The Apprentice 2, Episode 2 Bonus Footage: Bye, Bye Bradford

On Saturday night, NBC re-ran the second episode of The Apprentice 2, with 12 additional minutes of boardroom footage. If you haven’t already seen the show, please take a minute to read my recap, as I’ll just be focusing on the new stuff here.

We pick up where Trump suggests that Bradford can do or say whatever he wants in this challenge and in the boardroom, since as the past project manager for his team, he’s exempt from firing. Bradford insists that even though he had the exemption, he fought hard to win. He says that he told the team he wouldn’t slack off just because he was exempt. Trump agrees with him – you fight to win for the sake of winning, not just to avoid being fired. Bradford, as we all remember, offers to give up his exemption, and Trump accepts, even though he thinks it’s a stupid move on Bradford’s part. Trump tells him that he shouldn’t give up the benefit of having been the last project manager. Bradford says he’s not worried, but Trump tells him, “Don’t feel so confident.”

Jennfer says that Ivana was indecisive as a leader, and based on the last challenge, she thinks Bradford would have done a better job. She does think, though, that Bradford made a mistake by giving up his exemption. We learn from Sandy that not only were the two ice cream carts separated for three hours, but that one of them wasn’t even operating for 45 minutes. She says that if she had been in charge, they’d have been hard at work scooping ice cream during that time.

George lays into the team for taking so long to relocate. All they had to do was move the carts, and the things were on wheels. Why did it take them so long? Ivana says that’s because they needed to decide as a team where to go. George says that she was in charge, why didn’t she decide herself? Ivana explains that after Bradford bossed them around on the last challenge, she wanted to take a more collaborative approach to leading the team. She never expected to have to move the cart, so she wasn’t able to adequately plan. George says that in business, you must always expect the unexpected, and that when you’re thrown a curveball, as leader you must step up and lead. George really lays into Ivana on this one.

Carolyn asks why the men won, and before Ivana can give what Carolyn is sure will be a long-winded answer, tells her: the men had a simple approach, they had a gimmick (the donation to charity), they looked good, and they were unified. Trump agrees, and says that the men also had more energy. Ivana agrees that it should have been a simple challenge, but says that they had to adapt. I’m with George here – all they had to do was move the cart across the street. Why is she claiming this threw off their entire day? George adds that the women just wore whatever outfits they wanted to wear, and that the other team looked more professional.

Jennifer C. says that the men did a better job overall, and that her team’s weakness is that they brainstorm too much. Oh, yes, they do. I wonder if they’ll tone that down in the weeks ahead. Trump says that they seem disorganized, and Bradford agrees with him. Trump asks Bradford if he would have done better, and Bradford hedges, saying, “I can’t say.” George tells him to be strong and answer the question. Bradford says he was impressed by how Ivana handled all of the surprises along the way, but he says that the team has an organizational problem. Trump tells him that he’d be having a much easier night if he’d kept his mouth shut.

Jennifer C. says that Ivana was not the best leader for this particular task. Lil Stacy disagrees – she thinks Ivana was a terrific leader, and that the other women are just trying to cover their own butts.

Ivana says that she did a “great job” as leader. Trump says she didn’t – her team lost. Maybe she was a good leader, but she wasn’t great. Ivana insists that the results were actually closer than she’d feared they might be. Trump explains again that she’s not a great leader if her team lost, then adds that if that performance was great “for you,” then maybe she doesn’t belong there. Ooh, that was harsh.

Elizabeth says that the team had organizational issues, that Ivana handled it well, but that she didn’t have full information from the rest of the team. Trump and George are all over that statement, and demand that she explain what she’s talking about and who didn’t give full information. After a lot of hedging, Elizabeth says Stacie withheld information. Lil Stacy says that Stacie was not good, but rather fair. George asks who was the worst. Lil Stacy tries to dodge the question (did these people not watch Season 1?), and finally says that Stacie was the worst in terms of working with the team. Bradford tries to speak up in defense of Stacie, but Trump tells him that he’s gotten himself into enough trouble already, and to shut up. Seriously, Bradford! At this point, I would have predicted that Ivana would bring Stacie and Bradford into the boardroom, and Bradford has already defended Ivana and now wants to defend Stacie. Who does that leave to fire, genius? Trump asks Ivana if she’s against Stacie, and Ivana says that Stacie is responsible for their loss.

At this point, Stacie compares the team to a sorority. Lil Stacy thinks that’s ridiculous – they just got there! How can they be a sorority already?

Ivana, as we know, chooses Jennifer C., Bradford, and Stacie to join her in the boardroom. In the hallway outside, Jennifer is livid at being included, saying she did nothing wrong, and in fact excelled at the task. Ivana tries to smooth things over, but Jennifer is having none of it. Finally, they agree to present a unified front in getting rid of Stacie, but you can tell Jennifer is still mad.

Back in the boardroom, Trump reminds us again that Bradford made a stupid mistake and says that Jennifer shouldn’t even be in the boardroom. Jennifer agrees, and says that she personally brought in 25% of the sales. Since she’s the one that arranged for the restaurateurs to come to them, it’s quite possible that she did bring in a lot of sales. Jennifer blames Ivana for the lost cart. Ivana tries to talk again about her collaborative approach, but Carolyn doesn’t want to hear about it. “We get it,” she snaps.

Trump asks why Ivana brought Jennifer into the boardroom. Ivana says she had to pick someone. Trump says she didn’t – she could have just brought two people into the boardroom with her. I think that Ivana was confident that Jennifer and Bradford were safe, and that if the three of them came into the boardroom together saying that Stacie was the worst, Trump would see that they were right and would get rid of Stacie. Didn’t work out too well, did it?

Trump harangues Bradford again for giving up his exemption. Bradford admits it was a mistake. Trump says it was a nice thing for him to do, but that he didn’t have to do it. Instead, he could have stood up for his team and made all of his points without risking his own neck.

Here’s an interesting bit: Stacie says she was in charge of hiring temps to work the cart. Ivana says she didn’t tell her to do it, then contradicts herself, saying that she just asked Stacie to make that phone call to keep her busy. Stacie can’t believe Ivana assigned her an aimless task. Ivana says it was just busy work. So, it’s apparent that Stacie did not just randomly call up a temp agency and try to spend the team’s money, but that Ivana, at the very least, told her to research that option. Very interesting.

We all know how this ends – Bradford is fired. His giving up his exemption made Trump believe that he has the potential to make very rash, risky decisions that could be disastrous in a business setting. It was such a bad move that not only did Bradford get fired, but he also earned himself a Hall of Shame moment. After Bradford leaves, Trump and Carolyn talk about how shocked Ivana was. They believe her reaction wasn’t to Bradford being fired so much as to her not being fired. Trump says, “That was as good as it gets.”

Betsy is the Associate Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached with any comments at betsyw42@hotmail.com.

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