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

As for the winners, we see Arrow’s members arrive for their helicopter ride, which is the most awesome reward I’ve seen yet this season. (Note: I have to digress a bit here, as the timing of this reward was too coincidental. If you don’t want to read the sidebar, skip down to the next paragraph. I won’t be mad, I promise.) I LOVE helicopters and have always wanted to fly in one, About two weeks ago, my husband remarked that he had a very special surprise for my birthday. Since this one is the big four-o, he wanted to give me a special gift. (Yeah, I realize I’ve blown the whole suspense aspect, but that’s ok.) On Sunday, we took a helicopter tour of the Illinois River Valley—it was great, and an experience I highly recommend. Needless to say, our trip was much smaller in scale, but amazing nonetheless. Imagine how weird it was to come home from my adventure and watch the same thing on The Apprentice. Imagine again how nice it was that neither helicopter had “TRUMP” scrawled on the side! OK, I’m done. Thanks for indulging me, those of you who did. As for those who didn’t, they’re not reading this anyway, so let’s go gossip about them through the hedge. Oops, got catty there—must have been channeling my inner Trump.

Meanwhile, back to the extras: the Arrow players love their reward, and it is a beautiful view; we see Griffith Observatory, the ocean, Dodger Stadium, the Hollywood sign, and a multitude of skyscrapers. As she passes over Universal Studios, Stefani points out the red carpet area where Arrow won its task: “That’s our area! That’s US!” Amusingly, the scene’s background music is the same music over which Tim obsessed during last week’s challenge. As I listened, all I could picture was Tim and Frank wiping down the shower door with Soft Scrub Deep Foaming Cleanser (which is safe for all surfaces, lest ye hath forgotten!)

Our next scene is of James preparing for the Boardroom. He is not sure who will be fired. Frank remarks that Kristine is a strong player and therefore an easy target for James. James says he is going in with a clean slate, except he plans to go after the person with the rollerskating idea, since he thinks that was horrible. It’s not clear at this point whether he knows that person is Nicole; at first it seems like he doesn’t, but then in an interview, he says, “It’s hard to be objective because I like Nicole and she was on our team from the beginning.” James is then reminded by Frank that Trump’s books advocate “crushing your enemies.” Stefani adds that he has to eliminate the competition without regard to his personal feelings. She goes on to say that, with no offense to anyone, they’re not there to develop personal relationships, but rather to beat each other out for a job with Trump. Frank agrees and adds, “We can do that after the show!” I’m hoping he’s referring to the “making friends” part and not just responding to the words “beat each other”!

Tim, not surprisingly, is silent. As the rest of the team goes on, Tim slips out the door and heads for the hedge. At this point, Frankie Suits goes all Joe Pesci, ranting and raving to James about how “wet behind the ears” Tim is and how he can’t believe Tim’s acting like this over a girl he met “two weeks ago.” Now, something tells me Frankie knows his way around a good hyperbole, but I have to wonder just how long Tim and Nicole have been an item. Technically, this is “Week 10 of (your) 16-week job interview,” as Trump would say, but I realize the tasks aren’t filmed in real time. That said, what kind of timeline are they following? There’s obviously no way they’ve done 10 tasks in two weeks, so I am curious as to how much time has actually elapsed. If anyone can enlighten me on this topic, please e-mail me and let me know. Otherwise, I’m going to lose sleep over it, and if I can’t sleep, I can’t dream about riding in a helicopter with William Petersen, so please help me out. We then see Tim talking to Nicole, tipping her off to the fact that her rollerskating idea is going to be the focus of James’ attack. Upon his return to the house, he claims only to have wished Nicole good luck, and defends himself against Frank’s criticisms. Things are more than a little tense between the team members.

In the last scenes, we see Kinetic face Trump and this week’s viceroys, Ivanka and James. He begins by commenting on the large margin by which Arrow defeated Kinetic: $7000, or a 23% differential, which is a YUGE loss. Trump adds that when the loss is close, it makes it hard to fire someone, but when there is this much of a difference, it seems someone is clearly to blame. Who is that, he asks Angela, who begins by saying she feels they lost due to a flawed selling concept. She adds that Nicole gave them pertinent information about the way Arrow operates: an inside scoop, if you will. Despite that, Kinetic still lost, and when Nicole is called on the carpet about it, she defends herself, saying she gave good ideas to help and that she was “dead on” about what she predicted Arrow would do. She adds that she doesn’t know what more she could have done, since she worked as hard as she could.

Ivanka validates her efforts, saying the passion was there and in fact, she was surprised Kinetic lost by such a large margin. When Trump asks James the secret to his team’s success, he says Arrow had a soundproof plan. (pssssssst, James- I think you meant “sound” or “foolproof,” seeing as there weren’t any acoustic panels around your kiosk.) As for Arrow, their strategy was to have a stationary location and a mobile force. He says Arrow sold with their hearts as well as their minds. When James is asked why he sent Nicole to the other team, he does his best to compliment Nicole and avoid fault-finding, but when Trump asks if she was the weakest member, James has to admit that was the basis for his decision.

Nicole looks crestfallen, but never fear- SuperIvanka is here! The Donald’s daughter jumps to Nicole’s defense, asking if she feels she’s being set up as Kinetic’s scapegoat since the perception may be, perhaps falsely, that she’s a weak link. Nicole says she feels she’s at a slight disadvantage, but adds that every member of Kinetic told her they were glad to have her on the team because she brings such energy and enthusiasm.

Trump then regresses to junior high and starts asking Nicole if Tim is in love with her. She gracefully avoids responding and reiterates that she is there for one reason only: a job with Trump. When Trump asks if she is in love with Tim, her embarrassment gets the best of her, but she indulges his line of questioning. He points out Tim’s many positive qualities: a good job, a Harvard education, and the fact that Tim’s so smitten with Nicole that he can’t breathe. However, he takes Tim to task for not defending Nicole when James elected to move her to Kinetic. Nicole admits she felt the same way and that she told Tim this; Trump gives Nicole a pep talk and tells her to make him cry. He sticks up for her and, in essence, tells her not to let Tim mistreat her. While it’s not really appropriate business conduct, it is a rare glimpse into Trump’s paternal side, and hey—that’s good TV.