {
print("VC3 Deinitialized")
}
func addButton() {
let button = UIButton(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.view.frame.width, height: self.view.frame.height))
button.backgroundColor = .red
button.setTitle("Go to VC1", for: .normal)
self.view.addSubview(button)
button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonAction), for: .touchUpInside)
}
#objc func buttonAction(sender: UIButton!) {
self.ViewController2!.VC1!.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
}
}
What I was looking at was how to remove multiple pages at a time (as indicated by the button push on VC3 and it goes back to the main page) and still remove ARC memory. All goes well. You can see the output below of me doing these operations.
Start program - push to page 2 - push to page. 1 - push to page 2 - push to page 3 - go to page 1
VC1 Initialized
VC2 Initialized
VC2 Deinitialized
VC2 Initialized
VC3 Initialized
VC3 Deinitialized
VC2 Deinitialized
The problem I am incurring is in my actual program - when I use these methods above, it automatically calls deinit on the last object I created when I CREATE my new object. But it doesn't actually delete anything - the memory graph will show x number of items even though the deinit method is called.
import UIKIT
class myClass: UIViewController {
weak var pageController:PageController?
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
print("Initialized PC")
presentThemes()
}
func presentThemes() {
let pg = PageController(x: 1, controller: self)
pageController = pg
self.present(pageController!, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
deinit {
print("Deinit")
}
}
The output I am being provided is:
Initialized PC
On the first instance and is:
Deinit
Initialized PC
On the second instance. Any idea why Deinit is being called but the memory graph shows it there?