Second 1/2 - May the Best Man Win

A quick recap - in the first 1/2 of this episode both Nick & Amy got fired. So as we rejoin the happy crew of The Apprentice we have 1/2 of an episode remaining and no one else will get fired. But this is where the game gets tough.

Executives & their Challenges:
Bill & Kwame were each given a major event to manage and oversee

Kwame - the Jessica Simpson concert at Trump Taj Mahal Jessica Simpson Dossier

Bill - the Chrysler Trump Golf Tournament at Trump National Golf Club - Golf Tournament Dossier

Teams:
Teams were made up of the last 6 candidates fired. Bill & Kwame alternated in picking team members to manage for this challenge:
Bill’s Team

Troy

Omarosa

Heidi
Bill's success will be measured on his team's
overall success in managing all aspects of this project: sponsor and charity relationships, event staff, logistics, transportation, celebrity attendance, awards dinner and overall guest experience.

Kwame’s Team

Troy

Omarosa

Heidi
Kwame's success will be measured on his team's
overall success in managing all aspects of this project: logistics, budget, talent, meet & greet, the ability to raise exposure for Jessica Simpson's charity: Operation Smile.

Summary:

Note: this is the first challenge where the measurement of success is not quantitative.

Teams were sent out separately from their leader this time. Giving Bill & Kwame a little time for private preplanning of their strategies.

Roles were assigned and the balls started rolling.

Bill & his team headed over to the Golf Club where Bill delegated the tasks: Amy – Trump liaison; Katrina – gift baskets; Nick – cars & signage.

Katrina stored all the gear for the gift baskets in a show home on the property without asking permission. So the gear was all moved into the office they were using. The Director of Sales & Events' office.

That's pretty much it for Bill's team on this episode… they pissed off the Director of Sales & Events.

Kwame delegated tasks early: Heidi – meet & greet; Troy – promotion; Omarosa – logistics.

Over dinner the first night, Omarosa ended up on the phone with Diane, the Entertainment Coordinator of the Taj Mahal, who asked Omarosa to ensure all the travel details were correct. They weren't.

You can see the blow by blow she-said-she-said silliness at NBC's Official Site.

That's pretty much it for Kwame's team on this episode… they pissed off the Entertainment Coordinator, and Omarosa lost the star of their concert and lied to her team

Bill’s Team gossip:

It was interesting that Bill selected Katrina second since she aggressively challenged Bill on his leadership style. But perhaps the devil you know…

Nick, Nick, Nick – let’s hope for Bill’s sake that the yawning and comment on being an “employee” were simply for the camera and don’t cause him to check out again.

Amy just looks really disappointed and sad. Let’s hope she can turn it around.

Kwame’s Team gossip:

Kwame, what the hell are you doing????????? Omarosa and Heidi on the same team. Again!?! How can you possibly think that is going to end well? Good selections for loyalty, bad selection for interpersonal relations.

Okay, I’ve held off for 14 episodes… but Omarosa, the camera is ON. You said in an interview you spoke with Diane. You aren’t this dumb. Deniability only works if there is no proof you knew.

Bonus points to Heidi for keeping herself out of the fray and to Troy for stepping in to help fix the problem without involving Jessica’s dad.

The official detailed summary of this episode at NBC's Official Site

So the questions are

what will be the deciding factors in who wins this challenge?

how will their team's performance effect the leaders?

will the team be given a voice in their leader's performance?

will the event's staff be asked their opinion of the performance?

The final question is:
Who's going to get "hired"?

Comments

[Neil Bartlett]

You could almost believe that Omarosa's lying on camera and the whole situation with the gift basket gifts are staged to test the mettle of the final two.

Troy is once again looking good. He tried to push Omarosa on the phone call. Kwame didn't take the hint.

Makes me wonder if Trump might change his mind about Troy and re-hire him!

"You're re-hired"

[christine]

i can not stand omarosa. is she and idiot? how did she get this far in life, by lying? if you can not admit a mistake, you cannot be a leader.

[Laurie]

It should be no surprise to anyone that Omarosa lies, look at what she does for a living - Political Consultant - I think that says it all!!!! I am totally disappointed in Trump's decision to fire Troy - his reasons were baseless - no advanced education and a loose cannon? Troy may only have a high school education, but everytime he was the project leader, he lead!! Sometimes having street smarts is better than being book smart! And as far as being a loose cannon - I'll bet Trump was a loose cannon when he was up and coming.

[jtmac]

Kwame's downfall will be his insistence in relying on Omarosa. After she failed him the first time he should have either fired her or given her a menial task with little impact. She is P-O-I-S-O-N!!!

[Paul]

Go Bill! So he's in charge of putting up a building that'll just be getting underway when his year is up? But what an amazing opportunity for him.

And what'll Sam end up doing? Trump will take his money I'm sure, but will it be a meaningful job or something on the sidelines? Maybe Sam'll get to run the golf course?

[Alfredo Ruiz]

The decision to bring back Omarosa, and giving Bill first choice, meant that Kwame was ALWAYS going to end up with Omarosa on his team.

Whether she'd be the last Kwame picked, or the leftover candidate (like Heidi), she'd be on his team anyway.

If Kwame fired her, he'd have been short one hand. However, considering we're talking about Omarosa, that still would have been preferrable. She's not just icompetent, she actively sabotaged every team she was on (including stealing the money from Kristi Frank).

Kwame's problem is that he didn't fire her anyway. If he'd just done that, and pulled to event off, he'd be the apprentice right now.