The Apprentice, Episode 9: Catty Games

Troy and Heidi commiserate about the fact that neither of them has sold anything yet. Madalyn, the gallery owner, says that they need to have better communication with the artist so that they’ll know what they’re selling. Kwame is still hopeful, saying that they only need a few sales to win.

Omarosa finds a customer and says in an interview that her technique was to allow the patron to “explore the art.” The woman is interested in a photograph of a cat, and Meghan says that she took the picture at a taxidermist’s shop in Paris. The woman buys the picture for $869. Kwame figures they need to sell one or two more pieces to win.

Without further ado, it’s time for the boardroom. Trump asks first who chose the artists. Nick says that he made the decision himself, even though Amy and Bill disagreed with his choice. Trump summarizes, “Nick went against the advice of two people. Did it pay off?” Kwame says that their choice of artist was risky, but they chose her for her high price points. They made the decision as a team, even though they didn’t care for the artist’s work. She had a following, so they thought they could be successful.

Carolyn reports that Versacorp sold eight paintings for a total of $13,600. Protégé only sold one painting at $869. Trump says, “Wow. That is awful.” He says that Versacorp loved the artist they chose, but Protégé didn’t believe in their product, so they couldn’t be successful. As the project manager for the winning team, Nick gets a ten-minute meeting alone with Trump.

Nick meets Trump in his shiny gold apartment. Nick asks Trump what he’s looking for in an apprentice. Trump says that he assumes the person will be smart, but besides that, he’s looking for energy. He says that Nick has energy. Nick asks for a tour of the apartment, and as Trump shows him an array of shiny gold things, Nick asks him if he had a mentor when he first got started. Trump says that his father was an inspiration to him, and shows Nick a framed picture of his parents. From his living room somewhere, Sam pipes up, “His mother Mary Trump and his father Fred Trump!” Trump tells Nick that he’s liked him from the beginning, and thinks that regardless of if he wins the game, he’ll be a success.

Heidi calls her mom to see how she’s doing. She asks if the doctors are optimistic, and wants to make sure her mom has the best doctor. She says that she wants to win the game for her mom, and as a result, she won’t compromise her ethics. Heidi thinks that Kwame will choose her and Troy to go to the boardroom, which makes sense, since Omarosa got their only sale. She also thinks that Kwame might choose her and Omarosa.

Omarosa tells Bill that Troy is trying too hard to talk to everyone. She saw him talking to Heidi, and he and Heidi were never friends. Then she saw him making an effort to talk to Kwame. So, Troy has been talking to the other candidates and is being nice to them? That bastard! And, by the way, since when are Omarosa and Bill friends? She says that in this task, Troy offered nothing. All he did was carry the booze into the gallery and mop it up afterwards. Considering how many times Troy’s incredible salesmanship has meant victory for her team, Omarosa could stand to be a hell of a lot nicer about him. Omarosa says that she, on the other hand, contributed a lot. She was the financial manager and she handled the catering. Wow, so she kept track of their one sale and hired the boneheads who didn’t clear away the nasty dead grape stems. Hire this girl now! Omarosa tells Bill that she knows Kwame won’t take her to the boardroom because she was his artistic advisor, and they lost because they didn’t follow her recommendation.

Heidi jokes that she has to go to the boardroom all the time, just by default, so she’s fine with it. If she were the project manager, she’d nominate herself just to be consistent. Omarosa says that she wants Heidi to go to the boardroom for saying that she’d rather sell Tampax than art. She says that Heidi is the “least classiest” person she’s ever met. I’ll let that one stand on its own. Omarosa tells Bill that she likes Kwame, but if he takes her to the boardroom, she will “eat a brutha up.”

In the boardroom, Trump calls their loss “the worst disaster yet.” He asks Kwame what happened. Kwame says that choosing Meghan was a calculated risk that did not pay off. Three out of four people on the team wanted Meghan, and they thought it would work. Trump learns that Omarosa was the one who wanted Leah, and commends her. Omarosa says that she didn’t think they would succeed with Meghan.

So, Kwame just said that Omarosa recommended that they choose Leah, which wasn’t really the case. She said that she preferred Leah’s art, but thought Meghan was a better choice business-wise. And she said, “Tomorrow, Meghan is the only one that’s going to drive the numbers that we need to win.” So it’s not exactly true that Omarosa advised against Meghan; when she did, she wasn’t exactly forceful about it. I think that Kwame is playing up Omarosa’s objections for a good reason. If he said that everyone agreed to choose Meghan, she’d jump down his throat. Kwame gave Omarosa this little kernel so that if she attacked someone, it would not be him. That was really smart.