But let’s start at the beginning. Donald Trump loves art – So, he asked the teams to create their own works of art, whether they be paintings, sculptures or any other form of art, and to sell the art pieces for charity. 

Trump also asked the teams to design and decorate 7 New Era baseball caps with the celebrity making the best design getting a “sizable” donation to his/her charity.

Marlee Matlin was the Project Manager for Team A.S.A.P. and John Rich for Team Backbone. Rich’s motivation to star on the show was to raise a record amount of money for charity and to show Trump “What country boys are capable of and how big our hearts can open up.”

Rich warned his team and gave them a declaration of how things were gonna shake out. He told each of them if they didn’t bring in donations, they would be nailed to the wall. Matlin on the other hand used a gentler approach. She asked her team for help. She said, “We must win this task, we must raise a ‘$!##$#*’ load of money,” at which time her hands were blurted out signing a cuss word. [Side note: Did you know they blurt out fingers when sign cussing takes place on TV? Pretty interesting.] She then told her team, “I don’t want any more fighting, I don’t want any more backstabbing. We are a team.”

Matlin wanted to test LaToya Jackson’s capabilities and allow her to prove herself. So, Matlin called upon Jackson to reach out to her rich and famous family. Jackson told the camera she would not be able to get dollars in time from the west coast to New York in the few hours they had for the task, so, she suggested instead to create paintings which would read “I miss you Michael, I love you, something like that to show the sadness and the sorrow and to touch the hearts of people.”

Jackson also lovingly gave up for charity a special t-shirt she carries with her everywhere: A This Is It shirt signed by her brother Michael of which only two exist in the world. She said “this is what Michael would have wanted.” She continued, “We should be an example of the angel that he is…he is such an angel. Thank you guys.”

Jose Canseco had to leave the task and the show permanently due to an illness in the family. Canseco broke down as he told Trump that this father’s long-term battle with cancer had taken a turn for the worst. When Trump asked him if his dad would be OK, Canseco said, “I don’t think so, I think it’s pretty bad.” Donald bade farewell to the baseball champ and gave his charity B.A.T. which assists minor league players who need medical assistance a gift of $25,000.

Team Backbone decided to create one of the baseball caps in honor and with the name of Canseco’s dad. Richard Hatch, the man serving two separate prison sentences for tax evasion, questioned Canseco’s honesty and motives. He thought since Canseco did not raise much money during the team’s first fundraising task, maybe he had used his dad’s illness as a ploy to leave this task. He questioned, “Would Jose stoop to that level? I don’t know.”

Busey managed to piss off Meat Loaf in the art supply store when he asked Meat Loaf if he was buying art supplies for everyone. Meat Loaf told the camera, “My switch is this close and it’s ugly when I get angry.” Boy, was Meat Loaf under exaggerating his anger potential.

When the men go into their work studio, Meat Loaf could not find some of his art supplies (which were in plain sight in the room by the way). He then inexplicably lost his cool and called Busey a “M*ther f*cker” and lashed out at him saying, “I bought those m*ther f*cking sponges. Part of that paint is mine…I am so sick and tired of …” Meat Loaf then lunged at Busey and Mark McGrath bravely stepped in between an overly irate Meat Loaf and a justifiably befuddled Busey. Meat Loaf kept calling Busey the same MF name over and over again. “You look in my eyes and I am the last person in the f*cking world you ever want to f*ck with. You understand me?” We then luckily cut to commercial break.

After the break, and before any of us viewers could catch our breath, NBC cut right back to the feud between the two celebs. Rich took Busey out of the studio. And McGrath calmed Meat Loaf down and stopped him from “ripping Busey’s head off.” Busey came back in right before Rich found the missing bag with Meat Loaf’s supplies. But did that discovery calm Meat Loaf down and make him apologize? HELL NO. He threw Busey’s spray paint can which he had picked up while Busey was outside back at him and yelled at him to “shut the f*ck up.” Rich gave the team a speech about why they were all there and how the charities needed them, so, the men got back to making art. Once Meat Loaf started painting by bouncing a paint-wetted basketball onto a blank canvas, the men looked like they were back on track.

Somehow, the men managed to complete their work in time and got in their transport van by 3 PM to beat the hellish Friday afternoon New York traffic. Once they got to the gallery, the men finally got into the spirit of the assignment and things started moving more swiftly.

The women were slow on their artwork and kept pushing back their departure time for the gallery. They did not leave until 5 PM on a Friday and got stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Meanwhile, the men finished setting up their gallery and had time to relax, smoke, and chit chat.

NBC cut to Meat Loaf having a sit down with Busey. “I did the wrong thing in yelling at you this morning. It didn’t solve anything and I am so embarrassed by it. And I am so upset by it. Nothing ever gets solved when people do that,” confessed Meat Loaf. All Busey could mutter as he listened mostly quietly is, “I know, I am aware of that.” Meat Loaf then cut him off and said, “I have been beating myself up all day for it….I have to apologize and I am really really sorry.” Busey simply said, “I accept your apology.”

