The Apprentice 3, Episode 9 Extras: The Boardroom Boogie

Once again we start with a preview scene. Net Worth meets after learning of their task and Angie volunteers to be the project manager. The team brainstorms. Erin knows nothing about Home Depot. Angie says that she doesn’t have to shop there to be involved and help out her team.

Back at the beginning of the episode, everyone back in the suite agrees that Erin won’t be going home. Indeed, Erin and Chris return. Tana says that she’s happy John’s gone because he was Net Worth’s strongest link. Angie calls Erin a “contender” and receives ten bucks from the producers for promoting another NBC show. Later, Stephanie and Erin start acting like Real World housemates. Ground them, Angie.

Magna meets so that Craig can talk in the third person… I mean, step up to be the project manager. He shares his “inward expression” of himself. In an interview, he says that his team has a great dynamic and this is the perfect team to lead. They’re all available for him to lean on, and it’s a win-win situation. He just used four clichés in two sentences. And he keeps talking about himself in the third person. He must be stopped.

After receiving their task, Magna goes back to the suite to brainstorm. Kendra says that Craig is the default project manager, since he’s the only person on the team who hasn’t done it yet, but everyone is supportive of him. Bren seems to know about Home Depot clinics, so already the team is better off than Net Worth. Craig thinks that interacting with people is going to be a big part of the task. That puts Magna another step ahead of Net Worth.

Craig discusses having different stations and including things for different parts of the house. No one seems to know what he’s talking about. He starts talking about cutting a car in half, and he’s definitely lost everyone. Tana wonders in an interview if Craig wasn’t making sense or if it was just her. She notes that someone needs to take charge. Craig says that the world is the team’s oyster on this task. His teammates seem to be thinking, “Now there are oysters involved?”

Net Worth is at Home Depot, trying to figure out what to do. Stephanie brings up the mobile kitchen island, or, as I would call it, something that takes up more space in your kitchen. Chris says that they should go crazy with it. And he would know… nah, too easy. Angie says that Erin signed off on this task because she claimed not to know anything about decorating or do it yourself projects. Angie thinks this is ridiculous, as everyone has to know something about decorating.

Stephanie suggests actually building an island, so Angie sends her and Erin to get wheels for it. Wouldn’t the kit contain wheels? Chris says that when they came back, they had a bunch of wheels that didn’t fit. Angie is frustrated with her team and says they’re all dumb. She expected more out of Erin.

Over at Magna, the team has their discussion about the box. Sorry, chest. Craig notes that the rest of the team doesn’t seem to appreciate his decision, but he doesn’t care, since he’s busy building the box.

Fast forward to Magna getting their reward flight. Craig appreciates getting to do something that only a few people get to do. Plane, flying, flips, etc.

Back at the suite, Angie reminds Erin that she checked out of the task early on. Erin brings up the presentation and how badly it went. She says that Angie blew it because there was no do-it-yourself aspect to the presentation. However, she’s ready to go to the boardroom because, apparently, she thinks of it as a game rather than something serious. She has fun in the boardroom because she knows how to play the game.

Erin says that she’s going to wear her red suit because it’s “hot.” Keep that in mind when Trump compares her to Paris Hilton later. She says that she doesn’t feel like she looks better in it, she’s just more comfortable in it. She adds that this is about her and Trump. She’s going to do the “boardroom boogie” - she’ll be pointing her finger and doing the dance. Someone has her dances mixed up. Oh, and in case we didn’t understand what she was talking about, she actually does a little dancing in her seat. Thanks, Erin. I was really confused. She denies that she’ll be fired, and Angie denies the same, saying that the loss wasn’t her fault and she wasn’t the weakest on the task.

Net Worth heads to the boardroom. Angie tells Trump that part of the reason they lost was that they were already down four members to Magna’s five. Then, when Erin proved to be no help, they really only have three members. Erin says that she tried to contribute, but George challenges her claim that she didn’t know anything about Home Depot. He says that she should have gotten on the internet and done some research. He adds that he never saw her at the presentation; she was somewhere in the crowd in high heels, trying to help people who were buying nuts and bolts. Erin says that she was wearing jeans, but George says she was wearing jeans with high heels.

