The Apprentice 3, Episode 15: With Friends Like These

The next morning, the two women head to the boardroom, and they could not look more different. Kendra is wearing a very conservative grey pantsuit with a simple white shirt underneath. Tana, on the other hand, is decked out in red, sequin (or maybe bedazzler beads) and what appears to be a Muppet pelt. On a TV screen, Trump appears and gives them their tasks. Kendra will run the Best Buy video game world championship. Tana will host the NYC 2012 Athletic Challenge to promote New York as the site for the Olympics in 2012.

Before they begin, Carolyn and George have employees for them. Kendra will be working with Erin, Michael, and Danny. Ouch. Tana gets Brian, Kristen, and Chris. Also ouch. The teams leave, and George tells the candidates that they are in charge and should feel free to use or not use their teams as they see fit. In other words, fire Omarosa, Kwame! About two seconds after the door shuts behind the employees, Tana asks if they can switch up their teams. George says no, and asks Kendra if she too has someone on her staff that she’s not thrilled about. Kendra says there is. George tells them that part of the task will be working with people they might not choose to work with. Fair enough.

The two women return to the suite somewhat deflated. Tana says that she has all of the bad tempers, but Kendra has all of the scatterbrains. The two of them laugh, because what can you do? Kendra thinks Tana will have some confrontation ahead of her. She, on the other hand, feels like she’s being tested to see how she can handle people with a “degree of incompetence.” It scares her that these people will have some hand in if she wins or loses.

Kendra calls her team on the cell phone and says she’s excited to be working with them. Lies make baby Jesus cry, Kendra. Michael figures Kendra called to boost morale and questions whether she’s actually excited about working with them. No one ever said Michael was dumb. Kendra fills her team in on what they have ahead of them. She cannot believe she’s in charge of a video game championship.

At the event site, they meet general manager Martin. He gives them a tour, including the grand ballroom, the main location. Electronic Arts will provide the game, and Sony will provide the consoles. Kendra says she needs to figure out how to lay everything out. Erin says in an interview that Kendra will deserve to win if she can manage her team, but that Tana should win “the medal of honor” if she can manage hers.

Tana hugs her team and thanks them for helping her. She says in an interview that the three of them have explosive tempers. As they walk into Chelsea Pier, Kristen claims that they all love each other, a remark that Brian scoffs at. Chris starts rattling off ideas. Tana tells her team that she will have faith in them to make any decisions relating to their area of responsibility. She says she trusts them. That’s going to either be a really bad or really good idea.

Kendra plans a preliminary meeting to make sure everyone is on the same page. Erin has to go upstairs to get Danny when the execs arrive for the meeting. But for some reason, Kendra isn’t ready yet. Not good, Kendra. Danny asks if they can wait ten minutes for her, and they say no. He feels like he has no choice but to start without her. He begins the presentation with a jingle and seems to get no response from the executives. Erin sits there like a lump and plays with her bangs. In an interview, she says that Danny was scattered and unable to communicate clearly. The execs are worried because they haven’t seen anything practical, like a timeline or a layout. Finally, Erin goes to find Kendra. Why didn’t she do that in the first place?

Kendra arrives at the meeting, only to find a stammering Danny. Kendra is furious that Danny took over. She apologizes for being late and walks the execs through the plans. In an interview, she says that she was frantically trying to regain the credibility that Danny lost for her. One of the execs thanks her for going through it all so quickly, and David from Electronic Arts says he feels better about the event now that he can see her vision.

Meanwhile, Tana decides to meet with Peter and Amy at NYC 2012 to find out what they’d like the even to accomplish. She gets in the limo with Carolyn while her team follows in the van. Tana tells Carolyn that she wasn’t thrilled with her team, but so far, so good. She knows that they’ll bicker. And of course, she’s right – we cut to the van, where Kristen and Brian are having a heated argument about whether or not Kristen should wear hats (for the record, I’m on Brian’s side). In the limo, Tana expresses her concern that the abrasive members of her team will rub somebody the wrong way. Chris, driving the van, can’t keep up with the limo and is getting lost. He calls Tana, and she can actually hear everyone feuding in the background.

Finally, everyone arrives, and Tana, Carolyn, and Brian go to the meeting while the rest of the team parks the cars. Tana begins the meeting by asking what the planners’ expectations are. She learns that it’s very important to provide a great experience for the athletes. Just then, her phone rings. It’s Chris, and he can’t find a parking spot. Tana has Brian take over while she gets the call. Bad move, Tana –she should have had Brian deal with them while she handled the presentation. Tana isn’t too sympathetic with Chris’ problems finding parking and says in an interview that if she has to fire him, she will. Meanwhile, Chris and Kristen argue some more. Kristen says that she just realized that since no matter what happens, she won’t get fired, she doesn’t really care what happens to Tana. Uh-oh.

Over in Kendra-land, crates have arrived. Michael offers to take care of storing them in the basement for Kendra. Kendra notes that, by contract, they are to only have Electronic Arts games in the ballroom. She meets with Aimee, a Sony rep. Since Playstation is a major sponsor, it’s important to keep Aimee happy, Kendra says. Kendra shows Aimee the space, and Aimee is most certainly not happy. The disco ball, red velvet ropes, and taxidermy décor, which looks like Danny’s wardrobe in room form, is not what she had in mind. Kendra apologizes and says it’s not as they planned. Aimee says, “Don’t be sorry. Just make it good.” Aimee explains in an interview that she expected her area to be more cool and to have more of a Playstation motif to it. If the room doesn’t look better the next day, she’ll consider yanking her sponsorship.

And with that, the episode ends. Next week, we’ll hit the finale, which mercifully is not three hours long. Go, Tana!

Betsy Wasser is the Associate Editor of Reality News Online and intends to direct some serious gloating towards Kendra fan Mike DeGeorge when Tana wins next week. She can be reached with any comments at betsywasser@gmail.com .

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