The Apprentice 3: Why Verna Lost

The seventh rule says to think outside the box, but not too far. It really had little to do with Verna, other than that motel challenge Project Manager Michael was so boxed in to his way of thinking that nothing could penetrate it – but Verna failed to recognize that and kept pounding away despite the futility of it all.

Eighth is the rule that says not to be one-dimensional. I don’t know that we saw enough of Verna to judge this issue, but we do know that it would have been difficult for her to be a leader and all-around team player in Trump’s world if she could not even handle the second challenge of the game.

Finally, players should use common sense. Obviously, somebody who wants to win should know that walking out of a challenge is not the way to accomplish it. Of course, winning is not what Verna was thinking about at the time.

I think she might have actually used some common sense at the end. Verna really doomed herself when she walked out at the Motel, even though she came back. Trump was nice about it afterwards, but I simply cannot imagine that it was anywhere in his mind that he would ever hire her after that. She would have had to turn into Superwoman to justify coming anywhere close to the Final Two. With that in mind, I have to wonder if Verna herself realized it. She had plenty of time the following day to think about what had happened, and she might have recognized that she was doomed. She might have taken what she felt was the common sense course of action and walked out, thus avoiding any future stress.

However, in mind this does not justify quitting. Maybe she wouldn’t have won. But maybe she could have staged a comeback that would have impressed Trump. If not Trump, maybe she could have impressed others – players need to remember that only one person from each series gets hired by Trump, but others can use their TV time as a job application elsewhere. Verna, unfortunately, will now be remembered as “that woman who quit on The Apprentice,” when she could have been known as “that woman who came back after being stressed out.”

In the end, though, Verna simply could not handle the pressure of the game. Should she have known better? I think so. Even if she only saw the first season before taping this one (as I’m pretty sure was the case, because the second had likely not started airing before this one began production), she should have seen the huge amounts of stress the players faced. Every serious fan knew that they got little sleep, little to eat, and ran around working like dogs almost every hour of the day. And serious job applicants know that you should always do your homework before walking into a job interview. If this process is a months-long job interview, Verna should have known what she was getting into.

Whether she fully understood it or not, Verna could not take it. She folded under pressure, leading to her all-out collapse in the game. There were many ways she could have let the situation play out, but the pressure simply got to her. That is why Verna lost.

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

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