The Apprentice 5, Episode 5 Extras: Sean as James Bond in “Diamonds are Forever”

The first four clips are just repeats – Dan going crazy as PM, the TLOTW, Dan doing everything during the filming of Gold Rush’s commercial, and Andrea taking over for Synergy. Finally we get to a semi-new scene. Leslie tells us that Dan let her, Charmaine, and Lee direct the first scene of the commercial (which they’re filming last). Lee explains to Bill what they’re doing. Charmaine interviews that they started working and Dan took over again. Dan explains in an interview that the scene looked bad. Charmaine tells him that it’s a key scene in the commercial. Leslie interviews that you have to trust the people you work with, but it’s obvious that Dan doesn’t trust them.

Gold Rush is editing their commercial and Tarek has been assigned to work with the editors. Charmaine interviews that he acted like he was the project manager. Tarek and Dan discuss a scene and Charmaine interviews that Tarek never gave up the role of PM after the first task. He’s stuck on his own ideas and won’t listen to anyone else. So it looks like Dan wasn’t the only one who didn’t listen to the TLOTW.

Synergy discusses their ad. Michael (who?) is worried that in the first scene, the couple will seem like they’re bored on a Norwegian Cruise. I guess this is what Andrea was whining about earlier, but Michael is obviously able to articulate himself better than she is. Andrea thinks that the idea is complex and they can’t convey it well. What’s so complex about it? It’s called compare and contrast. Tammy is worried that the ad looks gimmicky. Like Trump cares about gimmicks. Roxanne interviews that she’s frustrated with the whole process. Andrea is the bad apple ruining the whole bunch. With this and her comment about playing in the sandbox, Roxanne must love analogies. She continues that Andrea has been conniving all day and getting the other members of the team to side with her. She’s decided to just scrap the opening.

Roxanne and Sean are now alone in the editing room and she tells him that some people have been complaining. Sean interviews that she can’t just give up after all this work. She’s the PM, so if she wants something, she can just do it. He tells her just to see what the first scene looks like with the rest of the ad; if it doesn’t work, then they can get rid of it. Sean interviews that he wanted to kick everyone out of the editing room except Roxanne and tell them all to leave her alone. Go Sean! After seeing the episode as aired, I didn’t think anyone was on Roxanne’s side, so it’s nice to know that Sean stuck with her and, whether the rest of the team was aware or not, tried to help her out.

Synergy gets their sparkly reward. Sean interviews that the trip down to the vault was like something out of a movie. He had the James Bond theme running through his head. Roxanne interviews that she hopes this is the closest she ever gets to prison. The team members play with diamonds. Allie interviews that everyone was dropping them. They pick out their own. Allie interviews that she understands now that diamonds really are a girl’s best friend.

Once again, it’s Boardroom time. Dan tells Trump that they had a close call, I guess thinking that his ad was better than it was. Charmaine thinks there’s room for improvement with Dan. Trump and the team discuss Leslie and her lack of involvement. Lee says that there was a lot of chaos in the first hour of the task because of the way Dan led. Overall, he wasn’t the best PM. Lenny says that Dan was incapable of being the project manager. Trump asks if Dan was loud. Lenny says that he was lost and scared, and he had a problem with listening.

Trump discusses the ad’s lack of clarity. Everyone notes that it was Lenny’s idea, but they admit that everyone liked it. Bryce says that the concept was a problem, but it’s the whole team’s fault. Trump asks if that means that the whole team should be fired. Bryce says that even he takes responsibility; he should have spoken up and said it was a bad idea. They just had limited time and had to go with the first idea that they all thought might work.

Trump brings up freestyle cruising and how the ad was supposed to highlight this. This leads to the discussion of the lack of voiceover. Tarek tries to defend his decision. Lee seems amused. Lenny says that Tarek isn’t a genius. Trump wonders if Tarek took the Mensa test or if he paid someone else to take it. Lenny speaks up that it’s only $18. Heh. Tarek argues that he was just executing what his team wanted. Lee says that it was a one-man team. Trump asks whose fault the loss was. Leslie says that there were two decision-makers and Lee adds that they made a lot of bad decisions. Dan bashes Lee and Tarek backs him up. Trump asks if Lee was a worse leader than Dan. Tarek says he was.

Charmaine would fire Tarek. Lenny wanted the voiceover and Tarek got brash with him just for making a suggestion. Lee would fire Tarek (of course) because he hijacked the task and didn’t let Gold Rush work as a team. Leslie wants Dan to stick around. She thinks Tarek should go, but she doesn’t think Dan will bring him back to the Boardroom. Lenny says something about a “Brent special” that I don’t quite catch. Trump asks if Tarek is the opposite of Brent. Lenny replies that he is physically. Trump asks who’s smarter. Lenny thinks Brent is smarter – Tarek has a high IQ but low intelligence. Bill cautions Dan not to make this a popularity contest; he should bring back the right people. He shouldn’t leave out his friends because it’ll come back to haunt him. Dan doesn’t listen to him or Trump, choosing to bring back Lee and Tarek but not Lenny.

