We learn first that when Synergy returned to the suite after learning of their win, Allie, Andrea, and Roxanne sat Michael down and told him what a horrible job he had done as Project Manager. Roxanne goes so far as to tell Michael that they should have lost the task; his decision-making skills were so bad. Understandably, Michael feels ganged up on and abandoned by his team.

Lenny’s firing has surprised no one, and Charmaine talks to Lee about what she feels is his poor choice of backing Lenny. She blames it on his age, but Lee defends himself by stressing the importance of loyalty. He maintains that he will always back his friends, even if others may think it’s a mistake. The next morning, the team gets the call to meet Trump at the fountain on Cherry Hill in Central Park.

The Donald drives up to the meeting in his fancy, fancy car. I’m sure there are plenty of people that could tell you lots about this car, but all I can really say is that it was silver, it had those funny doors that open up into the sky, and I’m sure it was very expensive. It impressed the teams, though. Trump tells the teams that Carolyn and George will be with them later (guess the car’s a two-seater). Before he announces the task, Trump announces that Gold Rush is a disaster and points out that they’ve lost the last three. He asks for a volunteer from Synergy to join Gold Rush and hopefully turn things around. It’s no surprise when Michael jumps at the chance.

This week’s task is a promotion for a new sandwich from 7 Eleven called the P’eatzza. :confused: The teams are told to choose a promotional item that will be paired with the sandwich and that the team that increases the sales at their sale by the highest percentage will win. Somehow, this whole thing is tied to a car, but I don’t really catch just what that connection is.

Synergy
First, the members of the team try the P’eatzza sandwiches. The sandwiches are made from two pieces of pizza with sandwich fixings in between. They’re designed to be eaten cold and come with either turkey or roast beef. They claim that they taste wonderful.

Andrea is Project Manager for the second time and she lets us know that if it were up to her, she’d be PM for every task. She ostensibly starts a brainstorming session with her team for what their promotional item should be, but every time someone has an idea, Andrea says that the promo should be hats. The team tries to make the argument that the promo should have some sort of tie to the sandwich, but Andrea makes an executive decision and hats it is. In Andrea’s confessional, she tells us how good her life is because she’s a control freak.

Trump’s Tip of the Week:
Know Your Customer
Trump’s Dad, bless his businessman’s heart, built buildings. He knew how to build the buildings because he would stand outside of buildings and ask people what they thought about buildings. He gave the people what they wanted. How savvy!

Gold Rush
It’s finally Leslie’s turn to be PM, and she starts the team’s brainstorming, but not until Lee points out that he is the exact demographic that they will be targeting. He’s from New York and is familiar with the area around their assigned 7 Eleven. He’s confidant that he knows what the customer will want. Leslie directs her team to start the decision-making with choosing a promotional item and says that they’ll choose a price point after they know what the giveaway is. The team decides on a six-pack cooler, and Charmaine says that because they’re giving away such a quality gift, they’ll be able to price the sandwich higher.

A few of the members of Gold Rush go to the store to see what they have to work with and Lee arranges for the manager to remove all sandwiches but the P’eatzza for the next day.

Synergy
Allie and Sean direct a photo shoot with a race car driver with Sean telling the guy to do things like eat the sandwich in a cheeky way. :smug They’re very excited about their campaign and the slogan chosen by the team, “Tasty food for life in the fast lane.” Later that night, the entire team goes to their assigned store to pass out some flyers and ask people to come back the next day. They price the sandwich at $4.00, which was suggested by Sean.

Gold Rush
Leslie and Tarek work on creating a trivia game that they’ll ask people to play in exchange for a free sandwich. After they get some questions, team Gold Rush assembles to talk about their pricing. Lee suggests $6.99 and says that he talked to one of the store managers about it, but the rest of the team wants to charge more. Lee really argues his point, which Charmaine claims is a tactic that he’ll use later in the boardroom, but the team decides to ignore his suggestion and price the sandwiches at one for $7.99 and two for $8.99.

On the day of the task, Gold Rush sets up their store and takes some trays of samples outside to try to lure customers in. Tarek is out in front trying to get people to play his trivia game, but when he’s completely ignored, he dissembles into yelling that the P’eatzza sandwich will change people’s perceptions of reality. :huh It’s merciful when our attention is shifted to Lee alerting Leslie that two store managers told him that their prices were too high. Leslie and Charmaine respond by asking Lee to leave.

Synergy
Team Synergy starts off their day with plenty of positive energy. They set up their store, and some of them don the hats. Andrea loves the hats. When Carolyn visits, though, she doesn’t understand the connection between the hat and the sandwich and says that the promise of a hat wouldn’t even get her to stop walking and check out the sandwich. The team is enthusiastic, though, and with the exception of Andrea, do a great job of talking to people and at least getting them to slow down and listen to what’s going on.

Gold Rush
Leslie is trying to keep track of everyone, but she can’t find Lee. We find out that he’s outside talking to a businessman and trying to make a deal to sell 1,000 sandwiches. He goes back inside to talk price with Leslie and starts negotiating. After the first phone call, Leslie decides they can go as low as $2.50 each, but the businessman refuses to pay more than $2.00 and the deal falls through. While Lee is trying to broker the deal, George shows up yay! George is back this week! and asks Leslie who set the price (it was a team decision) and whose idea it was to remove the other types of sandwiches (it was Lee).

