The Apprentice 4, Episode 11: She's Out of Control

At Excel, Randal and Rebecca discuss some shots for their video. Their concept is a guy getting things together to travel and stressing over everything. Then they’ll show the flip side of how the product makes things easier. Randal explains that they looked at some agencies and got some actors for the video. Unfortunately, Josh, the main actor, isn’t very good. After a few unsuccessful takes, Randal pulls Rebecca into the hall, where they agree that Josh brings bad energy. Randal thinks that they need someone more compelling to represent Microsoft. Rebecca is upset that they’ve wasted half an hour. She hates that she has to make a call like this. Randal notes how much pressure Rebecca is under. Rebecca says that she would feel more comfortable if Randal took over Josh’s role, so Randal agrees to do it. He knows they’re under the gun to get this shot. Randal does much better than Josh.

Things at Capital Edge are starting to get ugly. Alla tells some guy (I really don’t know who he is) that she’ll be directing and Felisha will be acting. Felisha says that she’ll listen but she wants to be heard as well. The guy tells her that Alla needs to be the director, since Felisha can’t act and direct at the same time. Felisha reluctantly says that’s fine. The guy says that it needs to be a collaborative effort, as well as a matter of dividing and conquering. Felisha warns Alla not to be a control freak.

Alla thinks that Felisha has become a different person. She used to be strong, but now she’s frazzled and insecure. They do some bad shots and Felisha accuses Alla of taking over. They keep clashing. Alla interviews that when she gets stopped, she feels like her hands are tied. She thinks Felisha is committing suicide. The two of them keep clashing and are clearly not happy with each other.

That evening, Capital Edge starts editing their video. Felisha tells their editor that Alla will be taking the lead in this arena. She interviews that making Alla hold back isn’t a good idea right now. If she wants to get something great out of her, she needs to let her loose. They need to start focusing on winning. The editor is concerned that the women have more content than they do time. They have 2.5 minutes of footage that they’ll need to compress into a 60-second ad. Alla says that they’ll go to plan B - text and voiceovers. They’ll use their footage but then move into stills. Alla interviews that she had an 11th hour brainstorm and thinks they hit the point. She’s happy to see her thoughts and ideas come to life.

Over at Excel, Randal and Rebecca are also editing. They both seem happy with their ad. Rebecca is in the video, too, and she’s even a little better than Randal. Carolyn arrives just as they finish up. Rebecca explains that the actors they hired weren’t great, so she and Randal stepped in. Carolyn sees the finished product and interviews that it’s good, especially because it tells a story. Carolyn asks Capital Edge how long the editing took and Randal replies that they just finished. After Carolyn leaves, Rebecca starts panicking that her comment meant, “This looks like you didn’t spend much time on it.” Randal thinks it was just a generic question (and I agree). Rebecca admits that it freaked her out and she thinks Carolyn didn’t like the ad. Randal encourages her to let it go and not be neurotic. I think part of the reason these two work so well together is because of the way they balance each other out.

The Trump Lesson of the Week is “Family.” Family is important in business, and Trump has known many successful people who weren’t happy because they didn’t have families. We see him talking to Melania on the phone in his car about dinner. He says that people who are truly happy have families. We get more footage of him talking to Melania, calling her “angel” and “baby” and telling her how lucky she is to be married to him. The Jenn Lesson of the Week is, don’t bet money on the outcome of this show. I’m glad I didn’t, because I predicted a Randal/Marshawn final two.

At Microsoft, Randal practices his part of Excel’s presentation. He wants Rebecca to win and thinks she both deserves and earned it. I thought this would be the moment I liked Randal the most this week, but there’s another one coming up. Excel gives their presentation for Janice and Dustin, focusing on how the product will make business easier. We see their video. It’s not exactly Oscar-caliber, but it clearly presents what the product is meant to do and how it will make things easier. Randal finishes up by repeating the main points of the product. Janice and Dustin thank them for their efforts.

Trump is on his way. Capital Edge enters for their presentation, explaining that they want to evoke emotion (huh?) and integrate the product. Their ad is… not good. There’s a lot of text and too much information, all of it moving too fast. It looks like they took all 2.5 minutes of their footage and shoved it in together. Basically, it looks like a typical instructional video - boring. Dustin and Janice don’t look very impressed either. Felisha says that they wanted to get people to realize that they feel the same way about their jobs as she depicted in the video.

The executives discuss whichever video it is they decide is better. They think the team did a great first job and obviously worked hard. Trump arrives and Janice tells him that both teams worked hard and displayed a lot of talent. The four candidates enter and Trump asks how they think they did. Randal thinks he and Rebecca did well and says that Rebecca was a great PM. Felisha thinks she and Alla did well. Alla agrees, though she doesn’t sound as thrilled.