What a difference in the two Apprentices this week!

The Donald's was pretty pedestrian. Clay had it coming for a long time, and he ended up coming up against the two strongest Apprentice candidates, Rebecca and Randal. There was no question that Trump would fire Clay as there was no way in hell he was going to fire either of the other two.

Randal remains my favorite. I think he is, without a doubt, the most intelligent, professional, and capable person on the show.

As for Martha Stewart's Apprentice, way to go, Jim! He actually won me over in this episode. Despite his nuttiness, I think he's proved in past episodes that he performs his tasks competently. In this episode he showed some mercy and integrity.

Marcela and Jim were project managers on opposing teams. The task was to create a retail space and sell Tassimo beverage makers. Ryan and Amanda were on Marcela's team and immediately began to undermine her at every turn. Marcela decided that they should bring in a "celebrity pastry chef" to lure people into the store. Ryan suggested they bring in a television celebrity like Big Pussy. WTF? Big Pussy? On a Martha Stewart task? What an idiot.

Marcela rightly pointed out that it would be impossible to print "Big Pussy" on marketing flyers for the Tassimo machine. Ryan and Amanda were total jerks from that point on. The pastry chef's pastries brought hoards of foot traffic into the store, but Ryan and Amanda hardly tried to sell the beverage makers. It was pathetic. Jim's team kicked their tails.

In the boardroom Ryan and Amanda planned to roll over Marcela and have her booted. Marcela was on the verge of giving up and accepting this fate. And then. . .

Dun dun dun Super Jim to the rescue!

Seeing that people were ganging up on her unfairly, Jim gave Marcela the perfect pep talk. It began something like this:

Jim: They're planning to crucify you?
Marcela: I guess.
Jim: Are you going to let them?

Jim then launched into the case as to why she should not be fired. He laid out every point, and he spurred her on to fight. Once in the boardroom Marcela fought, and Amanda got the boot! Sweet, sweet justice!

Way to go, Jim! Way to go, Marcela!

(Un-way to go for both teams trying to sell the beverage makers well above MSRP. Unsurprisingly this strategy was totally ineffective and wasted a great deal of time.)