The Apprentice 2, Episode 13: Candy Strippers

Apex is also set up near Wall Street. Ivana, Kelly, and Kevin are outside a subway station trying to catch the morning rush. They’re selling the candy bars at $2 each or two for $3. Kevin is having a hard time selling them at that price, so he quietly offers to sell a woman one for a buck. Ivana is not happy and points out that she did not approve Kevin’s cutting the price. Okay, then go over and tell him not to do it anymore, Ivana. She doesn’t, of course. Instead, she tells Kelly that the two of them should continue to sell at the higher price point. Herein lies one of Ivana’s major flaws. She’s not trying to win the task so much as she is trying to make sure she doesn’t get fired. You can just imagine her thinking about how she’s going to tell Trump that she never authorized this. It’s a really weak way to go about things. Ivana’s not the only candidate guilty of this, but she’s definitely one of the worst offenders.

Meanwhile, Sandy and Jen find a group of men and pounce on them immediately, selling the candy bars at $5 each. That’s a lot of money for one candy bar, but it’s working. Sandy says that Jen was a great salesperson and did a really good job of relating to their customers. She thinks their outfits were a great idea. They’re sexy, but not over the top. They didn’t just sell to men, but to women and kids as well. You know, I don’t like it when women on this show rely on their sex appeal to sell something. The women in the first season were especially bad. But I don’t think Jen and Sandy were inappropriate. They looked sexy, but they didn’t look trampy. More importantly, they didn’t act trampy – more cute and friendly. I wouldn’t be embarrassed to wear one of those outfits on the street. Okay, I would, but only because I’m 9 months pregnant and would, in fact, have looked like a red M&M in one of those outfits.

Apex continues to sell away, and a man passing by tells Ivana that someone else was selling the candy bars for $5 each. Ivana is intrigued and asks him if it was working. He says it was, and describes their outfits, adding that he didn’t find either of them especially attractive. Ivana panics, knowing that if Sandy and Jen can sell the candy bars for that much more, her team is sunk.

Kevin doesn’t think they can sell candy bars for that much money. Ivana doesn’t break into a chorus of “the candy man can,” and instead suggests that they move to Sandy and Jen’s territory and undercut them. That’s not a bad idea. They find Jen and Sandy, and Ivana is quick to put them down for their outfits. She says they look like strippers “in a cheap beer dive in Texas.” Another note to Ivana: putting down other women does not make you a feminist.

Ivana declares that this is a street fight, and she’s not going to lose it to a couple of hookers. Then, in a textbook definition of irony, she finds a man on the street and offers to drop her skirt for $20. Oh, and he’ll also get a chocolate bar. She says that if Jen and Sandy are going to use sex to sell, then she’s going to get drastic. She keeps offering to strip, and someone finally takes her up on it. Ivana drops her skirt to the ground, revealing what I must admit are a very cute pair of boy-short style undies. Carolyn watches the whole thing in disgust. Kelly says in an interview, “Ivana single-skirtedly raised our average significantly by offering to drop her skirt.” He laughs, and it’s a funny comment, but then he adds that her actions don’t reflect too highly on her as a business person. Well said, Kelly. It’s also worth nothing that before Ivana spotted Jen and Sandy, she was wearing a very short skirt and had her M&M’s t-shirt tied up to show off her midriff. I’d also like to add that Jen and Sandy might have been using sex to sell, but Ivana came a lot closer to actually selling sex.

Will it work? It’s time for the teams to gather in the boardroom for the results. Apex made 323 candy bars, which it sold for a profit of $560.75. Mosaic, on the other hand, only made 290 bars, but netted a profit of $1,023.11. Trump is impressed. Jen and Sandy are thrilled, and say that they worked well together. Trump is surprised, considering how the two of them acted in the last boardroom. Sandy says that they wanted to win together. Trump tells them that their reward will be a trip to Chicago to meet Season 1 winner Bill Rancic.

The women fly to Chicago, where Bill gives them a tour of the building he’s been working on. He shows off a model apartment, which is Trump-tastically ornate. Then, he asks them if they want to talk strategy. Jen says that being there, talking to Bill, she can really imagine winning. Bill says that they need to show heart, passion, and desire. Sandy says that like Bill, she might not be as educated as the other candidates, and asks him what advice he could give her. She says in an interview that she really sees a lot in common between the two of them, and she thinks she has a real shot at winning. Bill says that in the boardroom, it’s not about bringing the other person down, but rather showing what you yourself have to offer. Apparently, Bill has been listening to a lot of the complaints that some viewers have had about this season of the show! Jen says that this was the best reward yet.

Sandy and Jen return to the suite and talk to Kelly on the balcony. Sandy asks Kelly who he thinks should get fired. He hedges, saying that Kevin and Ivana are very different, and it’s just a matter of what Trump is looking for. He doesn’t want to give them a direct answer just yet and says after the boardroom is over, he’ll tell them what he told Trump. It’s a smart idea on his part. You never know if one of them would go back to Kevin or Ivana and blow his whole strategy. Kelly says that he’s disappointed that Kevin or Ivana will go home instead of Sandy or Jen.

Kevin and Ivana have a talk of their own. Kevin says that they did their best, and that he has nothing bad to say about Ivana. He considers her a friend. Ivana tells Kevin that she thinks he has a lot of integrity. Then, in an interview, she says that it’s either Kevin or her, so she has no choice but to go after him. In other words, I suspect she’s trying to figure out how to skin him alive.