"Runaway Pride" - November
11 During the
season, we have seen people who have wanted - bordering
on demanded - the role of project manager. For Andy,
Kelly and Sandy, it went very well. For Bradford, Pamela
and Elizabeth...not so much. Now Chris, thanks to his
whining about his team, gets his shot as The Donald
self-appoints him manager. Can he join the ranks of the
successful - or the dearly departed?
We start this episode as the aforementioned Andy and
Jennifer discuss who Trump is going to get rid of.
Jennifer hopes it's Ivana - but it's Ivana and Andy
actually welcomes her back in with open arms. Jennifer
is upset because Ivana is back, while Ivana is upset
because Chris is heading up the team. Chris explains
what happened on the last episode to everyone, who tell
him to 'put up or shut up' or 'sink or swim'.
Chris admits that he put himself on the chopping block,
and he tells the team that there is nothing personal -
this is business and they all want the same job.
Everyone seems to concur, but Jennifer brings up a good
point - how can they work together when Chris undermined
them on the last episode.
All is not well on Mosaic's side, either. Kelly tells
the group that he feels that he is the best leader and
he wants to lead. Andy, who says that he wants to lead
as well, says that if they don't hand him the PM
position on a silver platter, then they should draw for
it. Andy is still pissed that the group tried to get him
out earlier because of his age - and he may have a
point. It doesn't matter - as Kelly is selected by
random draw and Andy is still seething.
Kelly picks up the phone as the group meets Trump and
the returning George at Tavern on the Green. Trump says
that the thing that differentiates Tavern on the Green
is that they have a wedding here once a week, adding
that he has had experiences with weddings, but hopes
some day to get it right. Heh. The group is told that
they by getting a space, they have to create their own
bridal shop. The teams have to run their own bridal sale
- and the winning team is the one that has generated the
most profit. Trump adds that Sandy, who owns a bridal
shop business, would be in big trouble if their team
loses this task. She agrees, as Kevin's face looks like
it's about to fall to the floor.
Sally is beaming, and so is Kelly - as he was the one
who gets to be the Project Manager. Chris, the PM on the
other team, is already cursing up a storm, but adds that
if they could pull out a victory, it would be huge.
Both teams arrive at their space, with Ivana surprised
at how big it is. Chris's strategy is to get vendors
into the space and sell their product, with them
splitting the product with them as the incentive. That
sounds like a great idea. At Apex, Kelly, Andy and Sandy
go to check out the space, leaving Wes and Maria in
charge of marketing. Sandy tells them to go to
theknot.com to contact potential customers, which is
another smart idea - but of course, Sandy, with her
bridal background, would know this. She tells Wes and
Maria to create an e-mail which they will blast to them.
Andy says that all Kelly had to do was to delegate Sandy
to be in charge - and then ride her to the win. Well,
Andy, good managers know when to lead - and when to
follow and let someone else take the reigns.
Kelly and Wes are happy that they have Sandy, as Wes
wonders how Chris is going to sell a wedding dress. On
that cue, we go over to Chris, who tries unsuccessfully
to cold call people. Ivana wonders how the person who
can 'sell ice to Eskimos' is having problems, yet we see
a montage of him acting borderline rude to his callers,
and we can see why. You can't let negative calls get to
him, but he does, and he takes it out on the same
vendors who he is trying to lure to sell merchandise.
Chris says that it's going to be impossible as everyone
is standing around, watching him implode. Can Trump just
fire him now so I can save myself 40 more minutes of
recapping?
The Trump lesson is 'Believe in Yourself' - if
you don't have a positive attitude, you'll never be
successful. True words - ones that Chris needs to listen
to.
Sandy tells the guys that discontinued dresses are easy
to sell and have a huge margin of profit. They go over
to some bridal salons and ask to sell the discontinued
line - and sell it for them. Sandy - 'How many gowns can
we have?' Vendor - 'How many can you take?' With that
done, they grab a lot of merchandise for almost no
overhead. Well done, Sandy. Andy tries to talk to close
the deal - and they just smile at him as he talks about
cars - to the bridal shower group. They probably know as
much about cars as they do about Advanced Philosophy and
even Carolyn asks him if he's ever tried to sell
anything before. Better to keep your mouth closed when
you don't have anything wise to say, Andy.
While this is going on, Maria and Wes work on the
e-mail. They get a price of $1,000 for the e-mail blast,
well within the budget guidelines. Wes knows that they
are huge with the marketing responsibility, because they
can't sell dresses if no one shows up.
Over at Mosaic, Jennifer suggests that we walk around
and get a game plan going. They split into two groups to
meet vendors, and Ivana tells Chris to keep his head up
and to try to stay positive. Jennifer goes over to the
vendors, and she is trying, but Chris isn't helping her,
and despite him, they get 6 vendors. This Project
Manager who promises to unite the team has done that -
by doing all of the work for him.
Ivana and Kevin meet Bernadette, who talks to them about
inventory. She is very helpful about telling them not
about inventory, but how to advertise it as a one day
sale. They invite her to come over, which she does. They
come to the place - while Chris is still on the floor.
Ivana talks to Bernadette as their Sandy, as she goes
across the store and talks about how to talk to the
customers, adding that they need to be helpful - not
only say that it doesn't fit, but show them something
that does. Now if Bernadette told them about theknot.com...
Speaking of theknot.com, Sandy and Kelly come back to
see that they sent out the letter - and didn't include a
phone number. Oops. Sandy is steamed, and Kelly calls
Maria and tells her. Maria says that she sent it with
the number, and theknot.com 'edited' it out. No one is
buying what she is selling, and Kelly is going to go
right after her if they don't win.
