The Apprentice 4, Episode 4 Extras: Toral is Delusional

I have decided that instead of picking between James and Brian, I will just date both of them. Just please don’t tell either of them about the other. Unless, of course, they agree to fight over me in a mud pit without their shirts on.

This week we start out with Trump’s Lesson of the Week. There’s nothing new to his message about maximizing potential and knowing your employees’ strengths and weaknesses.

The women of Capital Edge try to pick a project manager. Toral says that she’ll do it if no one else wants to. Doesn’t she sound confident? Felisha takes the role and everyone seems to support this (except Toral, of course). Rebecca interviews that she’s disappointed because Toral should have stepped up. (I never want to hear that phrase again after this week.) Rebecca is afraid both for Toral and for herself, since she stood up for Toral.

Over at Excel, the guys who are brainstorming call Mark and Clay on a cell phone to tell them about the jingle they’ve come up with. Apparently Randal wrote the jingle, but Adam is elected to sing it to Clay. He does. He has a nice voice. Clay is unimpressed. He says that Adam sang the “jazzy chorus boy version” and sounded like a gay Aretha Franklin. Dude, at least they’re trying. What are you doing? Clay tells Adam that he’s speechless, but he’s actually just trying not to laugh too hard. Poor Adam thinks that Clay is speechless because he’s impressed.

Felisha, Kristi, and Jennifer see the finished Zip costume. Jen thinks that Toral wouldn’t be able to carry off the attitude necessary to wear the costume. Kristi puts it on. Is it just me, or is Kristi the perfect person to dress up in an oversized costume like that? As the women leave, Felisha tells the designers to call them if they have any problems. Out in the hallway, Kristi tells Felisha and Jen that she’s wearing the costume. Jen call Zip “hot.”

The next day, Kristi and Marshawn go back to get Zip. Kristi has to carry the costume down the street, and, as she states, it’s 30 or 40 pounds and twice her size. It definitely looks like a struggle to carry. Marshawn thinks it looks great and that the team has a good chance of winning. She thinks they’re more creative than the men will be. She clearly underestimates the magic of Mark in drag. Kristi and Marshawn finally get Zip back to the rest of the group, who cheer (except Toral, because cheering is unprofessional and her family might be embarrassed if she cheers).

Later, Felisha tells some of the other women that if she tells Toral to wear the costume, she will, since Felisha is the PM. Yes, because people on this show always do exactly what their project managers tell them to do. Alla says that Toral won’t wear it. This leads to the discussion of Toral not stepping up. Allan tells Toral that they just want to know why she doesn’t want to wear the costume. Toral would be embarrassed. Jennifer makes the excellent point that her family and employers wouldn’t even know it was her in the costume. (Well, unless they see her agree to do it. But still, good point, Jen.)

Mark and one of my boyfriends, Brian, are in a cab, discussing the genie costume. Mark thinks the details are fine but he’s not sure people will get that Ginnie is supposed to be a genie. He thinks that right now she looks like a cross between Snow White and Mrs. Claus. Brian agrees and isn’t sure about the way the mask looks. They point out that the mask is Clay’s creation. Mark says that if things go badly, Clay’s neck is on the line. Brian thinks that Clay wants everyone involved so that he can point fingers if thinks don’t turn out well. Mark thinks this is exactly right. He says that if they fail, Clay is the responsible party because he hasn’t delegated a lot of the work. Brian hates the pit in his stomach, which he has because he’s uncertain.

Mark, Clay, and my two boyfriends (uh, oh) go to the studio so Mark can try on the genie costume. The music guys put in some Nutcracker music, which is hilarious. What’s also funny is that one of the costume designers doesn’t get at first why Mark might need some duct tape. Mark will wear fake breasts, but he draws the line at duct taping Mark Jr.

There’s a clip here that I think is of the teams’ presentations, but I couldn’t open it. Sorry! Just pretend that Toral rolled her eyes through Capital Edge’s presentation and that I was in the corner during Excel’s, making out with both James and Brian.