Carolyn thinks that Gold Rush’s concept was bad and Dan made a mistake by using it, but it was Lenny’s idea. Bill agrees, but thinks that Tarek made a bad concept worse. When Tarek, Lee, and Dan return, they discuss Dan’s intentions for bringing Tarek in. Tarek says that he thinks Dan was a good leader. If he’s fired today, it’ll be a major blow to the team. Trump thinks that Lenny should be there but Dan disagrees. Carolyn says that he almost brought Lenny in and wonders if he was afraid of being ganged up on. Dan says that Lee checked out on him after he worked hard for Lee, so that’s why he’s there. Carolyn says that Tarek was a good choice to bring, but he made a mistake by not bringing Lenny back. Dan says that everyone agreed on the decision not to use voiceover.

Tarek tries to defend himself by saying that the text wasn’t his idea. He adds that it was almost all written by Lee, but Lee disagrees. That’s not the point anyway – it’s not that the text was bad, it’s that it was there at all. Trump notes that Tarek has been in the Boardroom a lot. Tarek thinks that everyone is aiming for the “alpha dog.” Trump calls him an embarrassment to Mensa. Tarek says that some people always lead, so when the team loses, they take the fall. Other people just don’t step up. He’s obviously talking about Lee, but Lee led the second task, so it’s not like he’s never stepped up. Trump doesn’t think this is a fireable offense anyway.

Trump says that Tarek has been bad throughout the process. Lee doesn’t deserve to be in the Boardroom. Lenny does, and since Dan didn’t bring him in, he’s fired. So basically the lesson here is always listen to Trump.

In the cab, Dan says that he put his faith in his team but people had problems with each other that affected their creativity. If you say so. He can’t hold one person responsible. So the whole team sucked? Okay. Dan says they didn’t do a great job, but it was a team effort. That’s why he couldn’t implicate Lenny. It’s too bad the team didn’t come up with more ideas, but they didn’t have enough time. He would like to think that the team will struggle a little without him, but they need to pull together so they don’t lose again. Dan thinks Charmaine and Andrea will go a long way (I’ll give him the former but not the latter). He had a great time meeting everyone and hopes that some good opportunities will come his way. He had an excellent time, did stuff he wouldn’t ordinarily do, and made some great connections. He’s happy to go home to his family.

In his exit interview, Dan says that he thought he could be the next Apprentice because of his varied business background. He notes that maybe he shouldn’t have led the way he did. The first hour of the task was chaotic, but it’s always like that. There was something missing from the ad, and he admits that it might have been a voiceover. He realizes now that he made a mistake with that. Dan says that after he became the PM, Lee and Lenny checked out. He didn’t think he could place the brunt of the responsibility on Lenny because everyone on the team agreed on the idea.

Dan continues that he and Tarek had a connection from the beginning but he and Lee never really got along well. He was a big fan of Brent (mostly because he was making Synergy miserable) but he doubts he would feel the same if they’d been on the same team. He’s happy to go home and see his family. His sons are really cute. Dan says that he called home after the third task and spoke to his three-year-old son. Instead of asking, “When are you coming home?” or saying that he missed his father, he said, “Can I have potato chips?” Dan laughs that his son didn’t even care that he was gone. He’s blessed to have a great family.

In a preview for the next episode, Bryce calls Gold Rush together to make peace before the next task. He says that he’s the project manager, apparently a self-elected one (so tough luck, Leslie). He wants everyone to get everything out in the next 15 minutes. Tarek says that he feels like no matter what he does, good or bad, he winds up in the Boardroom because his team thinks he’s a threat and they want to get rid of him. He interviews that he feels honored by this because everyone has to knock him out to win. Leslie, however, announces that she’s insulted by this idea. Tarek interviews that the weak go after the strong. Charmaine says that if people interrupt Tarek or do something he doesn’t like, he starts sighing and rolling his eyes. Hee, she does a funny Tarek impression. Tarek says that he’ll change his ways. Charmaine doesn’t look like she believes him, and I don’t blame her, since he doesn’t sound very sincere.

Next week: More singing? Didn’t they do that last season? Please let at least one of these people be able to carry a tune.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other Apprentice Episode 5 articles:

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 wonders if Michael is never shown because he never does anything or because he’s just boring.

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