The Apprentice 3, Episode 12 Extras: Cry Me a River

Our preview scene this week is of Kendra telling Tana and Craig that she’d like to be the Project Manager for this task. Unfortunately, her ideas are met with resistance, and she wonders why her team would let her be Project Manager if they’re just going to shoot down what she suggests.

We’re back to the beginning, where Kendra, Tana, Bren, and Craig are waiting for the two spared souls from Net Worth to return from the boardroom. Alex and Chris return and tell the others what happened. Later, Kendra, Craig, and Tana are sitting around a table and Kendra decides to extend an olive branch to Craig. She tells him that they may see things differently, but she wants to work on communicating well with him. She adds that she respects Craig, so she wants them to be on the same page. Craig says that he appreciates this and they hug.

After the task is announced, Net Worth gets to work. Chris says that he wants the team to research and brainstorm before they do anything else. Bren talks about the car evoking emotions, especially desire. He adds that they need to get a lot of interior shots. Too bad Alex and Chris don’t listen - they’re too busy fawning over Alex’s idea of putting a hot blond chick next to the car. He wants their tag line to be, “All good things come in pairs. The new two-seater roadster.” Chris says that the photos will be important, but the “verbage” in the brochure will be even more important. He wants it to be carefree, crazy, and extreme. Well, that sounds familiar.

Magna heads to the studio for their photo shoots. Craig is happy that the car is sexy, because he thinks it’s good to like what you’re marketing. Of course, he and Kendra start clashing a little. So much for their agreement to try to communicate better.

Later, Net Worth is at the studio. Bren reminds Alex about getting some interior shots. Alex appears to be listening, but we know how well that turned out. Chris and Bren leave and Alex stays behind to oversee the shoot.

George watches Chris’ outside shoot. Chris interviews that he felt like he had a natural ability to find good shots of the car. Inside, Alex continues running his shoot. His directions to the blond model include, “Nice, playful, this is America.” Yeah! America! We make the best cars! Or something.

That night, Chris and Alex head back to the agency to meet up with Bren. We join them in the middle of a conversation, in which Chris tells Alex, “My girlfriend’s smarter than I am. Not really, but I tell her that she is.” He does realize that a camera guy is following him, right? I’m guessing that Chris is single now. The three guys pick photos for their brochure, quickly realizing that they only have one interior shot. Bren interviews that he reminded Alex to get interior shots.

The conversation turns to the text of the brochure. Bren says that he found reviews and quotes from car magazines, and wants to incorporate them. Yeah, that’s creative. Chris tells Bren that he’s responsible for the brochure. Bren notes that he’ll probably have to pull an all-nighter to get everything done. He predicts (correctly) that Craig and Tana won’t be doing the same.

We skip to Kendra, Tana, and Craig heading to Madison Square Garden for their reward. Trump points out that they’ve won seven times. We see Trump’s free throw again. Isaiah Thomas tells the team that since they’re now dressed like the Knicks, they should act like the Knicks. “We came to play,” he tells them. They do drills and lay-ups, but not well. Kendra interviews that Isaiah had some very encouraging words for the team. She says that in basketball, you can only win as a team, and it’s the same for this job interview. She adds that she’s kind of glad that she hasn’t been out in the open very much (and she hasn’t even seen the early episodes where she was barely onscreen!), because it gave her the chance recently to really break free and show what she can do. She’s proud of herself for proving that she could perform well.

Alex, Bren, and Chris drown their sorrows at a restaurant. Chris is disappointed that they lost. They talk about their individual amounts of losses. Chris’ seven trumps everyone else.

Chris, Alex, and Bren shuffle off to the boardroom. Trump asks Bren how Chris was as project manager. Bren says that he’s young and has a lot to learn, but he was okay. Alex thinks that they lost because there was “a failure of planning.” What about a failure to communicate, Mr. Don’t Worry, I’ll Get the Interior Shots? Trump asks who came up with the concept for the brochure; Bren says that it came from all three of them. Trump asks why they lost and Bren says that they weren’t innovative enough. Trump shoots back that, in addition, Bren was bad. Bren acknowledges that there might have been some things missing from his performance. Like creativity and the ability not to put the reader to sleep, maybe.

