The Apprentice 5, Episode 3: Shark Bait

Boardroom time. Theresa says that the team lost because of individual execution and creative problems. She blames Tarek and Lenny. Trump tells her that the other team knew what they were doing, but Theresa’s big accomplishment was getting the horse and buggy. He asks if Theresa thinks she led well. Of course she does. Trump asks if anyone disagrees. Well, Lenny, for starters. Theresa says Lenny is hard to manage, which is a bad argument, since it’ll just get her branded as someone who can’t manage a difficult person. Tarek says that Theresa made some huge errors, but she says that he didn’t do his job. They try to talk over each other and Tarek totally wins.

Bryce thinks that Tarek did well, but Bill disagrees because of the horrible putting green. The team should have changed their plans when they arrived, like Synergy did. Carolyn says that Theresa wanted a classy event but missed the mark. Theresa goes on about how awesome she is, and if I didn’t have to write all this down, I would stop listening. She calls Tarek a disaster and he wonders why she didn’t single him out instead of Lenny if she feels that way. He thinks she’s trying to save herself. When Tarek isn’t being an egomaniac, he’s pretty logical.

Carolyn reiterates that the golfing was bad but Tarek says that the circumstances were out of his hands. Let me tell you something, Tarek - Carolyn doesn’t care. And Trump cares even less. Lenny is asked what he thinks, and he says Trump should fire everyone. He brings up the whole Rosh Hashanah thing again and wonders if he’s the only stupid one there. Trump says “that’s life” again, and it could have been Christmas and all the Jewish candidates could have been the only ones working.

Trump brings up the comedian (Charmaine’s responsibility) and Charmaine tries to defend her choice. Carolyn thinks she should be held accountable for the disaster. She is shocked to learn that Charmaine paid Cory even after the horrible act. She notes that Cory’s lewdness could have cost the team the task. Bryce thinks that Lenny should be fired. He says he’s funny, and Trump says that he’s funnier than Cory. The sharks were funnier than Cory. There’s some discussion of whether or not Theresa hates Lenny. Bryce gets mad at Lenny again for screwing up. Trump still thinks Lenny should have been the comedian instead of Cory. Theresa says he’s a liability. She’s bringing Lenny and Tarek back to the boardroom.

Bill thinks that Theresa dropped the ball and that Lenny is a good worker. Carolyn agrees that the loss wasn’t Lenny’s fault. She thinks Tarek did a horrible job. Theresa, Lenny, and Tarek return and Lenny is asked why he shouldn’t be fired. He thinks he did well because he did what he was told to do. Tarek agrees, adding that Theresa should go because they had no theme and she didn’t manage the people they hired (like the models) well. Trump thinks that Theresa should have brought Charmaine back, which makes me sad because I like her (if you hadn’t noticed). Theresa thinks Tarek was worse than Charmaine.

Tarek and Theresa argue again and Tarek goes on more about the theme. Carolyn says that the candidates and models had no knowledge of the product. Charmaine was bad, Tarek was bad, and there was no leadership. Theresa thinks she did well because she delegated. Carolyn asks why she blames Lenny. Theresa brings up the lack of electricity, but Trump doesn’t think that’s the reason they lost. Theresa says that they had an unfinished event because of Lenny. Tarek speaks up that he finished and the event was successful. Theresa says that’s because they all made it that way. Tarek argues that he and Bryce did that.

Lenny is asked for his opinion and says that Trump should fire both Tarek and Theresa. This is, by the way, the only thing he says in the boardroom, and only because he’s asked to speak. That’s exactly what he should have done - if no one’s talking about you, keep your mouth shut. Bill notes that the models did horribly; Theresa blames Bryce for this. Maybe she should have given him more than 20 minutes to teach them about the car. Bill notes that she should have brought Bryce back, then. Charmaine hired the models, however, so Trump says again that she should have been brought back.

The team also had a bad concept while Synergy’s went perfectly with the Tahoe. Gold Rush… had a horse and buggy. Trump talks about how many mistakes Theresa made. There are too many to forgive, so she’s fired. She says she’s sorry for screwing up and thanks Trump for the experience. Tarek promises to step it up. In the lobby, he and Lenny wish Theresa luck and head up to the suite while she goes out to the cab. In the boardroom, Trump repeats that Theresa should have brought Charmaine in. I don’t like thinking that Charmaine could have been fired, especially since it’s not really her fault Cory sucked and the models didn’t know what they were doing.

I think Trump was right to fire Theresa. She focused so much on class but everything went exactly the opposite of the way she’d hoped. She should have come up with a unifying theme like Synergy and built the event around it. She also should have kept a tighter reign on her employees instead of just delegating and then blaming then when things didn’t go well. Tarek screwed up, but it was really Theresa’s choice to keep the golf event on. Plus, he should get points for trying to keep it going even in bad circumstances. Lenny shouldn’t have been in the boardroom; Theresa was just being petty. She should have brought in Bryce or, as hard as it is to admit, Charmaine.

In the cab, Theresa says that she didn’t lead poorly, her team just didn’t follow through. See what I mean about blaming others when things went badly? She thinks she was an asset. She hopes this isn’t the last Trump sees of her.

Next week: Brent crosses the line… with Charmaine? “Keep me out of the boardroom or you’ll be sorry,” he says. Methinks he’s the one who would be sorry in the boardroom.

Jenn Brasler is an Assistant Editor of Reality News Online and an aspiring writer from Falls Church, VA. You can e-mail her at luckyjenn@hotmail.com. She hopes either Lenny or Tarek warns Charmaine that she’s on thin ice so she can redeem herself.

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 The Amazing Race 9 and Survivor: Exile Island. You can even buy reality show stuff at our Reality TV Store!

For more news about The Apprentice, be sure to check out SirLinksALot's Apprentice page!