The Apprentice 2, Episode 10: Here Come the Brides

George says that the problem was that they didn’t get customers in to the store. What was their marketing plan? They explain that they thought that by passing out flyers, they’d get their message across to a wide group of people. Trump and Carolyn say that the train station was a terrible idea.

Trump asks Kevin if Chris was a bad leader. Kevin says that Chris is a hard worker, but he’s not exactly a planner. And he didn’t delegate any tasks – everyone pretty much pitched in without a clear direction. Jennifer says that Chris lacked energy and focus. Trump says, as an aside, that he loves Chris’s accent, and that it reminds him of home. He asks Chris who he wants to take to the boardroom. Chris says he has to admit that Jennifer did the best job of the four of them, so he’ll take Ivana and Kevin to the boardroom. Before Jennifer goes back to safety, Trump asks her who she would fire. She names Chris for the reasons she had said before; the team had no focus and he was project manager.

Outside the boardroom, Chris tells an angry Ivana and Kevin that it’s nothing personal. Kevin can’t believe Chris opted to protect Jennifer. Inside, Trump says that the whole team was terrible, and Carolyn agrees. They had no positivity. Carolyn is right, of course, and the same is illustrated outside. Ivana says that Jennifer, “always skates by.” Chris says no, that he really thinks Jennifer did a good job. Kevin thinks she duped Chris. George says that none of the candidates had any spark. Carolyn is ready to send all of them home.

Chris, Ivana, and Kevin return to the boardroom. Trump asks Chris why he sent Jennifer back to the suite. Chris says that Ivana and Kevin aren’t happy about it, but that it was the right thing to do. When he and Jennifer met with vendors, Chris says that they commented that if she weren’t a lawyer, she’d do well in the bridal business. Carolyn says she couldn’t have been that good of a saleswoman, or they would have sold more dresses.

Ivana says that Chris is very good at identifying problems – that is to say, he’s good at complaining. Trump is impressed at what an incredible slap that was. Chris shrugs and says that since Ivana has been in the boardroom five times so far, she’s learned a thing or two. Oooh, good one, Chris! Carolyn agrees that they have seen quite a lot of Ivana. Ivana argues that she keeps getting picked because she takes on so much responsibility. Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Ivana. Also, maybe they’re all jealous of you. Trump asks Chris if he should just fire Ivana now. Chris thinks that’s a fine idea. After all, he’s never been sent to the boardroom before, and Ivana knows the place all too well.

Frustrated, Trump says that the three of them are showing more spark now than they did on the task. He goes on to remind Chris that he declared at the end of the last task that the team was a mess and would lose if they weren’t mixed up. He sent Jennifer back to the suite, and Trump might have fired her. And Chris was a terrible leader.

I think we all know where this is going, don’t we? Chris is fired.

Yay!

Really, I don’t think there was much doubt as to how this one was going to go. None of the four members of the team really did anything especially impressive. Ivana and Kevin, at least, brought in Bernadette, who was probably a huge help. And Jennifer really did do a good job of working with those vendors. Chris, on the other hand, contributed nothing but a negative attitude. And that negativity didn’t just come because he thought it would be hard to beat a team with Sandy on it at this task. He was just as negative about talking to the public in the restaurant task and thought he was too good to work with dogs, to name two examples off the top of my head.

All in all, I think this task was lost due to poor marketing on Apex’s part. For only $1,000, Mosaic was able to get 23,000 targeted customers. Sure, Sandy had some inside knowledge that led her to come up with that plan in the first place, but couldn’t Apex have thought of something else? They could have asked wedding planners, florists, and cake bakers to pass out flyers. They could have teamed with a department store’s bridal registry. Apex’s plan to blanket the city with flyers was much more haphazard. Even though they had just as much merchandise as Mosaic did, they just didn’t have enough customers walking through the door to compete.

In his final cab ride, Chris says that he’s disappointed, but proud that he did as well as he did. He has a wonderful wife and a baby on the way (which makes me dislike him slightly less), so he has no regrets. He doesn’t even regret telling Trump that the team was doomed to fail, because he believes in telling it like it is. He concludes by thanking Donald Trump for expanding his horizons.

Next week, only 8 candidates remain, and things are getting personal. Billy Joel guest stars. And NBC guarantees an exclusive boardroom – when you think it’s over, it’s not over. Oooh, this is going to be good.

Betsy is the Associate Editor of RealityNewsOnline and is pleased that Chris will now finally shut up, as she’s been advising for weeks. She can be reached with any comments at betsyw42@hotmail.com.

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