The Apprentice 4 Corner Office and Mailroom Assignments, Episode 8

When the eight remaining Padawannabes to Master Trump were asked to create a marketing display for Star Wars Episode III, only one person on Excel had seen any of the Star Wars movies, which put them at a huge disadvantage. Capital Edge, on the other hand, were able to use the Force to their advantage and emerge victorious. So who deserves a seat on the Jedi Council, and deserves a spot on the crew assigned to clean the Millennium Falcon? Let’s take a look.

Capital Edge

You don’t have to be a Jedi Master to realize that Alla did just about all the heavy lifting on this task (and I’m not just talking about moving the cardboard cutouts around, although she did that too). We saw her directing the photoshoot, mentioning in an interview that she conceptualized the display, and talking to the creative designers. Thus, it’s no surprise that Alla gets the Corner Office again this week, along with an the title of Honorary Jedi and a seat on the Jedi Council, good for one week.

Clay, on the other hand, was more like Darth Clueless and brought absolutely nothing to the table, as Felicia said. Moreover, even Bill Rancic noticed that Clay had to check with Alla before making any decision. That’s no way for a leader to behave. To make matters worse, he tried to cut Alla out of the presentation entirely and take credit for a lot of the work she had done. Fortunately for her, Alla stepped in and added some comments during the presentation. In an interview, Clay said he didn’t want it to seem like “Alla saves the day,” but guess what? She did! If she wasn’t the de facto Project Manager, from what we’ve seen of Clay to date, it seems highly unlikely that Capital Edge would have won the task.

Thus, Clay gets Mailroom duty again this week, aside from his spot on the Millennium Falcon’s cleaning crew.

Excel

Not so long ago in a borough apparently too far away, Brian — a native New Yorker — decided that it would take 15 minutes to travel the 2.56 mile distance from Trump Tower to Boylan Studios. Let’s do the math here. I know from first-hand experience that it takes about 10 minutes to cover the two blocks (if that) between Times Square and Grand Central Station, and I can walk 2.5 miles in the 45 minutes it took Excel to cover the same distance by cab. Thus, as a native New Yorker, Brian should have known that traveling in New York, takes a lot longer than one might think.

Not only did this mistake cost Excel a valuable and sorely needed meeting with the execs, but also Excel’s loss can be directly attributed to missing this meeting since nobody on the team except Randal had seen any of the movies. This begs the question: With such a short distance, and such a lot of traffic, at what point do you start thinking of alternatives to sitting in a gridlocked cab? Shouldn’t someone have pointed out that it would have been quicker to walk? It’s not like they were carrying heavy bags or anything else that would have weighed them down (at least not that I saw). However, if one is not accustomed to walking, I guess the thought doesn’t occur quite as naturally.

Then there was Marshawn and her game of “hot potato” or in this case “hot presentation.” Marshawn mentioned in an interview that she thought Brian either wanted to make her a more integral part of the task, or that he wasn’t confident in the outcome. Thus, she didn’t want the task to come down solely to presentation, and as such didn’t want the finger of blame pointed in her direction as the reason they lost the task. Why she didn’t say that in the boardroom, I have no idea.

That would have been one way to go, but instead she chose to shirk her responsibilities with half an hour until presentation time. Her excuse that Brian would have made a better presenter was weak and nothing more than a transparent attempt to shift the blame. Since both Brian and Marshawn were fired, they can’t be assigned to the mailroom, but they would definitely have ended up there had they survived the boardroom.

On the flip side, the fact that Rebecca gave such a remarkable presentation on such short notice is a testament to her team spirit and her willingness to get things done no matter what. Thus, for stepping up in her team’s time of need, Rebecca gets the Corner Office this week, along with the Honorary Jedi title, and one-week seat at the Jedi Council table.

Week Eight Tally

We’re two-thirds of the way through this season and some trends are becoming very apparent. Alla and Randal appear to be the ones to beat, having already earned three Corner Office assignments each and having never been to the Mailroom. And that’s not taking into account Alla’s unprecedented third consecutive Corner Office this week. This brings her total to four assignments and establishes her lead as the candidate with the most corner offices on either team. Equally unprecedented is Clay’s third consecutive Mailroom assignment. With such a bad track record, how has he managed to hang on for so long? As usual, you’ll find a summary of the results to date below. Remember, the numbers in parentheses are the weeks in which the assignments were awarded.

Excel:
Corner Office: Mark (1), Randall (2, 3, 7), Clay (4), Josh (5), Rebecca (6, 8),
Mailroom: Josh (1), Chris (2), Clay (3), Markus (5)

Capital Edge:
Corner Office: Rebecca (1), Alla (1, 6, 7, 8), Jennifer M. (3, 4), Marshawn (5)
Mailroom: Kristi (1), Melissa (1), Marshawn (2), Rebecca (3), Jennifer W. (3), Felisha (4), Jenn M. (5), Clay (6, 7, 8)

Gil Sery is a freelance entertainment journalist who loves watching reality TV. You can email him at movieman26@hotmail.com with your suggestions on whom you would have picked for the corner office or mailroom.

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