The Apprentice 2, Episode 10: Here Come the Brides

Mosaic meets with The Knot to talk about the email problem. Sandy asks if they can possibly get a second one sent out. The woman agrees, but says she can’t be as sure that the brides will get it. The woman from The Knot goes on to say that the ad was approved without the phone number. Maria blinks uncomfortably, as usual. In an interview, Sandy says that Maria told “a boldfaced lie,” about the phone number being on the email. Sandy hates that Maria won’t take responsibility for her mistake. It is also worth noting that this is the second time marketing professional Maria has made a mistake in the marketing related part of a task. In the Crest challenge, Maria blew the budget by not getting the pricing confirmed with the print vendor. Now she signed off on an ad missing a vital piece of information. She’s not exactly very detail-oriented, is she?

Apex is setting up their shop when George comes to visit. He asks if they have any marketing plans other than the flyers. They do – they’re going to paint sale information on the front windows. Yeah, that’s not exactly going to reach a huge amount of people, is it? Kevin says he hopes they’ll get plenty of traffic.

When Mosaic opens their doors, there are already 40 people waiting in line to see the dresses. Looks like that email worked even without the phone number. Wes jokes around with a customer, then goes outside to work the line.

Apex opens their doors to find… two people in line. Let’s hope those two women are ready to spend a pile of money, or Apex is in big trouble. The two women come inside, and I notice that the merchandise doesn’t look nearly as inviting as it does at Mosaic. Jennifer notes that all of their merchandise is worthless if they don’t have any customer traffic.

Business is booming at Mosaic. The space is full of excited brides, women trying on dresses, and even the obligatory crying mom. Wes feels pretty good about how things are going, but realizes that Apex could have hired someone with the same expertise as Sandy. Yeah, that would have been a good idea. They were on the right track with Bernadette, but for some cash, they might have done even better. Still, Wes doesn’t think the win is in the bag. Those of us watching at home respectfully disagree.

The teams go to the boardroom for the results. Carolyn says that Mosaic worked well as a team and had a beautiful store. They sold 27 dresses for a total of $12,788.94. George reports that Apex did not do as well. They only sold two dresses, for a profit of $1,067.47. Trump understates, “Big difference.” And this is a nice task to win, because Trump is sending Mosaic to the jewelry store where he bought his fiancée Melania’s engagement ring. They’ll have $50,000 to spend on jewelry. Wow, that is definitely the most lavish reward yet. It sure beats the “You may have a picnic lunch on the lawn of my country house,” of last season.

Apex is glum. Kevin, Ivana, and Jennifer talk about it while Chris sleeps nearby. It’s probably not such a good idea to leave your team alone to talk at a time like this. Kevin says that they got an “old fashioned butt-kicking” by the other team.

But for Mosaic, it’s jewelry shopping time! They meet Melania, and Andy says that she’s beautiful. Sandy tries on a $6 million necklace, and Maria sports some gigantic diamond drop earrings. Andy says that because he’s not married, he’ll be shopping for his mom. Aw, what a good boy! Wes buys a gift for his wife, Sandy chooses a necklace, Maria gets a new ring, and Andy says that Kelly “in typical fashion,” buys a watch for himself. Why is it okay for Maria and Sandy to buy things for themselves and not okay for Kelly? I hope Kelly enjoys his new watch. Why not?

Apex does some last minute boardroom planning. Chris calls himself “a straight shooter” (pronounced “straight shoota,” of course), and plans to tell it like it is. Kevin says that not only was Chris in charge of a losing team, but that he didn’t contribute much. On the other hand, the whole team did so badly that Kevin wonders if Trump won’t just fire all of them. That would be a twist, wouldn’t it? Ivana and Jennifer take a break from trying to kill each other to agree that Chris seriously messed up this task. Ivana says that while the rest of them did their best, Chris gave up early on. Chris says he’ll go down swinging, then mutters more swear words under his breath about bridal salons.

As fans of my recaps know, I cannot stand Chris, so at this point I am positively giddy with anticipation. I don’t know how he could possibly get out of this one.

The team gathers in the boardroom, and Trump cuts to the chase, asking Chris what happened. Chris says, quite simply, that they lost. The team wasn’t gelling before, but they came together for this task. Trump isn’t so sure about that, considering that they lost so badly. Chris clarifies that they gelled personally in a way they hadn’t before.

Ivana says that the team rallied in the end, but that Chris was ready to give up pretty early on. Trump says Chris doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d give up easily. Wow, what show has Trump been watching? Just last week, Chris told him that if the team stayed together, they’d lose. They hadn’t even gotten out of the boardroom yet and he was ready to give up. Ivana says that Chris throwing up his hands and declaring the task impossible wasn’t exactly encouraging.

Chris admits that he thought the task would be a really tough one for them to win. After all, the other team had Sandy. Carolyn points out that they had the same number of dresses and the same amount of space, even without Sandy on their team. They even had Bernadette, who was willing to give them the benefit of her experience.