Will this show still be watchable now that Gene Simmons has been fired? Let's find out.
Jennie Finch returns to the suite alone, telling everyone that Trump fired both Gene and Omarosa. They're amazed, but they seem to buy it momentarily. Until Omarosa enters, cackling. Everyone figures that Gene fell on his sword for Nely Galan's sake, especially Nely herself. "I had no idea that he respected me that much," Nely interviews. I really don't think that was it. Lennox Lewis asks Jennie why Gene picked her. Jennie openly admits that she can't compete, and then interviews that this is the first time she's ever been on a team that lost three times in a row.
As last week's winning project manager Tito Ortiz (taking a break from a workout in the gym) greets a couple of representatives from his charity, St. Jude's Research Hospital. One of them is a patient, a tiny little girl named Elizabeth who looks to be about three. Except she's really nine, and has brittle bone disease. Tito gives her the $20,000 check, and in return she hands Tito a painting she did. Tito got rooked.
Somewhere in the Trump Tower, Trump introduces the Apprenti to Ivanka and this week's guest viceroy, promoter Vince McMahon from WWE. He tells them about his history with McMahon -- something about a head-shaving bet that McMahon lost (of course). This week's task is selling tickets to eight Broadway shows. The team that makes the most money wins. So the Project Managers end up being the member from each team with the most Broadway experience: Vincent Pastore for Hydra, because he's going to be in Chicago (the musical, as opposed to in the city of Chicago, about which there's a bit of confusion). Whereas Marilu Henner has been on Broadway six times. Trump tells the contestants that some of the money they raise will go to the Fund for Public Schools, "Broadway's Favorite Charity." And the winning PM's charity gets the rest. Marilu interviews about the importance of getting a win after three straight losses for her team. Trump tells them they'll have two hours, and cuts them loose.
In the Empresario war room, Marilu gets everyone right to work like a well-oiled machine. She wants Omarosa to be her co-negotiator, and Omarosa accepts. Marilu decides to concentrate on four shows she can get cast members from.
Hydra, on the other hand, is already getting bogged down in petty arguments about reading the rules, which quickly escalates into a bigger argument between Stephen and Piers about which of the two of them is the biggest asshole. Trace wins that one, by staying out of it.
Empresario is focusing on four shows: Chicago, Spring Awakening, Hairspray, and Curtains. They're off to negotiate. Meanwhile, Hydra is still trying to get through the reading of the rules. Stephen volunteers to be Vinnie's co-negotiator, but Piers nixes that so he can have Stephen work his high-value contacts. Lennox agrees with Piers, as does everyone else, so Vinnie picks Lennox as his co-negotiator.
Time for negotiation. Vinnie and Lennox meet with Omarosa and Marilu to negotiate which team gets which shows. Vinnie wants to run the meeting, so Omarosa gets all condescending with him, like she does. "Negotiating was like playing Monopoly with three-year-olds," Omarosa interviews. Now that things aren't going the way Vinnie planned, he wants to hurry up and get done. So Omarosa puts him in his place by whispering into Marilu's ear for about ten minutes. Empresario ends up with Spring Awakening, Hairspray, Curtains, and Avenue Q, which is three out of the four they wanted. Nely learns from Gene and gets on the phone, working her contacts and boasting about her network of Latinos and successful women. She's already expecting $7,500 from a real estate company.
Hydra is still fighting, with Piers trying to get everyone to hit up their high-roller contacts and Stephen resisting for no apparent reason. Piers accuses Stephen of sabotaging the task to prove Piers wrong, and calls him a "shallow little man." "Boomerang," Stephen says to Piers, whatever the hell that means. Stephen claims to be as just smart as Piers. Which is just about the meanest thing anybody has said about Piers Morgan. Or possibly anyone.
Hydra splits up: Vinnie, Trace, and Lennox hit the streets, while Piers, Stephen, and Tito hang back to work the phones. Piers gets none other than Richard Branson on the line, and Sir Richard agrees to buy up $10,000 on behalf of Virgin Atlantic. With that little victory under their belt, Piers and Stephen are able to make up.
Out on the street on the way to their ticket booth, Trace offers to use his biggest asset in this task: a phone with which he can call people up. Vinnie in turn compares himself and Trace to Ratzo Rizzo and the Midnight Cowboy walking down the streets of New York. They reach their ticket booth at 42nd Street and 7th Avenue and start setting up. Vinnie reiterates that they've only got two hours.
The whole Empresario team goes to their own ticket booth, which can't be that far away. It's clearly also in or near Times Square, not that we can tell whether the two teams can see each other at any point in the task. Marilu has scored a bunch of swag posters and volunteers from their shows. The clock starts, and cash starts changing hands. A couple of Nely's real estate contacts show up with $2,500. She's got something to prove to Trump. Don't we all, really? Meanwhile, Marilu has wrangled the star of Curtains, Tony award winner David Hyde Pierce, to show up at their booth and stand around in a hoodie and a baseball cap. Which is pretty much all he does. And Carol and Jennie have taken on the shit job of taking cash and selling tickets, like the two of them have been doing all along.
At Hydra, Vinnie talks about "my world," which is where you have the boss and the soldiers, like he's a real mobster. He interviews that he gave his guys jobs: Stephen on the megaphone, and Piers in King Arthur-from-Spamalot chain mail, carrying a stuffed killer rabbit to work on the passersby. Piers seems to find the costume quite liberating, as he gets downright snitty with some pedestrians who walk by without acknowledging him. That's the thing about dressing up as a Monty Python character: you can try to be rude and people will think you're being funny. Usually I find that the opposite is the case. Bob Saget turns up for about five seconds. Or only provides five seconds of usable footage, the potty-mouth. Ivanka also shows up to witness some of Piers's street patter, and he actually gets a sale. Piers flatters himself that Ivanka was kind of into him. Trace also scores $5,000 from an EMI contact, but strikes out with some Austrians. But Piers is doing well with his fellow Brits, who actually recognize him.
