Episode Report Card Miss Alli: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Bitchy, death...it's not an easy choice
By Miss Alli | Season 2 | Episode 11 | Aired on 11.17.2004
As the team waits in the lobby, Trump asks Carolyn what she thinks of Wes as a leader, and she says that he's "very sharp," but he's not a good leader and "can't delegate." Bill agrees that "Wes cannot control the troops." He says that in addition to all of the organizational mishaps, a fight broke out that lasted for half an hour, and Wes didn't put a stop to it. Carolyn adds, though, that Maria doesn't work well with anybody, and Sandy is kind of not doing a whole lot. Bill opines that Sandy is being "underutilized," and then Trump tells Bill that he's also being "underutilized" and should get back to his pretend job in Chicago as the guy "in charge" of that big building. Poor Boyfriend Bill. Will the humiliations never cease?
Robin sends everybody back in. They all sit. Trump asks Maria if Wes is a bad leader. "Definitely," she says. And then he turns to Andy, who we know basically likes Wes. "Wes, lousy leader? Andy?" "Yes. Yes," Andy says, a little sadly, I think. Wes asks to defend himself. "You better start moving quickly," Trump says with a head shake. Wes says he tried several times to speed up the process, and that when he did, Maria yelled in his face and told him to back off. Carolyn seems to be disturbed by this indeed, but tells Wes that anybody who treated her like that would be fired. The thing is that I don't think Wes really had the choice of firing Maria. I guess he could take her off the task, but...still. Bill, more clearly, suggests that in that situation, you at least have to "put her on the bench." Wes says that he wanted to, but he didn't think they could just give up 25 percent of the team. "My major mistake here was giving Maria too much leeway," he says. And pretending to like her jacket, I think.
Trump asks Wes if he would fire Maria. He says he would, because Maria can't be a productive member of a team. And that's certainly true. "Maria," Trump says, "you were difficult to work with, you lashed out at your project manager, which was completely out of line. Wes, you lost control of Maria, and you failed as a leader. You both did a horrible job. Maria, you're fired." Maria looks down at the table. "And I just have to do this; I have no choice. Wes, you're fired also." Maria smirks, because now she feels better. Andy sits with the eyebrows raised, like, "Um." They all get up and leave. Andy and Sandy go up, and Wes and Maria have to share the down elevator. And that, while cruel, is also funny. They stare coldly at each other.
Inside, Trump says it "had to be done," and again, Carolyn thinks it was a "no-brainer." She usually does, of course. They also agree that Andy needs to step up in future weeks, and I don't know that the inclusion of that remark bodes very well for him.