The Apprentice: Los Angeles, Episode 12 – Trumped Up Charges

I can’t help but wonder if Kristine is trying a bit of strategy here. She already knows from Heidi what went down at the previous Boardroom. She knows that Trump believed that Tim was distracted by Nicole, and that’s why Tim got the axe. If she paints a picture of Nicole as equally lovelorn, maybe Trump will fire Nicole, too.

Trump asks Heidi whose fault the bad brochure was. She says that Frank is easily excited and needs “a lot of focus.” She pulled the brochure together at the last minute. Frank can’t believe what he’s hearing. He asks who designed the brochure, and Heidi doesn’t give a straight answer, saying that Frank pushed it on the designer at the last minute. Frank says that Heidi wrote the brochure, but she says it was a team effort. Don demands to know who wrote it. Heidi stays firmly on the fence, saying that she’ll “take credit” for “some of” the brochure. Trump says Heidi doesn’t sound very sure of herself. He thinks the other brochure was great, except for the stupid phone number thing. If not for that, he’d just fire Heidi and Frank. He says he’s torn. Why be torn? I say just fire all four of them and save us a week of this show, but that’s just me.

Trump says that he likes the fight Frank put up, but he wonders if Frank is sophisticated enough to work for him. Frank says he thinks he will sit with anybody in any room and can handle himself. James says he’d get rid of the person responsible for the theme (or lack thereof) in Frank and Heidi’s group. Heidi says she was supposed to start out the presentation with that phrase but didn’t. Frank says she didn’t give the good presentation. Heidi claims she was going to touch on everything, prompting Frank to ask why she didn’t just do it, then. Frank is incredulous. He says she dropped the ball with the presentation.

Heidi says it was both of their faults. She says Frank was focused on the video. Frank asks, if that’s the case, what she did while he obsessed over the video? She says she wrote the copy for the brochure. You may recall that just a few minutes ago, Heidi claimed that was a group effort. Don asks if Frank did the video, shouldn’t she have been doing the brochure? Frank says that was the idea. He admits that he’s not a writer- if that’s what they’re looking for, then he’s not their guy. Heidi says he’s distracting. Frank counters her story keeps changing, and Don agrees.

Heidi says the task has been one of the worst in her career. She shares the blame with Frank. She says it’s his fault for spending too much time on the video, but admits that the presentation was her fault. Frank says she’s lied four times. Don agrees and says she’s contradicted herself a lot. Heid says she’s embarrassed by the task, and if Trump wanted to fire her based on the task, she’d agree. Before she can get out her next point, undoubtedly something about her past success, especially when compared with Frank, Trump takes her up on that. She’s fired. And while Trump’s in a firing mood, Kristine is unceremoniously dumped for the phone number mistake. Kristine can’t believe she doesn’t get a chance to defend herself. As I see it, there’s not much to defend – she scred that up. Besides, Nicole didn’t get much of a chance to defend herself when Kristine trash talked her when she was out of the room. Trump actually yells, “You’re fired” at her and tells them all to get out.

I bet he’s brokenhearted about Heidi, who he’s been enamored with since the first task. Don says Frank’s not polished , but he’d work well in on of their construction sites. Plus, he’s not afraid to fight. I know I wouldn’t have predicted that Frank would fare son incredibly well against Heidi Heidi and Kristine get into a cab together.

Heidi says she fumbled badly, though she’s not sure why Kristine got fired. She thinks she and Frank should both have gone. Kristine says she made the mistake of trying to take down Heidi in hopes that she wouldn’t have to face her in the final two. Kristine says the two of them should have been the final two, and she apologizes to Heidi for the fact that’s not going to happen. Heidi smiles and says she’ll get her back later. The two of them clearly get along well.

This was the most interesting episode we’ve seen in quite a while. James and Stefani totally dominated this one. Not only was their presentation a thousand times more professional and polished than the competitors, but they even had an idea for how this property would fit in with Trump’s other interests. It was very impressive, and not just because everyone else did so poorly.

Firing Kristine was a no-brainer. Printing the wrong phone number on the brochure was a bad, embarrassing, potentially deal-killing mistake. But I don’t think Nicole came across much better. She slept while Kristine worked, and she started off their presentation with a horrible first impression from which they never recovered. She did not sound remotely rehearsed and wasn’t nearly as impressive as Stefani or James. Firing Nicole would have been a good decision as well.

I am very surprised that Trump fired Heidi, as I thought she was the one most likely to win this thing. But she really choked on this task. She and Frank didn’t show any kind of theme. She claimed that all of that information would come later in the presentation, so why didn’t she present it? And even if that were the case, why would she wait so long to put such an important component of the campaign in front of her client? The brochure was abysmal. We learned before the candidates set foot in the Boardroom that she and Frank had an understanding that he’d work on the video while she hammered out the brochure, and that’s what we saw the two of them doing. The fact that she tried to share the responsibility for the brochure with Frank came across as really weak. She could have saved herself by talking up her outstanding past record and performances, perhaps claiming that Frank was such a terror to work with that she wasn’t able to shine like she usually does. But she failed on many levels, so it made sense for Trump to fire her.

And what of Frankie Suits? I think that Frank did an outstanding job of saving his own butt this week. Trump totally hated their brochure, and it was definitely Heidi’s fault, a point that Frank made very clear. Trump didn’t really have anything bad to say about the video, so perhaps he liked it better than I did. He did not present especially well, so that’s a point against him, so it doesn’t seem to me like a fire-able offense. That would leave me with three players – James, Stefani, and Frank. That’s a pretty strong final three.

Next Sunday, the final four face off with the last task. That must mean we’re in for another double firing. I think Nicole will definitely be one of them. She has failed to impress me at every turn. She doesn’t strike me as especially smart or creative, and she’s certainly not a leader. Sadly, Trump may also bid Frank farewell. I think he’s really concerned with Frank’s rough edges and lack of polish and will find a reason to fire him because of that. That leaves us with a solid final two of James and Stefani. Of the two, I have to give the edge to James, if for no other reason than we haven’t seen Stefani manage yet. We’ll find out in a few weeks.

Betsy Wasser is the Associate Editor of Reality News Online. She can be reached with your feedback at betsywasser@gmail.com

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