The Apprentice 3, Episode 12: Driven

Magna goes to Madison Square Garden. Clad in ridiculously big Knicks jerseys and shorts, Kendra, Craig, and Tana meet several players. Trump and Melania join them. Isaiah Thomas suggests that they make Trump shoot a free throw. Trump nails it, of course, and I’d love to know how many takes they did that in. The players have the candidates run some drills. They’re pretty lousy at it, due in no small part to a lack of teamwork. Huh, go figure.

Kendra reveals that her strategy has been to be quiet at the beginning, observe, and learn the strengths and weaknesses of all of the other players. Then, at the end, she’d take her time to shine. She’s convinced she’s a force to be reckoned with.

Back in the suite, Bren says he was flattered to be asked to join Net Worth and was hoping to pull out a win with them. He and Alex hug it out on the balcony, calling each other “bro” several times, then joke that it’s time to kill each other. In an interview, Chris says he’s perplexed that he, “a brilliant young man” keeps losing.

In the boardroom, Trump immediately slams Chris for his seven straight losses. Bren says his new team brought him down, and that they weren’t as creative as the other team. Trump throws their brochure at them with disdain and says that the other team was better in every possible way.

Chris thinks the layout is great, but that the photography is no better. Way to swat the cobra, Chris – Trump and George are immediately all over him for the out of focus shot of the car. Alex defends it, saying he loved it too. Carolyn can’t believe that they wouldn’t have a decent, clear picture of the car on the first page. George can’t believe they had 150 photos to choose from and picked the one they did.

Chris says that he thought they’d win the task. Trump points out that, giving Chris’s record of late, that’s not really a fair assumption. Chris says he’s frustrated about it.

Bren would like the record to reflect that neither Chris nor Alex got the shot of the logo on the dashboard that he wanted. H e thinks it would have made a great cover. Trump asks why they didn’t show the car on the cover. Chris says he wanted to leave it “up for interpretation.”

Trump asks the guys what they thought of the car? Chris loved it and plans to buy one. Bren says he felt desire, and Alex says he loved the lines. Carolyn says they should have put those emotions in their copy instead of the boring text they had. Bren owns up to having written it. Alex agrees that it was boring, prompting Bren to ask why this is the first he’s heard of it. Why not tell him when they could do something about it? Alex says he was just focused on the art at the time. Chris asks Alex why he didn’t take responsibility and say something. Alex starts to explain that he was sleeping when they finalized the copy, an argument that Carolyn points out is pretty weak – that he took a nap.

Chris says again that the copy was a problem. Bren reiterates that someone should have told him it was a problem. Well done, Bren, making your lousy copy the result of lousy management. I’m not saying that’s totally wrong of him, but I will say that lawyers are awesome in the boardroom.

George adds that the photos were boring also. Those that weren’t out of focus featured a grey car in front of a grey building.

Trump reminds Chris again that he’s lost seven times in a row. Chris thinks it’s “insane.” Trump adds that he escaped all seven times because there was always someone worse. Chris looks like he might cry. Without even dismissing the candidates, Trump asks George who he’d fire. George picks Chris, and Carolyn does the same – he has seven losses, and he did nothing to improve the lousy brochure.

Trump lays it out: Bren’s writing was terrible. Alex didn’t do anything to solve the problem he saw. But Chris has been on many the losing team. Chris is fired.

Chris takes the new hard and starts sniffling and crying immediately. Trump wants to talk to him before he leaves. He tells Chris to watch his temper (oops, looks like that didn’t happen, given that he was recently arrested and to stay away from tobacco. Chris tearfully says he will.

Chris, Alex, and Bren exchange man hugs, and Chris heads down to the lobby. Trump says Chris was a good kid, but it was his time to go. I think it was. A strong argument could have been made against Chris, Bren, or Alex this week. Bren’s copy was boring, Alex didn’t get the interior shots they needed and didn’t speak up about the copy, but Chris was the captain of this sinking ship and didn’t prevent or solve either of those problems. Plus overall, Bren and Alex have proved to be stronger candidates. It was time (probably past time) for Chris to go. In his final cab ride, Chris is much calmer and says he appreciates the experience he had and the people he met.

Next week, we’re down to the final five, and it looks like the rivalry between Kendra and Craig is intensifying.

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

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