Episode Report Card Miss Alli: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Degradation with a crisp candy shell
By Miss Alli | Season 2 | Episode 13 | Aired on 12.01.2004
He returns to Ivana, asking her whether she would have fired Kelly or Kevin if Kelly weren't exempt. Ivana says that she's worked more with Kevin, so she's seen all of his "leadership qualities," so she would probably fire Kelly. Kevin asks whom he would fire if they were all eligible. Kevin claims it would be "very, very close," but just on the basis of her having lost twice (as PM), he'd fire Ivana. Carolyn asks Ivana what her record is as project manager. "I've suffered two losses with two street tasks," she says. Methinks the woman who just showed her undies for twenty dollars might want to watch the use of phrases like "street tasks," no? As for Kevin, he's 2 and 0. Kelly? He's 3 and 0. Not a great record she has, Ivana would have to admit. They all sit there silently. "Are you three just waiting for someone to be fired, or is anyone going to defend themselves?" Carolyn asks. Ivana gamely jumps in by saying that she thinks all three of them deserve to be in the final four. She says she just has to "put it out there" that they all deserve to be there more than Jen. Carolyn and George simultaneously say that firing Jen isn't one of the choices. Of course, in retrospect, that from Ivana is completely embarrassing, and it makes her look weirdly obsessed with screwing over Jen, but honestly, Trump has done several things this season that were supposedly against the rules. He's accepted somebody giving up the exemption, he's brought the whole team back to the Boardroom to discuss something after they were sent up, he's fired two people at once, and he's fired someone without letting her even take people to the final table and defend herself...it isn't the most absurd notion ever floated that maybe he would buy the idea of bringing the other two women into the Boardroom. I mean, it's crazy, but it's not completely implausible that that might be an available twist.
But what it does in this instance is make her look desperate, especially since, rather than accepting the "no" she gets first, she persists. Because when Trump goes back to her losing record, she goes back to Jen, talking about how Jen has the same crap record. Which is true, and which would be a fair point if she could make it sound like she was saying, "Last Boardroom, Jen was here with a worse record than mine and wasn't fired, so you are looking at more than win-loss record." But instead, it just comes off like whining. They try to tell her to shut up again, and she comes off all squirmy and angry and about-to-yell again. "I am not the only person with this record, is what I'm saying." "How can I choose you over Kevin when you've been losing?" Trump asks her. Ivana goes into a frozen, hands-clenched posture. "I am smarter, I am much more creative..." "How do you know you're smarter?" Trump asks. "He's a smart guy." In response, Kevin rattles off his degrees, which I think is kind of dick, actually, because it probably wasn't necessary for him to do that. ["In theory, it's dick. In practice, don't drop trou on the street and then try to pass yourself off as the brains in the room. Ivana asked for that." -- Sars]
Ivana tries to maneuver some more, but ultimately, Trump says to her, "You agree that Kevin is very good, right?" She just has no idea what to say. She finally breaks into a guilty smile. They agree it's a tough question. And now, Ivana announces that as between Kelly and Kevin, she thinks Kelly is better. Even though she said Kevin before -- you know, before Kevin said he would fire her. Trump now goes back to saying that of course, Kelly or Kevin isn't the choice. Kevin or Ivana is the choice. Ivana tries to say she's proved herself in tasks other than the ones where she was PM.