Week 9
Posted By Clay Aiken
April 8, 2012 11:00 PM
After last week's drama, it was hard to imagine that this week's episode could rise to the same level of entertainment... but wrong I was!
The show starts off with the "fallout" from the preceding week. Arsenio is still venting about his rift with Aubrey in the Unanimous war room when Lisa walks in and gets upset at him for his name-calling towards Aubrey. It's sorta one of the most ironic moments in my recollection of my time on the show, because almost immediately after yelling at Arsenio for making things personal and calling people names, Lou and Dayana return to the room (allowing us to realize that Dee had been fired). Lisa turned on a dime from chastising Arsenio for name-calling and began right away calling Lou and Dayana "brain-deads" and "losers"... pretty darn funny, if you ask me.
The next day we find out that our task will be to create a commercial for Entertainment.com, the coupon and savings company. When asked for project managers, Unanimous agrees that Teresa may be in the best position to hold the fractious team together. On Forte, before the team can even huddle to decide on the leader, Dayana pipes up and tells Mr. Trump that she will be project manager. This prompts Lisa to give us one of her several gems of the night... "Evita over here decides she is gonna be project manager. Well, I'll cry for you Argentina, because you're gonna lose this task." I'm not sure if that's sorta racist or not, but it was sorta funny.
Aubrey and Arsenio kick-start the task with a "heart to heart" to try to make up from the last week's fight. It's really hard to tell if there is any sincerity from Aubrey during the conversation, but thankfully right after the conversation is over, Aubrey clears up any confusion for us. "Arsenio apologized, but do I like him? No. Will I ever really like him again? Probably not." ...Good to see that conversation worked! :-/ Ha ha.
Over on Forte, Dayana is really taking charge and has decided to show the product as a catalyst moving a relationship forward - using actors to show a couple progressing through their relationship using the savings from the coupons. Dayana certainly is adorable in her interviews, and she really has a grasp on this task. Lisa even chimes in to say that Dayana seems to be a lot more bearable when she is in charge. (I'm not sure if that's because Lisa doesn't wanna piss Dayana off in case they lose and Dayana wants to bring her back to the Boardroom, but if it is... it works for them this week.)
Unanimous decided to use two of the members of the team to portray a father clipping coupons and overhearing something tawdry-sounding in his daughter's bedroom. Using double entendre, we made it seem that something was happening in the room between the daughter and her boyfriend, but when the father busts into the room, he finds that they are just using the Entertainment.com online app.
With Penn gone for the day and Dayana and Lisa clearly in charge of the video shoot, Lou tries desperately to find a purpose for himself. When the task requires fewer hands/minds than are available, sometimes folks get lost. When this happens, in attempts to keep themselves from potentially being fired, the left-out party might end up presenting opinions that really don't fit with the concept or have a place in the project. This happens with Lou. He wasn't really needed for the project, yet he wanted to chime in to feel included and he got ignored. Unfortunately, the one task that Dayana did give to Lou (creating signs and emailing them to the printer), he was unable to do on his own because he wasn't sure of how to use the computer.
Things on Unanimous were far more collegial. Paul had sacrificed himself and allowed us to transform him into a stiff, fatherly figure. It was one of the funniest things I had ever seen. Paul being dressed like a nerd is the equivalent of me being dressed like Marilyn Manson. It's just a complete 180! He was a real sport about it all!
If there was a theme to this episode, it might have been HYPOCRISY!
In addition to Aubrey's feigned attempt at making peace with Arsenio, she also goes after Teresa behind her back in interviews. Though she was supportive of Teresa's directing ability during the shoot, she makes fun of her directing ability in interviews even calling her a "Muppet baby" and saying "people put their hands on her back and tell her what to do and where to go." (Can we talk for a second about how Aubrey is playing for a charity that she says uses her as a spokesperson speaking out against bullying, yet it seems that Aubrey RARELY says anything about anyone else that couldn't be construed as a low blow or bullying itself!?!?!)
Plus... During Forte's editing session, Lou tells Dayana directly that he likes their commercial and that if he didn't love it he would tell her... and then IMMEDIATELY the shot cuts to Lou in interview saying "I didn't like our commercial."
The producers of the show do try to get folks to talk about certain things in these interviews, but they NEVER put words into anyone's mouth. Everyone chooses what to say on his or her own. These two are great examples of why you really have to stay true to what you think and how you feel at all times, because the camera never lies... and if you say one thing at one time and then a different thing later, it will come back to bite you in the butt!
In the Boardroom, the Unanimous team is pretty good at sticking together as a cohesive group and supporting each other.
Forte, on the other hand, has it out for Lou. Dayana stays as classy as possible but admits that Lou is her weak player. Dayana barely needs to say anything because Lisa goes after Lou in her classic Lisa way. When Lou makes a completely classless threat towards Lisa saying "Lisa is lucky she isn't a man because I would throw her through that wall," Lisa responds with the line of the season thus far: "Get ready for an elevator ride, Lou." Ha ha.
When Unanimous wins and Dayana has to choose two people to come back to the Boardroom, I am surprised that she gives Penn a "pass" given that he was absent for so much of the task. But, maybe it was strategic choice. Having Lisa in the Boardroom to support her against Lou was probably a pretty good tactic. I love Lou, but his arguments are barely coherent and really show his desperation to stay in the task. Yet, they don't seem to connect because Mr. Trump doesn't buy them, and he fires Lou. After being fired, Lou makes a desperate plea saying, "Take it back. I don't wanna be fired." I gotta say, it's an interesting tactic, and if Mr. Trump had taken it as determination, I wouldn't have been surprised... But it doesn't work. Lou takes that elevator ride as Lisa predicted!
Next week brings another twist and split that I'm not that happy about! And, if you think you've seen shouting and tears in previous episodes... you ain't seen NOTHING like what happens next week. I think Lisa bursts a blood vessel, and Dayana is even hotter when she cries!!
