The Apprentice 5, Episode 6: Feels Like an Arby’s Night

Bryce says in an interview that a good leader knows everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. He knows, for example, that he couldn’t write a jingle to save his life, so he put Leslie and Charmine in charge. The two women are trying to bang something out on the piano. Tarek, Bryce says, is his creative director. Tarek works with the musicians while Lenny stands around and yawns. In the end, Bryce is really happy with how the jingle turned out. He thinks Tarek has redeemed himself, and he feels “partially responsible” for how well the team worked together. He thinks they nailed it.

Trump tells his secretary that it’s time to see “the kids” and how they did. Lee rejoins his team, and Charmaine says he’ll love what they came up with. Leslie says that they missed him, but respect his beliefs.

Synergy is dressed in red and black t-shirts for their presentation. Sean introduces their jingle and says he hopes everyone has fun. The team dances along with the song, including Trump who should never, ever dance. I’m a bad dancer myself, so I’m loathe to mock someone else’s dancing, but wow. It’s bad. At the end, the crowd of Arby’s customers goes wild, and Bryce looks really worried.

Bryce thanks Doug and Debbie and says he’s proud of how his team worked together. Their jingle is performed, and Charmaine sings along energetically. Trump dances, but with considerably less energy. Considering what a bad dancer he is, this is a good thing. Sean looks pleased, a bad sign for Bryce.

Debbie and Doug take the stage and ask “the biggest Arby’s fan in the world” Donald Trump to join them. Trump asks the crowd for an applause-o-meter, and it looks like Synergy won. Sean tells Trump he thinks they won. Bryce says again how proud he is of his team. Now it’s time for the executives to give their verdict. Debbie likes that Gold Rush talked about their menu, but doesn’t like that they never mentioned that only Arby’s has natural chicken. Doug says that Synergy hit all of the key points and fit their brand personality- they win. For their reward, they will eat an absurdly expensive dinner of truffles. Trump says he likes Arby’s better. Take a moment and picture Trump, sitting on a chair trimmed in gold leaf drinking a Jamocha shake. Hee!

The reward, as always, is kind of boring. Everyone likes the crazy expensive truffles, Sean flirts with the women, Michael might be annoyed by that, and Allie is wearing Pebbles Flintstone’s necklace. That pretty well sums it up.

Bryce calls a team meeting, and I sure hope it’s better than the last one. He says they worked hard, and it was a tough loss. He doesn’t want to backstab any one. Charmaine starts to cry and wonders if just maybe Trump will decide not to fire anyone. Now that would be a twist. Bryce breaks it to her that not everyone is going to love all of them. Charmaine says it was a reality check, and that Bryce is not playing a game. Lenny says he’s willing to go, that he had less input. He just can’t write rhymes in English. Leslie’s not sure who should go. Lee puts himself forward, but no one really responds- you can’t go after the guy for practicing his religion, after all. Bryce says he hopes they can create a unified front.

As Bill and Carolyn arrive in the boardroom, it occurs to me that George is probably out this week for Yom Kippur as well. Trump asks Bryce why they lost. He says that their jingle just wasn’t as appealing. Tarek handled the music, and Charmaine and Leslie handled the lyrics, but he approved everything. He adds that if Trump is looking to hire a jingle writer, he’s not the man for the job. That’s why this task was so frustrating. Writing music is a very specific and challenging talent, one that Trump executives do not have to exhibit. It would make just as much sense to have the teams promote Arby’s using interpretive dance, then fire the worst choreographer.

Bryce says that Lenny contributed the least, a fact that Lenny does not refute. Lenny says that he is probably the first Russian jingle writer. Bill says that since Lenny has been in the United States for 14 years, he’s not buying it. I don’t know; Lenny speaks English well, but coming up with clever rhymes in a language not his own would be really hard. Trump tells Lenny he’s on thin ice.

Charmaine admits that she should have included the bit about all natural chicken being exclusive to Arby’s. I’m not sure why this isn’t also Leslie’s fault. Bill brings up the fact that they were 25 minutes late for the meeting, which Trump did not know. Bryce says he hadn’t realized that they were late, but that he apologized. He adds that Charmaine made the appointment. Trump says that mistake put them at an immediate disadvantage.

Lenny says that he would fire Bryce. He was in charge and ultimately made all of the decisions. He admits that he didn’t contribute as much this week, but he tried. Bryce was in charge and overlooked an important detail.

Lee won’t say who he’d fire, since he wasn’t around. Trump asks if it’s unfair that he missed two weeks, that he’d get a bye twice. Lee says he doesn’t want a bye, and he doesn’t know if it’s fair, but “this is who I am.” Good for you, Lee. Trump agrees that religion is important, but adds, “Life is not fair… Life sucks, you know that?” Oh, Trump. Take it down a notch, buddy.

Leslie says she’d fire Lenny due to his lack of input. Bryce thinks that Lenny is good at a lot of things, but this is not one of them. At least he was never a negative influence on the team. Trump thinks that Lenny acts the comedian to hide things. Interesting theory. Who will Bryce bring back? Lenny- that was a given. And Lee. Wait, Lee? Not Charmaine? Things are not looking good for Bryce. Bryce says that they lost on creative input, and though he respects Lee’s beliefs, he could have used them. Well, then, obviously, he does not respect Lee’s beliefs, or he’d know that a high holy day was more important to him that an a stupid jingle about chicken.