To the cameras, Busey said, “Meat Loaf had a battle going inside him and the best way he knew how to win it is to confront me in a confrontation of death. Beating me senseless, that was his way of confronting his own anger.” Busey then suggested to Meat Loaf to go to anger management and Meat Loaf admitted he already had. The two men then hugged it out. Busey came back to the camera and said, “Meat Loaf excelled to the level of dancing on a rainbow with no fear. And no doubt.” I’m really starting to really like Busey.

Back to the women’s camp. The ladies finally arrived at an empty gallery but their art had yet to arrive. The women started panicking because they could not start raising funds without the art. With only 5 minutes left until the opening, the art arrived and the women went into a mad rush to display everything. The women opened the gallery doors even though they were not done with their displays. But there was hardly a shopper waiting to come in.

The men on the other hand had a gallery full of people and were rolling in the dough! The celebs, other than Hatch, brought out all their very rich and extremely generous friends who ended up buying all the art.

Over time, the women started making more money as they started taking donations over the telephone and as more buyers came in the gallery. The women got three individual donations of $99,000 each over the telephone, one of which was for the sale of MJ’s shirt. They probably would have raised even more money had there not been a limit of $99,000 on credit card sales.

Not to be outdone, Rich sold his Gibson guitar which he hand-rhinestoned and had signed by the entire cast for a whopping $470,000.

Federico Castelluccio, star of The Sopranos, is also an accomplished painter and was asked by The Donald to come and select the winner of the baseball cap competition. Castelluccio chose Jackson’s hat which contained a replica of MJ’s hand as a design. So, Jackson won $25,000 as a result for her charity, AIDS Project Los Angeles.

In the boardroom, Rich said Lil Jon and Meat Loaf were his best artists. Meat Loaf admitted to having lost his temper to Trump. Everyone stood up for Rich’s management style. The women also praised Matlin’s passion and poise. Even Star Jones said, “It was an honor to work with [Matlin].”

When all was said and done, an incredibly-impressive fundraising record was set. In fact, so much money was raised by both teams that before the winner was announced, Trump made this offer: If both teams agreed, the the project manager of the losing team would keep the money he/she had raised for his/her charity instead of winner take all. Both teams agreed instantaneously.

The two teams raised a combined amount of $1,640,000 (including Jackson’s $25,000 prize) which was more money than ever raised in any single season of Celebrity Apprentice. The men raised $626,908 of that amount. But the women did even better if you can believe that! They raised $986,000 and obviously, won the task. Matlin is playing for Starkey Hearing Foundation and Rich for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital both of which will be much more wealthy after this episode. Trump threw in an additional $14,000 of his own money for the winner, making Matlin’s contribution to her charity a cool million.

The Donald then threw another monkey wrench into the game. Because the men had raised so much money, he asked the women to decide if everyone on the men’s team should be safe that week as a prize or if the women wanted Trump to actually fire a man from Backbone. Star Jones tried to whisper into Matlin’s ear and Matlin said, “I’m deaf, Star, I can’t hear!” Matlin then said she wished she wasn’t put in that position but then said she had an idea but asked for 30 seconds to consult with her teammates.

After talking it out, Matlin said, “With all due respect, my heart goes to Jose and his family. And I would do the same exact thing. Now, in terms of the team, which I congratulate them wholeheartedly for raising that much mullah, we have gone through hell with three firings in a row, and it was all business and I suggest you fire someone because it’s all business.”

With that Trump asked Rich who his weakest team player was. Rich said in this task he would have to rank the players by the amount of money each raised. McGrath raised $20,000. Lil Jon $10,000 -15,000. Meat Loaf about $11,000, leaving Rich with having raised most of the money. Hatch raised the least but Trump strangely used Hatch’s four years in jail as an excuse of why Hatch was not able to raise money. Trump asked the women who he should fire and the ones asked named Hatch.

Rich admitted moving forward the weakest link on his team would be Busey because the team will need more focus. The rest of the team agreed and named Busey as well. But Trump stood up for Busey and said, “I love the brilliance…I think Gary is a different kind of a guy. I think he’s very deceptive. I think Gary is really a very solid guy even though sometimes he pretends that he is not.” Busey agreed with Trump,  and called himself, “Secretive and mysterious.” Matlin then stood up for Busey and called him, “Brilliant.” She told the men Busy is “More brilliant than I think any of you realize. He knows how to play the game and you need to look at the bigger picture..he is very passionate. He will fight.” Matlin suggested Hatch be fired.

So, in the end and without warning or asking Rich to leave the boardroom only to come back with his two weakest players, it was Richard Hatch which heard the famous, “You’re fired” words from Trump. Hatch was shocked! “I didn’t get to defend myself! I had a whole list!” No matter Hatch. Goodbye.