The Apprentice 3, Episode 7: The Tears of a Clown

Audrey insists that she did not fail as a leader. She is tired of the project manager being solely in charge, and thinks it should be fine for a manager to delegate. Trump says that’s true, but that the manager has to follow up. Audrey says that John did not promote well. John asks why, if he was so terrible, didn’t she take over and save the team? He thinks that she didn’t care if they lost, so long as John was the one fired, not her. John tells Trump, “She is what she is, a 22-year-old girl.” He adds that this conflict started in the boardroom on the task before. Audrey tells Trump what John said about her being successful because she’s pretty and nice. John says Angie said the same thing and Audrey took it as a compliment. Audrey says she is not just pretty; she has a brain, too. She thinks that John is jealous of her success and that it’s easy to put her down for being young and pretty.

Tana says she would fire Audrey because she didn’t have control of the team. Craig says he’d fire Audrey because of “missed opportunities.” Trump asks Angie who she would fire. Angie says that when the team loses, everyone focuses on the project manager. Trump pushes her, and she says she’d fire John.

Audrey chooses John and Craig to join her in the boardroom, which isn’t a surprise… and Angie, which is. Trump says he usually won’t allow four people in the boardroom, but this time he will. We can take that to mean, “Except in Season 2, but that ended up being kind of boring.” The candidates leave so that Trump and the viceroys can talk about them.

Carolyn says that Audrey was a terrible leader. John didn’t do well either, but at least he defended himself. Ashley hated John’s remark about Audrey being a 22-year-old girl. Trump sends them back in.

Trump declares, “This is a mess.” Ashley says that they lost because of marketing. Craig says that their strategy was to undercut Magna. John agrees, and says that all they needed to do was win by one dollar. As a result, he and Craig were out hustling, offering to beat Magna’s prices. Audrey points out that it took them half an hour to get dressed, wasting valuable marketing time. Trump asks why Audrey brought Angie back, a question Angie is curious to learn the answer to as well. Audrey says Angie was part of the marketing team. Trump asks Angie if her choice of person to fire changes now. Angie admits that she possibly would fire Audrey. Audrey interrupts her, and Angie tells her to let her talk. Trump says, “She does talk. She doesn’t stop.” That’s never a good sign. Angie says that the men on the team didn’t want to support Audrey. Audrey says that the other members of the team need to be responsible for the tasks she assigned to them, she won’t be.

Carolyn says that the team did not respect Audrey. Trump says that she’s very pretty, but she’s not respected. Angie says she does respect Audrey, but Craig shakes his head no. Carolyn says that according to Audrey, all of them but Tana failed. Where’s the leadership? Audrey says that all of her teammates are strong leaders. So why did they fail? Audrey thinks they did a half-assed job. Carolyn asks if they should just fire everyone but Tana, and Audrey thinks that’s a fine idea.

Trump says that Audrey constantly blamed everyone else, was a terrible leader, and had no respect from her team, not even from her friend Angie. She’s beautiful, but that’s not enough. Audrey is fired.

Trump says it was an obvious choice. Carolyn agrees, saying that Audrey had no control over the team. Trump says, “At lest they can’t say I picked the best looking one.” Somewhere, a tear rolls down Stephanie’s face.

This was an obvious choice, and not just because Audrey went after my boyfriend John. Yes, she delegated the tasks, but it looked like the responsibilities weren’t clear. For example, Chris was in charge of designing the course, but he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to put it together. Where did Craig’s job of marketing end and John’s job of promotions begin? Audrey said that marketing was an important part of the job, the thing that would make or break them. She found it so important that she put three of her team members on the marketing and promotion team, yet she never got personally involved or followed up. As for John’s comments that Audrey was just a 22-year-old pretty girl, they were definitely condescending, and I think John would be the first to admit that. They show a lack of respect for Audrey, and John most certainly did not respect her.

In her final cab ride, Audrey says it was an incredible experience. She wishes John had been fired instead of her. And she finally adds, “Mr. Trump did say I was beautiful, so that was nice of him.” That’s kind of sad.

Next week, Barenaked Ladies, Moby, and Gene Simmons guest star as the candidates put together a charity auction. Even more interestingly, it’s time for a corporate restructuring, as the teams are evened out.

Betsy Wasser is the Associate Editor of Reality News Online. She can be reached with any comments at betsyw42@hotmail.com .

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