On the Empresario side, Omarosa interviews that Jennie is vulnerable, and Jennie in turn interviews about her frustration at being stuck behind the scenes again. Vince McMahon shows up, but he's not too impressed that David Hyde Pierce is just hanging nearby, barely visible, or that the women are bogged down in the mechanics of selling. Nely's friends keep showing up with four-figure offers. But a couple of representatives from a Latina contact of Nely's who's in philanthropy show up without a cashier's check, so Nely sends them to get one, and hurry.
And speaking of the time crunch, there's fifteen minutes left, and the people with the Virgin check are still en route to Hydra's site. Another Virgin rep has gotten there first, and gets the check-bearers on the cell phone to find out exactly how far away they are. They're at 42nd and 3rd, with eight minutes to go. We go to commercial, thinking about how long those east-west blocks are in Manhattan.
With five minutes left, Nely is still awaiting that cashier's check. And at Hydra, a couple of uniformed flight attendants from Virgin show up at Hydra with $10,000, and less than two minutes to spare. But with 1:35 left, Nely forlornly wails to an indifferent city, "Where are my Latinaaaas?"
That night, in the board room, Marilu is confident about having finally won. Vinnie seems less so, although he insists that everyone on the team did a great job. Tito says that Piers did the best job on their team. Trump pretends to not be impressed that Piers called Richard Branson. "Nice guy," he says. Trump asks Marilu which cast members they had, and McMahon complains that David Hyde Pierce was practically hiding during the task. "You guys didn't seem to know how to use your celebrities," he says. "Hm," Marilu agrees. Final results: Empresario raised $31,757. Hydra: $33,300. So that's another humiliating defeat for Empresario. Trump asks Marilu if she's overmatched, and she admits that they are, in terms of star power and contacts. Piers says that wasn't a factor this time. And Omarosa chimes in to say that Piers was dressed as a clown. Piers takes offense, because he's British and probably doesn't appreciate hearing an American refer to King Arthur as a clown. Monty Python can do it, sure, but they're British too. You don't hear Piers putting down George Washington. Vinnie's response is even more heated, giving props to Piers for bringing in high rollers and then "putting on the sandwich board" like Vinnie's own father. Trump asks Empresario why they lost. Nely has to make excuses about her big donor not making it in time. And even though Empresario's big check and Hydra's big check arrived less than five minutes apart, Trump calls it the difference between good planning and bad planning. Indeed, Empresario would have won if Nely's Latinas had made it in time. Vinnie's charity is getting $50,000 for pancreatic cancer research. And that's a fourth loss for Empresario.
Back to the suite for Hydra, where they celebrate a close victory. And in the board room, one of the five remaining Empresario members is about to get fired. Again.
Hydra continues celebrating, as Vinnie asks Stephen, "Who's watching our backs?" They point skyward simultaneously, triggering a witty little harp cue.
Back in the board room, Trump asks Carol why she thinks they lost, and Carol points out that it was really close. As for Marilu, she says the problem with their team is that some of them are taking a back seat, as opposed to the dynamic on the guys' team. Trump asks Omarosa if she thinks they're overmatched. Omarosa won't say that, but Jennie says that the guys are unbelievable, which just makes them even more insufferable, watching this in the suite. As for the question of how Carol ended up in the tent, Omarosa blames Carol for "flying below the radar." Ivanka asks Jennie whether she agrees with that, and Jennie flounders. Omarosa thinks Trump should fire Carol. Carol turns right on Omarosa for bringing everyone down, and they're talking over each other. Nely says that they have great assistants and workers, but not great leaders. Jennie says that she and Carol have consistently filled the assistant role, since there's no room for them in the leadership tier. Nely thinks Marilu should be fired, and shouldn't even have been the PM to begin with, regardless of her Broadway experience. Anyway, it's time for Marilu to pick the two people she's bringing back. And she names Jennie and Carol. The guys in Hydra realize that Marilu's keeping Nely because she needs her to win. And in the lobby, the three women who will return to the board room all complain about Omarosa. So why is Omarosa not going back to the board room, then?
Trump and his viceroys discuss the upcoming firing. McMahon thinks Jennie lacks the competitive killer instinct here, and Ivanka thinks Empresario would be screwed without Marilu. When they come back in, Marilu starts right in making excuses about people with different energy levels, working styles, and amounts of respect for each other. (Omarosa.). Trump asks Marilu why she brought Carol and Jennie, and she basically says that she can afford to lose these two, as opposed to Omarosa and Nely, with whom she works very well. Jennie admits that she feels overwhelmed just being in a room with Omarosa and Nely. Trump is quite understanding when she says she isn't used to it: "Don't get used to it. Stay the way you are. I think you're fantastic. But Jennie, for my purpose, you're fired." He tells Jennie to return to her own world, which is better after all, and win some more Olympics. After the women leave, everyone agrees that Trump made the right call. Try not to faint from shock.
In the limo, Jennie tells us that she hates losing, especially by such a narrow margin. She regrets not getting to show her leadership abilities, but she's looking forward to "getting back on the playing field and training, getting ready and preparing for the Olympics, and being a mom and a wife." Wow, that's a daunting to-do list.