The Apprentice 2, Episode 4: Eating Their Words

Mosaic is alone in the suite, since all of Apex gathered in the boardroom for the firing/witch hunt of Stacie. They’re all pretty sure Elizabeth will be the one to be fired. Apex returns, and of course, they are minus one Stacie. Jennifer tells them what happened in the boardroom. Raj can’t believe they all got together, said Stacie was crazy, and got her fired. Kevin is equally aghast, saying, “None of you guys are equipped to say whether or not she’s actually psychologically unstable.” In different parts of the country, Mike DeGeorge and I cheer at our TV’s, since I said very much the same thing last week in my recap, as did Mike in his performance appraisals. Mike and I know that the show was filmed ages ago and that the candidates aren’t actually reacting to what we wrote, but we like to pretend.

The women say they all felt threatened by Stacie’s outburst, but Jennifer C. points out that no one said anything about it at the time. Kevin thinks that’s wrong, and Jennifer M. agrees. Jennifer M. goes on to say that Elizabeth used Stacie as a scapegoat, when it was really her poor leadership that lost them the task. Too bad you didn’t say so in the boardroom, Jennifer M. Instead, you called Stacie’s behavior erratic. I am not impressed. Elizabeth insists that she wasn’t just using Stacie as a scapegoat. Stacie was in charge of getting and distributing the samples, and she failed. Jennifer M. correctly points out that that is not the reason the team lost.

Elizabeth is clearly upset and says that the rest of the team just doesn’t understand why they lost. She feels unfairly targeted and just isn’t sure if she can go on with the team like it is. She looks like she’s about to cry. Jennifer M. says Elizabeth was a bad leader. Maria tells Elizabeth to “get off my designer suit.” Oh, Maria. I wanted to like you, but that clearly isn’t going to work out, is it? Maria says in an interview that Elizabeth has apparently never had people not like her before and doesn’t know what to do with herself. Maria turns on Elizabeth and says she could name an array of times that Elizabeth didn’t know what was going on. Well, that’s interesting, considering that Maria’s mishandling of the print pricing is what put the team over budget and caused them to lose the task. Funny how Maria doesn’t seem to recognize her role in what went wrong. Elizabeth says that she feels uncomfortable and frustrated.

The next morning, the Trump phone rings. A groggy Raj answers it, clad only in boxers. He learns something or other about where to meet Mr. Trump, but I’m rather distracted by the unexpectedly smokin’ body that was lurking under those bow ties. Good for you, Raj! Where were we? Right – the candidates meet Trump, Carolyn, and last season’s winner Bill at Jeann Georges. Trump explains that George is away on business, so Bill will be filling in for him. Trump tells the team about the task: each one will get a chef and an empty restaurant space. They’ll have to transform the space, set a menu, manage, and operate the restaurant. They’ll be judged by the Zagat’s reviews of the restaurant, which are determined by customers. They’ll be judged on food, décor, and service.

Apex team leader Jennifer C. says that the team needs “simple creative thinking” to win the task. Lil Stacy suggests a traditional Italian menu. Jennifer C. says absolutely not- she grew up with Italian food and is sick of it. Well, that makes sense for the rest of the universe, doesn’t it? She says the menu will be Asian fusion, and that’s the end of the discussion. Lil Stacy continues to chime in with more ideas, much to the annoyance of Jennifer C.

Over at Mosaic, they chose the project manager’s name from a hat, and Raj was the winner. Chris is disappointed that he’s not in charge because he has lots of restaurant experience. Well then, Chris, you should have volunteered your services! Chris trains the guys on the basics of customer service, but interestingly, he sprinkles his lesson with healthy doses of both profanity and disdain for the customers. He tells the guys, “I f*@#’in hate the public, bro.” Raj is understandably worried and says that he hopes Chris can “swallow his disgust and make nice.” Chris swears he can turn on the charm when he needs to. We’ll see about that – something tells me he’s not quite as charming as he thinks he is.

Apex goes to check out their restaurant space. Jennifer C. loves the simple layout. However, she needs another phone and a computer to get her work done, so she herds everyone back to the suite. Well, that was poor planning, wasn’t it? Let’s all troop down to the restaurant, look at it, then go home! Ivana thinks that’s poor planning. Jennifer C. rounds everyone up and wonders where Lil Stacy “the little munchkin” is. That’s not appropriate. Sure, I refer to Lil Stacy as Lil Stacy, but she doesn’t work for me, so I don’t need to show her the respect that Jennifer should be.

Mosaic hires professional cleaners to get the restaurant in top shape. Good idea. They feel confident that the place will be ready to go. The men head back to the suite, where Kevin mentions to Apex that they just had the place cleaned. Jennifer C. says they haven’t done that yet – they haven’t had a chance. Really? You couldn’t have split up your team and had some people do the cleaning? I suspect that the reality is, it didn’t occur to her until now. At 4:00 in the morning, while the Mosaic team sleeps, Apex scrubs down their restaurant. Ivana is annoyed and thinks they’ll be in bad shape the next day due to lack of sleep.

And now for the Trump Lesson of the Week: “Be Respected.” Trump says that there are lots of different kinds of leaders in the world, but they all have one thing in common – they are respected. Do you hear that, Jennifer?

The alarm clock goes off at 6:00 the next morning, and Sandy is really jealous of the amount of sleep the other team got. The women are all cranky and are already sniping at each other. I can see why. If I got that little sleep, then had to get up and get to work right away, no one had best talk to me except to say, “Here’s your coffee.” The women head to the restaurant and start setting up the tables, dishes, and so forth.