The Apprentice 4 Weekly Performance Review, Episode 2

I will say that conceptually, I thought the men’s video commercial was better, but a series of bad decisions related to the print ad were fatal.

This week, the episode focused on a few key players on this team. Therefore, I have nothing to say about Adam, Brian, or Josh.

Clay: Why was Clay present at the customer evaluation without a suit jacket? Dress for success! I give him a rating of NEEDS IMPROVEMENT in this small but significant area.

James: James had the stones to state, in the Boardroom, that Chris was his choice to be fired. This was significant because it seemed like everyone else was naming Markus. I give him a rating of GOOD for standing up for himself.

Markus: Last week, Markus seemed to be a “loveable loser;” but this week, he turned out to be dangerous. His inability to coordinate two cars was sad, and his @$$-kissing and face-making in the boardroom is beyond transparent.

He’s no team player. He could hardly wait to publicly distance himself from the team, and he began to do so right in from of the customer. Very bad!

There’s probably more, but I don’t want to focus any more on Markus because he’ll never see the end of the game. Rating – UNACCEPTABLE.

Mark: Wow, what a bunch of bad decisions Mark made on the print campaign! If he saw an ad that said “american Initiative,” how impressed would he be? Not very, I’d bet. And as soon as I saw “Green with envy,” I knew the implication would be that the Lamborghini was the envious one.

I could be wrong, but I’m assuming Mark was responsible for that lame script. That junk about “water rebirth” was just bafflegab!

Trump couldn’t have made it plainer that if Mark had been called into the Boardroom, he’d have been sent home. As it is, the black marks he got this week may not come off easily. Overall, NEEDS IMPROVEMENT.

Randal: We didn’t see business activity from Randal this week either, but the respect shown him by his teammates was obvious. They felt revived when he made it back to New York just in time for the presentation. I think there are a few players that have Randal’s back at this point. Rating – GOOD.

Chris: Chris started out this week doing an excellent job. He knew to meet with the ad execs right off the top, to learn what the client wanted. He knew the importance of entering that meeting with an open mind. He gave tasks to Markus, and only after he failed to perform at an acceptable level did Chris shut him down. Finally, Markus excluded, he unified the team toward the common goal.

His work at the presentation wasn’t the smoothest. But there were bigger issues.

Unfortunately, Chris lost the game in the Boardroom. Besides the points above, he didn’t listen when Trump showed he wasn’t about to fire Markus and saw Mark as the weak link in this project. Had he also brought Mark back into the Boardroom, I’d be rating Chris as NEEDS IMPROVEMENT… but The Donald “Trumped” my rating!

Well, those are the performance reviews for week two. I’ll be back next week with a fresh look at our candidates’ latest escapades!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our Apprentice 4 Episode 2 recap:

Brian lives in Toronto where he can be reached at uncle_bto@rogers.com. He spent a couple of decades working in middle management at The Prudential, primarily hiding behind the coffee machine to avoid his pointy-haired bosses. He’d like to hear your opinions and promises to respond to all serious email!

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: The Apprentice!