The double firing this week didn’t shock me in the least. It was only a matter of time, really. Although both are visually pleasing, Charmaine and Tarek had committed far too many errors to make it past this point in the interview process. In fact, the only thing I found surprising was that these two weren’t let go sooner. How did they mess up? Ah, let me count the ways.
I knew Charmaine wouldn’t be a good project manager for this task. She committed the classic error of assuming that because she’s a woman, she knew how to run a salon. This has happened time and time again on The Apprentice: a player surmises that because they’re younger, older, male, female, cosmopolitan, or bumpkin, they have an automatic advantage on a certain task. Last season, the men’s team got their asses handed to them on the Lamborghini task because they assumed that possession of a Y chromosome was equivalent to stellar car marketing skills. Not. A week later, the women’s team lost the task of educating senior citizens on technology because they got cocky about their status as cute, personable granddaughterly figures.
Even worse than Charmaine’s assumption that she’d rule on this task were the attitudes of Lee and Tarek toward her. Normally, I think Lee is a fair and amicable guy, but when I heard him say, “Three guys taking orders from a lady,” I hoped that his head would explode. Get over yourself, Lee. I can’t blame Lee for not respecting the way Charmaine conducted herself this week, but the fact that she’s a woman shouldn’t be part of the equation.
The fact that she sat down in a salon chair and got her hair flat-ironed, however, should be called into question. When Bill Rancic walked into the salon and saw Charmaine getting her hair done, I knew it was over for her. She reminded me a bit of Raj in season two, who preferred to schmooze with models than help organize a fashion design task. I can’t believe Charmaine had the gall to mix work with play and then pass it off as a necessary experience to better promote the services she was trying to sell. Whatever, Charmaine.
Tarek wasn’t much better, however. Throughout the season, he exhibited this strange penchant for theme-based events. During the GM task in week three, he begged project manager Theresa to thread a theme through the corporate event that they were planning, which she failed to do. Bye-bye, Theresa. This week, Tarek again pleaded with the PM, Charmaine, to wrap the opening of a new Hair Cuttery salon around a central idea. When Charmaine pushed for suggestions, Tarek threw out “Educate Your Hair,” which didn’t go over very well. Tarek then went on the defensive and admitted that he wouldn’t be able to come up with a brilliant idea in just five minutes. So much for those MENSA credentials.
I wonder if Tarek regrets telling Trump and the others about his MENSA status in the first place. Everyone expected him to be this superstar based on the fact that he scored well on an IQ test. When Tarek continued to screw up, the Donald was stunned and continually reminded Tarek that he should have known better, given that he’s a genius. Then again, Tarek often allowed this abuse to continue. He would be defending himself and then El Trumpo would throw the MENSA card into the ring, which immediately shut Tarek down. MENSA doesn’t equal perfect, and Tarek would have been wise to remind everyone of that.
Shifting gears, the Tammy/Sean romance was about as steamy as I expected it to be. They shared a huge on a street corner, fed each other pizza, and talked about how much they liked each other. Woo hoo. Sean’s side commentary about how he and Tammy would probably “have lots of babies” in the future was pretty funny, but entirely tongue-in-cheek. This relationship will have the equivalent shelf life of a seventh grade romance.
Speaking of shelf lives, I’m not so sure that Allie’s is as long as I initially predicted. She wasn’t very popular this week, particularly with Sean and Tammy. However, she did a great job of selling hair care products, which ultimately led to Synergy’s win, so she probably redeemed herself somewhat. Her behavior during the reward of writing a song with Burt Bacharach was hilarious, as was Tammy’s apt description of Allie as a pitbull.
Roxanne managed to stay out of the drama as usual. I’m starting to wonder if she’s more of a power player than she’s led on up to this point. She impressed Trump in the boardroom last week with her speaking abilities and brought home a win as project manager on the cruise line task. I wonder if she’s employing a Kendra-type strategy to hang back and let the knuckleheads eliminate themselves so that she can grab the spotlight in the end.
I don’t think the same can be said for Michael, even though he was the boardroom darling this week. I would agree with Tarek that his heartfelt statements were a tad dramatic, but they were also very true. On the other hand, Michael hasn’t gained the respect of anyone, except for maybe Charmaine, who is no longer around to gun for him. His days are most definitely numbered, and I will so miss his fetching cheekbones and earnest manner.
The previews for next week suggest that the final six will be split into boys against girls teams, which should be fun to watch. Sean and Lee have not had a chance to work together yet and I’m eager to see how they interact, particularly with detail-oriented Michael at their sides. If they lose, Sean and Lee would most certainly go after Michael, whom Sean previously described as a wanker. On the women’s side, I would imagine that Tammy and Roxanne will get frustrated dealing with Allie and try to bring her down if they lose. So no matter who wins or loses next week, it should make for a fun, ferocious final boardroom.
