"The Apprentice" Season 10 , Week 5 - Recap Rockport Shoe Fashion Show

Week 5, season 10 of Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" began with Mahsa and Liza's triumphant return to the suite from the boardroom. Some were surprised and disappointed that Mahsa came back instead of Tyana.

I still think Mahsa's days are numbered and was also disappointed that Donald Trump fired Tyana last week on "Celebrity Apprentice."

This week's task on "The Apprentice," season 10 - episode 5
Footwear is a one hundred billion dollar business. This week's task was to work with Rockport to create a fashion show for key industry buyers. The men were tasked with presenting the women's line, while the women had to present a show for the men's Rockport line.

A key change was that Donald Trump's assistants on this task were high profile headhunters. It was really important for the job candidates to shine while completing this task because it offered them exposure for potential future job opportunities.

Wade was supposed to have been the project manager last week, but Clint stepped up to the job. This was Wade's week to demonstrate his skills as project manager. He is rather meek and mild, and I don't think expectations from some of the men, especially Clint and Steuart were very high.

Stephanie was the project manager for the women.

Octane's performance on "The Apprentice," season 10 -, week 5
The men were coming off a couple wins coming into week 5 of "The Apprentice," but were at a huge disadvantage with a weak leader like Wade at the helm of their group. Right away he agreed to let Gene and David, the stand-up comic and teams loose canon, co-emcee. It didn't take long for David to conflict with Gene.

Instead of delegating, Wade let his team choose jobs and walk away from the table doing what they wanted to do. One crucial thing he failed to do was develop a theme for the ladies' Rockport fashion show.

Steurat and Anand were assigned to working with the models and fashion. As Gene put it, that decision was like putting the fox in the hen house. Anand and Steurat had a great appreciation for their personal sense of style and certainly looked forward to shopping with the models. The problem is that they had a difficult time shopping and were constantly distracted by the models.

David worked on his emcee presentation and got it done, but Gene took forever and did not have his shoe details in order. He was not prepared for the show and took the entire team toward a turn for the worst.

The men's fashion show was a mess. Gene mixed up the name of the shoe with the models' names, which was hysterical to watch, but made for a bad fashion show. He also stuttered and stammered his way through the presentation. David did nothing to help. He left the stage and left Gene to struggle through the show on his own. Not a smart move for David.

The men could sense their defeat.

Fortitude's performance on "The Apprentice," season 10, week 5
Through this week Fortitude's performance has been a mess. The women have not formed a cohesive team. They really needed to pull together under Stephanie's leadership and do well on the fashion show for Rockport's shoes.

Stephanie immediately focused the women and began to assign meaningful tasks to everyone, something the women's team was not accustomed to because many of the project manager's had underutilized the talent on their team leading up to this task.

The women decided to take a risk to try and throw the win into their corner by having the men featured in their fashion show come out wearing only underwear and Rockports. It was a very risky move for a buyer's fashion show. It was Kelly's idea and when all of the women bought into it she got very nervous, because if the idea was a failure it would reflect poorly on her in the boardroom.

Liza and Poppy did the shopping for the women much more efficiently than the men's shopping trip, but Poppy only got one pair of boxer briefs. Mahsa and Stephanie wanted 8 men in underwear for the finally, so Brandy ran out and picked up men's boxer briefs for the women's finally, and Stephanie had ammunition to use against Poppy in the boardroom, if necessary.

Kelly did a good job coordinating the models and working with them on their presentation, while Brandy pulled off a beautiful presentation during their Rockport fashion show.

"The Apprentice," season 10, episode 5 - In the Boardroom
Brandy immediately received kudos in the boardroom for her job as emcee. Donald Trump thought that they did a fantastic job. He didn't even interview the men before he dismissed the women from the boardroom. It was obvious that the men lost, and they lost big.

Donald Trump was not happy at all about the men's performance on the Rockport task. His first complaint was the most obvious. The men's emcees, David and Gene, were terrible, but they were not the only men who were grilled by Trump. It was easy to see that Wade was in big trouble for his mismanagement of the task.

Gene and Wade were both fired, and they both deserved it.

This was the best episode of "The Apprentice," season 10 to date. Maybe enough of the poor performers are finally being winnowed away leaving us with people who are actually competent to compete on NBC's "The Apprentice."

Tune into to "The Apprentice" on NBC, Thursday at 10pm ET.

Watch videos of "The Apprentice," season 10 on NBC.com.

More on "The Apprentice," season
"The Apprentice," season 10, week 4 - Going Viral
"The Apprentice," season 10, week 3 - 'Gone to the Dogs'
"The Apprentice," season 10, week 2 - Ice Cream Vending
"The Apprentice," season 10 Season Premier

"The Apprentice" - Meet the Candidates on NBC.com