by David McAlpine

Last night on The Apprentice, Stephanie and Kelly come back from the boardroom, much to Mahsa's dismay. After they come back and everyone is talking, Brandy tells Mahsa to "shut the f--- up," which pisses Mahsa off and creates tension between the two.

For this week's task, each team must come up with a backer's audition for a new musical: a 15-minute showcase of the musical that would get potential investors interested and excited about buying. Liza and Steuart step up for their teams.

Fortitude's musical is called "Darling," a darker, heavier twist on Peter Pan. While they're meeting with the creator, Liza asks how a musical works, stunning all the women. The room drops dead silent and looks come from around the table. After the meeting, Stephanie makes it clear to everyone that she has a strong background in music. Poppy tries to chime in, too, but Stephanie shuts her down.

The men's musical is "Little Miss Fix It," a story about an 11 year-old girl meeting a 12 year-old impressionist painter and their relationship. Steuart is concerned about managing David, so he makes him order lunch while going through the first run-through. David is increasingly pissed off and thinks Anand, Clint and Steuart are all plotting against him.

Back on the women's team, Liza suggests that Stephanie and Mahsa go do marketing, much to the dislike of Stephanie. Because Stephanie feels the need to talk about how much musical experience she has, she grouses in the car as her and Mahsa go to the printer.

Brandy suggests they have a narrator for their entire audition, which Poppy agrees with. Liza doesn't say much, so they decide to go with it.

On Octane, David starts to take a more active role in the creative process and says there should be no narrator, the characters should speak for themselves. Steuart trusts David and lets him go for it, while Clint and Anand head up the promotional items.

Clint and Anand come up with chalkboard-related posters and a playbill, which both look fantastic. Mahsa and Stephanie create something much simpler and darker, which isn't what Liza wanted. She asks them to revise it, but they don't see too into listening to what she has to say.

When the women get to the theater, Liza is disappointed in the printing, but has not much more to say, because it's time for the presentations to begin.

Octane is up first and you can tell the judges love the structure of the entire presentation. However, at the beginning and the end, Steuart is less than dynamic and noticeably shaky, which turns the judges off.

For Fortitude, Liza is one of the strongest points of the presentation. Instead, they get criticized for their structure, as one of the judges says the narration and music was hard to follow.

In the boardroom, Trump presses the issue of the women's publicity materials, which Liza tries to shift onto Mahsa and Stephanie. Those two try to pin in back on Liza, saying the content was her responsibility.

In a split decision, the men win, leaving the women to go to the boardroom. Mahsa goes on the offense again and Trump calls her out for making everything about her. Liza and Brandy jump on that train and Mahsa even gets called out for her finger pointing. It's almost as if Brandy is basking in Trump's acknowledgment of the problem.

Mahsa brings up the "shut the f--- up" fiasco, which Brandy replies with the accusation that Mahsa told the men's team before last week's boardroom how much the women had made, leading the men to know they had won. Mahsa admits she was wrong, but says Clint told her first, so she opted to share the information.

Upstairs, Clint is watching on the plasma screen and he's pissed, so he comes back into the boardroom. Everyone seems to be on Clint's side of the argument, putting Mahsa in an big spotlight. The tension escalates until Trump points out that it was also disloyal, firing Mahsa on the spot.

Now, Mahsa says The Apprentice has opened several doors for her and she's pursuing a new career opportunity: on-camera hosting.

The Apprentice airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC.

(Photo courtesy of NBC)

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