With Bret Michaels out of the way, it's all losers now, and it's almost anyone's game, depending on the prejudice of Piers Morgan and Donald Trump. Last week, the celebrities made stupid meatballs, and Omarosa yelled a lot, Trace Adkins played against the system and won, and I didn't get to talk about Bret Michaels's line of pet products for PetSmart nearly enough. Make no mistake, though, Pets still rock.
Brande and La Toya return to the green room, and Brande is greeted with cheers. Everyone was tired of Bret and his diabetes and his bandanas. Brande cites Donald Trump's faith in her as the reason for keeping her, but really it's because he thought Bret was being stupid, and Omarosa edged him out.
Trump, Donald enters the room to tell the celebrities they will get on a private plane to Florida to receive their task at Universal Resort in Florida. Trace Adkins will not be participating in this challenge because he's playing a cruise with Blake Shelton. Bon voyage, Trace. The teams are asked to pick project managers and with so little information, Dee Snider steps up for Plan B. Omarosa decides to be Project Manager for Team Power, to honor her late fiancé Michael Clarke Duncan. I'd heard it before, but every time I remember they were engaged I'm like, "huh?!"
After a brief commercial for the Trump Jet, Donald tells his All-Stars they will be "creating a photo experience." Whatever that means, they will be judged on the creativity for their photo experience and communication of Universal Resort's brand message. Meanwhile, Trace Adkins delivers an astronomical amount of money to the American Red Cross.
So, apparently a "3D, interactive photo experience" is a photo backdrop that people can step into like prom and take pictures in. The executives from Universal Orlando visit Team Power first, requesting that they go out and take pictures of themselves with their guests, experiencing the resort firsthand. That's pretty much it. Omarosa tells the executives that Dennis Rodman has a question when he doesn't. He asks about incorporating celebrities into the ad campaign and they tell them, contradictorily that the characters are the stars.
Over at Plan B, they ask what kinds of pictures they are supposed to take. The executives tell them "memorable experiences." I have no idea what this task is. Team Power comes up with the idea to transition physically between three different "experiences" and most of the team leaves Omarosa and Dennis Rodman in the experience room (I think?) to go take pictures. Now the task is even more unclear.
The three Team Power experiences will be Harry Potter, Despicable Me, and a third to be announced. Over at Plan B, Dee Snider comes up with the idea to have the experience be "celebrity-driven." He wants six cut-outs of the celebrities so people can pose with them. It is a terrible idea. Penn suggests that the photo experience rely on illusions that don't look "photo-shoppy," like floating heads and stuff. It's a better idea.
The fabricators for this challenge also worked on Penn & Teller's Haunted House at the Orlando Resort, so Penn is right at home and should really be the Project Manager on this task. Like, really. Stephen Baldwin worries about time management.
Team Power goes out to take pictures and buy "decorations" for this photo experience. What ... why ...? The best plan, evidently, is no plan.
Penn's idea, which he is taking charge of, is just "floating heads." He starts giving art direction to the fabricators. The rest of the team says they need to go take photographs because ... because it's what they have to do for this. Then Gary Busey tries to figure out how to use a digital camera.
Omarosa tells the fabricators they have "brilliant, innovative ideas," then tells them a vague outline of two ideas. The fabricators look incredulous. Omarosa decides, perhaps on the fly, that the middle experience is a globe with a Spider-Man that the fabricators would have to make.
"You want a three-dimensional figure," the head set guy confirms, "out of ...?" It's clear that Omarosa doesn't care about these peons. Out in the park, the celebrities fight over who gets to take pictures with the minions from Despicable Me. The park visitors enjoy the whole spectacle, and take pictures of all the celebrities with their phones. Gary tells us that "fun" stands for "Finally Understanding Nothing." That is exactly where I'm at with this task.
Team Power reconvenes and they discover Omarosa has chosen Spider-Man as the centerpiece. They didn't know that, so they didn't buy any t-shirts with Spider-Man on them, or props from the gift shop. This is when a phone sponsor would have been very useful. But no one trusts Omarosa to help them, or care about them, particularly the construction crew.