Trump compares Erin to Paris Hilton. And he hasn’t even heard her every time she’s proclaimed something “hot.” Trump asks Stephanie for her opinion, and she says that they’re at the point in the process where everyone should be stepping up. She points out that she stepped up when she had no background in anything related to this task. Angie says that it’s a job interview, and she hasn’t known anything about their past tasks, but she was willing to try and give it her all.

Erin blames Angie for the failure and they start talking over each other. Trump shuts them both up and gives Angie the floor. He announces that George and Carolyn think Erin did horribly. Erin tries to put the blame on Angie with a four-point argument, but she only gets through half of it. She says that Angie wasn’t original and ran a bad clinic. Angie says that no one on the team was perfect, but Erin didn’t even try. George talks about versatility and Chris, who has been virtually ignored so far, decides to open his mouth and jump in. Bad move. He thinks that Erin tried to find a loophole so she wouldn’t be blamed for what went wrong. Angie says that Erin was out of her element and Erin shows the maturity of a five-year-old by replying that Angie was.

Trump asks the relatively quiet Stephanie how Angie was as a leader. Stephanie thought she was good, even though the clinic was bad. She blames the clinic’s failure on location, which is probably part of the reason Trump hasn’t asked her much this week. Carolyn says that the team put on a show rather than a clinic, and there was no audience participation. Plus, a project that was supposed to take 15-20 minutes took 40.

Trump decides that the point here is making no decisions (Erin) vs. making bad decisions (Angie). Erin tries to bring up her performance last week, but Trump points out that her team lost. She didn’t do a good job, she was just a good DJ. Erin argues that she should’ve been onstage this week and Trump says that maybe she should do that instead of being a lawyer.

Trump asks Stephanie what she would do, noting that it’s between Angie and Erin, with Chris being pretty much insignificant. Erin starts in on Chris, who starts firing back. This leads to the tobacco discussion, which is still mostly irrelevant. Chris says that Erin is being vindictive. Erin calls it honesty. Trump asks Stephanie who’s responsible and Stephanie says it’s Angie, since she was the project manager. Angie chooses to send Stephanie back to the suite and bring Erin and Chris with her to the second boardroom.

Carolyn and George both tell Trump that Angie did a better job on the task than her teammates. Angie, Chris, and Erin return to the boardroom. Trump tells Angie that George and Carolyn have her back, so she’s pretty much safe. Erin starts trying to defend herself. Trump gives Chris one minute to save himself. Chris calmly says that he did his best. His idea, by the way, had something to do with building a closet. I don’t know. He says that he met with the contractors and generally did the best he could. Trump asks if Erin is better than him and Chris’ temper wakes up from its brief nap.

The discussion goes back to Chris’ tobacco habit. Chris says that his clients have never complained about his chewing. Carolyn tries to ask Erin about her faults, but Erin stalls a little. She finally admits that she didn’t have enough “umph” for this task, but she did try. Carolyn says that she checked out because she didn’t have enough “umph.” Erin argues that she stood behind the project and tried to sell it. Everyone she talked to bought the project. Too bad the task wasn’t about making a profit, Erin.

Trump asks about Angie’s decision not to put Erin in the presentation. Angie says that she checked out, so she couldn’t depend on Erin. Trump says that that was a bad idea.

Trump says that Angie did some bad work, but he’ll listen to George and Carolyn. Erin starts acting like a wise guy, Carolyn criticizes her, and Trump realizes that Princess Erin needs to go. She’s fired. After she leaves, Trump tells George and Carolyn that he thinks Erin was too much of a wise guy and she was proving to be uncontrollable.

In the cab, Erin completely overlooks the fact that she bombed this task, instead focusing on her future with tools. She has no negative feelings about the experience and says she’s better than Paris Hilton. Better how? Whose scale are we working on here? She calls Trump “the Donald” and “Donald,” two bad choices. Her most memorable experience from the show is - surprise - getting her photo taken with Trump. She knew that she was at risk going into the boardroom, since the odds weren’t in her favor. But she went in with pride, and she’s leaving with pride. At least until people see this scene. She says that “all is well in Erin Land,” then asks the driver about the possibility of cocktails. Goodbye, Erin. Go burn that pink bathmat.

Next week: run, Alex, run!

Jenn Brasler is an aspiring writer from Falls Church, VA. You can e-mail her at luckyjenn@hotmail.com. She's trying to decide whether to use her powers for good…or evil. She will write for money. Or candy. Or clothes from Old Navy.

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