Boardroom
The teams enter with Synergy still wearing their matching red aprons. What is it with the little outfits this season? Have I just not noticed this before? Trump starts off by asking who liked the P’eatzza and letting us know that George loves it. He also asks if Michael was an asset to his new team and everyone on Gold Rush, Michael included, is happy with him being there. George tells us that Gold Rush had a great promotional item but a price that was kind of high and that they increased sales by 607%. Synergy looks worried as Carolyn starts talking about their significantly lower price but adds that they won the task with a sales increase of 997%. Trump tells Gold Rush that even Michael couldn’t help them and lets Leslie know that she’s a loser. Really, he was harsh.

For their reward, Synergy flies on a private jet to Washington, DC where they get to have breakfast with Senator Chuck Schumer, a friend of Donald Trump’s. It’s Sean’s first trip to DC and he’s overcome with excitement. It’s only been four months since he got his green card and while he’s proud of his British heritage, he’s starting to feel American. The reward portion of the show has now become the showcase of how cute and personable Sean and Allie are! At lunch with the Senator, he gives them his advice, which he calls the Monday Morning Test. Senator Schumer tells them that they should wake up every Monday morning with a feeling of excitement in the pit of their stomach.

Back at the suite, it’s Leslie’s birthday, but in a very sad way. Her cake sits uneaten near their packed suitcases while the team talks about their loss. :cry There really aren’t any fingers pointed and the consensus is that it will do them no good to re-hash things. Overall, the mood is depressing. Curiously, though, Michael says that he would rather lose with Gold Rush than win with Synergy, because at least he fits in. Sounds pretty self-deprecating to me.

In the boardroom, Leslie tells Trump that the reason they lost is simply because they didn’t sell enough. Really, Leslie? She says that Lee was the worst team member because he wasn’t around, he spent a lot of time standing around, and he tried to put together a shady deal. Lee explains the deal to Trump, who got straight to the real reason why they lost – their price point.

Leslie tried to defend their price, saying that it was a team decision, and Charmaine confirmed that she backed it but also said that she supported it because she knew that they could come down if they needed to. So, why didn’t you suggest that when Lee told you about the talk from the store managers? Trump, however, loves Charmaine, telling her how great she is at presenting. Carolyn asks if anyone consulted a store manager about their price, to which Lee responds that he did, but Leslie contends that she believed that their promo item and sales skills would justify the price.

Trump asks Michael who to fire, who says in the nicest way possible that it should be Leslie because she was PM and therefore responsible for the price and the strategies they used. Leslie tries to put some heat on Lee, telling Trump that Lee always contradicts any team decision. She doesn’t get very far with this because the decision he contradicted was the one that caused them to lose. Trump tells Leslie that she can bring one person back, but she should bring back two. Leslie chooses to only bring Lee. As the rest of the team leaves, Charmaine speaks up, telling Trump that Lee never tried to convince Leslie to change the price and that he should be fired.

When Leslie and Lee return, the only thing that’s surprising is that Lee loses a bit of his cool. Leslie defended her decision to bring only Lee, saying that everyone else worked hard. She said that Lee didn’t, and he started a litany of every little thing that he had done. He talked so much that Trump finally told him to give Leslie a chance to speak. When she does, though, it’s to further try to defend the price by saying that she spent an hour researching price points.

Trump wraps up by saying that while price was the most important part of this task, Lee was not showing his full talent at the moment. He supports Lee in his attempt to make the deal, though, saying that it was a situation of “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” He tells Leslie that he feels that she brought Lee in for personal reasons and that Lee was the only one that disagreed with her biggest mistake – the price. Leslie is fired.

After Leslie and Lee leave, Trump says that he’s disappointed that Leslie made a mistake because he really liked her. George disagrees with Trump’s assessment, saying that Leslie lacks the drive and the ability that they need. Gosh, I’m glad to see him back!

In her taxi ride, Leslie talks mostly about her birthday, saying that there’s probably never been another person that was Project Manager, lost a task, and got fired on their birthday. She thinks that she should go buy a lottery ticket. Funny thing is, I couldn’t detect the sarcasm.

I was sooooo glad to see Leslie go !! I got a bit nervous in the boardroom when Lee kept talking and talking and arguing and arguing. I thought they were BOTH going to get fired at one point !! :O
Lee had the right idea and Leslie wouldn't listen. End of story. And for Charmaine to interject one last little dig at Lee before she left, really annoyed me. :suspicious
I sometimes wonder how these people became successful. The most important thing is to remember who you are selling to.
The idea of giving out hats was ridiculous. People wear caps that mean something to them. I can't perceive anyone walking around in a 7/11 cap.
The idea of a trivia contest was also ridiculous. They are in NYC where it's RUSH RUSH RUSH !! It's hard enough to get someone to LOOK at you , let alone stop and play a trivia game.

Bottom line, Lee was right, Leslie was wrong and I was elated to see her get the boot !! :D

Nice recap jlyl !! :)

Great recap jlyl! Thank God because the TiVo and I were enjoying the Country Music Video awards too much to realize there were back-to-back episodes.

I still think Trump is a tool!

Thanks, girls - I'm glad you liked it! Luckily I have The Apprentice set as my number one season pass, or I probably would've missed it too!