Jesse is kind of complex. In one way, he did shoot himself in the foot by not calling even one celebrity friend for fundraising for anyone else's charity. It didn't have to be his wife. It would have shown he is connected to
other deep pockets.
Jesse was in Hollywood, before he ever met his wife, with two TV shows, for Monster Cars & one for motorcycles. (In fact, that's how he met Sandra. She bought her godson to his garage to see the cars, because of the show. They had never met before.)
If he had done some hefty fundraising, he would have shown he has quite an ace in his pocket that he wasn't reluctant to use - even if he had no
real intention to ever bring Sandra on the show.
But, in chess game terminology, he never brought his Queen out on the board, or even alluded to doing so. Anyone who plays chess knows it's nearly impossible to win a game if you never bring out the Queen, or bring her out too late and all the other pieces have been played & lost.
When Trump even asked Jesse if he'd be willing to bring his wife on for the Finale, Jesse, himself had such a poker face on, I thought he could have rivaled Annie. If he had even said, "Well, heck, yeah, if that's what it takes to win the task," Trump
may have still picked him over Joan.
Even one small show clip of A-Lister, Sandra Bullock, on
The Celebrity Apprentice, beats out an whole two hours with Joan Rivers any day. And Trump & NBC could have advertised that up the wazoo, in the uncoming previews. "You'll never guess which movie star shows up to support the celebs on
The Celebrity Apprentice!"
But, I do give Jesse quite a lot of credit for not using his wife in that way. Piers & Trump weren't even subtle after a while that Jesse's ultimate value was for his wife. As Piers pointed out, Jesse was seething over the conversation about bringing his wife on.
By the time he had that last final conversation in the Boardroom with Trump asking
again if Jesse would bring on Sandra for the finale, it was the
fourth conversation about her.
I think, even Trump realized by that time, that
on principle, Jesse would probably not bring Sandra on for the Finale, even if it cost him the win. In fact, that was pretty much the last thing Trump said to Jesse, "I have a feeling you won't bring her on. You're fired."
It was one thing for Jesse to want to
voluntarily ask her on the show. I admit it, I'd be interested in seeing them together.

Jesse is quite an enigma where still waters seem to run very deep.
But, it's another for his "employment" to be contingent on him bringing her on. Especially, when one clip of her would do so much more for Trump, the show's ratings, & NBC, than it would for Jesse or Sandra.
She doesn't need that publicity. She's already an A-lister. Jesse, kind of got whatever visiblility he wanted or needed from the show without trotting out his wife to make him more important.
I wonder, if he's not on the Finale, it's because he's had enough of him only being used to get to Sandra.

Since he's not bringing her on, he decided he didn't even want to do the Finale episode. Usually the final thrid person IS on the show. But, someone above, didn't say she saw him in the preview clip. Maybe that's why they went so far back as to get Tom Green to do the Finale.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Jesse's anger and loathing for people wanting him only
because of his connection to Sandra happened when they first got together and it finally became public. Probably people he hadn't seen in a long time were suddenly ringing him up with invitations, overnight, being so "friendly." "Oh, by the way, bring your new girlfriend!" Hollywood.
