The Apprentice 2: Why Stacie Lost

The seventh rule, however, most certainly came up: Play well with others. Stacie, as we already know, did not. What does one part of this rule say? “But don’t come in with the ‘I’m not here to make friends’ attitude.” What did Stacie say? You got it. She didn’t want to make friends with the others. She obviously thought it wasn’t important. But perhaps if she had tried to reach out a little bit and make friends, the “vote” against her wouldn’t have been unanimous and Trump would have had to think more about it before firing her – perhaps giving her another chance.

Again quoting from the rule: “If, however, you at least appear to be nice to people, they are less likely to blame you for things, less likely to single you out for bad tasks, and less likely to call you into the Boardroom.” All three of these things happened to Stacie. Even when the team went over budget in the third challenge – something that was obviously the fault of Maria or Elizabeth – she received some of the blame for Elizabeth’s lack of organization because Elizabeth had to put out Stacie’s fires.

The eighth rule is something that not only players need to remember, but apparently some viewers as well: Focus on the long-term. People need to remember that the challenges are short-term, but the job – the goal of being on this show – is long-term. We saw last season that Trump didn’t make his decisions based on one single challenge. And really, he shouldn’t! Why should Stacie’s bizarre behavior be ignored simply because it occurred during a task they happened to win? If Sam had fallen asleep last season and his team had still won, should everybody have just shrugged their shoulders and said, “Oh well, we can never bring this up”? Of course not!

As the rule says, “failure at a given challenge does not mean you will lose; success at a number of challenges does not mean you will win.” The challenges show Trump different things about the way players react, but they are not the end-all be-all. All we have to do is look back at Bradford’s loss last week to see that. His mistake came not in the challenge, but in the Boardroom. It happened several times last season as well. Just as Trump doesn’t want to hire somebody who makes impulsive decisions, or somebody who won’t stand up for themselves, he doesn’t want to hire somebody who cracks under the pressure – whether it happened in this particular challenge or some other time.

Moving on, the ninth rule says to think outside the box, but not too far. Since Stacie was apparently never given any tasks that required thinking at all – other than thinking about how to get the toothpaste transported, a task at which she failed – it’s hard to evaluate this item. It didn’t really play a part in her firing anyway.

The tenth rule is to use common sense. Stacie failed in this one for a number of reasons. It is common sense to figure out how much you have to transport before showing up to do the moving. It is common sense to be certain of where you are before telling somebody to come and get you. It is common sense not to make a spectacle of yourself with bizarre behavior when you have just recently met these people are they are all looking for the slightest reason to focus negative attention on you. I could go on, but I think the point is pretty clear.

As we look through all of this, I have to shake my head in wonder at how Trump could have fired anybody but Stacie. If he had known about her behavior during the first challenge in last week’s Boardroom, perhaps Bradford would have been safe. Instead, Maria or Elizabeth (I think Maria) received the benefit of another chance. Sure, Maria screwed up this challenge and then tried to make excuses for it. Without much of a track record yet, under normal circumstances I’d say she should have been fired. But Stacie did have a track record – and it wasn’t a good one. She had cracked under pressure in the first challenge and continued to exhibit odd behavior while at the same time remaining distant from her fellow teammates and managing to screw up even small tasks. That is why Stacie lost.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

Be sure to sign up for our e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on the site! And take a look at the rest of the site. You can find all of our recent articles on this show at our The Apprentice page and take a look at our sections on Survivor: All-Stars and Celebrity Mole. You can even buy reality show stuff at our Reality TV Store!

For more news about The Apprentice, be sure to check out SirLinksALot!