Episode 12 - Circus, Circus

Great news for your beloved author. Episode eleven is a clip show called “A Look Back.” I'm going to give it a few minutes of viewing, just to make sure that there is nothing new. It does include “a sneak peek of what's to come,” according to Trump.

The first clip is literally the entire long-form contestant introduction from the first episode. It is completely unedited. This whole episode seems like such a bad attempt to fill an hour of TV airtime. I'm moving on to Episode twelve. This puts me one step closer to finishing this nightmarish task.

This is going to be a turning point for this show. There are only six contestants left. Troy and Kwame are going to have to prove their worth with a win if they want to keep going. So far I'm not sure that either of them really has what it takes to win this show. Sure, Troy has great ideas and has been keeping his teams afloat, but for the most part those teams have been huge underperformers. It wouldn't take much leadership skills to lead the teams he’s been on. Even less proven is Kwame, who has been a real survivor in this contest. He hasn't really done anything of note, and yet he keeps escaping being fired. I'm excited for things to unfold.

First, another team even-out is in the cards. Troy and Kwame pick Bill to join their side.

Trump says that when he built Trump Tower, he wanted to have people come in and, off of their backs, “make lots of money.” So to that end, he built this stupid six-story waterfall in the lobby, apparently. He genuinely seems to believe that the waterfall is the single reason that Trump Tower is on the map as a destination. I would wager that is not correct at all, and would argue that the Trump name is the real and only draw of the tower. 

Today's task is tangentially related to what he is talking about. The contestants are going to go to Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City with Carolyn and Marc, who is filling in for George, and they are going to come up with a promotional idea to bring gamblers into the casino. Their promotions will run from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. the next day.

Amy is managing for VersaCorp. Katrina seems really pissed off at Amy and Nick flirting with each other. She feels like a third wheel.

On Protege's side, Bill says he doesn't think he and Troy have compatible business styles. He doesn’t seem to like Troy at all, actually. I note that Kwame is managing for Protege. Giving him all the responsibility here makes me think that it might finally be his time to fall.

VersaCorp are all sleeping on the bus. Isn't Atlantic City like an hour and a half drive? Didn't these people sleep last night? This is so bizarre. After they show everyone sleeping, Troy makes a comment about how Protege is taking everything more seriously, and how this means they will win. Again, as with most things on this show, the whole bus scene is rigged for drama.

Troy calls the casino “amazing.” Is it Troy? Is it? Didn't it fail like five years after this was filmed?

Marc says that all the customer of a casino wants is to “have a good time.” That and lose custody of the kids. Sorry. Did I mention that I hate casinos?

Bill realizes that in order to pull in the most money and win the contest they are going to need to bring in high-quality players, as opposed to just sheer volume of gamblers.

Amy, Katrina, and Nick are brainstorming in their hotel. Amy's plan is to have a raffle giveaway of a luxury rental car. It seems like that is the idea they will go with.

Troy calls “a carpenter,” and it takes me a full minute to realize he didn't say “Abe Carpenter.” He wants him to build them a wheel, apparently? Ah, it's like a wheel of fortune wheel. Can't you just buy those? Why would you waste time building one? And why is there a carpenter who is taking up residence in the Taj Mahal? This is totally unexplained and baffling to me.

Katrina and Amy go to a Chrysler dealership. Katrina had pre-negotiated a deal, at least she says she did. She wants the Crossfire. She is flirting with “Bob” and it's making Amy unhappy, as it should. Katrina is such a strange person. She's so mad at every misbehavior everyone does, but she's completely eschewing any kind of honest negotiation to just act cute and flirt to get her way. Regardless of ethics, it sounds like the Chrysler dealership is on board.

Troy, Kwame, and Bill are negotiating with a ten year old boy? They say he's in charge of some show at the casino. A tiger show. The something Brothers. I can't make it out. What the fuck is happening?

Troy and Kwame go to his show that evening to learn more about it. They tell Bill that he needs to stay back at work. Bill is initially okay with it, but he gets angrier as the night goes on. It's a two and a half hour show.

Nick and Amy are flirting like crazy. Their suite only has two rooms. Katrina jokes that they should have a room to themselves. But it appears that for tonight, they are sleeping separately.

Black screen moment. “It's Easier To Think Big.” “It's always been easier for me to think big; it was always easier for me to attract the money and the capital than it would be if I did a small job someplace that nobody cared about and nobody wanted to finance. For instance, I'm building a new golf course in Bedminster, NJ. The site covers over five hundred acres, which is huge. When I'm done, it's going to be one of the best golf courses anywhere in the world.”

While he says this in the voice over, he's being filmed walking around the job site. He says such things as “Good smooth stuff, this topsoil is great, good and smooth, okay.” and “People always ask, Trump does he wear a wig? I have my own hair! You see it now in the wind!”

Protege has a line out the door for their wheel idea. One of the positions on the wheel allows you to enter a raffle to win one thousand dollars. It's kind of amazing how stupidly successful this is.

VersaCorp is holding a raffle for the luxury car rental worth three hundred dollars. Three hundred dollars? My dad's car dealership sponsored a contest at the Sands Casino and they gave away a car! Their idea seems to me like it wouldn't have an audience. The wealthy casino patrons wouldn't want to rent a luxury car, since they already probably own one.

