The Apprentice 5, Episode 1 Extras: Seduced by Brainpower

It looks like Yahoo! has finally gotten its act together a little. The extras footage is a little easier to access (though I had trouble rewinding one of the clips), and they’ve even added a new feature, a preview of next week’s episode. The clips even provide some information that I think should have been left in the episode, as it gives us a little more insight into some of these wacky candidates.

We start off with a couple extra minutes of the candidates arriving. Andrea says that she built everything she has from scratch. Lenny tells us that when he came to America from Russia with his wife and son, he spoke no English. He loves America because of the safety and opportunity it provides. Everyone sits around and studies the competition. Theresa says that one of the guys stood up and gave her his chair, though I’m not sure he didn’t just stand up to go look at some things on the wall. She says that she didn’t sit down because she wants to show what a strong woman she is. Well, then she’s going to be a strong woman with tired legs. Roxanne describes the experience of hearing Trump arrive and how exciting it was to start off the process.

Trump meets the candidates. There’s nothing new here. I wish they’d extended this and let us see more of the candidates’ descriptions of themselves.

During the Sam’s Club task, Trump calls the project managers to ask them their team names. You’d think he would know better after what happened with Markus last season. Rhona places the call, reaching Charmaine for Gold Rush, and for some reason I’m amused that Charmaine asks who’s calling before she goes to get Tarek. When she does find him, she tells him that Trump is calling, but she almost calls him Donald. Trump learns that the team has named itself Gold Rush; he likes the name. Tarek talks too much and I’m surprised Trump doesn’t make a Markus joke. Allie is much more concise when she tells Trump that her team is Synergy. She says that the name comes from all of them using their talents together. Trump points out that they’ve only just met each other, but Allie thinks the team members have varied backgrounds and good personalities. She’s sure they’ll win this task.

Tarek gives Summer the task of calling restaurants to get people to come to Sam’s Club. Summer tells him that she needs to do so before the dinner rush. That’s the last we hear of that, at least for now, and next we see Summer making her single unsuccessful phone call. She stops because they have no “hook.” Charmaine says that she thought Summer would be able to connect with people because they have the same job.

In the suite, Tarek asks Lenny if he really wants to go on the blimp. Lenny says that he does, and he thinks it will be a problem if he’s on the sales floor. I wish we knew more about that because I’d like to know what that problem would be. Summer volunteers to go on the blimp as well. Tarek likes this idea because he has no confidence in Summer’s selling. He jokes that he hopes the blimp doesn’t crash because of all the dead weight that will be on board. Har har.

After a replay of the Trump Lesson of the Week, Charmaine and Bryce are given the unenviable task of standing out Sam’s Club and literally yelling to people to come inside. Bryce admits that he’s basically just making a fool out of himself. He says they’re just trying to get people into the club. I think that if I were driving along the highway in New Jersey and someone start yelling at me to come into Sam’s Club, I’d get distracted and crash.

Synergy does their thing at Sam’s Club. I think this group is pretty good with communicating with customers.

In the boardroom, things generally progress as follows. Allie: “We rocked.” Tarek: “We rocked.” Summer: “Not so much.”

Synergy has lunch with Trump. Trump asks if Brent is uncontrollable, and the increasingly likable Allie replies, “I have a whip back at the suite….” She continues that he’s difficult to manage because he’s not very adaptable. She fails to mention that he pouts like a little boy when he doesn’t get his way. Brent interviews that Allie plays dirty and is a b%$@#. That’s some very adult language from someone who keeps acting like a child. He doesn’t think it’s appropriate for Allie to be bad-mouthing him at lunch with Trump. He thought they could move on, but now he doesn’t think so.

Michael, who I am actively courting while seeing Sean behind Betsy’s back, asks Trump what it’s like to be a brand. Trump says that there’s a lot of pressure in that and he handles it by telling himself that it doesn’t matter. He goes on to talk about putting things in perspective. Michael interviews that this reward was a big deal because they got to ask Trump questions that other people can’t. Oh, and then Brent? Sends his steak back. Let me repeat that. While eating lunch with Donald Trump at the Wharton Club after winning the first task of the season, in a setting in which one should be trying very hard to be impressive, Brent sends his steak back. Allie interviews that it was unprofessional. The team members toast to success and Sean talks about what a great reward it was.

At the suite, Lee says that he needs to be calculating in the boardroom, even if he blames Tarek, because he knows that not everyone is going to back him. Tarek tells him that he could be critical like Summer, but he should consider everyone else’s feelings. He thinks that their event was successful. Lee thinks that it was Tarek’s fault they lost. He’ll answer Trump’s questions in the boardroom and stick up for himself. He adds that anything could change before they get to the boardroom.

In the first boardroom if the season, Tarek admits to Trump that losing hurts because he’s so competitive. He takes responsibility for the loss but adds that Summer and Lenny sucked. Trump notes that Summer predicted the team’s loss. Everyone discusses the blimp situation. Summer defends Lenny. Trump asks if the problem is that Tarek isn’t a leader or if he just led badly. Lenny says that he’s a bad leader. Lee says two of the main problems were mismanagement and a lack of creativity. Theresa says that Tarek’s excitement and motivation helped her. She adds that he was respected by most of the team, though Trump points out that Lenny and Lee don’t respect him. Theresa thinks that the team lost because of Summer.

