Now, Trump asks Bren for his position, and Bren can read the writing on the wall about the Michael situation, so he answers what he was actually asked (a novel approach) by saying he would tend to place the responsibility for the loss itself on Danny. He does say, however, that if he could fire anyone at all, it would certainly be Michael, basically for being exactly the dipshit that everyone has been saying he was. Bren thinks that Michael showed a "total lack of integrity by his actions yesterday." Trump pushes on the fact that everyone obviously thinks Michael is a shit, but is Michael the reason why they lost? "Ultimate responsibility should fall on Danny's shoulders," Bren says, giving Trump the point. Trump gives the team a huge opening when he asks them whether they're arguing that Michael was so bad that he "violated a certain trust" and should be fired in spite of the exemption. Erin, not doing too badly except for the hair these days, jumps in and says that Michael violated Trump's trust and everyone else's by slacking off just because he was exempt. "I feel very strongly about this," she says. She strenuously objects!

George now asks Danny why he didn't manage Michael better -- why he didn't basically throw Michael off the task. Which I think Danny would argue he tried to do by reducing Michael's responsibilities and telling him to shut up with the snotty comments. Danny argues, unwisely, that he "handled it like a gentleman." George points out that that isn't the function of a boss on a project, and I could not agree more. Bosses who insist on being polite and not hurting anyone's feelings let the assholes run roughshod over everyone else; that is totally true. ["I would point out, though, that George has asked this before, and it is still not clear to me how a PM is supposed to 'throw' anyone 'off' anything, or why they never tell George they didn't know they could do that. I would like to know the answers, but if we're not going to get them, George should stop posing that as an obvious alternative, and whoa, who's writing this recap? Sorry, going now." -- Sars] Danny claims that he tried to "stay focused on winning the task." Michael, still not knowing when to shut up, claims that Danny was obviously "lost," so how can he be claiming he was focused on winning? Trump asks Danny who he's going to bring to the final table. Danny says that he has a question, and Trump says he knows what it is. And the answer is yes, he can bring someone to the final table who's exempt. But as to whether a person who's exempt can be fired, he's basically not answering. Danny is going to have to decide whether to take that gamble.