The Apprentice: Los Angeles, Episode 8 – Frustration!

James, however, thinks the audience will be too big to make the small boxing ring really stand out. Surya believes James is just setting himself up for the Boardroom, so he can say he objected – they’ve already decided, committed their resources, and the ship has sailed. Surya finishes by telling us, “James, this is why you frustrate me so much!” Ah, Surya, if only you know what James thought of you.

Surya tells the team their idea is everything they thought it was, they just have to make sure to present it right. So he doesn’t want any second-guessing.

Now Kinetic is at the prop house, where they are making the vitamin costumes. One of their props says “strong” on it, but I have to wonder if it’s going to be legible in a large stadium. After all, this isn’t arena football.

Muna is asking one of the prop guys questions, and he keeps putting her off, saying they need to work on other things first. Kristine keeps looking over in an annoyed manner. She tells us Muna was micromanaging the prop guys repeatedly. Finally, the prop guy tells her they are at a point where he needs to be able to work and get it done – HINT HINT.

Both teams are on the field rehearsing. James says he doesn’t think it’s going well and he continues to believe they will not be able to get a simple message across to the thousands of people in the audience.

And now it’s game time! Arrow is in the locker room and James is still trying to get them to understand his concern. It looks like they’re making some last-minute changes, as Bill Rancic looks on. Bill tells us it’s about five minutes ‘til the show, “and it’s utter chaos in there.” He continues, “It would be an utter miracle if they could pull this off.” And from this, we can conclude one thing: Bill really likes the word “utter.”

James and Frank are still going back and forth, and Surya looks like he’s had it with the whole discussion. He says the whole thing is inconsequential, so it’s fine to make the change. James asks again if it’s okay and Surya snaps that he’s one of the most frustrating people to talk to. He adds to us that it’s a difficult team to work with – they are constantly coming up with new ideas and freaking out about something or other. “It makes it incredibly hard to manage.”

It’s halftime! Trump arrives just in time, looking none too happy. He must have run into some white trash on the way over. Anyway, Kinetic has their halftime show first. Lucky for Arrow, that gives them time to completely change their show another couple times before having to put it on.

Angela has the microphone and introduces the vitamin challenge. The vitamins had to go over bone props, through a heart prop, through a ring challenge to emphasize physical fitness, etc. And they wove Muna’s Spanish-speaking into it so the Spanish-speaking members of the crowd could get into it. Aha, they did learn something from the mall challenge. Oh, and one of the red pills won the challenge, in case you were wondering.

Now it’s Arrow’s turn. Frank is narrating on the microphone, talking about Joe, who isn’t doing so well in the boxing ring of life. As he’s talking, Nicole is using the megaphone to try to get the crowd to join in saying, “Hi, Joe.” Ah, good plan – talking at the same time. It appears Joe is about to get mugged in the boxing ring by four guys. Then Frank welcomes “Mr. Vitamin.” If the editing is to be believed, there is no cheering whatsoever, as people just stand around, looking bored. Surya, however, believes the crowd liked it, which means the executive had to like it.

Well, Mr. Executive has one of the same concerns James did, as he tells Bill Rancic it is “kind of a big storyline for the crowd to keep up with.” Oops. They finish up and still no crowd noise. But Surya thinks they’ve been vindicated and is really excited. He’s proud of himself for sticking with a great idea. Hmmm. I hope he tells Trump that when they end up in the Boardroom.

The soccer game continues and it’s time for the teams to meet with Trump and Steven from GNC. Angela thinks they worked extremely hard put on a great show. Surya thinks they executed an out of the box idea to perfection. I think that’s Suryaspeak for “we did well.”

Steven says Kinetic did a great job of promoting the brand, incorporating Spanish and English, etc. When Trump asks how Arrow did, the background music becomes much more dramatic, as if we needed any further indication that they are going to lose. He says they had poor brand integration, it was a difficult storyline to follow, and overall he didn’t understand the concept. So Kinetic wins!

Kinetic’s reward is to go play golf at Trump’s course, which just happens to be rated #1 in California (rated by whom?). They will play with Trump and Mark King, the head of Tailor Made/Adidas. Arrow, of course, will go to the Boardroom, where Surya – er, someone – will be fired.

Arrow is out in the tents that night and they’re very unhappy about the wind that is whipping their tents around. You know, today is the one-year anniversary of when a tornado ripped through my neighborhood, and took a few parts of my roof and garage with it, so I’m not feeling too sympathetic for a little wind right now.

On Trump’s golf course, the women of Kinetic does some driving while Heidi tells us how happy she is to get some face time with Trump. Angela apparently has a good swing – which isn’t too surprising, given that she swings a hockey stick for a living. She hasn’t decided if she’s giving up hockey.

Trump introduces Mark King, and says Tailor Made is coming out with the Donald J. Trump signature golf club collection, and each member of Kinetic gets a full set! With that, he asks to see them hit some balls. So Angela takes a club and whacks Trump right in the— okay, that’s not what happens. But wouldn’t it have been great?