What Donald Trump says in the last ten seconds of the recap sums everything up nicely: “Women proved that sex sells and easily defeated the men.” Your president, ladies and gentlemen.
I really want to understand why Donald J. Trump, who proclaims that he is a billionaire in this show's opening credit sequence, insists on calling the show's prize a “yuge” salary. It is not. $250,000 is more money than I will ever make, but it's so modest for Trump and billionaires everywhere. It wouldn't even place you in the 1 percent! Pathetic!
The opening credit sequence, at its end, displays the quote “It's nothing personal. It's just business.” It is in black and white, with an image of Trump floating behind the text. I find this to be very confusing. Is Trump being quoted? Is this just something he believes and had the producers type over his image?
I couldn't find a still of the opening credit on Google Images, so this will have to do.
Okay, now that we have the opening bits out of the way, we cut to Troy and Sam going back up to the contestants’ suite. They have to break the news to everyone that David was fired. Sam is sweating for the entire walk back. He is extremely nervous at how close he was to being fired. He has already, in only one episode, made it clear that he would sacrifice anything and everything to work for Donald Trump. He can't believe how close he was to being fired. Troy is much more relaxed. I think we'll be seeing his calm Texan demeanor for at least a few more episodes. Sam...I'm not so sure. Troy and Sam arrive at the suite and break the news. Many people displayed dismay, but no one seemed to actually like David, so I will assume they were just horrified by the reality that they could be next.
Now we start to get some footage of each team, divided off from one another, discussing strategy for the next challenge even though no one knows what the challenge is yet. It is very clear that Ereka and Omarosa are the rivals of Team Protege. They're both very dramatic and outspoken, so I suppose it makes sense. Also Ereka is probably a racist. I feel safe in saying that the issue of race will be brought up at some point in this episode. Team Protege elects Amy (who?) as their project manager. She immediately has to break up a minor fight between Ereka and Omarosa. Ereka is accusing Omarosa of disrespecting her and talking down to her. Omarosa tells her that she's crazy, and then Ereka pushes her. Amy steps in between and does a decent enough job of talking them down - for now.
Ereka.
A member of VersaCorp is then shown answering a phone call from Trump where he tells them to meet at the Deutsch Agency, an advertising agency in Manhattan. They tell Team Protege the news. At this point, we cut fully to VersaCorp, and they choose Jason as their project manager. He heard they were going to Deutsch and he has advertising experience, so he volunteered. There was very little opposition.
Cut to Donnie Deutsch, Donald Trump and both teams in the Deutsch offices. The office space is definitely a prototype, circa-2004 “open office” concept. It's extremely dated. Also note that Donnie Deutsch is wearing jeans and a tight grey t-shirt. I'm surprised Trump would associate with such a character. “Advertising is a very powerful tool...weapon,” says Trump. A regular Don Draper right here.
I respect the t-shirt and jeans. I really do.
It is announced by Donnie that their task will be to come up with an advertising campaign for “Marquis Jets” and their “Jet Card.” I did some Wikipedia research because I did not understand what this was. It turns out that, if you're rich but not super rich, you can actually rent a private jet by the hour instead of buying one, and there are several companies that cater to this set. One of them is Marquis, and they offer something called a Jet Card. You can prepay a minimum of twenty-five hours of jet time a year if you have this card. In 2012, it cost $119,000 to prepay twenty-five hours of jet time on a modestly sized plane with enough range to go coast-to-coast, according to a random website I found.
A sample Jet Card. Weird that Marquis' stock image is made out to John Waters.
The winning team will go on Trump's private jet from NYC to Boston for a nice dinner. These prizes are weird. The minimum requirement for the advertising campaign is a thirty second advertisement and a magazine ad. The teams have forty-eight hours to complete the task.
Team Protege starts off immediately by calling the president of Marquis. This was foreshadowed by a moment towards the beginning of the episode where Trump, appearing almost nostalgic, says “You always deal with the boss.” I was wondering what that was about. I still don't quite get what he means, but I'm gonna guess that the girls will get extra props for calling the president of the company. Next, they set up some meetings with marketing and begin to draft their advertisements. Omarosa is furious that Amy wanted her to stay and work on the ad. Omarosa wanted to go to the marketing meeting.
Meanwhile, Jason is struggling with maintaining control. Some of VersaCorp wanted to meet with the president, but Jason was not having it. He thought it was a waste of time and resources. He felt the president couldn't give them any ideas, which is probably true. In fact, I'm not even sure I get the point of this whole president thing either, Jason! He's just some big wig who won't even be judging the ads, but I doubt they would emphasize it so much if it weren't important. Jason sends some of the guys out to a photo shoot/film session and keeps about half in the office with him.
Back to Protege. Tammy has the most ridiculous idea: “I wanted to make it a phallic symbol . . . because it's a plane, and if you buy the Marquis Card, you're gonna go up. You're gonna go way up.” All right Dan, you're right, she's hot. Cut to Omarosa calling this idea “disgusting.” Me? I just wanna see these damn commercials.
Well, it looks like the phallic symbol is the print ad, not the commercial. They're taking lots of pictures of women posing with a plane. From the viewer's perspective, it is unclear exactly what they are doing. The show is filmed with a very wide perspective when showing the print ad shoot.
Sam. Freaking Sam. We cut back to the men and Sam is just whining over the phone to Bill, who is out in the field trying to get the photo shoot done. Sam is so nervous. It would likely help if he would just do some work and help his team out. Up to this point he hasn't been shown doing anything except spewing nervous chatter to his teammates. There is some kind of tension building between Sam and Jason. We get a great quote at this point. Says Sam of Jason, “Jason hasn't been our cheerleader.” Jason responds, “If you ask Sam what time it is, he'll tell you how to build a clock.” This is getting good. The men's photo shoot honestly doesn't appear much different than the women's at first glance. I guess we'll have to wait for the finished products.