'I don't recommend driving in New York City when Wes is
around.' - that comes from Kelly as Wes bumps and
crashes into a truck. 'Maybe we outsell our competition,
but lose, because we have to pay for damages on the
car'. And damages to the dresses, as they unload the
truck and see everything sprawled out all over the back
of the truck. They quickly fix everything before Sandy
shows up - but Sandy is not happy when they are all
standing there and letting her fix the dresses by
herself. She calls Kelly outside and vents to him as no
one else is doing anything, and she is concerned. She is
also still concerned about the marketing, and they both
have Maria clearly in their sights if this fails.
I guess Bernadette didn't tell the crew about
theknot.com, because at the crack of dawn, Chris's group
is handing out flyers. They think that the flyers will
generate attention, but with camera shots of the flyers
being tossed out and discarded, I am not so sure.
Meanwhile, Kelly and Wes go out to get the rest of the
dresses (hopefully Wes isn't driving), while Sandy, Andy
and Maria check with theknot.com to see if they can get
a resending of the letter with the phone number on it.
They are told that they could - but there is no
guarantee that the target audience will get it on time.
In addition, the representative tells them that they got
approval to send the letter out - from Maria. Sandy is
really steamed at Maria for not taking accountability
and Maria better hope that the address on the e-mail is
good enough for people to locate the area.
Jennifer gives a flier to...George, who isn't amused. He
asks what else they are doing for advertising, and they
say that they have some artists painting the sale on the
windows. They are hoping for traffic, but unless you
have a lot of bridespeople walking across that specific
street, that's not going to help.
Mosaic has no problem getting people. As 5pm rolls
around, there are 40 people waiting on line. Sandy
escorts the women in, while Wes and Andy seell the
dresses. At Apex, Ivana opens the door to....two people.
Unless each woman is representing a football housewives
convention, there is no doubt on who is going to win
this - which is even more evident as Mosaic continues to
get sale after sale. Maria is helping them out as well,
and at last we find something constructive that Maria
can do - sell dresses. Kelly says that this isn't in the
bag at all...
...but the look on everyone's face says that it is -
especially when we get the final results in Trump's
office. Mosaic's total - $12,788.84. Apex's total -
$1,060.47 - from two dresses. Kelly gets the exemption
as all Andy can do is bow his head. He will be much
happier when he gets the reward - a trip to Graff
Jewelers with $50,000 worth of merchandise. In the words
of Aldo - Dammmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnnn.
Back at Apex, Kevin talks about them getting their butts
kicked - and them all wanting the $50,000 that Mosaic is
now spending. Melania, Trump's current fiance, meets
them there, as they stare at all of the jewelry. Sandy
got to try on a 6 million dollar necklace, but Andy buys
a necklace for her mom and Wes buys something for his
wife. Maria, Sandy and Kelly all buy things
for...themselves, though Andy only harps after Kelly.
These guys just don't like each other, do they?
Speaking of not liking each other, Kevin thinks that
Chris should be fired - but says that they should all be
on the block as they lost by 12-fold. Chris says that he
is a fighter, and will go down swinging. The fighters go
into the arena - the Board Room - and prepare for Round
1. Chris says that the team personalities gelled - but
Trump noted that they got hammered. Maria brings up that
Chris gave up, and he did say that it looked bad at the
beginning. He said that the other team had Sandy, but
Carolyn pointed out that they had the same amount of
dresses and skill of Bernadette and wondered why they
didn't use more of her talent and expertise. George was
wondering why the marketing wasn't there and Donald was
wondering why they were putting out flyers at Penn
Station instead of the garment district. 'I don't see
Penn Station as an ideal place for people to talk about
marriage.'
Kevin and Jen both go after Chris, who surprisingly lets
Jen go and brings Ivana and Kevin with him to face the
Donald. Jen turns around and says that Chris should be
fired. OUCH! That can't be too happy for Chris. He's
less happy when Ivana and Kevin go right after him
wondering why he let Jen go and accused him of
protecting her.
In deliberations, Donald says that they were all
terrible and George saw no spark from any of them.
Donald goes after Chris for sending up Jen as well,
accusing her of letting her slip by. Chris says that she
was a good sales person, which had Carolyn counter by
saying that they only sold 2 dresses. Ivana says that he
has a good eye for finding problems - because he's
always complaining. Donald goes after her for the
continuation of the back-handed compliments, asking why
she has to be so mean. Chris points out that she has
been there 5 times and this is the first time that he
has been there, which leads Ivana to complain that she
is always targeted. Kevin is asked who should be fired -
and he says Chris.
Well, that pretty much seals Chris's fate, as Donald
says that this was the only time this week that he saw
any sort of spark. He says that Chris didn't get the job
done in terms of leading the team - and he picked the
wrong people to bring with him, because if Jennifer was
down here, he may have fired her. She isn't - but Chris
is, and therefore, he's fired.
Chris leaves, bringing back up Ivana, Kevin, Jennifer,
and a fractured Mosaic. The ratings are far from
fractured, though, as we see this -
So Far, So Good - Kelly,
Andy, Sandy
So Far, Not So Good - Jennifer M., Wes, Kevin
In Trouble - Maria, Ivana
You're Fired - Chris
Next week - Things get personal, Billy Joel gets loud,
and we are promised another great Board Room. We'll see
in seven days how personal it gets. |