The Apprentice: Los Angeles, Episode 8 – Frustration!

Hello there, Apprentice fans! Your usual recapper, Betsy, is unavailable right now due to a feud with her internet provider. At least, that’s what she says. I think she’s just sick of Donald Trump. And really, who can blame her? I mean, last week I thought he was going to fire Randal for daring to ask better questions than Trump did. Instead, of course, he fired both Derek and Jenn.

When the Boardroom is over, Muna is giving her team a pep-talk. She says she knows everybody wants to win the Apprenticeship, but they need to make a decision of whether they want to win the next task or the whole process. I’ll take 3) All of the above. Kristine says they are slowly disintegrating and they need to work harder than ever.

In the mansion, meanwhile, Surya is giving his team a pep talk – one that is not going down quite as well. In fact, Frank calls his manner “sickening” (not to his face, of course – they prefer making fun of Surya behind his back). He says Surya’s story about how he wanted to come to their team because they were so smart and strong is baloney and contradicts what Surya had said earlier about wanting to step up.

I have to say, I understand why everybody is getting sick of Surya. We only see a small part of his pontificating, and I’m already annoyed. He just goes on and on and on and on about how great each person is. Frank tells us Surya is a phony. “I hate him.” Finally, Frank can’t take it anymore and leaves the table while Surya is still rattling on.

The two teams arrive in a park type setting to meet Trump. He has Bill Rancic as his eyes and ears this time. We don’t know who is on his left yet. But we find out we’re in Echo Park (okay, so it’s not a park-like setting, it’s a park, period). He says people like to exercise in Echo Park. For the record, I don’t like to exercise anywhere, thank you very much. Trump says he should exercise, but he pays somebody to do it for him. OK, not really that second part, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

We finally meet the other person with him, Steven Nelson, the executive vice president from GNC. Trump says Kinetic used to be stars, but they’re not anymore. I’m just wondering why the other team has two more people than they do, and Trump isn’t evening them out.

Anyway, their next task will be performing a halftime show during a Los Angeles Galaxy professional soccer game to promote GNC. They will do it at the Home Depot Center and will have access to two different design teams to assist them. The team that best promotes GNC as judged by Steven wins.

Arrow is planning in the van. Frank says whoever puts on the biggest show and gets people involved wins. Tim suggests having a skinny guy getting beaten up in a boxing ring – until he pulls out a bottle of pills from GNC and, like Popeye with his spinach, suddenly becomes strong and wins. James and Frank both like it, but Surya “calls timeout.” Oy. Frank looks like he wants to smack him before Surya even opens up his mouth.

When he does, he says everybody should take five minutes to think up an idea – but no talking out loud. They all sit there with blank faces as Frank shushes everybody. And Surya apparently has no idea he’s being made fun of. But he’s busy writing down his idea. Then Frank announces there are two minutes left. Surya still doesn’t understand he’s being made fun of. Frank keeps it up, and Tim is laughing, but again, Surya still doesn’t get it.

James tells us the obvious – that Surya is driving them insane. He says Surya is only 24, but he acts like an annoying old man. He gives them looks of disapproval like they’re kids (well, they do act that way sometimes), but the reality is he wants to be one of the kids but he doesn’t know how to let loose. Considering what happened with Snoop Dog last week, I think James is right.

Frank announces “pencils down” and asks everybody to hand in their Scantron forms. OK, I think Surya has finally figured out he’s being made fun of.

Meanwhile, Kristine has stepped up to be project manager at Kinetic. She used to do some work for an arena football team that involved on-field promotions. She says their concept is a GNC vitamin challenge. They will have four big vitamin costumes that “four humans will wear.” I’m glad she clarified that they will be worn by humans, because I was thinking she had hired out Martians for the task.

The vitamins will engage in a variety of activities, including running through a clotted artery to overcome heart disease, etc. Muna has some suggestions, and Kristine says they are going to try it different ways, so everybody needs to be flexible. But she promises not to hang anybody out to dry. Hmmm. Foreshadowing?

Kristine tells us Muna is acting like Kristine has no idea what she’s doing. But she’s put on some 30 halftime events. Muna is going on and on, and Kristine tells us, “I’m going to kill her.” Ooooookay. That’s not quite what she tells Muna, though she does stop her and say Muna is not giving her any credit. Muna is taken aback and rhetorically asks us what type of person she would be if she saw an area for improvement and didn’t point it out? So she decides she will shine in her tasks and, “God-willing,” everything will work out. She further elaborates that she believes God is still on “our side.” I’m not sure who the “our” is – herself? Kinetic? I dunno, but no matter what, I can’t believe a supreme deity has nothing better to do than concern himself with what goes on on The Apprentice.

Arrow is at the prop house and they find stuff they can use to make a boxing ring. So I guess they are sticking with that idea, and Surya’s five minutes of thinking didn’t change it. Tim thinks it will come off really well.