The Apprentice: Los Angeles, Extras, Episode 10: If There’s A Bustle In Your Hedgerow

Hello, gentle readers! I’m in a romantic mood, as my husband just whispered sweet nothings through the hedge to me… oh wait, that wasn’t my husband and me, it was Tim and Nicole! This week’s webisode focuses not so much on the task as it does on the ongoing soap opera that is these two. What do you think, The Young and the Hedgeless?

We begin the webisode with a Trump voiceover telling us that he needed to have someone from Arrow come over to Kinetic and that James was the one to make that choice. We see James ask for volunteers, followed by deafening silence. Trump continues to hammer James for a decision, and so he makes one—to send Nicole to the other team. This decision is met with another round of deafening silence, but this time it’s punctuated with dagger-like looks from Nicole. Poor James; you see him make his decision with what I feel was a plausible explanation, but the lack of understanding and support from his team is painful to watch. My husband suggested it would have been fairer to draw names, but I think James was right when he said that he needed a team that was well-rounded in terms of skill sets. In choosing Nicole, he kept the team in balance. Perhaps since he felt Nicole and Tim offered the same skill set, he might have appeased them by flipping a coin; this might have made them feel more valued and that the decision was less personal. Perhaps James truly did feel Nicole was the weaker player of the two; at this point, we can’t know.

The webisode continues with Kinetic’s brainstorming session. Nicole tells her new teammates that Arrow will have a big idea and begins to share some insights into the personalities and strategies of her former teammates. In an interview, Kristine says if Nicole is willing to “vomit information” about players from Arrow, she’ll be glad to use it to Kinetic’s advantage. She cites a specific example of information: Frank’s tendency to spend money freely. We cut to a scene of Arrow’s brainstorming session, in which we hear Frank rattling off a list of expenditures. In case we didn’t get it, the editors hit us over the head by giving us a glimpse of Frank’s legal pad, upon which an abundance of budgetary information has been jotted. I don’t know that this information was of particular use to Kinetic, but it serves as proof that Nicole knows Arrow’s members very well.

The next scene takes us to Universal Studios, where both teams are working hard to win the task, which is to use AdWalker technology to sell annual passes to park-goers. The team with the highest gross sales wins. We see Arrow’s “big idea,” which is essentially a kiosk with signage to attract potential customers. Arrow offers free water bottles to each person who buys from them. Kinetic takes the mobile approach, rollerskating around the park and approaching guests. A selling war ensues, and Kinetic clearly disapproves of Arrow’s aggressive approach. Like it or not, it’s effective, and, as Ivanka reveals in the Boardroom, Arrow wins the task.

In the Boardroom, Trump continues to harass Tim and Nicole. Now, I make my living teaching teenagers with behavior disorders and emotional disturbance, and I swear Trump is a bigger provoker than all of them put together; talk about someone who likes to stir the pot!! He tries to get the sweethearts to profess their love for each other, but when they’re unwilling to swallow the words he’s stuffing into their mouths, he finally relents. Ivanka jokingly pulls a “see what I have to endure?” sympathy plea and everyone laughs. Trump remarks, incongruously, that Tim and Nicole are a good-looking couple. Apparently ugly people don’t merit his time and effort.

As the final Boardroom looms, we see Pyramis and Thisbe—er, Tim and Nicole -- talking through the hedge. Nicole is still angry with Tim for not having voiced opposition to James’ decision, a point that is just lost on Tim. Nicole’s new BFF Heidi, tells Tim, “She just wanted you to defend her!” and “You sold her out!” As the girls talk later, Nicole says she doesn’t care, but you and I both know the only people who say that are the ones who care a lot!

Meanwhile, the men of Arrow sit on the patio and discuss the whole situation. Frank and James reassure Tim, while James confesses that he will never understand women. In an interview, Tim acknowledges how dumb it was for him to get involved in a relationship during this process, but he couldn’t seem to help it and still wants to preserve what he and Nicole have. In an attempt to do just that, he tries to talk to Nicole the next morning, but she hasn’t changed her position on the issue. Tim tells her he wants to put it behind them because it would be such a shame to end what they have. “I’m crazy about you, you know that,” he offers. Awww.

The webisode ends with Trump firing Angela and Nicole risking her safety by asking Trump for a favor. Rather than high-tail it out of the Boardroom, she tempts fate by suggesting that Trump give Tim the opportunity to come to Kinetic because she’s anxious to see his response. In the closing voiceover, Trump says we’ll have to wait until next week to see if he took Nicole’s suggestion to heart.

So much for the webisode! Next up, there are a few replayed scenes: one in which we see Nicole pitch the rollerskating idea (to which Angela responded very enthusiastically, I might add) and the other one being the “meeting in Frankie’s bed” scene. In the latter, we hear Arrow correctly predict how Nicole is interacting with her new teammates; Tim says she’s probably getting them all riled up, but in a good way—motivating them to out-sell Arrow. What I found interesting about this scene is something James says about their team’s ability versus Kinetic’s. He commentsthat until now, the teams have never had to execute their tasks at the same location. For the first time, their customer base is the same, and it could get ugly. Perhaps he was just randomly naming names, but he asks his teammates, “Here’s what it comes down to: Can you (Frank) beat Heidi, can you (Tim) beat Nicole, can I beat Angela, and can she (Stefani) beat Kristine?” If this were a basketball game, I’d say James was going for a person-to-person defense. Assuming the match-ups weren’t random, would you have changed the assignments? Discuss.

Speaking of discussions, there is one deleted scene this week, and it’s Kristine and Nicole discussing the upcoming Boardroom. Both women target Angela, albeit grudgingly. “She’s so bright!” Kristine says, and Nicole adds, “I wouldn’t put down her character or say she did a bad job.” They agree that it’s not what Kinetic did to lose the task, but rather what Arrow did to win it.