None of You Want Me to Lose My Patience

Ryan summed up the entire season of The Apprentice: Martha Stewart when he said, "Don't overestimate Matchstick." They can't succeed at anything, and previews for next week's show indicate that Matchstick as we know it is finished.

This week's task was renovating a room at the Westin Hotel in New York City. The room had to have a distinctive theme that would appeal to guests. Overall, it was a pretty cool assignment--kind of like Trading Spaces, but with a contractor and lots of money.

Primarius quickly decided on entertainment as their theme, installing a bar and entertainment center. They decorated the suite with vases filled with poker chips and candy, all very Martha-esque touches. Primarius secured their win by hiring an interior designer. Project leader Amanda knew that her team couldn't afford to get bogged down in details, so she let the designer make many of the decisions. For this task, the big picture was what mattered.

Leslie volunteered to leave Primarius and lead Matchstick on the task, promptly trapping the team in a 6-hour brainstorming session. They decided on the generic theme F.L.O.W. (For Lesiure Or Work), which is kind of the design concept behind any hotel room, isn't it?

Furniture shopping was completed in the 10 minutes before Crate & Barrel closed for the night, and the team had to paint the rooms themselves because the contractors left at midnight. To top it all off, the couches they ordered never arrived, so there was nowhere to sit. Leave it to the "creative" team to get stuck on the details, develop a boring room concept, and forget to allow time for furniture to be delivered.

Primarius wins consistently by being a team--probably the best team from any edition of The Apprentice. There are disagreements without cattiness. It's very refreshing. Matchstick is a team of individuals more concerned with blaming someone than figuring out how to stop losing. Maybe that's because they're not smart enough to figure out how to win.

In the conference room, Charles said Martha is running out of time and patience for Matchstick. Martha replied in a stern tone, "None of you wants me to lose my patience," the kind of threat you can imagine her making to Alexis as a child. Martha's appealing because she is an idealized wife and mother figure who's also a convicted criminal. She's able to find humor in her humorous situation, which is a rare gift among celebrities. I'm sure Sean Penn didn't find it nearly as funny as I did when his boat sprung a leak during that hurricane rescue mission he took with his personal photographer.

Next week, Matchstick and Primarius will be reshuffled to give the remaining 'Sticks a chance. I understand why this needs to happen, but it is fun to watch one team totally dominate another, as on Survivor: Palau. There's a good chance that Jim will irritate his new teammates, so he may be next to go. They might even consider it a gift to send Jim home to his wife and newborn baby. Not that a guy who leaves his pregnant wife for a chance at fleeting fame on a struggling reality show deserves many gifts.