Back from the park, Dee and his team, including a very sweaty Gary Busey, have clearer heads and more novelty hats. Dee opts to nix the magic, floating head idea and go with "celebrity." He wants to print six pictures (cut-outs) very big, using the celebrities, and have people pose in front of those pictures, I guess. I would never, even if I was high at Universal Resort, but this isn't going to be a real thing anyway so what does public opinion matter?
Penn is not a fan of these ideas, and doesn't imagine people will be dying to pose with cut-outs of celebrities dressed as Universal characters, but he's not the Project Manager.
Omarosa, self-proclaimed visionary and leader, sees her three tiny photo spaces coming together and it fills her with so much confidence that she decides to treat the fabricators like absolute garbage. They tell her, as they did from the beginning, that there just isn't a feasible way to make Spider-Man 3D. Omarosa is ready to take these guys to the board room, until she realizes they are not eligible for Donald Trump termination.
"You just don't treat people that way," Brande says. It's nice to see a celebrity with some perspective.
Plan B is still working on what the actual backdrop will look like. Stephen Baldwin says he really likes the simplicity of the cut-outs, and Dee takes it as a manipulative, self-protecting affront. Lisa Rinna doesn't like the non-backdrop, but doesn't have any suggestions.
Team Power arrives at their photo experience, which has moved outside and is un-finished. The globe at the top is just a big white half-circle. Lil' Jon notes that it looks terrible. Half the team has to go to the store to get more Spider-Man stuff, which they didn't get before. Then the fabricators arrive to finish the globe, and Omarosa hangs the name of the resort behind the photo strips, where no one can see it. Also, Spider-Man is only partly three-dimensional, and it's possibly even worse to dabble in multiple dimensions.
Fortunately for Team Power, Plan B's experience looks even worse. It's cut-outs and a big blue background. Who cares. Dee thinks it looks great. Penn notes that it's "surreal" to be standing in front of cardboard cutouts of the exact same live people, in the exact same outfits. He questions the logic and Lisa says, "well, I don't know that there is any."
Team Power starts throwing crap from the Universal gift shop into the three tiny areas. There are far too many Spider-Men in the center area, above which the logo is obstructed. We all start to feel embarrassed for these celebrities, tasked with doing something more than just showing up and being famous. Omarosa decides there's too much crap in the Spider-Man booth. She is right, but La Toya and Brande feel wounded as they stuff Spider-Man gift shop fodder back into bags. Brande thought it would be fun for people to go into the booth and "touch" the jelly Spider-Men. You know, just touchin' stuff for fun.
Over at Plan B, things are really stupid. The celebrities (the real live ones) are taking pictures of guests standing to cut-outs of them. The glare of the sun reflects off the cut-out, it doesn't seem fun or logical. You go to Universal Orlando with hopes of seeing and experiencing real celebrities, not cut-outs of them. No one wants to say "this picture of me standing to a Marilu Henner cut-out was taken by Marilu Henner."
Plan B did come up with a slogan, prominently displayed in the backdrop with the logo: "Family Fun that Lasts Forever!" To give these people what they really came for, Gary Busey starts taking pictures away from or just in front of the photo experience. Then Marilu Henner tells everyone what day of the week they were born on because she has some kind of disorder that makes it impossible for her to forget. That's a thing.
The delightful Trump sons visits Plan B and Don Jr. doesn't seem very impressed. At least they are dressed the same. Over at Team Power, families are trying to fit into spaces about three feet wide, which simply won't work with America's obesity epidemic. To add to the chaos, confusion, and space problems, there's a celebrity in each section, asking people to carry and wear crap from the gift shop.
The Universal executives roll in to Plan B's photo experience, and Gary pounces on them with, "I'm the Cat in the Hat and I love you." There's lots of nodding and smiling. Then all the celebrities get up and take a picture with the executives, in front of cardboard cutouts of themselves. There is no one else around, they could barely find someone to take the picture.
Over at Team Power, the executives arrive to a long line of people waiting to go through the photo experience to see what celebrities await them in each cupboard. They play along, even though that one executive didn't want to be assigned to Slytherin.
In the board room, Dee tells Donald Trump he is very proud of his team and that everyone listened because it's what he knew how to make them do. Marilu disagrees, and notes that Gary is a distraction. Gary disagrees, and says everyone did their best. Penn says he would fire Dee as the Project Manager, and the rest of the team agrees.
