The Apprentice 2, Episode 2: We All Scream for Ice Cream

Apex is hard at work as well, and Bradford is doing an especially good job of working the crowd. Ivana is impressed, and feels she’s finally discovered Bradford’s strength: “Brad is a hustler.” Meanwhile, Jennifer convinces some restaurateurs to come to them to buy ice cream. Ivana is thrilled.

At the end of the day, Mosaic counts their cash and tries to figure out how much money to donate to charity. Kelly explains in an interview very slowly for any really dumb audience members that any amount they give away will be deducted from their bottom line, so they don’t want to give away so much money that they’ll lose the challenge. We get it, Kelly. They decide to donate $150.

Everyone heads to the boardroom, and George and Carolyn give the results. Apex earned $2,472.29. Mosaic came in with $2,707.49. Mosaic wins! Trump asks who was in charge at Apex and shudders at the mention of the name Ivana, which cracks up Carolyn. Ivana says she thinks her team had a better product. Mosaic disagrees, saying that they had a better flavor and a better sales effort. Pamela points out that they actually brought in even more money, but gave some of it away to charity. So basically, Apex stole Mosaic’s idea of selling the ice cream at Times Square, stole their set-up idea, Mosaic gave away some of their money, spent more on raw materials, but Mosaic still won. Their reward is a dinner out at a caviar restaurant. As Mosaic leaves the boardroom, Kelly asks if the rest of the money they earned can also be donated to the charity. Trump readily agrees. That is really cool.

Back in the suite, the mood is really low. Bradford says that losing is like his Kryptonite, that it sucks the energy right out of him. He tells Ivana that they lost because they were disorganized. She doesn’t agree. In an interview, she says it’s easy to blame the Project Manager, but that her team didn’t see all of her inner workings. Oh, whatever.

Mosaic enjoys their celebratory dinner, particularly Pamela, who loves caviar. Andy jokes that he has about $20 worth of fish eggs stuck between his teeth. Kelly toasts his team, then Andy offers a toast hoping that they’ll all remain friends. No one else is quite in that spirit, but Chris jovially raises his glass and says, “I love you.” As the guys drink champagne, eat caviar, and have a good time, Pamela looks disapproving. She’s quite the fun-hater.

Both Jennifers and Maria talk about the upcoming boardroom. They all agree that Ivana made some major mistakes. The carts were lost for three hours! Chaos reined! A few minutes later, Ivana grabs Maria and asks her what everyone is talking about. She tells Ivana that the “seeds of discontent” have definitely been planted. Worried, Ivana gathers everyone together to talk about the big picture. She reminds the other women that the two carts were separated, and blames Stacie for giving them the wrong location. They all agree that was Stacie’s fault.

Hey, where is Stacie, anyway? Just then, she walks into the room. Wow, did they have that meeting without telling her? That’s harsh. Stacie asks, “What did I miss?” and wonders if everyone was talking about her. She’d be right in this case. Stacie calls the other women catty and says she will fight like crazy to stay in the game. She asks Jennifer what they all talked about, and Jennifer refuses to answer, telling her to ask Ivana. The two argue some more, and Stacie tells Jennifer to “have a nice life.” Bradford says that the tension in the suite was like “a knife fight.” He tells the women that in the boardroom, he’ll admit to any mistakes he made. Everyone has to pack their bags – except Bradford, who reminds them that as the prior Project Manager, he’s exempt.

Everyone files into the boardroom. Trump says that they lost by a big margin, especially considering the money Mosaic spent on ingredients and the money they donated. What happened? Ivana says that their original location by the ticket booth was great, but that unfortunately they had to move. Trump chides her for not fighting to keep her location. A frustrated Carolyn says that what they were doing wasn’t exactly rocket science – all they had to do was sell ice cream on a hot day. Bradford agrees, but accidentally calls her Caroline, which she clearly does not appreciate. He says they over-thought the project.

Trump points out that the men looked much nicer than the women did. Bradford praises the “girls” for not selling sex. First of all, they’re women. Second of all, Bradford, weren’t you encouraging them just a few hours ago to wear skimpy outfits? What an ass. Trump asks if they should have used their sex appeal. Ivana says simply, “I would rather lose.” Trump says that they can look good and not compromise themselves, and that there is sex in the boardroom. Bradford smirks at that. Carolyn criticizes them for their lack of vision. Okay, they didn’t parade around in mini skirts, but, “You did nothing.” They could have hired clowns or passed out balloons, but they didn’t.

Trump asks Bradford how Ivana was as Project Manager –average? Bradford agrees. Trump points out that Bradford can’t be fired, so he can afford to be more critical of her. Bradford says that he’s so confident in his own record that he’ll waive his exemption. Trump thinks it’s an incredibly stupid move, but takes him up on it.

Jennifer M. says that Ivana should have been more decisive. Sandy talks about how the carts were separated for three hours and cites Ivana’s poor leadership as a reason. Ivana jumps in to blame Stacie for that. George says that the place where the second cart was and the place where they were looking are actually only half a block apart. Maria says that Ivana lacked control of the group.

Trump points out that Stacie runs a restaurant in Harlem and asks what she thought of Ivana’s leadership. This amuses me, it also amused me in the first episode when Stacie was referred to as a restaurateur, since as the owner of a Subway franchise, a better title might be sandwich artist. But I digress. Stacie says that Ivana was disorganized. Ivana jumps in to say that Stacie required a lot of supervision, and tells about her trying to hire the temps. Stacie insists that she and Bradford sold the most ice cream. Sandy says that Stacie is more of a liability than an asset. Stacie says that the team is like a sorority, and she’s more independent. Trump points out that they’re supposed to be working as teams, not as individuals.