The Apprentice 3, Episode 9: The Box

Finally, the team starts flipping through project books looking for an idea. Stephanie likes the idea of a mobile kitchen island, basically a cart on wheels. Everybody likes the idea, so they get started by building their own. Chris and Stephanie work together and bicker cutely. Angie says they’re pathetic. They finish the island, and Stephanie says it’s cute. Angie says in an interview that it is indeed cute, but that it took them way too long to put it together. Erin puts on her Chanel sunglasses to saw wood and says, “As long as I can dress up, I’m fine.” Angie says that she kind of hates everyone on her team right now, but cheers herself up by making fun of Erin with Stephanie. That would do wonders for the morale.

At Magna, Craig has a request: “Can we not call it ‘the box’?” He’d prefer to call it a “space-saving trunk.” How about doing a Eeyore tribute and calling it A Useful Box To Put Things In? Alex thinks it’s rather silly to call it something other than the box, since that’s what it is, but whatever. Bren suggests that they use it as a pet coffin. Craig says in an interview that he thinks they’re hoping he’ll change his mind on the box – sorry, space-saving trunk , but it’s not going to happen, so they should move on.

Tana and Kendra talk about how hard it is to follow what Craig is talking about. Alex and Bren think that the whole idea is really bad. Should they sabotage the other team instead? Alex jokes that they should shut down the power grid. Meanwhile, Craig is alone building his boxes. He figures they’re all talking about him, but he doesn’t care. He’s busy, and his team is failing him.

Craig does not just sit back and wait for everyone else to screw up. He talks to Alex and Bren and asks them to be more positive. Alex promises he will be, and that he’ll make sure everyone has a good attitude. Craig swears they can make the project exciting. Bren jokes that if they focus on how to decorate the boxes that they will literally be thinking outside the box. The team has a renewed energy. Tana makes the guy helping her set up do a little dance. Bren says in an interview that the challenge is to make the project exciting.

Over at Net Worth, Erin tells a customer that she thinks it’s really sexy when men do work around the house. Angie explains in an interview that she put Erin in charge of promotion and marketing because it’s all she can do. She seems to be doing well. She’s working the crowd, passing out flyers, and talking about how this is a great project for women to do. Angie and Stephanie work with a customer on staining, and the Home Depot judges note their good energy. Because you need to talk loudly in this demonstration, Angie brings Chris out, then quickly discovers that he’s not very good. In fact, he puts a shelf on upside down. Then, Stephanie drops one of the pieces on the floor. A customer says that he likes the product, but think it looks hard.

Magna has a bunch of boxes put together and has customers working on decorating them. Tana does a great job of working with kids and helping them put handprints on the boxes (sorry, Craig, I’m not going to write “space saving trunk” over and over again). Alex talks to a customer in Spanish about the project. Another box is painted with chalkboard paint, so Kendra is helping some kids draw on it. Craig thinks the handprints are especially appealing because your kid’s hands are only that little for a short period of time. Carolyn is watching the team and thinks that Tana, Alex, and Craig are really doing a good job.

The team now finally understands what Craig was envisioning. Kendra says that Craig was right that the project is something the whole family can work on. Bren says in an interview that Craig is very smart, but he can’t communicate very well. We see a montage of kids having an absolute blast decorating the boxes.

Trump and the judges arrive to give the verdict. Trump asks how they enjoyed the task. Everyone but Erin says it was fun – she though it was hard. Jose and Christine give the results. Net Worth did not involve the customers enough in their presentation – they just put the thing together while people watched. But Magna got parents and kids involved. Magna wins. For their reward, they’ll experience weightlessness.

Right after this segment, there’s a really funny commercial about the box project. With dramatic quotes about how incredible this project is, we see an array of decorated boxes. Home Depot will be duplicating Craig’s initially unpopular idea at clinics across the country. That’s got to be gratifying for Craig.

Angie is really disappointed that her team lost. Stephanie asks how they could have done better. Angie thinks all of them could have, and she’s not sure who she’s going to take into the boardroom. She thinks if she takes Chris, he’ll get fired because he loves Erin. Hey, he loved John too, and he survived that one. Angie doesn’t think Erin will be fired because she has “electricity with Trump.” She’s also very jealous of the prize.

It’s reward time. Magna, decked out in flight suits, takes off in a plane that blah, blah, physics, blah, blah, and they’re weightless. They explained the science, but I didn’t write it down. The point is, it looks really, really fun. Kendra says that it was a great reward, but that honestly only Craig deserved it because the rest of the team had such bad attitudes. Very honest of her. Alex says that while his team experienced life in space, space cadets Erin and Stephanie are about to face the boardroom. He predicts that one of them will be fired.

In the suite, Angie tells Erin that she’s taking her to the boardroom. Bad idea, Angie – don’t give Erin more time to form an argument. Angie says that Erin is going to the boardroom because she didn’t contribute, and in fact checked out of the task early. Erin thinks it’s better to admit your weaknesses up front. She adds that the presentation was really the problem. Angie asks, then, if she should take Chris and Stephanie instead. Erin doesn’t think that either, and tells Angie that she’ll be just fine with going to the boardroom. In fact, she’s confident. In an interview, she tells us, “Every time I speak, it’s poignant and accurate.” Too bad sometimes when she speaks, she’s wearing a bathmat and it is thus impossible to take her seriously.