The Apprentice 5, Episode 7: This One’s for the Children

Leslie and Charmaine return to the suite, waiting to hear Bryce’s fate. Leslie is clearly upset and sniffs, “I’m fine,” through her tears. She says it’s upsetting and that one of their friends will be going home. Charmaine cries too, because it’s not an episode of The Apprentice if Charmaine doesn’t cry. Charmaine says it’s just going to get harder with every Boardroom. Lee and Lenny return. Tarek is disappointed- Bryce was a good friend. Lenny says that since Trump told him he was on thin ice, he will be Project Manager. He declares, “We’re going to bury Synergy in the graves.” Awesome! I’d love an All-StarApprentice starring him and Alla. Who else? Who cares!

The candidates arrive at one of Trump’s buildings and don the Omarosa Manigualt-Stallworth Commemorative Hardhats. We meet Paula and Rich, who are executives from Ace Hardware, along with Glenn, an executive from Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Ace has a program called New Faces for Helpful Places designed to serve the community. For this task, the candidates will renovate a room in the Boys and Girls Club building and create a theme for the kids. They will be judged on creativity and functionality, and the three executives will choose the ultimate winner.

Gold Rush checks out their room, which needs a lot of work. Lee notes that it’s important for Lenny to win. What should they do with the room? Should the theme be dance, music, or art? Lee thinks that dance or music would be good choice. Lenny says they’re doing music. Charmaine thinks they should talk to the executives before making any big decisions. She is frustrated that Lenny doesn’t care about meeting with them. And how does she know that? Perhaps because he uses the words, “I don’t care.”

The executives arrive, and Lenny? Doesn’t care. There is a long pause, and Charmaine takes over, asking about the program. The only problem is, she gets the name of it wrong. Oops. She tries to get Lenny to talk, but he really doesn’t have much to say, just asking about the size of the hardware store they’ll have access to. There are lots of awkward pauses in the meeting, and tense music plays in the background. In an interview, Tarek says that Lenny should have asked more questions, that he never seemed to understand the objective. Oh, and Bill is there to take in this whole debacle.

Things are not looking good for Lenny.

And now for the Trump Lesson of the Week: “Be decisive.” Trump says that if you can’t come up with a decision in a timely manner, you won’t look like a leader. However, you should not be so quick that you might make a mistake. The Betsy Lesson of the Week was demonstrated on the show this week. That is, if you’re painting a wall red, plan on putting on about a billion coats of paint. Otherwise the color just isn’t as vibrant as it should be. Red paint is tricky.

Michael is the project manager for Synergy and is pretty much the exact opposite of Lenny. The first thing he wants to do is to meet the executives and to learn as much from them as possible. He asks lots of questions about the charity and about how important it is to include the Ace brand. That’s a good question, and it makes me think that Michael is going to win this week. The executives start to leave, but Michael has more questions. There’s a montage of everyone looking uncomfortable as Michael continues to talk. Andrea says in an interview that he tends to go on and on.

Andrea thinks that the room should be interactive. They start planning things out- a DJ booth and dancing, maybe. Michael wants four main areas- a TV, gaming, a spot for girls, and music. Because girls don’t like television, games, or music? Allie gently reminds Michael that the store closes in 4 hours, so they need to get cracking. But first, Michael embarks on the painful process of choosing the color scheme. Carolyn watches and says that time is ticking away for them to renovate. Allie says, “We should be shopping.”

Next, the show offers up a split screen of the two teams that is absolutely fascinating. Well done, editors. While Gold Rush loads up their cart at Ace, Michael ponders paint chips. Leslie and Charmaine quickly choose Gold Rush’s paint as Michael thoughtfully scratches his chin. Finally, Roxanne suggests that maybe just some of them go to the store. In an interview, Sean is incredibly frustrated. He says they need to “stop pissing around” and get to work. He then punches the air in a cute mini-tantrum and I am reminded of why he’s my TV boyfriend even though he is a shameless flirt.

Gold Rush starts painting, and Charmaine argues with Lenny about how many coats of red paint they’ll need. She’s right, of course- they’ll need at least two. Tarek says that she talks way too much and it’s like nails on a chalkboard.

Synergy’s theme is “The Lounge.” It’s a place for kids to hang out, and Allie says it’s “very interactive.” Michael, Andrea, and Tammy buy the items they need at the hardware store while the rest of the team buys electronic equipment. The hardware store is closing in 10 minutes, a perfect time for Michael to dither over what lighted fake palm tree to buy. Andrea is out of her mind with frustration because Michael can’t make decisions or delegate anything. I’m not an Andrea fan by any means, but girl, I feel you. I’d want to shake him at this point. Michael calls the rest of the team to review what they bought. They’re all annoyed- doesn’t he trust them? Sean figures this is his way of looking like he’s managing, and I think he’s right.

Michael has to choose a paint color and he is so overcome with indecision that he actually calls Sean to ask. Dude. Flip a coin and move on. Roxanne, Allie, and Sean laugh at Michael so hard that they can’t answer his crucial paint question. In an interview, Sean cries out, “He is a wanker!” and is adorably British.

Bill is waiting for Michael when they finally get back to the club. Michael says they’re going to work all night. Bill wonders why they’re so late. Poor Bill probably wants to go to bed. Michael says that they needed time to figure everything out. Bill quickly realizes that all they’re doing to the room is to paint it- why did it take so long to arrive on that? He asks Andrea how Michael is doing as project manager, and she cannot quite figure out a polite answer to that one. She says that he is “fine,” then stammers something about the new flooring they’re doing. She says she wanted to convey telepathically what a mess he is.