But second of all, who the hell cares? That has nothing to do with anything, whether you respect her. Why the hell should that do anything to your performance? Are you used to respecting your boss? Because America called, and they'd all like to know what that's like.

Kristi sits with Alla, wondering why Melissa feels the need to creep around and get schemes happening. If only she knew how lame Melissa's "scheme" actually was. "I don't like her!" Um, okay. "No, I mean I don't like her." I understand. "I don't think that you do. I don't like her!" No, I get that. "But just listen!" God.

Alla explains in a measured, wise tone that Kristi has no reason to try to get her allegiances in order, because she has a well-deserved confidence about her abilities, and that Melissa is on the defensive and knows she's probably going down. The thing about Melissa is that she's so messed up inside that she can't hear both voices at the same time, which makes her act nuts, because she's not operating on a level where she can actually get five seconds for introspection and relate to people around her. Her entire life is a fight for survival. Imagine for a second: what if everyone on earth was out for your ass? Don't you feel sorry for her now?

Kristi interviews, and rather cutely: "This isn't Kristi versus Melissa. This is Melissa sucks and she needs to be fired." She clearly very angry at this point, like verge-of-tears angry, but it's diluted somewhat by her being cute as a button.

Capital Edge enters the boardroom -- Melissa's first, of course. Gotta get in there and use her sparkling repartee and clear understanding of the interpersonal psychology of business to save her poor, persecuted ass. Trump asks why they lost, straight up, and Kristi points out that it was only by $11. This isn't the answer, and Marshawn steps in: "Mr. Trump, we lost this task because of marketing." Assuming she was going to be fired, Melissa acts like this is a personal vindication, like they've been in there half an hour. "Thank you. Exactly." Kristi starts to look worried. She should.

Carolyn holds up a crumpled XXX flyer, very Connecticut Slow Burn around the face: "Who came up with this idea?" Melissa points silently to Kristi like this is a fucking cartoon; it is ridiculous and ugly. Kristi explains about the mix-up with the printer, and like I said, I can see where she was going with that. Honestly, it's not really a problem if you view it that way, in my opinion. The Xs become X-treme rather than X-tra Sexy. Now, Ivana would have taken it back to the printer's, that's one good thing you can say about her. Of course, she would have stayed there 'til Tuesday, but she would have redone it. The lack of emphasis and dropped balls on graphic identity and branding always weird me out on this show.