The Apprentice 2, Episode 11: Blue Jean Blues

Wes tries to talk to Maria, and she tells him to back off. Wow, that was rude. An incredulous Sandy says, “Wes backed off!” She can’t believe he put up with Maria’s attitude. Meanwhile, Maria tells a model, “Give me bitchy or give me death.”

The photo shoot finally over, Mosaic goes to Yellowfin to work on the catalogs. Maria declares that, “someone really needs to take the reins,” so she locks herself in a room with the designer and sends everyone else away. She won’t let anyone else get involved at all. It’s amazing. Sandy suggests that Wes check up on what’s going on, but Maria doesn’t want anyone else to look at the design before it’s done. In a huge understatement, Sandy says, “Maria is a control freak.”

Sandy tells Wes and Andy that she tried to look at the computer to see what Maria was up to, but Maria wouldn’t let her! Sandy is livid, and when Maria comes back into the room, Sandy confronts her on it. The two of them have a huge fight, all in front of Bill. Andy says in an interview that Wes should have prevented Maria from taking charge of everything, and he also should have stopped the argument from lasting for as long as it did. He’s right of course, but shush, Andy – I want to see the fight!

Sandy tells Maria that she’s being controlling, and Maria gets a big, fake, incredulous look on her face. Sandy thinks Maria is setting herself up so that she’ll get the credit if they win, but won’t get the blame if they lose. In an interview, Maria blinks at us and says, “It angers me to be called a control freak because I’m quite simply not.” Oh, come on. If someone calls you a control freak, let’s face it – you probably are. It’s not like a control freak has characteristics that are especially hard to pick out. Finally, Maria gives a fairly sarcastic sounding apology: “Will you forgive me and not bring this up anymore?” Sandy says she will, provided Maria doesn’t kick her out of another room. Sandy probably also thinks silently, “But I won’t promise you I won’t bring this up in the boardroom if it comes down to it.”

Then, Maria, who must be wearing about fifty coats of mascara, blinks her mighty blink to stem the coming tears as she says, “Just know that you have beaten me down when I just wanted to give you something that you could rip apart.” Huh? In an interview, she says that she realizes that no one is her friend, and that she just wants to win. Hey, it’s another reality TV contestant saying she didn’t come to make friends!

Remember how in the old Pac-Man video game, one of the ghosts was named Blinky? I don’t know why, but that just popped into my head.

Apex goes to Yellowfin, and Ivana is excited to see how her wheel is coming along. Then, she gets the brainstorm that they can put the wheel into the pocket in the front of the catalog. It’s a very cute idea, and their design is really coming together.

Meanwhile, Jennifer seems to be working on copy. She wants to combine the idea of innovation with the long history of the company and says she wants to see the product to get her inspiration. Kevin says in an interview that Jen is basically useless, has trouble understanding the concepts, and generally slows them all down. He says that he gives her busy work to keep her out of everyone’s hair. In fact, as he, Kelly, and Ivana sit down to look at how the catalog is coming along, they opt not to call her in for feedback. Ivana laughs, “With every task, she gets more and more blonde.” Do you think it was a good idea to say that in front of killer blonde Carolyn? I think not. Jennifer realizes that Kevin assigned her busy work, and she thinks she’s been marginalized by Kevin and Ivana, who are weaker players. She thinks that the two of them are upset because she’s escaped the boardroom when they haven’t. She says that Ivana really wants her to get fired. Well, she’s right on that. Of course, I seem to recall last week that she was lobbying to get rid of Ivana, so it works both ways.

From his limo, Trump makes a fake phone call asking his assistant to cancel all of his appointments, because he’s going to Levi’s.

Wes gets ready for the presentation. Andy suggests that if he’s not going to wear jeans that he wear a suit as a sign of respect, but Wes thinks he looks fine as he is. I think Andy is right, and furthermore, I think they should all wear jeans, since I noticed that Robert was dressed in Levi’s before.

The team meets with Robert and two of his executives for the presentation. Wes says the theme is “if the jeans could talk.” Maria says that they wanted to get in the mind of the consumer, which was easy because they are the consumers. She then proceeds to talk manically, a mile a minute, blinking like she’s got something in her eye. She shows off a poster of a model in a skirt made of men’s 501 jeans. Robert asks why they used men’s jeans. Maria declares, “If being sexy is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.” Wow, she needs to shut up. Andy obviously agrees with me, and says that Maria dominated the presentation and said some things she really shouldn’t have. To illustrate his point, when Robert asks why they didn’t show more butt shots, Maria tells him that the jeans didn’t fit tight enough. Good job criticizing the man’s product, genius. Wes says in an interview that Maria did a horrible job in the presentation and, “She let me down.” Finally, Maria adds another nail to the team’s coffin. Robert says he likes that they all dressed casually, but he can’t help but notice that they’re not all wearing Levi’s. Maria says they didn’t have time to buy them before the presentation. Really, because you just said a minute ago that you are their consumers, so I guess that wasn’t true, was it? Robert says that it’s important to plan ahead.

If this team doesn’t lose, it’ll be a miracle.