VersaCorp recruited models to ask people to fill out raffle tickets. Everyone is very confused as to why they aren't just giving away the car. People are being enticed away from their contest by the wheel contest.

Despite the fact that they seem to clearly be winning, Bill calls VersaCorp “vultures” and tells their models to stay at least fifty feet away from him. VersaCorp continues to encroach on their territory. They steal away their idea to use a PA system and lights. Bill calls it all out war.

VersaCorp is already feeling like they're behind when, all of a sudden, Protege brings in a tiger in a cage! Kwame said it was a “very Donald Trump” thing to do, and he also said it was like they were “dunking on the other team.” It sure does seem like that at first glance. However, Bill is worried about the benefits, thinking it is almost too much. It's keeping people from spending money on the machines. They're instead standing out on the floor gawking at a tiger.

VersaCorp is trying to pounce on this opportunity, getting people to fill out their raffle tickets and go gamble rather than stare at a tiger.

Donald suddenly arrives at the casino. The casino patrons start cheering and shaking his hand. He goes over to Protege's display and makes a shitty speech on their stage. He then goes over to VersaCorp and seems to give them his approval for their volume of players gambling, without thinking about how little money they are making, which is such a Trump move. He's all about show over substance in his real life. Think about how much money he has lost and how many times he's gone bankrupt in his life, and despite all of that he's always building the biggest and most excessive things possible.

Both teams have announced their individual raffle winners. There are so many people in this shitty casino. I really didn't hear who won.

You could say that this whole game was just a ploy to get footage of Trump being cheered by his casino patrons.

VersaCorp brought in one-thousand three hundred and thirty-seven players, Carolyn says. They netted one hundred and five thousand dollars.

Protege brought in seven hundred and seventy-six players. They made one hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars. Marc says that they targeted VIPs and that helped their bottom line a lot.

There is this really long shot of Amy with her head kind of tilted to the side. She looks like she's in complete disbelief. It holds on her, for at least twenty-five seconds, while Trump says “Amy, it finally happened. [totally different voice] I'll see you in the boardroom.” I almost lost it at this terrible production. Seriously, how did this show become a hit?

Protege are getting three-thousand dollars to gamble and they're staying over in one of the penthouse suites tonight. It really is amazing that Kwame holds on!

This penthouse suite is ridiculous. There's like one hundred bottles of liquor and champagne, and also caviar and shrimp. The teammates all have fun at the casino. Bill and Troy bond.

Who is going to get fired? The obvious answer here would be Katrina, since she doesn't bring much to the table other than flirting with everyone and picking fights with her fellow contestants. But I have a feeling that there might not be a happy end to Nick and Amy's budding relationship.

Carolyn says that she doesn't think the three hundred dollar voucher was enough of a draw. Katrina says she agrees. Marc says they didn't think big enough. He compares it to a “flea market.” Katrina then complains about how she wanted to make it a “circus,” I guess because that's bigger than a flea market? Trump says he doesn't care about any of this grandeur, which is totally a lie, but that he does care about their stupid idea to have a rental car instead of just a car. He tries to figure out who between Nick and Amy came up with the idea. Amy says she isn't sure who came up with the idea. Trump calls it terrible.

Nick goes back to the suite. It will be Amy versus Katrina in the boardroom.

In the private meeting, Marc said Katrina was just floating around and he called her attitude blasé. Carolyn said she thinks Amy made some major mistakes. Trump says nothing.

Carolyn comes out hot right out of the gate, when Amy and Katrina return, and asks Amy what Nick did so well that he got to go back upstairs. Amy says on this task, Nick and Katrina performed equally well, but she's going back to previous contests in her mind, and Katrina isn't as strong of a leader as Nick. Katrina says Nick is great, but so is she, and that she hasn't had a fair chance to lead. She talks about how she “pre-negotiated” the car at the dealership. She says Amy strong-armed her into giving up the deal. I still don't know what exactly she pre-negotiated, but whatever. Trump tells her that sometimes you have to push right back, which is actually pretty decent advice.

Amy says that she thought Katrina did do a good job negotiating with her “charm.” Trump catches this and he asks her if she believes in relying on charming men to get deals done. Katrina says she believes in it and that it is fair to men. She says she thinks men use charm too. She then calls out Nick and Amy's relationship and says that's the only reason she's in the boardroom. Trump smiles and turns to Amy. Amy says she did not make this decision based on a personal relationship. Then Katrina reveals her theory that Amy and Nick are playing one another. Amy smiles and says that they probably are. She doesn't seem to care.

I personally think that there's a big mix of emotions and rational thinking going on here. Amy likes to talk about Nick like he's some little boy who has a big crush on her, but clearly she also likes him back. However, both of them are smart enough to know that this is just a little fling and doesn't really mean anything. The question is when each of them are going to pull back and kick the other to the curb. There is a lot of strategy in that timing.

Trump notes that Amy hasn't yet lost, up until now. He also notes that Amy has switched teams twice, solely upon her skill as a leader. At least that's what Trump says. Let's not forget that Nick voted her onto his team once probably just because he has a crush on her. But anyway, that's apparently all of the rationale he needs to fire Katrina.