Pic of Sam ranting about how much he loves Trump and hates Jason. Note that the CC spells Deutsch's name "Donny." I'm still sticking with "Donnie" at this point and don't really feel too bad about it.
We cut back to the men and Sam is sleeping. I'm not kidding. He goes over into the corner and curls up into the fetal position. We are in probably the thirtieth hour of the fourty-eight hour challenge, which is rough for sure, but Sam is certainly the only contestant who is attempting to sleep on the clock. This can't be good for Sam.
The women are almost all ready for the presentation. They all decide to dress up in flight attendant costumes. Awwww yeaaaa. Even Omarosa is all in, which seems strange, but I'll allow it. They present to Donny Deutsch, one of Deutsch's partners, and the senior media director. The print ad with the plane dick says “How do you measure up?” Another one of the angles of the plane dick is going to be used as a direct mailer. They decide to also do a newspaper ad that says, “Can you fit in?” and is a picture of the hole in the back of a jet engine. Yea buddy!! Their print ads shocked and wowed the judges. I didn't get their commercial though. It's just a still image of the jet card that fades away.
No explanation needed, really.
“You've set the women's movement back about seventy years,” jokes Donnie Deutsch.
It's the men's turn, and from the second they enter the conference room they are already fighting. Nick, one of the contestants, puts his foot down and gives everyone a lecture on how to do a proper presentation. I like Nick. The men do a semi-boring print ad with a guy climbing up the stairs to a jet, shaking a flight attendant's hand. The commercial is bizarre. It consists of lots of voice-overs, the pilot of the plane turning around and giving a thumbs-up, and a song that goes, “I Feel Good,” but isn't James Brown. The men then finish the presentation by giving each judge a cigar.
We cut to the judges deliberating, and they all seem to concur that the decision is difficult. They call everyone back in and announce that Team Protege is the winner, again. Cut to the women already headed to the private jet, in a private limo, already getting drunk. Omarosa is still unhappy, and for some goddamn stupid reason, she is not drunk or even drinking.
Jason and Sam continue to fight. Jason got bleeped out. I can't tell what he said.
The restaurant in Boston is called Olive's. [Ethan?]
The show's producers try to emphasize that Team Protege won and VersaCorp lost by cutting between the women eating in the fine restaurant and the men eating in their suite at Trump Tower. The problem here is that both groups are actually eating pretty nice meals. I'm not buying it.
On the way from the restaurant to the Boston airport, which somehow is 3-4 AM (how late are bars open in Boston?), Omarosa keeps trying to sleep and everyone is keeping her awake. They are all drunk and loud. Somehow Omarosa blames Ereka for all of the noise, even though Ereka herself was passed out. They get into yet another fight, and Ereka at one point says Omarosa is “the pot calling the kettle black.” And guess what. Omarosa takes it as a racial comment.
Did I call this, or what? Racial tension is easy money for reality TV producers. I'm pretty sure that “the pot calling the kettle black” is a common adage and definitively not a racial comment, but I'm also pretty sure that Omarosa is correct in saying Ereka is intimidated by strong women of color. There really is no other way to explain how hysterical she gets around Omarosa. But by the same measure, Omarosa doesn't have to be so rude to Ereka, sinking down to her level when attacked. I will be looking forward to this rivalry in the weeks to come.
Sam keeps whining to Jason back in the suite. He wants to know if Jason will pick him to go to the final three in the boardroom. Jason refuses to answer. Troy tries to calm Sam down by pulling a cowboy hat out of a drawer, putting it on Sam, telling him to close his eyes, and telling him to imagine himself as a cowboy. Okay then.
We go to the boardroom. Trump calls Jason's decision to not call the president of Marquis “terrible,” although this "president" did not see the ad or make any sort of decision on which team won or lost. Jason picks Sam (“easy one”) and Nick to go with him to the final three. The Nick decision is strange. The rest of the men who weren't chosen go back to the suite.
The three of them go out to the lobby, and secretary Robyn lets them back into the boardroom, after Trump discusses the situation with his associates. Carolyn and George both tell Trump that they hate Sam, but Trump seems on the fence.
Whoa this is Secretary Robin. Nice.
Nick, Jason, and Sam walk back in. Nick asks for permission to stand and angrily defends himself. He asks Jason why, if he doesn't deserve the apprenticeship, Jason was willing to delegate so much power to him? Trump seems to really respect the power move and tells Nick that he is safe.
Trump laughs out loud when he hears that Sam curled up in the fetal position. However, after much discussion, Trump thinks that Jason's complete lack of leadership was far worse than Sam's general ineptitude and Jason is FIRED. Bad leader! Sad!
Two episodes down. I'm very surprised that Team Protege has won two weeks in a row. I was expecting a back-and-forth between the two teams. VersaCorp just hasn't shown up in either episode. Between the infighting and the very poor choices of Jason and Troy as Project Manager, it's a struggle for VersaCorp to get anything done. They're going to have to both find a stronger leader and find a way to control Sam if they want to win the next challenge.
Team Protege, meanwhile, is sailing high on their back-to-back wins, getting the awkward apartment visits and uncomfortable private jet rides that they've always dreamt of. I don't see their win streak continuing, however. Sex appeal is what put them over the edge, in both episodes. That's fine in the short term, but I just don't see that lasting. They're going to have to hunker down and make sure their solutions to the challenges presented have more than just shock value if they want to continue their success.
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