Episode 10 – Wheeling and Dealing

There are seven candidates left. For the most part, the contestants who have been fired in previous weeks have been outcasts, outliers, people who were not compatible with the other contestants, and those who were just flat-out hated by them. I feel as though everyone left gets along fairly well. How is the show going to change as we eliminate the last few contestants? I'd imagine that several of the remaining persons are going to flip on one another. I'm sure that some of what I see as the contestants getting along fairly well is actually just them playing each other.

Troy is very worked up in the suite. He’s worried that Kwame will not return from the boardroom. When Kwame and Heidi come in everyone jumps up and down. Heidi in particular is so smiley. Several contestants tell us how happy they are that Omarosa is gone. Omarosa was kind of insufferable, but still, I will miss her. She gave the show so much drama to work with.

We get a little on-screen adventure as Heidi goes to New Jersey to visit her mom. The doctors are very optimistic. She will make a complete recovery.

This week, the teams learn that they need to report to a stand across from the Plaza Hotel where “there are rickshaws.” I didn't realize New York had rickshaws.

Trump exits a limo and walks over to the teams. He says, “Now, this is going to be interesting today. Transportation in New York City is a basic disaster. Getting around in this city is tough. It doesn't get any tougher anywhere else in the world.” Ever hear of the subway, Donald? It's probably in the top five most comprehensive transportation systems in the world. Not “yuge” enough for you?

After that bloviating, we learn that each team will have the opportunity take over a pedicab company. Yes, apparently there are companies in New York that transport people around in little rickshaws on the back of bicycles. The teams will have eight hours to come up with a business plan to increase their company's revenue. Then they will operate the company for a day. Whoever makes the most money will win.

Kwame, Heidi and Troy are brainstorming in Central Park. Troy wants to sell pre-paid punch cards to potential riders. He figures selling them on multiple rides at a time will give them an edge in a day-long contest. Nobody else on Protege seems to have any good ideas.

Meanwhile, VersaCorp is doing research on the internet. Amy suggests they sell advertising on the back of the rickshaws to raise revenues. They will also have “two beautiful women” driving the rickshaws, according to Bill. This will be Amy and Katrina, from what I can gather. Katrina does not look happy about it.

VersaCorp went to three establishments after hours and got two to sign on for advertisements. The next morning is the day they get to run the pedicab company. I'm not sure how you just instantly print an ad to put on the back of a rickshaw, but I guess it's that TV magic again.

Katrina is very angry at Bill. She thinks that the rest of the team isn't listening to her ideas. So she's decided to stop helping the team. She just sits in the kitchen eating yogurt. Bill seems completely unaware that she was upset.  The primary reason given for her being upset is that he wanted to “use her looks” to sell the rickshaw, which is a valid reason. It was pretty shallow and stupid for Bill to do that.

Black screen moment. Think Outside the Box. For some reason we immediately cut to Trump speaking at a podium in what looks like a retirement home rec center. Over the top of this video clip, Trump says, “Thinking outside of the box is something that is very much a cliché, but if you really want to be successful that's how you're gonna have to do it.” He says things before and after this voiceover, at the speech in the video clip, but it's barely audible. That might be the worst one yet.

Troy and Kwame will offer their drivers a bonus for performance. I'm pretty sure this is exactly what they did in the Planet Hollywood episode. The driver who earns the most money will get a $100 bonus.

VersaCorp's ad-covered rickshaws look like total trash. They've got these weird decals stuck to the cars in every single place possible. They look like they're all about to fall off.

I didn't realize the team members were actually going to be taking part in riding the bikes. I actually respect that though. Could you imagine Omarosa actually riding a bike through the city? No way.

Kwame takes a turn at driving the rickshaw. He can't get any rides. It's kind of sad.

Meanwhile, some of VersaCorp's signs are falling off the pedicabs. I swear that more than one sign fell off, but the team is acting like only one did. That particular client calls Bill, unrelated to the sign falling off, and Bill lets it slip that his ad got damaged. Nick goes off to negotiate with this person.

We're seeing VersaCorp testing out their theory that every man in New York City will want to ride on a pedicab with “two lovely women.” No one does. Even these two wealthy businessmen think it's silly and walk away.

Protege is struggling. Troy says he did the calculations and they've only made $11 so far. Since they are losing, Troy just decides to be goofy and dress up as the “rickshaw cowboy.” Suddenly, with a gimmick, they begin to earn money. But is it too late?

