The Apprentice 2, Episode 7 Weekly Performance Appraisals: New York’s Finest?

Apex

Oh, Apex. Did you not watch the first season of the show? Because if you had, you would know that the men lost the Deutsch Agency task because they didn’t meet with the client and thus didn’t take into account what they wanted. This time around, Donny told you what the NYPD wanted: an appeal to the heart. And yet, your campaign still looked like an action movie. Not good at all.

Chris: Anyone who’s been reading my recaps knows that I can’t stand you. You come across as a loud-mouthed, crude jerk. This episode was no exception. Elizabeth tried to argue for a more emotional campaign, and what did you say? You said it wasn’t “a tampon commercial.” Can you contribute more to your team than coarse jokes, swearing, and the occasional remark about how much money you make and how you’re better than all of this? If not, go home and get off my TV.

Ivana: When faced with Elizabeth’s unwavering incompetence (just about the only thing about her that didn’t waver), you lead the charge to fire her and assign another project manager. Good idea. Better to try to change things than to sit in the boardroom, throw up your hands, and say, “We lost because our leader sucked.” At least you wanted to do something about it. In the final task of Season 1, Trump wondered why Kwame didn’t fire the incompetent Omarosa – looks like you took a lesson from him. I’ve liked you more in the past few weeks than I did at first. I’d like to see you lead the team again to see what you can do.

Jennifer: You were exempt this week, and we didn’t see much from you at all. We saw you carefully reapply your lip gloss, argue with Wes about helping Elizabeth, and agree that Elizabeth did a lousy job – that was it. Maybe your contributions wound up on the cutting room floor, because I’d hate to think you slacked off this week because you were exempt. You are, in my opinion, the strongest female candidate left. Stay strong – you’re our only hope.

Raj: The military theme to the campaign was your idea, and it was a bad one. You made New York look like a police state, and you made joining the police force look dangerous. Were you dazzled by the array of wonderful toys that the NYPD had at your disposal? On the other hand, you stuck by your bad idea and never dodged responsibility for coming up with it. Better to be spectacularly wrong, but strong than right and weak, as Elizabeth showed us.

A quick note about the joke you made about dressing up as a terrorist for the ads. I don’t know why Elizabeth deemed it the rudest joke ever, as it didn’t seem that objectionable to me. But be careful, Raj. You’re a funny guy, and as your wardrobe shows us, a real individual. But don’t let yourself get marginalized as the goofy, quirky guy, or you’ll be stuffing a suitcase full of bow ties into the trunk of a cab.

Kevin: As Mike said in his recap, you were “King Awesome” this week. You had your doubts about the military theme as well, and stayed up into the wee hours of the night helping Elizabeth come up with an alternate strategy. Then, after what had to have been only a few hours of sleep, you woke up bright eyed and eager to talk to the designers in an early morning meeting. Your dedication and passion for the task were impressive.

When Elizabeth’s waffling was at its absolute worst and the team was about to rebel, you gave her the chance to save herself. You are definitely the kind of person I’d want by my side. And when she still couldn’t make up her mind, you very firmly demanded that she make a decision. You were tough on her, but you really had no other choice. Without a doubt, you were the strongest member of your team this week. Keep it up and you could win this whole thing.

Elizabeth: Oh, Elizabeth. Where should I begin? Well, here’s the biggest and simplest part. You were the project manager. You were in charge. So you should have taken charge. From the beginning, you didn’t like the military angle. You thought it wasn’t the emotional appeal that you needed. Well then, instead of sending your team off half-cocked without a complete shot list to start filming stuff that you didn’t like in the first place, you should have sat everyone down and brainstormed to come up with a better solution. But you forged ahead with a bad idea and no real plan to execute it.

That night, you got Kevin to stay up late with you coming up with an alternative. In the end, both of you were happy with it, but when you met with the slightest bit of resistance from the rest of the team, you caved. As a result, not only did you look weak in front of Chris, Ivana, Jennifer, and Raj, but you also lost a lot of credibility with Kevin, who had been your one ally.

Then, you came up with a third plan, and your attempts to articulate it were such a muddled mess that no one understood what you were getting at. For the first time in Apprentice history, your team was ready to fire their project manager in the middle of a task. And then when Kevin, your former right-hand man, asked for a direction on the print ads, you were so unclear in what you wanted that he lost his usual composure. What a mess.

As the time for the presentation neared, you should have just accepted the fact that your team was going to present a campaign with a military theme and made it the best damned military campaign it could be. Instead, you tried to find ways to water down the message, so you wound up with a weak, inconsistent mess.

You were so clearly the worst performer on your team that in the end, Trump wasn’t even interested in hearing from your candidates for the boardroom and fired you on the spot. It was the right thing to do. The irony is that all of your objections to the military theme were right. It was too harsh and it did lack the emotional appeal that Deutsch wanted. But you never put forth a better idea, so your team had no choice but to move forward with the one idea that was out there. So long, Elizabeth. Your firing was inevitable.

It will be very interested to see what happens next week when the fired candidates come back. Sure, bringing back outcasts isn’t a new idea, but it seems really appropriate in a show about business. Professionals learn that you never know which old coworkers might reappear later on down the road, so it’s wise not to burn bridges. Those remaining candidates who did the most bridge-burning will likely be pretty worried when they see who’s coming back. Should be a good show.

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

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