The Apprentice 4, Episode 1: We Can Work it Out

On the other side of the room, Kristi wonders aloud to Alla if she should be scheming, too. Alla says she doesn’t have to – Melissa is the one on the defensive, and Kristi should not worry. Alla seems really smart. In an interview, Kristi says, “This isn’t Kristi versus Melissa. This is Melissa sucks, and she needs to be fired.” Nice!

The women file in to the boardroom. Kristi laments that they only lost by $11. Marshawn blames the marketing. Melissa, to the surprise of no one, pins the blame for the flyers on Kristi. Kristi says that she didn’t intend for them to look like porn. Melissa continues to attack Kristi, and Kristi starts defending the things she did for the team. Melissa tells her that she is loud, obnoxious, annoying, and weak. Can you say “projection”?

Alla speaks up and says that it takes the efforts of the entire team to win. Melissa was negative and brought everyone down. If they had had just one more sale, they would have won. Perhaps Melissa’s negativity kept them from getting that one sale. It’s a very strong argument and well put.

One of the other women says that she doesn’t think the team can be successful with Melissa on it. She adds that Melissa’s actions show that she is not listening. Melissa disagrees and says she’s just trying to defend herself. One of the other women (seriously, they need to be captioned) says that Melissa’s feelings about Kristi are personal. She adds that all of the women find her to be negative, and to say that she’s only being negative because she doesn’t respect Kristi is a lousy excuse. Another woman agrees that Melissa should be fired. Melissa tells Trump that she let Kristi get under her skin, but in the future, she’ll keep her feelings in check.

Trump has heard enough and asks Kristi which two people she’d like to bring back. She asks if she can bring just one person, and Trump agrees. She chooses Jennifer. Just kidding – obviously, she picks Melissa. It was a gutsy move on Kristi’s part not to take a second person, since her chances of getting fired were higher, but I think it was good. Really, it’s between her as project manager and Melissa to be fired. Why throw in another person as padding and risk alienating her on future tasks?

After the women leave, Carolyn says that she found Melissa disruptive, but she didn’t like Kristi’s marketing, either. George notes that the entire team hates Melissa. Trump sends the women back in. Melissa tells him that she is a good person and a hard worker. She is usually a positive person, but she let Kristi get to her. It won’t happen again, and she adds that her mistakes were not the reason they lost. Kristi disagrees, and says that if they’d convinced just one more person to take the class, they would have won, and that Melissa’s negativity might have kept it from happening.

Melissa then attempts some revisionist history. She mentions that all of the women said Kristi wasn’t a good leader. Like me, Trump didn’t remember that happening, and says he only heard that they all don’t like Melissa.

Melissa isn’t surprised- all women hate her. Carolyn raises her eyebrows at that one. Melissa begins to dig her grave a little deeper as she explains that women are intimidated by her because she is so beautiful and smart. Trump points out that the other women on her team are also beautiful and smart. Carolyn looks disgusted by the entire notion Melissa is spouting. She then points out that Melissa is on a team full of women. “Do you think you have a shot of getting out of this if you can’t work with women,” she asks. Also, is Melissa under the impression that she’d be heading a Trump company made up entirely of men? Carolyn asks how Melissa can possibly win without working with women. George adds that she is creating a hostile environment. Hey, and George is a man! Why is he intimidated by Melissa? How odd!

Melissa tries again to say that she isn’t the reason she lost the task. She starts to say that everyone said she did a good job, but Trump interrupts her to say that isn’t true. He says he was not impressed by Kristi, but that Melissa can’t get along with anyone. Melissa is fired. Trump adds that Kristi should not feel proud of herself, because she wasn’t great either. With that, the two women leave the room.

Trump and Carolyn agree that he had no choice. Carolyn says that if Melissa can’t work with women, she can’t be successful. Of course, I’m sure the reason Carolyn – and I- don’t like Melissa is that we are women and are thus intimidated by her. It’s a shame.

In her final cab ride, Melissa says she’s not shocked that the other women didn’t like her. She says that if she’s going to be fired, she might a well be the first to go.

Finally, we get some quick shots of what we can expect this season. Cute Josh! Carolyn in charge! Stormtroopers! I’m so there.

Betsy Wasser is the Associate Editor of Reality News Online. She’s confident that if you didn’t like this article, it must be because you are intimidated by how beautiful she is. Those not intimidated can write to her at betsywasser@gmail.com

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