The Apprentice 5, Episode 10: Cutting It Close

In the Boardroom, Charmaine looks nervous. She says that they lost because they failed to capitalize on selling product. That made all the difference. She doesn’t think she was a bad PM, nor does she think she was at fault. To Carolyn, she clarifies- it’s not that she takes no ownership of the loss, it’s that she doesn’t think she was the reason for it. Carolyn asks what their plan was. Were they just going to put flyers on cars? Charmaine wanted one-on-one interactions. Carolyn says they had five stylists doing nothing. Bill says that Charmaine had her hair done instead of selling. She thinks that someone needed to go through “the process.” She wanted to know what made it different. Bill points out that there were only three hours left. She should have been looking for customers. Yeah, and come on, Charmaine. It’s the Hair Cuttery. The thing that makes “the process” different is that it’s a really inexpensive place to get your hair cut. That’s it. You don’t have to get a $15 haircut to understand how to sell one.

Trump asks Lee how Charmaine did. Lee plays it safe, saying that there were “missed opportunities.” It wasn’t his fault they lost, and he wasn’t hard to manage. Trump says that Lee is a politician, and for the first time, I can certainly see it. Charmaine says Tarek was harder to manage. Michael agrees. All four should work together, and if one person causes problems, it’s an issue. Carolyn smirks. Trump says that was well stated. Tarek starts to interrupt, but Trump won’t have it. Michael says he believes it in his heart, so it’s easy to speak in such lovely flowers and such. Tarek laughs at how dramatic he is. I’m with you, Tarek.

Charmaine says she and Tarek argue a lot. Tarek says that she is an emotional roller coaster. According to Charmaine, Tarek never relinquished the original title of PM after the first task. He takes too much control. He disagrees. He says that Charmaine leads by consensus and is ineffective. Charmaine says that there is no right or wrong answer in a creative task. Tarek says they were trying to support her, and that she’s sensitive. She says he’s cried twice, Charmaine argues, and it had nothing to do with him. Michael robotically says, “For the record, Charmaine did not cry during this task.” Charmaine says that she never cries “during business.” Trump doesn’t like crying.

Tarek says she wants everyone to love each other. Trump thinks the guys should have taken advantage of that, and he is “not a genius.” Gross, Trump. Tarek says that looking for an angle to win the task is not like going against the team. Charmaine talks about how well she gets along with Lee and Michael, but Carolyn doesn’t care who her friends are. Trump thinks Charmaine gets along with everyone but Tarek. That’s probably only because she doesn’t know how much crap Lee talks about her behind her back. She thinks the team wants her back. Lee says Charmaine is easy to work with. Trump asks if Tarek is better. Lee hops on the fence and says that he worked hard. Carolyn calls him on his non answers and asks if Charmaine is an easier competitor for him. Lee says it’s a tough choice between the two, but she was the PM. Carolyn and Bill smirk at how political he’s being. Carolyn pushes for a straight answer. Lee stammers all over it.

Tarek says he’d fire Charmaine, no doubt. Charmaine says she has never been to the boardroom. Tarek says she’s incapable of running anything. They bicker back and forth. He says she’s the most negative person. Trump disagrees. Tarek calls her a whiner and a nagger. Michael disagrees. Tarek says Michael doesn’t know any better, since he’s relatively new to the team. Trump doesn’t think she’s negative. She’s attractive. Trump makes me sick sometimes. What does the fact that Charmaine is pretty have to do with anything? The team lost, Trump says, because of bad decisions and bad leadership. Chamaine can’t control the “maniac” Tarek. Trump brings up Mensa again. Is Tarek a genius or not? Oh, get off it already! A leader must be able to control the team, and Charmaine failed to do so. Charmaine is fired.

Everyone starts to leave, but not so fast! Trump says that Tarek is “impossible to lead.” Tarek asks for another chance. Trump thinks he’s inconsistent, and is good leader, but a bad follower. He’s impossible to lead, and a great leader must know how to be lead. Tarek is fired.

Trump says it was an obvious choice. Carolyn thinks it could have gone either way. Bill straddles the fence. Trump thinks they’ll fight all the way home. He’s got that one wrong. They have an awkward, silent ride home. It is worth noting that they are both really hot.

I didn’t like the way this episode ended. Charmaine should have been fired, there is no doubt, but not for the reasons Trump listed. She didn’t lose because she couldn’t control Tarek. She lost because she had absolutely no plan, other than putting flyers under the windshields of cars, for getting increased foot traffic in the store. And once people were there, she didn’t make any kind of effort to up sell anyone or to get Michael to do that. Her only plan was the flyers, and that’s a terrible plan. I absolutely hate it when people put flyers on my car, and if I got one, I’d honestly be less likely to go to Hair Cuttery as a result because I’d be so annoyed by it. Instead of focusing on the minutia of where to put the conditioner, Charmaine should have been paying attention to how to increase sales.

As for Tarek, he was going to be fired eventually. Trump has had it in for Tarek for weeks, so it was only a matter of time before he threw that Mensa thing in his face one more time and gave him the boot. But why fire him this week? He did question some of Charmaine’s decisions, but I think he was right. If they gave the event a theme, it might be easier to market it. She could have just said no if she disagreed strongly, since she was in charge. She told him to put flyers on cars, and that’s what he did, just like Lee did. Tarek did spend a lot of time making fun of Charmaine, but so did Lee. The loss was no more his fault than it was Lee’s or Michael’s.

Next week, we’re down to the final six candidates. The task has something to do with college football, so be ready for Trump to ogle cheerleaders.

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

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