The Apprentice 2 Finale: Three Trumptastic Hours

Previously, on The Apprentice 2… the entire season happened. If you’re just joining us right now, it just so happens that I know of a great web site where you can find recaps of every episode of The Apprentice 2. And hey, you’re right here! Anyway, where we left off from last week, Jennifer was organizing a charity basketball tournament and just discovered that her master of ceremonies, Chris Webber, was canceling. Kelly was trying to organize a polo match, but it was raining and he had no backup plan in case it rained the day of the match. Let’s see what’s happening now.

We start with Jen. She’s on the phone arguing with Chris Webber’s assistant – if he backs out, it really leaves them in a lurch, and she’s been counting on him. Chris looks on and says in an interview that Jennifer is being really aggressive, and he doesn’t blame her. Pamela agrees. She says, that Jennifer is usually low-key, but that changes when there’s a problem. She adds, “Oh, man, she bitch-slapped Chris Webber’s assistant.” Jennifer concludes the conversation with the assistant by saying that it’s on Chris’s conscience for canceling… which pretty much tells me that she lost this battle. Chris assures her that he did confirm that Chris Webber would do the event, but at this point, Jennifer is ready to move on to plan B. Could another player MC the event?

Kelly’s team is stuffing gift bags, and Raj and John are less than dedicated to the task. They have 400 bags to fill, a job that Raj deems “undignified.” Suck it up and ruin your manicure, Raj – there’s work to be done! John tells him to fill the bags and to throw their trash on the floor as they go along because, “it pisses off Kelly and it’s funny.”

It looks like Kelly isn’t doing a very good job of motivating his team. He has other things on his mind, specifically, praying for good weather. Meanwhile, John opens one of the bottles of champagne and starts pouring. He gets a little goofy from it and starts a slap fight with Raj. Kelly looks up from his computer and suggests that they’d get the gift bags filled faster if they lined them up like an assembly line. Carolyn, who has been observing Kelly, says in an interview that Kelly is not motivating his staff well. “He’s being a little robotic,” she adds.

Back at the basketball tournament, Jennifer and Lil Stacy are planning the VIP seating. That night, Jen stays up late finishing up the details while her team sleeps. Jennifer wants to get some signs printed, but figures it’s important to let her people get some rest. Pamela, however, doesn’t think Jennifer is planning her time wisely. She says in an interview that Jennifer should be figuring out how to manage sponsors and the NBA, not doing little things like printing signs. I have to say, I would love to see how Pamela would do at this task if she were in charge. I daresay she’d be outstanding.

Late that night, Kelly and Elizabeth take off for Kinko’s to get some printing done and quickly get lost. Kelly is not happy that the two of them are taking longer than he’d planned, because it’s important to him that Raj and John get a good night’s sleep. Raj in particular, Kelly says, is worthless if he’s not rested. Back at the polo club, John and Raj move the Genworth display to its proper spot in the tent. The trouble is, they bump it into a pole and it gets bent. It does not look good. Kelly calls the guys and tells them that he and Elizabeth are taking longer than anticipated. In an interview, he says that he wishes he’d mapped the route himself. He’s sure, though, that John and Raj are hard at work.

Well, that’s just the kind of set-up that reality TV show editors love. We immediately cut to John and Raj, lounging on benches, debating whether the animal noises are coming from geese or frogs (they conclude that it’s both, in case you were wondering). The two of them relax on the benches and wonder if they hear Kelly and Elizabeth returning.

The next day, Jen is getting ready for the tournament to begin. In an interview, she says that it was important to her to motivate her team and to give all of them responsibilities they can be excited about. Pamela, for example, is in charge of orchestrating the game. She’ll be handling the players, the halftime show, the dancers, and the NBA personnel. Jennifer explains that she will be working with the sponsors. She meets with the executives from Genworth and shows them the setup, proud of the progress they’ve made since the executives last visited.

And how did she do? George talks to the Genworth execs and learns that they think things look better than they did before, but they’re still not totally reassured. In particular, they’re worried about the fact that there’s no MC. George says in an interview that the Genworth people “still have a lot of butterflies.” One of them, Janice, tells George that Jen didn’t come up with any good ideas, but instead asked them what they wanted to do. She says she’s not impressed.

Elizabeth discovers the bent sign and is not pleased. She argues with John and Raj about whether or not they should move it until the two of them take off on a cart together, leaving her to deal with it. Elizabeth says that she doesn’t want to be passive anymore, hops on a cart of her own, and follows them to the clubhouse. She stands on one side of Kelly, with the two guys on the other side, and declares, “I am dictator Elizabeth,” and demands respect. Kelly is, quite literally, in the middle. Kelly quickly moves to ease the conflict on his team. He tells Elizabeth that she is not the dictator, and she admits that was a bad choice of words. As for the rest of the team, he asks them to be nicer to each other. In an interview, he says he feels like he was mediating a conflict between little kids. He tells the three of them that each of them has a specialty and that they really need to defer to each other. In an interview, Raj admits that Kelly handled the situation very well and, “that is a form of leadership.”