The women head to the boardroom. Trump brings up the corporate branding mistake. George says that the brand identification wasn’t there. Jen speaks up that she mentioned this. Kristi and Felisha don’t remember this, but Marshawn does. Trump wonders why the team didn’t want to include “Dairy Queen” somewhere on Zip. Carolyn says that the men did a good job because they thought outside the box (oh, Carolyn! You don’t need to go there! You’re so much better than that!). Their mascot wasn’t exactly attractive, but they hit the demographic. The women, however, went over too small of a market and weren’t effective.

Carolyn and George discuss Zip, trying to figure out what it’s supposed to be and whether it’s a male or a female. There’s no definitive answer. Trump asks Rebecca for her opinion; Rebecca says that they should have done some branding. Alla speaks up that this is the first time Rebecca has said that. George agrees that she’s only saying that because he, Carolyn, and Trump already said it. Rebecca says, “Okay, fine” (code for, “I can’t argue with that so I’ll change the subject”) and states that the team was disorganized in their concepts and didn’t go back to their research. They should have hit the 18-49 demographic.

Carolyn wonders if Rebecca said that the mascot was targeting too young of a demographic. The other women say she didn’t. Alla repeats that Rebecca has never said any of this stuff before. Rebecca protests that she said many times that they needed to hit the 18-49 demographic but no one listened to her. She thinks this is a result of bad leadership. Kristi says that Felisha was a great PM. Felisha backs this up by saying that they made all of their deadlines. For the first time, they were ahead of schedule for every deadline.

Trump asks Toral why the team lost. Toral says that the other women are fine at event planning but not at strategic marketing. The others say that Toral’s contribution to the task was nonexistent. Felisha wonders if Toral actually believes the things she says, because everything she’s been saying in the Boardroom has pretty much been wrong. “I think you stole someone’s diploma,” Felisha says. Ouch! Hitting her where it hurts – her education. She says that Toral only stepped up at the 11th hour because Carolyn was around. She and Toral start talking over each other until Toral finally tells Felisha that she was volatile, emotional, and lacked credibility. She thinks Trump should fire Felisha.

The conversation turns to Toral’s refusal to wear the costume and her claim that it was against her religion. Marshawn says very nicely that as a “woman of color,” she understands Toral’s position on cultural issues, but she herself would have worn the costume if she’d been asked to. I like Marshawn more every week. Probably because she’s dignified and professional but doesn’t come across as a snob, like some people who will remain nameless. Trump tells Toral that since the point is to win the task, she should have done whatever was necessary to ensure victory. Silly Trump. Don’t you know that the point is to cause drama until you become so ridiculous you have to be fired?

Trump asks Rebecca if she’s been “seduced” by Toral’s education. That trampy education. Always there with a candlelit dinner and a bottle of champagne. Trump wonders if Toral would have been fired last week if she hadn’t gone to Wharton. No, because Rebecca didn’t exclude her from the Boardroom because she went to Wharton. She excluded her because she didn’t want to lose the only friend she has. Who else is she going to paint her nails with and braid hair with? I mean, besides Mark. Rebecca says that Toral has a strong background in corporate business. Trump says that might be true, but that’s all she has going for her.

We hear Toral’s claims about Felisha saying she was a marketing genius again. Trump thinks that Toral keeps dealing in half-truths. He asks Rebecca if she agrees that sometimes people make bad decisions. Now it’s Rebecca’s turn to decide if Toral is worthy of staying. George asks Toral why she didn’t step up. Trump doesn’t think that Toral made a case for being PM. Toral says, “Okay, fine,” but she’s not the reason they lost. Trump turns this over to Marshawn, who doesn’t think Toral contributed.

We get the costume discussion again and Toral telling Trump to consider who’s telling him she should be fired. He points out that even Carolyn and George are against her. Trump says that a lot of the problems Toral has to deal with wouldn’t have been there if she’d been the project manager. Maybe not, but they still would have lost and she’d still get fired. They’d just find something else to nitpick. George thinks that Toral’s strategy is to stay under the radar. She should have gotten the message last week and fought to be PM in order to preserve her reputation. Rebecca finally tells Trump that Toral should be fired.

