The Apprentice, Episode 6: For a Good Cause

Trump turns back to the negotiation with Isaac Mizrahi. Carolyn asks Omarosa how to pronounce the designer’s last name. Omarosa gets it right, but Carolyn points out that she learned that lesson too late. Jessie says that she and Omarosa were the two paired to talk to him. Omarosa fixes her best condescending look at Jessie and says, “Weren’t you the lead?” Jessie agrees that she was. Omarosa patronizingly asks Jessie if she wants to take responsibility. Trump can’t believe the way Omarosa is talking to Jessie. How can Jessie like her after she’s talked to that way? And how can Heidi claim to like Omarosa after the worst compliment ever? He says, “Either you’re not telling the truth or you’re not very bright.” He says that Omarosa has been very rude to two people. As expected, those are the two people she chooses to go to the boardroom: Jessie and Heidi.

George says that Omarosa was a good leader, but a bit abrasive. He thinks that her mispronunciation of Mizrahi’s name was a real misfire. Carolyn says that she did not see good leadership from Omarosa that day. By that, I’m guessing she means in the boardroom, rather than at the challenge. Trump says he’s fairly certain of his decision and sends for the candidates.

Trump asks Jessie why she should stay. She says that Trump is choosing someone to represent him, so character should be important. Heidi has great character, and while she likes Omarosa, her character isn’t as good. Heidi is clearly more upset about the “no class” comment than she was before, and admits that she doesn’t personally like Omarosa, but she does respect her. Omarosa tells Trump that he’s looking for leadership, and he can find it in her. Heidi says that she was insulted by Omarosa and would not work for someone who’d talk to her that way.

Trump tells Jessie that she is overly nice “and I don’t love that.” Heidi, on the other hand, is tougher. Omarosa was incredibly rude to them, and Trump doesn’t know how they were able to put up with it and still claim to like her. Trump tells Omarosa, “You are rude. I’ve seen it.” But Jessie’s willingness to put up with it is worse. Jessie sees the writing on the wall and asks Trump if he wants someone like Omarosa running one of his companies. He says, “We’ll see.” Jessie begs, “Please don’t fire me, Mr. Trump.” Trump says that Jessie didn’t stand up for herself. Omarosa’s behavior was “repulsive,” but Jessie was worse for putting up with it. As Trump and Jessie are talking, each time he says something negative about her and it becomes more and more obvious that she is going home, Omarosa allows a smirk to form on her lips before quickly suppressing it so Trump won’t see. But we, the viewers, do. In the end, though, Jessie is fired.

As Jessie leaves, Heidi hugs her goodbye, and unsurprisingly, Omarosa doesn’t. Trump says that he ultimately chose to fire Jessie because she didn’t stand up for herself.

This was a very interesting episode, and I have a lot of thoughts about it. First of all, I can understand why Heidi wasn’t more mad initially at Omarosa’s non-compliment. Heidi had just finished saying that she hadn’t expected much from Omarosa, but that her leadership impressed her. In a way, Omarosa was responding in turn, saying that Heidi’s style is different from her own, but that she ultimately appreciates the results Heidi gets. Omarosa’s word choice was pretty lousy, but Heidi understood what she meant and wasn’t angry. But after Trump pointed out so many times what a lousy “compliment” it was, after Omarosa selected her for the boardroom, and after Heidi had a few quiet minutes to think about it, she was more offended than she had been. I think that’s understandable, too.

Heidi was never a serious candidate for firing this week. Trump’s decision was clearly between Omarosa and Jessie. Did Trump make the right choice? I think he did. Omarosa can be rude, patronizing, and obnoxious. Pronouncing Isaac Mizrahi’s name wrong was a major blunder. Jessie, on the other hand, did a horrible job when she took the lead negotiating with the designer. Even after he told her that she was talking to him like he was a child, she didn’t change her tone. She had no good ideas to offer, and Isaac just looked frustrated. Omarosa’s rudeness was absolutely not a factor in their losing the challenge. We saw no indication that she was anything but professional the entire time. Jessie had an awful exchange with Isaac, but thanks to quick-thinking Troy, they negotiated a donation from him that netted $7,000. Her terrible negotiating skills also didn’t lose the challenge. It’s hard to say why Protégé lost this week. It’s difficult to predict what a crowd at a charity auction will bid on, and both teams had a respectable showing. Trump had to base his decision on something else.

In the end, I think his decision came down to the women’s performance in the boardroom. Omarosa was a raging bitch, but Jessie was a doormat. In business, you can be a raging bitch and still get results for your company. As a doormat, though, you’ll just get stepped on. Trump may very well be planning to fire Omarosa in the near future, but for now, she was a better choice to keep around than the submissive Jessie. Trump’s words in the boardroom should serve as a stern warning to Omarosa to treat her teammates more kindly if she wants to stick around.

Next week, the two teams will be challenged to renovate and rent an apartment. Omarosa gets hurt, claims to be unable to work, and then gets caught playing basketball. An emotional Heidi may be forced out of the game. And Trump has to make his toughest decision yet. Who will it be? We’ll find out next week.

Betsy is the Assistant Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached with any comments at betsyw42@hotmail.com.

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