The Apprentice II- Episode Nine

Missing last week was difficult. When the Apprentice was on, I was kayaking on a bay off the Caribbean in the moonlight. But we all have to make sacrifices in this life, don’t we?

I have no idea who was fired last week, and I’m very much looking forward to the first five minutes of the show tonight for the recap.

And here it is. Last week they had to create an ad campaign for the NYPD. Andy was a project manager for Mosaic. Apex went overboard with a very militant campaign. Elizabeth got on people’s nerves. Mosaic won by a landslide. It looks like it was a brutal boardroom. Elizabeth the Annoying didn’t even get to take people into the boardroom with her. She was fired on the spot.

Ten candidates are left. Who will be fired this week?

While the theme song is playing, I’ll share with you a little bit of Apprentice-themed radio. I was listening to afternoon radio today, a rare treat. Steve Dahl, local and very beloved DJ was talking about the show, and said that he’d about had it with Trump. He said he’d like to see the show next season with Martha Stewart as host. That’s a damned good idea! She’d knock some sense into people while turning old milk cartons into lace curtains. Now that’s entertainment!

The show opens, as usual, with the gang discussing who would be fired. They all expect Elizabeth to go home.

After they find they were right, Mosaic picks a name for Project Manager, and Raj is chosen. He is worried, and asks for advice.

The phone rings to tell them to meet Trump at his apartment on Park Avenue. This would be a building he is renovating, Trump Park Avenue, not the one he lives in. The apprentices all line up with their hardhats on. Their job is to go to Long Island to two houses in a dilapidated state. They are given $20k each, and they each have to renovate house. At the end of the project, a team of appraisers will be brought in. The winner is the one who increases their homes value by the most. And the twist this week: Fired apprentices are back! Rob and Jennifer are with Mosaic, Bradford and Stacie will work with Apex.

Jennifer and Ivana start fighting immediately. “Why hasn’t Trump fired Ivana?” Stacie is freaking out that she has to work with Ivana. She wants to approach the girls individually about why they “lied” about her. She lays into Ivana, and they get into it. Everyone is on poor, bitchy Ivana’s case.

Today’s message from Trump: “Control your Contractor.” “You have to know how to deal with contractors and you have to be tough. You won’t even know what happened.” Thanks, Donald.

Apex goes to a house that looks frighteningly one like I was born in. In fact, I’m sure it is in my old neighborhood. Spooky. Anyhow, Their house looks gross, and they decide to build a bathroom, add siding, and make the house into a three bedroom. The whole team disagreed with him though. Chris hates Jenn.

Meanwhile Mosaic is walking around their dilapidated house. Sandy is project manager. Mosaic interviews contractors, and show them a sketch they’d drawn on a pizza box.

Kevin, on the Apex team, finds a contractor named Carlos. Raj eats pizza and discusses how nervous he is about Carlos. Then Apex gets to work breaking down one of the walls.

Mosaic is working hard and fighting hard. Sandy gets on the contractor’s nerves, she is down on her team, “they are starting to smell defeat”.

Andy starts to have doubt about Mosaic’s contractor. The contractors are working, but they have too many cooks in the kitchen, most of whom are supervising.

Meanwhile with Apex, the contractor is having a good time screwing with Raj. The workers eat tacos while Raj freaks during the last two hours. The bathroom upstairs is not completed on time. Just before the commercial, there is a great shot of Caroline laughing at Mosaic during the last 20 minutes as they throw plywood out the window, spilling paint on the lawn.

And now it is time for the appraisal.

Sandy is proud of the job her team did. They did a great job really. She pushes the splendor of the new bathroom upstairs.

Raj’s house looks great with the exterior. Their house looks really nice on the first floor. The warts begin to show as they start upstairs. Someone tracked mud on the carpet, and the bathroom wasn’t finished. It suddenly became a really crappy job.

Apex increased the value of their house by 7.14%, Mosaic by 10.26 percent. The prize is a trip to the Hamptons by helicopter to check out the house of one of Trump’s friends. Denise Rich? Don’t know who she is. Mosaic digs their helicopter ride. Denise Rich invites Mosaic to enjoy the grounds and go to the beach.

Back in the apartment, Raj beats himself up for losing. Jennifer decides to remind him, that Ivana didn’t contribute a thing. I couldn’t agree more. Jennifer was great though, she told Ivana right to her face. Jennifer wants to champion Raj. I think she like-likes him.

In the boardroom, Stacie and Bradford are invited in to give their advice. Trump walks in wearing a tux. Raj begins by blaming the contractor, and taking full responsibility for picking a contractor was. Bradford thinks that Raj did a great job though. He doesn’t think Raj should take full responsibility. Bradford blames Kevin for picking the contractor. Bradford tells Kevin to accept responsibility.

Jennifer thinks Stacie did a great job. Trump congratulated her. Ivana tells us that Jennifer told her to get Stacie away from the windows, because she was afraid she’d cut herself. Trump gets really pissed.

Stacie said she was behind the contractor. Bradford said he’d fire Ivana. Raj decides to take Kevin and Ivana into the boardroom with him. Chris decides he wants to tell Trump that the team has bad synergy. Trump doesn’t like to hear it, and neither does Caroline. “Don’t complain, fix it!” He becomes the project manager for his team next week because of his complaining.

Caroline thinks Ivana did a good job, the other guy... the one standing in for George also thinks so. He thinks Raj was a poor leader. Kevin begins to defend himself profusely. He even changed his story about having picked the contractor. Ivana starts to put down Raj, but Trump defends her. Trump starts to come down on Raj, and fires him for not bringing Chris in after he made a stupid comment, for having Ivana in the boardroom after she did “such a great job”, and for taking a four bedroom house and making it a three bedroom.

How does Raj react? He starts to hit on Trump’s receptionist.

And that, my friends, was another riveting episode of The Apprentice. See you next week! In the meantime, give some thought to that Martha Stewart idea.