The Apprentice 3, Episode 12: Driven

At Magna, Kendra energetically chooses shots while Tana yawns. Craig is worried about writing the copy, but Kendra wants to pick the photos first. Craig is still frustrated at what he thinks is a lack of direction, so he leaves to research the car for the copy. Kendra tells her team that the project will take all night, and she’s not worried about the text like Craig is. Craig says they still have no concept, and Kendra disagrees. In an interview, Kendra says that Craig doesn’t listen to her, and she feels like she’s all alone in the task.

Bren says that he’s going to have to stay up all night writing. The guys are getting a little punchy, and Chris actually falls off his chair, which cracks Bren and Alex up. Bren can’t imagine Tana and Craig pulling an all nighter. Chris agrees, saying that Craig in particular isn’t equipped for it.

Well, Craig is indeed still awake, but he’s not happy about it, nor is Tana. Tana says it’s easy for Kendra to say she’ll stay up all night – she’ll just drink four more cups of coffee. Tana says she can’t do that because she doesn’t drink coffee. Oh, Tana. Start drinking coffee! It’s good for you! Tana tells Kendra that she and Craig need some sleep. Kendra tries to butter them up by saying that she respects her team and wants their input. Craig tells her he doesn’t believe that, and Kendra looks shocked! Tana says slightly more diplomatically that they just aren’t seeing the years of publishing experience Kendra said she had. Kendra says stiffly that she appreciates their honesty, but she is offended. She then stalks off in a huff. Tana giggles.

Kendra gives an angry interview and tells us that Tana wants her to do all of the work. Well fine, then – she will. So, here’s the thing. It seems apparent that the candidates do need to stay up all night to finish the task. Kendra knows it because she knows more about what it takes to put together a brochure like this. But Tana and Craig don’t understand and think Kendra is working harder than she needs to. As not only the project manager, but also as the person who is saying they should lose sleep, Kendra needs to convince Tana and Craig that it’s important to stay up and finish the project. If she doesn’t convince them and does all the work herself, she might pull out a good product, but she’s not a good manager.

Tana and Craig take off for sleepy-bye town. We see a montage of Kendra and Bren writing. Kendra has a list of emotions, and their dictionary definitions. Bren is writing about how jealous your neighbors will be of your cute new car. Alex falls asleep, and Bren and Chris call him a sissy. I’m hoping that in the extras footage, we’ll see them putting Alex’s hand in a bowl of warm water.

Kendra finishes her work and walks back to the suite in triumph. She’s thrilled with her brochure. She wakes up Tana to tell her that she just got back (it’s 8:30 in the morning), and that she has a goofy, almost post-coital grin on her face. Tana tells her good job, then rolls over and goes back to sleep.

Net Worth checks out their new brochure. Chris thinks it looks great, but Alex isn’t convinced. In an interview, he says that he found the copy to be boring and flimsy. While we’re on the subject, I think the cover is terrible. It’s black with the Pontiac logo – that’s it. I think that’s a misfire. They’re not selling Pontiac; they’re selling the Solstice.

In matching pink outfits, Magna is excited to see the brochure. Kendra can’t wait to show it off to Tana and Craig. It’s round, and the cover features a close-up of the grid of the car. Just at a glance, it looks really cool. Craig and Tana are happy with the brochure, and Craig notes in an interview that they all did really well. Kendra, on the other hand, is really resentful of Tana and Craig and wishes they’d shown more appreciation for her hard work.

Tana begins the presentation, which also annoys Kendra. After all, this is her baby, and she wishes Tana would just shut up. The two of them interrupt each other fairly politely in the course of the presentation. Kendra tells the execs that they had a “focus group” and that everyone had an emotional response to the car. I think “focus group” is a bit of an exaggeration, since they just pulled random people off the street. If anything, it was an unfocused group. Kendra shows the execs that her brochure not only has a pocket for a CD, but also business card slits. Apparently Kendra went nuts with the extras while Tana and Craig slept.

Trump’s limo heads to Pontiac.

Net Worth is next with their presentation. Chris says that he thought both “exteriorally and interiorally” about the car. In an interview, Alex is less than impressed with Chris as a public speaker, noting his made-up words. Then, to make matters worse, Chris mispronounces Solstice. Ouch. The execs hate the blurred shot, even after Chris tells them that he thinks it’s cool and will make the customer want to turn the page. Alex says that he loves “the shape” of the brochure. That shape, by the way? Is a rectangle. Ooh, fancy!

Trump arrives for the results. Is there really any doubt? Net Worth did an okay job, but didn’t deliver enough information to persuade a customer to buy the car. Magna got it exactly right – so right, in fact, that Pontiac intends to produce the brochures that Kendra designed. Kendra is thrilled that she won, despite the fact that her team abandoned her. She’s exempt from firing and is guaranteed a spot in the final four. For their reward, Magna will go to Madison Square Gardens to play basketball with some famous Knick players, including Isaiah Thomas. As for Net Worth, Trump says the only slam dunk will come when he fires one of them.

It must be really frustrating for Kendra to have to share her reward with two people who didn’t believe in her concept from the beginning, didn’t support her, then were more than happy to reap the benefits of her hard work. It would be like if you had to come up with a Home Depot seminar and everyone hated your box idea, which ended up being really successful. Ahem.

Chris, Bren, and Alex go out for drinks together for one final time. Chris is bummed and says that the other team was much more creative. He’s now lost seven times in a row. Worse, he tried to prove himself as project manager and failed.