Celebrity Apprentice, Episode 5: I Smell A Rat… Or, Is It A Mole?

Over at Hydra, it has been decided to use Lennox Lewis’ image again, because this is a new client and a different market. Again, all team members seem to be contributing, though Baldwin exhibits a tendency to interrupt. The idea of oversized Crocs for Lennox is proposed and adopted. Trace has been placed in charge of directing the booth construction, and after everyone’s input is incorporated, Piers likes what they end up deciding to have built. It’s simple and cheap to make, and the sponsor’s message is clear.

Surprisingly, both teams’ solutions are similar, in that the basic design involves oversized Crocs and showing a team member making a donation of old shoes. Both found a simple slogan to center on.

It’s nice to see some task planning details and the generation of ideas again, isn’t it? That’s been missing a lot this season.

Vinny sees himself as one who is generating a lot of ideas and is starting to resent that Piers made him take on the role of the mole. But it’s time to ratchet up the tension a little.

Vinny and Marilu depart to supervise booth construction for Empresario. There’s a moment when Vinny and Baldwin are alone in the anteroom, and Vinny tosses a note to Baldwin.

Surprisingly, Baldwin decides that this passing of information is cheating and he starts dancing about the note like it’s a maypole. He doesn’t want to pick up the note, so without telling Lennox why he’s required, Baldwin makes him come out of the war room and retrieve a note that was literally less than an inch away from Baldwin’s foot! Fortunately, Lennox collects Vinny’s note before Marilu comes along and further complicates things.

In a Baldwin cameo, Stephen explains that God would not want him to partake in cheating. However, it seems it’s all right if he uses an unwitting Lennox to facilitate cheating. That doesn’t seem to me to be very complimentary toward the boxer, either!

Piers reads the note to Hydra. A visibly upset Baldwin says repeatedly, “This is very wrong!” and in a cameo, tells us he thinks this is cheating. By his body language we can tell Lennox sides with Piers. Piers reveals in a cameo that he sees Baldwin as “unspeakably hypocritical” for suddenly not wanting to read the note. Baldwin’s ensuing cameo expresses his displeasure of Piers and his dark side. Eventually they decide the note doesn’t really matter, because they’re committed to their own concepts anyway.

It’s about this time that Vinny has second/third thoughts of his own. He feels he’s been used, Piers is a $%#^%#, and that “the women need a win” and he’s going to help them get it. During the cab ride he confesses to Marilu that he has been “a rat,” but that it’s over. Marilu doesn’t know what to believe and figures Vinny still thinks he’s on The Sopranos.

For Hydra, Lennox accompanies Trace to get their booth built. At one point Ivanka has come to observe Hydra in their war room. Piers spills the whole Vinny plot to Ivanka. Ivanka laughs and tells them she is “shocked” that the women didn’t see through this. She tells us it’s a ploy from “the Omarosa playbook” and can’t believe that Omarosa bought it. To Baldwin’s amazement, Ivanka also admits she doesn’t mind a little sabotage! Piers knows it was important to get Ivanka onside with the plan now.

As both teams work on their booth construction, Don Junior comes upon Empresario to tell Vinny he’s the ugliest woman he’s ever seen. Ha! Vinny tells him he wants to see the girls win, plus see Piers lose. He insists that in real life, he is not the character “Big Pussy,” but his own man. Remember that for later.

Don Junior asks Vinny if he is being a mole. After confirming that the answer is only for his ears, Vinny tells Don Junior that he really has swapped sides and wants to see Piers fired.

Back with Hydra, Trace admits to Lennox that he didn’t like the spying idea either, but never spoke up. Lennox laughs. Further, Trace says he regrets not speaking up. I find this attack of conscience poorly timed.

Piers say he and Baldwin are very creative together, while usually detesting the sight of each other. Nun-educated, Roman Catholic Piers is particularly annoyed by Baldwin’s preaching and how his religious beliefs are not matching his behavior. He points out that since both have prayed to become the Apprentice, “one of them will be massively mistaken.” Baldwin laughs, as though he’s never considered the idea that those on different sides of a competition have never prayed for the same result before.

For reasons that escape me, Piers and Baldwin call Nely out of her room and unsubtly let her know that they know the Empresario booth design, and then Piers repeats the Empresario slogan several times to her. Baldwin thinks this is hilarious, so I guess he’s okay with the espionage now.

Nely doesn’t see any humor in this at all and gets understandably irate. She and Carol quickly deduce that Vinny is a rat. Piers and Baldwin are laughing in their war room, but Nely thinks Piers is “evil and dark” and feels he will be fired because of it.

Meanwhile, Piers and Baldwin are still enjoying the moment, and Piers calls seeing Nely’s reaction one of the best moments of his life. As a tabloid editor with potentially limited contact with the more important aspects of reality, he just might be right.

Well, it’s all been fun and games to this point, but it’s time for the balloon to burst. Carol calls Marilu to warn her that Vinny might be a mole. Vinny tries to direct Marilu’s responses, but the mole is out of the bag.

Back in the war room, Omarosa hears the news and is stunned and irked that Vinny is a rat. She calls him on the phone to express her displeasure/give him crap. She asks if he betrayed their trust and told Hydra their plans. Omarosa insists on a response… Vinny is a dead fish (again). It comes out that Vinny had told Marilu he spilled some information, but she insists he’s revealing more ugly details now than he did before. Omarosa tells Vinny, “We no longer need your services.” PM Carol backs this up.

The ladies in the war room are upset, but in a few minutes they figure out that they are wasting energy in a non-productive manner. However, back at the construction location, Marilu is still mad and argues further with Vinny. She sends him out to find a cab.