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| EPISODE THREE | ||||
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The struggle between the mansion dwelling winners and tent pitching losers continued this week with another twist. When the teams showed up at the Loews Hotel pool in Santa Monica to receive their next assignment, Mr. Trump dismissed victorious Kinetic and ordered Heidi's team to enjoy a day of leisure at the luxurious hotel's spa, including soothing massages, poolside mojitos and relaxing team bonding. For Arrow, however, the struggle between the haves and have-nots took an interesting turn, with the team breaking down into two warring factions. Aaron volunteered to lead one squad (joined by James and Stefani) while unpopular Michelle hesitantly agreed to head the other (which included Tim, Nicole and Frank). After escaping the boardroom the previous week, Michelle said she realized that, "The stakes are higher than they've ever been for me." But her indecisive management style frustrated her teammates from the start of their new task, which was to create and present a new Hollywood-themed excursion for Starline bus tours. Near the beginning of the task, Tim and Michelle scouted out locations for the bus tour. Their time together reinforced Tim's earlier assessment that, "Michelle's just insane…and icy cold." After Michelle wasted nearly the entire day flip-flopping between Hollywood being too seedy and Beverly Hills being too boring, she then asked her team to pull an all-nighter to work on their "A Day in the Life of the Rich and Famous" tour. An exhausted Nicole, usually very poised, lost her cool when Michelle wouldn't let her catch a couple of hours of sleep. The process flowed much better for Aaron's squad. Ball-of-fire James cooked up the idea of using the LA Lakers' sexy Laker Girls cheer squad to help promote the team's "Famous Places, Beautiful Faces" tour. James also did some savvy market research by taking an existing tour and polling users on their likes and dislikes. (His findings: Yes to refreshments; No to lame jokes.) Spirits were high, with James crowing, "We're such a friggin' smart team it drives me nuts." But was his enthusiasm justified, or a dangerous dose of overconfidence? On the morning of the tour, the Laker Girls were indeed a fantastic draw for Aaron's team. Unfortunately, when it came time to give their spiel to the tourists about Tinseltown landmarks and history, James proved to be long on hyped-up emcee energy but short on entertaining info. Seeing that James' impassioned flailing was losing the tourists' interest, Stefani stepped in as lead tour guide and proved to be a superstar. Even Stefani herself was surprised by the fact that she had somehow memorized a guidebook when she began comfortably riffing out Hollywood trivia nuggets like a pro. Afterwards, she was justifiably proud: "I definitely feel like I bailed us out. I bailed James out. Definitely." Meanwhile, the opposition had no such ace in the hole. If the all-night preparations had been part of a bumpy road for Michelle's team, the tour itself was a total breakdown. As tour guide, Michelle talked in circles imparting no real information. But things got worse when Tim took over and frightened tourists with his trivia about John Belushi's speedball O.D. at the Chateau Marmont. Add to that a malfunctioning microphone squealing feedback like a stuck pig and you had a tour that may have been the worst sightseeing tour since Gilligan's Island. In the boardroom, Aaron's team displayed confidence in their leader and in their performance on the task. Meanwhile, Michelle's squad strained to be diplomatic, but it was clear they felt her leadership was sorely lacking. So when Ivanka and Don Jr. reported Aaron's team winning with an 82 percent favorable rating to Michelle's 58 percent, it was no huge surprise. But what followed was clearly a shocker. |
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