The Apprentice 2, Episode 6: Dressed for Success

Meanwhile, the women are not bored at all and are having a great time. They’re finally bonding over something positive. Ivana says that their real reward, though, is not having to go to the boardroom again.

John is still trying to figure out who to take to the boardroom. He mentions his idea of Kevin and Wes to Kelly. Kelly says the two guys might gang up on him if he did that. John suggests maybe Andy as a choice instead – he didn’t contribute much. Kelly says that he’d fire Andy if he were in Trump’s shoes.

The men go to the boardroom. Trump asks them how they went from four victories in a row to losing. John says he’s devastated that they lost. They were underdogs in the task, but they worked hard. He adds that it came down to a mistake in the pricing. Kevin admits that he and Wes set the prices, but thinks John should have been personally involved in such an important decision. John says he trusted them to do their job well. Trump thinks that was too important a task to delegate away completely, and adds that they should have used Ilsa’s expertise in setting the prices.

I’m not so sure that the pricing is really what made the men lose. It’s hard to say for sure, since I don’t know how they priced individual items, but I do know that the women’s clothing line looked more accessible and more wearable. Simple items like the satin camisole were far more likely to sell than, say, the pink plaid mohair cape that Ilsa designed. Kevin thinks so too, and says that Ilsa may have been the wrong choice, and it was John’s decision.

Trump turns to Raj next and says that he heard he was “totally a hound dog,” and that he drove both the models and the designer crazy. Raj has no response to that. Trump asks Raj who he’d fire, and Raj chooses Andy. Raj says that Andy doesn’t have the respect of the rest of the team, in part because he’s young. Raj then says that Kevin, on the other hand, was responsible for the prices. George demands to know which of the two Raj would choose. Raj says that overall, it would have to be Andy.

Andy says he’d fire John. Kelly chooses Andy. Andy asks why, if he was in such constant need of babysitting, was he in charge of printing the line sheets all by himself. Uh, Andy, that’s not exactly the most impressive role there is. John tells him that it was simple busy work. Chris says he’d fire John because he left too many loose ends. Trump asks John who he’d like to bring back. John chooses two people – Andy and Kevin. Trump is surprised that most project managers have only picked two people, but not surprised by John’s choices.

The men leave the boardroom, and Trump, Carolyn, and George have their weekly powwow. George says that of the three, he likes Andy the best – he has potential. Carolyn likes John, but he made too many mistakes.

Trump summons the guys back. He begins by telling Andy that he shouldn’t be there. John says he picked Andy because Andy is not a leader and doesn’t step up. Kevin disagrees. Then, Kevin asks, since he and Wes shared responsibility for the pricing, why John didn’t bring Wes. George says that if Wes failed at this task, he should be in the boardroom. John admits that was a mistake.

John then pretty much pleads for mercy. He says that Carolyn and George have seen in every task how hard he’s worked. He hates being in the boardroom, and he’s disappointed that his team lost. He apologizes for his mistakes. Well, you can’t say John wasn’t willing to take responsibility, that’s for sure.

Trump says that Andy shouldn’t be in the boardroom at all, that even John admits to his bad choices, and that Kevin made a critical error with pricing. However, Wes was equally responsible for the pricing, and Trump can’t hold him accountable since John didn’t bring him. John should have been a part of the decision on pricing. John is fired for “too many bad decisions.” As John makes his walk of shame, Trump says that he likes John, but that he really didn’t have a choice.

I’m a bit disappointed that John got fired, if for no other reason than that he was the cutest one. But I do think Trump made the right choice given his options. It wouldn’t be fair to single Kevin out for a bad decision that he shared with Wes. Andy actually has shown leadership qualities. In both the Mattel task and the Crest task, the team ended up following Andy’s ideas. Sure, neither idea was perfect, but to say he doesn’t have the respect of the rest of the team is just not true. And John not only didn’t get involved in the crucial task of pricing, but he also made the ultimate decision to choose Ilsa, both of which, I think, cost Mosaic.

And I thought, based on the promos for this week’s episode, that we’d learn why you shouldn’t annoy George. Sure, that’s good advice in general, but George didn’t seem that annoyed this week. Maybe we’ll see more in the extra footage.

In his final words, John says that he lost under unfortunate circumstances. He wasn’t expecting to be hammered by his team the way he was, and he thinks that he deserved to last longer than he did.

Next week, the teams have to suddenly return to the boardroom, and Trump shakes up the teams. And, in the final boardroom, Trump gets grouchy. See you then!

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

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