JR was Backbone's choice for leader, and from what we saw on the programme I formed the impression that the team were already decided on this, and that their planning starts before they're put on the spot in the boardroom. I liked his quick response to Trump when the latter said he was an odd choice for this task .. and he proved an effective leader. He recognised success would turn on the celebrities calling in favours, before anything else made a phone call and said he would pull in $500,000, and then laid his cards on the table, saying each needed to call on their contacts and he would use their success as the determining factor on who he held responsible in the boardroom. In the event he raised most of Backbone's total to emphasise his reply to Trump .. His "hillbilly" world (dismissed rather rudely by Jose and Hatch in the Camping World task), came through for him just as he forecast and promised, exceeding his target.
A nice irony then that Hatch ended up being fired this week. Jose withdrew early in the task because of his father's failing health, but was given $25,000 for his charity by Trump. It was a warm gesture of Backbone to decide to dedicate one of the hats to him and his family, although to lukewarm agreement from Hatch who later suggested to camera that Jose had used his father's illness as an excuse to avoid the task. Hatch is a rather graceless man who I won't miss. Jose has not been much of an asset, and had expressed his doubts that he could call in anything much by way of favours; well yeah, dish the dirt on all those in the business that's given you "celebrity" status, and when you try tapping into your rolladex you'll reap the whirlwind Jose
However, Hatch's comment was poor form, and as he, too, knew and had said he would not be able to call in much money, imo he had been hoping that should Backbone lose Jose would be the lowest contributor of donations. The removal of this safety net in my view probably motivated the comment and speaks volumes about Hatch's character.
Marlee, too, opened her leadership of the task very clearly, stating she wanted no in-fighting or back-stabbing (and indeed there was less this week), but to have ASAP working as a team. She asked LaToya (who has been wittering on about not being given significant responsibility) to harness her family connections, and to camera said she was in effect calling her bluff. And given the Jackson connection I thought it interesting that LaToya's "to camera" was all about her family being in LA so there was no time for them to send things, missing the point imo this was about calling in the widest level of donation support. JR's "hillybillies" were in Texas after all, and he had immediately pledged to get a huge amount raised. However, her Tshirt was rewarded by one of Marlee's big donors, and praised by Trump .. as I've come to expect. Her hat was always going to be the winner imo. Most of them were not overly inspired
She had the wit to play to the Jackson memory, and the silver glove was brilliant.
Like the first task, this was about raising money and success turned on the celebrities calling in favours. Imo Backbone better organised and executed the actual task of filling and opening their art gallery, but despite JR's massive support and heroic efforts, in the end Marlee managed to pull in an even greater level of support for her charity, and as with the first project, ASAP proved better at pulling in donations. Marlee made it clear throughout that she was focused on donations; JR imo made a better job of organising the task, managing the deadlines, and managing the team, having first harnessed his contributors. But ultimately Marlee's focus on harnessing donations won it for her, so despite the frantic last minute setting up of the gallery, her arguably lesser leadership of the team and task itself was irrelevant; she had access to the widest community of support for her charity, and put her emphasis there, where it would have most effect.
When Trump asked if the leaders might agree to the losing team having their raised money for their nominated charity, JR was quick and first to agree, even though he thought he was winning. Marlee's expectation that despite Jose's leaving, someone should be fired from Backbone was fair ..
Two effective leaders whose style and personalities I liked.
As far as what could become the elephant in the room .. the incident itself has been amply discussed here, Meat has explained it was a last straw event, and doubtless it will be the blog headline the producers wanted and aimed for. I agree with Carole that Trump gave it a rather excessive laundering and tended to speak over Meat. However, I would hope viewers of the series will have been, like me, very impressed by Meat's honesty, decency, openness and heartfelt taking of responsibility and apology in the aftermath; these are qualities which to me are the more important hallmarks of his character, and should also feature in reviews/blogs. In the best possible way, he's an even bigger man in my eyes. It's done and gone. JR managed the situation perfectly, and the team showed their collective closeness and team-spirit.
Meat re-grouped, refocused and made his usual energetic and comitted contribution. I loved his "Butterflies In The Park"
Now we can continue to enjoy watching that focus, drive and determination, and significant contribution to the objectives and motivation of the team he's working with.
Caryl