The Apprentice: Los Angeles, Episode 5 – A Honey of a Task

Frank says that Surya disappointed them by not coming up with any great marketing plans. He also says Surya didn’t have his own sales station. “So you would fire his ass,” asks Trump, perhaps being sponsored by the Ass Saying Society (ASS), a group that encourages the regular use of the word “ass” in conversation.

Aaron chooses Surya and Nicole to go back to the Boardroom. He doesn’t think Nicole should be fired, but there was no revenue from outside sales. Trump is surprised that he’s picked Nicole. Trump sends them back to their “disgusting tents” and tells Stefani she “better get [her] ass going.” Ass!

The three bring their asses back to the Boardroom. Oops, sorry. Must be contagious. Nicole says she has no idea why she’s back. She worked with Tim, and Trump tells her that Tim is “smitten” with her. He tells her not to break his heart. He then says it’s more interesting than what Aaron’s saying. Maybe it wouldn’t be if Trump would shut up and let Aaron speak.

Surya says that Aaron didn’t sell and was a poor leader. “Other than that, he was excellent,” Trump says sarcastically. Surya says that Aimee has seen him in action and that he’s excellent in marketing. He admits that he prefers working with Kinetic. Trump asks which team is more talented, and Surya wisely tries to avoid answering. Aaron accuses him of not making decisions. Surya turns that right back to him. Aaron tells Surya that he might not throw out a ton of business jargon, but he will make accurate decisions. Surya says he didn’t delegate to everyone. Aaron counters that Surya threw in the towel. Nicole thinks that there was a lack of planning in the task, which is Aaron’s fault. Surya says that Aimee has seen how well he can sell. Aaron says that Aimee hasn’t seen any of the rest of them do anything, so her opinion isn’t fair in this case.

Aimee asks Aaron if he sold at all. He is a salesperson by profession, so Aimee thinks he should have more actively been selling. Aaron says that as Project Manager, there was a lot more he had to do than just sell. Aaron points out that if Aimee wants to argue that if he is a salesperson by profession and should have been selling, Surya should have been doing some amazing marketing. Good point. Aimee says that Project Manager is a tough job, but that he still should have sold better. Aaron says that they lost by $70.

Trump says that Aaron was weak in sales and in the Boardroom. He was too quiet and didn’t want to “impart his knowledge to me if he had any knowledge.” He didn’t show leadership on this task either. Aaron is fired. Surya says he wants to say something else. “Just go,” barks Trump. Surya presses on, saying he’s going to step up next week. Trump has to say ass again, so he tells Surya “You just made it by the skin of your ass anyway.”

Trump says Aaron was a nice guy, but he didn’t see the spark. Sean thinks he was relying too much on the rest of the team. Surya and Nicole walk back to the tents, and Surya is still fuming. He says that Aaron had put him in charge of marketing, he would have ran it. He says the whole thing was just irritating. Nicole agrees. Surya says Aaron kept lying. She pats his arm reassuringly.

”That’s just absurd,” Surya sighs. He walks off muttering that he wants to break something. Meanwhile, in the limo, Aaron says he isn’t the kind of person who wants to be a jerk to the other team. He doesn’t think it’s in your best interest to criticize them because, next week, he predicts, Aimee be on the other side of the table, and that will hurt her.

Did Trump make the right decision here? It seems to me that Aaron was an effective leader. The team was organized going into the store, they had a set price point with a clever buy two get one free gimmick to increase unit sales. They had appealing sample trays and several outstanding sales people on the team. They also worked well as a unit. Just because he’s not barking orders doesn’t mean he’s not leading. But if Trump wants somebody who does that, and who is more assertive in the Boardroom, then Aaron obviously isn’t the right guy for him.

But what about Surya? Near as I can tell, all he contributed to this task was a lot of jargon. He talked about packaging, but we didn’t see any innovations there. They didn’t have signage outside the store like Kinetic did. Surya’s main point seems to be that Aaron never officially put him in charge of marketing. Maybe Aaron should have been more explicit, but if Surya had something to contribute, he should have just done it. Look at Derek on Kinetic. Aimee never told him to put on his beekeeper suit and walk around the store, but he saw an opportunity and he took it, scoring lots of sales and making an impressive contribution to the win. If Surya had skills that would have helped the team, he should have volunteered them.

And let’s not overlook Tim and Nicole. Near as I can tell, they didn’t make a single outside sale, and their being away took manpower away from the store. Was it a waste of time for them to try to sell the honey that way? Were they bad sellers? Did they make a mistake focusing on gas stations and bakeries? Whose idea was it to target those markets? I’d love to hear answers to all of those questions. But instead, we got to listen to Trump saying “ass” a million times.

Next week, the promos promise us lots of drama and tension. Surya is not meshing well with his team, and Kinetic is not exactly in love with Aimee either. But one place where there will be no tension is in who will win the task. We see a clip of Tim and Nicole making out in the hot tub. That must mean that Arrow wins and winds up in the mansion again. Duh, NBC.

Betsy Wasser is the Associate Editor of Reality News Online. You can email her ass at betsywasser@gmail.com

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