The Apprentice 5, Episode 5: Crusin’ for a Bruisin’

Trump says that at least now he’s seeing some energy from Leslie for the first time. Leslie is near tears as she says that she is never heard. She also never wants to work for Dan again. She says she about wanted to jump off the boat.

Trump asks about the castaway they showed, mentioning someone waving frantically at the ship. Trump hates the idea, because it implies that the castaway’s boat sank, not something a cruise line wants you thinking about. Lenny says it was his idea. Trump thinks “it stinks.” Lenny answers that the team liked it.

Carolyn says that without the voiceover, they didn’t effectively communicate their point. Bill says that it was a fatal blow. Tarek says that the titles could have worked with the right execution. Lee is trying not to laugh. Trump goes back to his old standard and talks about Tarek’s Mensa membership. He asks Lenny if Tarek is a genius- after all, he makes a lot of mistakes. He jokes that Tarek must have cheated on his test. Tarek counters that he executed what the team wanted.

Trump wants to know whose bright idea it was to do no voiceovers. Leslie says she wasn’t sure who was in charge- Dan or Tarek. Lee says that Dan makes bad decisions. Dan counters that Lee is always trying to position himself best and to get face time with the viceroys. Trump asks what’s wrong with that. Lee shrugs that someone has to greet Bill and Carolyn. Charmaine thinks that Tarek is unable to listen to the rest of the team, and that’s how they missed the boat (her pun, not mine). Lee thinks that Tarek prevents them from working as a team. He’d fire Tarek.

Time to get to it- Dan chooses Lee and Tarek to go to the boardroom with him. Dan and Tarek are close, so I didn’t think Dan would choose Tarek. It was smart that he did, though- Trump’s got a mad-on for Tarek. Trump asks Dan if he’d like to add a third person. Dan considers Lenny, but decides not to. The candidates leave the room.

Carolyn says that the concept was bad, and Dan shouldn’t have chosen the castaway thing. It was Lenny’s idea, but Dan didn’t bring him back. Bill agrees to a point, but thinks that Tarek made a bad idea worse by not having a voiceover.

The candidates return, and Trump says he’s surprised Dan brought back Tarek. Dan says he struggled with his decision, but that before the Boardroom, Tarek told him he had no friends there. Dan kept waiting for an “except me” and never got one. Tarek says that he told Dan he’d defend him and that losing Dan would be a blow to the team.

Why bring Lee instead of Lenny? Dan doesn’t think Lenny should be fired for coming up with the idea, since they agreed on it as a team. Carolyn points out that Dan almost brought him back. Is he afraid of Lenny? Lee nods yes, but Dan says that Lee checked out on him. Trump thinks that Lee is “basically a politician,” which is why he tends to glad handle the viceroys. Trump doesn’t love or hate him for it.

Tarek, Trump says, has done “an exceptionally poor job throughout.” He has potential, though. Lee doesn’t deserve to be there- Lenny does. The bad concept was his idea. Dan should have brought him to the Boardroom, but he didn’t. Dan is fired. As for Lenny, Trump says, “Tell Lenny he doesn’t have long to go.”

I think Trump made the right decision for the wrong reasons. He says he fired Dan for not bringing Lenny back to the Boardroom. I don’t think the loss was at all Lenny’s fault- and I think Lenny would have done a great job of explaining that. Yes, the castaway was his idea. However, the entire team agreed to it- we saw no nay sayers. The cruise line people didn’t seem to have a problem with the fact that there was a distressed person on a boat so much as that it was never adequately explained what some guy with seaweed on him was doing there. Unless Lenny worked on editing, that was not his fault. Lenny is also the only person who spoke up and said they should use a voiceover in the commercial. Lenny was not the person who should be fired.

A strong argument could be made for firing Tarek. It was he who insisted on using the titles, for reasons that did not make sense under the circumstances. He must be kicking himself for presenting himself as having a high IQ, since Trump won’t let him forget it. Tarek certainly contributed to the loss this week.

But the biggest contributor overall was Dan. He didn’t delegate well and tried to do everything himself. As a result, Charmaine, Leslie, Lee, and Lenny didn’t seem to have much to do at all. They all seem to be capable enough people, and had Dan used them better, he might have had a stronger commercial and a less frazzled team. The fact that they were under such a tough deadline should have inspired him to use all of his resources, not to try to do everything himself. Had he listened to his team, he might have had a stronger ad. More than anybody, Dan deserved to be fired this week.

Dan says goodbye to Tarek and Lee. Trump says that Dan lacked leadership. Carolyn says it was an easy choice. Bill is less enthusiastic, but Trump gets him to agree that it was a good decision because he cannot deal with having his team disagree with him. Dan gets in his cab. He says that he’s eager to get home to his family. He’s especially excited to see his two boys.

Next week, there is bad singing. Plus, the previews tease, our votes will eventually help Trump choose a winner.

Betsy Wasser is the Associate Editor of RealityNewsOnline. She can be reached with any comments at betsywasser@gmail.com

Be sure to sign up for our e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on the site! For more news about this show, be sure to check out SirLinksALot’s Apprentice page!