Trump asks Bren about Alex. Bren says that Alex is okay, adding that they were all okay, but no one was especially spectacular. Trump asks if Chris and Alex brought Bren down; Bren says that they definitely did. Trump insults the brochure, then asks Chris if the team failed because of him. Chris allows that they did, partially. Trump starts to ask him to compare Alex to Bren, but then he gets distracted by the bad brochure again and starts insulting their photos. Alex recognizes that Magna just trounced them. Carolyn and George insult the blurry photo, and rightly so.

Trump and George wonder why Net Worth lost. Bren brings up the failure to take a picture of the interior tag. The group talks about the Solstice, because apparently Trump doesn’t feel that they’ve advertised the car enough. Carolyn points out that the team should have focused on emotions.

Carolyn asks Alex how he feels about the brochure text. Alex thinks it was terrible. Bren wonders why Alex didn’t say anything. Alex acknowledges that Chris was responsible for the team’s failure as a whole. Trump says that Bren is a great guy, but he’s not very exciting. He tells Bren that he means that in a nice way, and Bren seems amused. How can you mean that in a good way?

Anyway, Trump’s point is that he doesn’t get why Chris put Bren in charge of the brochure when he’s not the most exciting person. Trump adds that Chris is crazy and wild (I’m sure he means that in a good way, too), so he should’ve done the brochure. Chris basically says that there was nothing else for Bren to do. Bren argues that Chris made his decision in the cab, before they even started, so it’s not like they got to work and Chris realized that Bren had no job. Chris says that he thought he would do a better job with the photos. Trump wonders if Chris could have done both the photos and the text. This is the guy who spent three hours hunting down a credit card last week, so I doubt it.

Carolyn asks Chris why the team failed. Chris says that it was because of the brochure text. Bren repeats that someone should have said something about it. George asks who was responsible for the amount of text in the brochure. Chris pins that on Bren, “to a certain extent.” Bren says that Chris gave him a page with the photos on it and told him to fill in the blank spots, so it’s Chris’ fault. Chris says that everything about the task was his responsibility to a certain extent. George says that the pictures were more important than the text, so there should have been more photos than words.

Trump mentions again that Chris has lost seven times and still hasn’t been fired. He asks Bren if Chris is a loser. Bren says that Chris isn’t a loser, he’s just lost a lot. Trump thinks he’s being kind, but Bren claims that he’s being honest. Trump asks Chris if he’s a loser. Chris, of course, says that he isn’t, he’s just lost a lot. George notes that he’s also been lucky. Trump says that Chris is talented, but he keeps losing. Chris doesn’t know why, since he worked hard. Yeah, you really worked hard at standing around last week. Trump asks George and Carolyn for their opinions; they both think that Chris should be fired.

Trump says that Bren’s writing was horrible, and Alex shouldn’t have kept quiet about it, but Chris was the project manager, and everything went badly. Therefore, Chris is fired. Now for my favorite part, when Chris starts crying. I’m sorry, but…hee. Hee hee hee. I think that if you cry after you were turned down for a job, you need to get some thicker skin. Did he really think he would slip through the cracks again? Anyway, Trump tells Chris that he has a lot of potential and could be a big success. Out in the lobby, Chris hugs Alex and Bren. Not seen: Robin IMing her friends, “You won’t believe what just happened!”

In the cab, Chris thanks Trump, George, and Carolyn for the experience. He had some good times and met some great people. He says that he went into combat in the boardroom with his “bros.” He wishes Alex and Bren luck. He calls the experience a roller coaster, especially this last boardroom. He thinks it was neat to go in with two people he respects, adding that they all spoke facts. Chris likes facts a lot, apparently. He goes on that when there were more people around, it was easier to explain failures. I think he really means that it was easier to find someone to blame for failures.

Chris says that if he could have fired anyone else tonight, it would have been Bren, because he thinks Alex and himself are stronger than Bren. However, he thinks that either Bren or Alex will win. His most memorable experience was drinking with Alex and Bren last night; it was nice to have a release with people he cares about. If your most memorable experience after 12 weeks of a job interview is drinking with your buddies, you need to rethink your priorities.

Next week: who cares? Kendra’s in the final four!

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.

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 Survivor: Palau and Amazing Race 7. You can even buy reality show stuff at our Reality TV Store!

For more news about The Apprentice, be sure to check out SirLinksALot: The Apprentice Page!