Talking to Omarosa, who is confident, it becomes clear that Dennis is her target. She handles Donald Trump's questions so effectively though, she won't have to throw anyone under yet. Brande contends that she likes a more light and fun managerial style, which seemed to almost get her fired in the last task. They talk about Omarosa as a Project Manager, and they all agree that Omarosa is tough and mean and horrid, but probably relatively effective.
The teams look at each other's photo experiences, and determine that celebrities are all awful at coming up with effective, fun photo experiences. Don Jr. notes that while the executives liked the brand messaging from Plan B, the fun would be lost once the celebrities left and people were more interested in taking pictures with the live celebrities than interacting with the photo stage.
Omarosa's team gets docked for covering up "Orlando Resort" with the film strip, but everything else was good. The teams argue about who had the best photo experience, and Dee is holding strongly onto the "use of celebrity." Then, Donald goes off on his hair and tries to get compliments from all the celebrities trying to suck up to him until Dennis Rodman shouts, "can we know who won?"
"Dee, congratulations, you lost," Donald Trump says, delighting in his new fakeout. Omarosa bursts into tears, on behalf of her late fiancé. It is actually kind of endearing. She gets $40,000 for Michael Clarke Duncan's memory.
Team Power goes into the green room and La Toya suggests Omarosa get some tissues. No one believes her emotion, though, since they have been trained to distrust Omarosa inherently.
In the board room, Penn defends some of his ideas that never happened and Donald says he thinks that "woulda been great." Dee says everyone else is intimidated by the magnitude of Penn's ideas. Penn offers that he was supportive as possible and backed down the instant Dee made his decision. He's good. Then, Donald does another fake-out, firing Penn as a joke for not pursuing his ideas.
Dee identifies Gary as his weakest team member, and everyone else argues against that. In the green room, Omarosa says Dee is going after the wrong person. He should be going after Stephen Baldwin, who is kind of dumb. Dee says the two people he would bring back might not be a reflection on this task, which is even worse. He then identifies Stephen Baldwin as an untrustworthy fly in the ointment. He also chooses to take Gary back.
Dee is criticized for the guest experience he didn't provide, and Dee honestly admits that he saw what happened last season when people got fired for not playing Donald's reindeer games. Donald says he doesn't want to fire Dee, but then fires him. Gary and Stephen don't have to say anything. The elevator doors close on Dee, and he doesn't have to deal with this nonsense anymore.
By Carla Patton
Omarosa's team gets docked for covering up "Orlando Resort" with the film strip, but everything else was good. The teams argue about who had the best photo experience, and Dee is holding strongly onto the "use of celebrity." Then, Donald goes off on his hair and tries to get compliments from all the celebrities trying to suck up to him until Dennis Rodman shouts, "can we know who won?"
"Dee, congratulations, you lost," Donald Trump says, delighting in his new fakeout. Omarosa bursts into tears, on behalf of her late fiancé. It is actually kind of endearing. She gets $40,000 for Michael Clarke Duncan's memory.
Team Power goes into the green room and La Toya suggests Omarosa get some tissues. No one believes her emotion, though, since they have been trained to distrust Omarosa inherently.
In the board room, Penn defends some of his ideas that never happened and Donald says he thinks that "woulda been great." Dee says everyone else is intimidated by the magnitude of Penn's ideas. Penn offers that he was supportive as possible and backed down the instant Dee made his decision. He's good. Then, Donald does another fake-out, firing Penn as a joke for not pursuing his ideas.
Dee identifies Gary as his weakest team member, and everyone else argues against that. In the green room, Omarosa says Dee is going after the wrong person. He should be going after Stephen Baldwin, who is kind of dumb. Dee says the two people he would bring back might not be a reflection on this task, which is even worse. He then identifies Stephen Baldwin as an untrustworthy fly in the ointment. He also chooses to take Gary back.
Dee is criticized for the guest experience he didn't provide, and Dee honestly admits that he saw what happened last season when people got fired for not playing Donald's reindeer games. Donald says he doesn't want to fire Dee, but then fires him. Gary and Stephen don't have to say anything. The elevator doors close on Dee, and he doesn't have to deal with this nonsense anymore.
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