Sweet dreams are, indeed, made of this

Not that I haven't been enjoying it all season, but Martha's Apprentice is getting really good.

First of all, during a breakfast on her Bedford estate that she prepared for this week's winning team, she asked contestant Marcela if she could have some of her sugar bun. Right off her plate. This is not a prison metaphor. Aren't there enough for everyone? Is Martha so desperately hungry that she must take food from kowtowing underlings? If so, maybe selling just one of your Arabian horses would allow you to put food on your Nyack Conservatory Table. In addition, Marcela is tiny and could have used the extra sustenance she would've taken in had she been permitted to finish her own food.

Second, there's Jim's performance this week. Just when my hatred of him was reaching its zenith, his thoughtful and decent work this week brought my seething anger back to its nadir. I'm sure he'll pick it back up and revert to the a-hole that he is in time for next week's episode, but for now he seems measured, smart -- reasonable, even.

The scene that best illustrated this positive character development was when he calmly responded to Sarah's and Carrie's non-leadership and lack of ideas for how to promote the Tide To Go stain-removing pen by reminding them that they're not focusing on the product at all; are we aware of this? Then, as Carrie was searching for her lost pen instead of leading the team to victory, Jim nicely pointed out that it was behind her ear. He could have stooped very low at this point, telling her something along the lines of, "your pen has been strangled to death in your mess of teased, Aqua-Netted '80s tresses, an apparent suicide because it could no longer countenance being a tool in your boring and worthless accounting 'work'," but no. All niceties from Jim, all the time.

The previews for next week's episode are focused on Jim's status as a loose cannon, going so far as to call him the "male Omorosa." Clearly, his presence is helping the show's ratings -- which is why, I suspect, Martha is keeping him around. So, tune in next week! Will Jim make you want to rip off your own ears and then blind yourself with the remote control? Or will he leave you wondering, "maybe, just maybe, it is conceivable that someone would have married this man?" He had one good week, but my money's still on the former.