Nick feels bad before he enters his negotiation and decides to simply refund the advertiser his full $250 payment. The rest of the team is very upset because they say he got a full “half-day” of advertising in. I'm with Nick. The sign falling off the car is bad. It would be disingenuous to say that he should get half of his money back because the sign stayed on for half the time. No one wants to pay to associate their name with something shoddy.

Protege sees a Versa Corp rickshaw go by. They are all very jealous of the advertising idea. As Troy puts it, “We were looking up the ass of a dead dog with fleas if we thought we were gonna go up against them.”

VersaCorp counts up their money at the end of the day and they are not optimistic of a victory. They say the margins are extremely low. However, based on how poorly Protege is doing I think they are fine.

The teams enter the boardroom. Trump does his stupid thing he does, every time, where he asks both teams if they think they won.

George says VersaCorp got $651 in cab fares, but they got $3,450 in advertising, mostly from companies they had dealt with before on this show, apparently. Their profit was $3,650 for the day.

Carolyn says Protege got $382 in profit. That is not great. They are screwed. They should have thought “outside the box.”

As their prize, VersaCorp will circumnavigate Manhattan in a private yacht.

Trump says to the three members of Protege, “I may just fire all of you,” which is neither as clever nor as funny as he thinks it is.

VersaCorp goes off on their yacht cruse. I actually think that I took off from this same seaport when I went on a cruise with a Morrissey cover band. Don't ask.

Bill gets a chance to drive the boat for a while. The team goes out on the deck by the Statue of Liberty and has a drink. They also have dinner together inside the boat. There is a lot of good team bonding.

Nick and Amy are once again being cuddly and cute. Katrina has a theory that Nick and Amy are just playing each other. She thinks Nick will win out in the playing. I guess I can't say that I'm surprised they would do that to each other since they are on a reality show, but I still like their relationship. I feel like Nick and Amy are going to be pitted up against each other in the final. It seems like we are being set up for that.

We cut to a very homoerotic exercise montage with Troy and Kwame. I do notice that they have ostracized Heidi. We haven't truly seen much of her this episode. She is very distracted by her mother.

This boardroom meeting should be very interesting. This is the first time that a whole team is entering together. They don't hate each other this time. Troy begins by explaining his pre-paid card idea to Trump. About the advertising idea, Troy says, “Our idea was great. Theirs was brilliant.”

Carolyn asks the team if they agree with her assessment that they put all their eggs in one basket with this single idea, not really being creative.

Heidi says that isn't a fair assessment. Carolyn asks what she has contributed to this particular contest. Heidi has no answer. It comes out that pretty much everything the team did was Troy's idea. Heidi didn't come up with any ideas or really help with anything. Kwame didn't do much, but he was at Troy's side the whole time, assisting him with carrying out his ideas.

Trump asks if anyone drove the rickshaw, so I guess they weren't required to after all. Kwame explains how he tried it out and picked up no fares. Trump characterizes that as a big waste of time. Kwame says no one really did anything wrong. However, he says he would fire Heidi because Troy means so much to the team, even though both did well. Heidi says she would fire Troy because he won't “take accountability” as the PM. That is not true. He's definitely blamed the loss on himself.

Trump has decided to put a new spin on the boardroom antics, since there's only three people left. He's going to allow Troy to give one person a save and send them back to the suite. Troy's obviously going to pick Kwame. And he does. Trump seems so enraged by this because of the fact that Kwame wasted time riding the pedicab. And yet, he is going to have to choose between Troy and Heidi.

During their private discussion, Carolyn brings up the fact that she feels like Heidi hasn't proven herself at all over the last ten weeks. Trump says, “Wow, woman-on-woman, that's some pretty tough stuff.” What a pig.

Back in the boardroom, Trump asks Troy if he thinks Heidi is “good.” Troy responds “she is a good salesperson.” Pressing him, and specifically using the word “leader” in his question, Troy again answers with the word “salesperson.” That is cold, Troy.

Trump then calls on Carolyn, basically asking her to give it to Heidi, which doesn't seem very nice. Carolyn says, “In the time that you've been here, I have yet to see anything out of you.” Heidi gets very defensive. She says she's better than Troy. Trump points out that everyone has said Troy is a good leader, and no one has said that Heidi is a good one.

George interjects, saying that neither of them are ready to be an executive. He says they are both very defensive and this makes them appear as weak leaders.

Trump fires Heidi.