Summer tries to use the dinner rush as an excuse, but Carolyn gets her by asking how many people she called. Bryce says that if Summer had called a few more restaurants, they might have won. Summer thinks that they should have used their budget better. Tarek asks if the problem was poor strategy or poor execution. Bryce says it was execution. Summer says that she and Lenny made tasks out of the bad assignments they were given. Bryce says something about calling restaurants between 1 and 3, but the point is lost when Carolyn speaks up that they can’t just blame the loss on strategy. Charmaine says that the loss isn’t just one person’s fault, but nevertheless, Summer needs to go.

Trump points out that Summer was right when she predicted that Gold Rush would lose. Whether the others like her or not, and whether or not they agree with her, she was right. Tarek thinks she just made a blind guess. George tells him to look at the time frame - when she made the prediction, she didn’t know the results. He thinks her outspokenness took courage because if she’d been wrong, she might have alienated herself from the rest of the team. Little does George know that she was alienated anyway.

Dan (who?) says that they can’t commend someone for making a chess move when it was the only move to make. I hate chess metaphors. They’re too easy. Dan adds that Summers’ outspokenness didn’t show until they got to the boardroom. The team didn’t know that she only made one call until the day she was in the blimp. Charmaine says that she was in the room when Summer made the one phone call; Summer took command of the task but Charmaine wasn’t impressed by her sales abilities. Tarek chooses to bring Lenny, Lee, and Summer back to the boardroom.

Carolyn tells Trump that she thinks Tarek led well and Summer should have made more calls. She adds that Lenny couldn’t have contributed much, since he was in the blimp. George reminds Trump that he made Tarek the project manager, so it wasn’t something he volunteered for. He blames Summer as well. When the candidates return to the boardroom, Lee admits that he doesn’t like Tarek very much anymore. Tarek seems to remember Lee complimenting him on a job well done, but Lee says that he only said Tarek did some things well. He notes that Tarek told him he wouldn’t bring him in.

Trump wonders why Tarek brought in who he did. Tarek says that these three were the worst of the team. Trump notes that they all want Tarek gone. Lee says that Mensa Man had no creativity. Summer says that everyone on the team had the ability to do well, but Tarek’s ego hurt them. He wasn’t humble and didn’t ask for help. Tarek says that he always listened to the team, which has nothing to do with what she just said. Trump asks Tarek why he brought Lenny in. Lenny thinks that Tarek doesn’t like him, but Tarek says that Lenny didn’t do anything on the task.

Trump asks Tarek if the loss is his fault. Tarek thinks the team didn’t put forth a good effort, but Trump says that they needed leadership. Some project managers bring people to the boardroom who like them or who will side with them against others. He wonders if Tarek is really as smart as he leads on. Trump admits that he’s “seduced by brainpower,” but Tarek has done some pretty dump things. Carolyn asks Summer what she did on the task, but for the life of her, Summer can’t think of anything. Trump asks Lenny if he would be disappointed if Summer were fired. Lenny would be. Trump asks Lee the same question and gets the same answer. Tarek thinks that Lee is upset because he brought him in the boardroom. George brings up the lack of incentive to come to Sam’s Club, dismissing the dumb gift bags. Summer jumps in, effectively shooting herself in the foot. Trump basically calls her stupid.

After a repeat of Summer’s fantastic kamikaze mission (which is punctuated by a somewhat hilarious moment of Lee hissing at her, “Say you’re sorry, Summer” in an attempt to save her), Trump realizes that Carolyn was right. Summer is fired and Tarek is given a reprieve.

In the cab, Summer says that she’s leaving happy with herself because she stayed true to herself. She didn’t want Tarek to be fired because of a “play on words.” So she didn’t want Tarek to leave because he couldn’t come up with a better gift than a duffel bag. Okay, then. Summer doesn’t regret standing up for Tarek; in fact, if she hadn’t, she would regret that. She’s always out for the underdog. If Trump isn’t impressed with her, she’s okay with that. She would rather have integrity than money. Summer enjoyed learning how far ahead of other candidates she is with character alone. She also thinks she’s smarter than some of the others. So what she’s saying is that she’s too punk rock for this and she’s glad she’s going home. Good to know.

In her exit interview, Summer says that she was a good candidate because she succeeds at what she does and she’s dedicated. She thinks the team lost because of egos and Tarek’s inability to be humble. She brings up the dinner rush again. She says the phone call didn’t go well because she had no pitch. The boardroom was entertaining and she was shocked to see people flip-flopping. She admits that didn’t communicate what she did on the task very well to Carolyn. She also didn’t do very well with showing what she could do on the task. Which is kind of the whole point of the process, so that would be why she was fired.

Summer says that Tarek screwed up, but not with the bags. In defending him, she did what comes naturally to her, and if it got her fired, she shouldn’t have been there. She gets things from working hard, not from being cutthroat. The best part of the experience for Summer as seeing that Trump is exactly who she thought. She left admiring him as much as she did coming into the process. Summer is happy to go back to her restaurant and see her loved ones. She thinks she’ll appreciate them more now. The experience was great and she’s proud of who she is.

In a preview for next week’s episode, Tarek, Lee, and Lenny return to the suite to applause from the other candidates. Tarek is incredibly relieved and tells Bryce that he came very close to being fired. He says that Summer’s mistake is his gain. He won’t make excuses and Trump wasn’t wrong to call him out for what he did.

Next week: I’m guessing either Lenny or Brent will be fired. Just a hunch.

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 thinks that when Brent inevitably goes down in flames, it will be spectacular.

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