Trump is so disappointed in Toral that he’s not even going to have Felisha pick people to come back to the boardroom. (It doesn’t matter – she probably only would have brought Toral back anyway.) Toral is fired.

In the cab, Toral says that she wouldn’t have worn the costume if Trump had begged her to. Yeah, like Trump would ever beg for anything. Like he would ever have to beg for anything. Toral says that she takes her dignity seriously and wouldn’t wear the costume for a million dollars. She continues that if stupid people make stupid decisions, they’ll wind up with a stupid product. If you stand out from those people, you’ll be in the minority.

Toral doesn’t think she’s the reason the team failed – they failed because of the superficiality of their concepts and poor understanding of marketing strategy. The other women have a “blond thing” going on, and she means that their brains are blond. She would never deal with this people in the real world. Toral has a list of adjectives to describe the other women – catty, unprofessional, uneducated, and inexperienced.

Toral is relieved to be out of that “hellhole” (not as relieved as the other women are to have her gone, or as relieved as I am to have Toral off my TV). She’s never met “such a low caliber of individuals.” She thinks that being called ineffective was actually a compliment. Oh, and that’s just the beginning of her delusions. Also, Toral’s only regret is not quitting so that she could leave with some dignity. Seriously. She wishes she’d quit. I’m so glad she’s gone.

During Toral’s exit interview, I roll my eyes approximately 23 times. She says that she believed her education, her credentials, and her personality would lead her to a job as the apprentice. She notes that most people thought she was a snob; she’s not, she’s just looking for professionalism. She doesn’t like bull, cattiness, gossip, or stupidity. She wanted the best people to win based on intelligence and logic. She thinks that the other women were all superficial.

Toral says that she was challenged to participate (imagine that!). She claims again that Felisha said she had a lot of experience in marketing and would be the best choice to be PM. However, she thinks the best person to lead would be the person who is best suited to lead. Yeah, that would be logical, wouldn’t it? Toral says that the blondes “forced” her to dress up and were ganging up on her. Delusional, I tell ya! She thinks that you should always be cognizant of how you’re perceived in the business community, especially if you’re a woman. She has clients who respect her (well, probably not anymore) and she doesn’t people respect someone who wears a costume on national TV. Except a lot of people make a good living that way, so whatever.

Toral was challenged by Trump. She says that the truth is that he looked silly in the chicken suit on SNL. That’s totally beside the point. He was supposed to look silly. No one looks dignified in a chicken suit. (Dang, I should’ve saved that for next week’s Lesson of the Week!) Toral says, and I quote, “I’m correct in my stance.” If not wearing the costume was the reason Toral was fired, it doesn’t reflect poorly on her. She goes on to say that she didn’t make any mistakes, she just wasn’t popular. Delusional! Toral was unable to deal with the other women. Hey, just like Melissa! She’s happy not to be like the others.

Toral was surprised by the “ridiculous” Boardroom and the fact that she was fired before anyone could be brought back in. She wishes she had had the final Boardroom because she thinks she could have clarified her position, especially against Felisha. Why didn’t she clarify her position in the first Boardroom? Whatever. Delusional! Toral liked Rebecca, but she doesn’t name any other people she liked. She’s looking forward to see her family and friends, who will presumably still respect her because she didn’t compromise her culture or her religion or whatever. She also wants to move on with her career. What is it again? I think she said she was a banker or something. I can’t remember. She didn’t talk about it enough times to stick in my head.

Next week: Bill! And, appropriately enough, Betsy is on vacation, so I’ll be the Bill to her George. See you then!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our Apprentice 4 Episode 4 recap:

Jenn Brasler is the Assistant Editor of Reality News Online and an aspiring writer from Falls Church, VA. You can e-mail her at luckyjenn@hotmail.com. She thinks Toral may need some professional help, though Toral would probably think she’s more professional than that help.

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