"A Tale of Two Project
Managers" - October 28
It's time for the usual
chit-chat with everyone else, so they can guess...
wrong... as to who is back. Their guess this time -
Andy. What's up with everyone picking on Andy? Andy
wonders this too, as he says that he feels like the kid
in Dodgeball who no one picks. Awwwwwww.... he says that
tomorrow, they will see a side of him that they have
never seen before.
We do see him - in his pajamas (well, that's a side of
him that we've never seen before) as he is told that
everyone must meet Trump at 8am via video conference. He
will be going to the Miss Universe pageant - and will
meet Bill, the winner of season 1, there. Also from
season 1 - Donnie Deutsch, but he is in NYC where
everyone will be meeting him. The contest is an
advertising one, as they are to create campaigns of the
NYC police recruitment.
They all meet Donnie, who tells them that the assignment
is a recruiting campaign for the NYPD. He tells them to
focus on the emotional part - why would they want to
work for the NYPD? Andy gets the random draw as the
project manager, and he wants to create something that
would have people asking questions. He immediately gets
into an argument with Maria, who says that Andy is
slowing them down. Maria want to talk about sex appeal,
and she says that with her advertising expertise, she
could have taken the project manager position. She
actually sort of tried to, but finally stepped down when
she realized that no one is going to deter Andy. It's
very evident that if this goes down, so will Andy, and
he knows it.
Apex, however, is the first to visit a compound training
facility where they can tape footage. The project
manager is... Elizabeth, who admits that she didn't win
the last time she was Project Manager and she knows she
needs to win this. Raj offers her a military frontline
idea - and Elizabeth wants to look more for the
emotional angle. She did say that - but she didn't know
what to replace it and that concerns the team. Raj says
that his idea isn't negative, but Elizabeth didn't like
it. Unfortunately for her, everyone else didn't like
anything else on the table, and Elizabeth can't come up
with anything better. Raj jokes that he should have a
savati bomb attached to his chest with the police
gunning him down and him blowing up, but the look on
Elizabeth's face suggests that in her mind, that would
not be a bad idea.
Mosaic gets filming in second, but they know exactly
what shots they want and they get shooting. Meanwhile,
Raj gets helicopter shots and people with guns coming
out of the helicopter. Mosaic starts to shoot when it
looks like the rain is going to come down. Undaunted,
Andy gets in as many shots as he can. 'I'm not weak, I
didn't come here to be weak. I came here to win and I
wanted to make sure that we got the job done, and every
time line was met because of it.'
Trump's lesson of the week - 'You have to Love It.'
They have to be driven and love the idea - or you'll
never be successful. He and Bill schmooze with the
models, and you have to think that womanizer Raj
wouldn't be a bad Apprentice after all.
Going back to Raj, he is sleeping while Elizabeth wasn't
satisfied with the creativity. She talks to Kevin about
it and they talk about refocusing the idea. They decide
to change the focus about making it a hip job. She says
that she may be making enemies, but she WILL NOT change
her mind. That makes Kevin happy and he goes to sleep.
Kevin thinks the team has turned the corner, but when
she shows it to Ivana, Jen and Raj, they all hate it.
Notice that Kevin wasn't there to defend Elizabeth and
the group convinces her to change her mind - again.
Kevin will be less than thrilled about that.
Meanwhile, Andy leads his idea to the rest of the team,
and while Maria and Kelly don't like it, adding that it
strips sex appeal from the campaign, Wes and Sandy like
it, so Andy continues. Andy and Wes are in the video
room when Maria and Kelly voice their concern via
walkie-talkie - as George is in the room. Way to
undermine your leader, gang. Andy fires back, saying
that the action is sexy, and wondering if they want to
see them straddling bodies with their shirts off. 'Young
people understand class, and they want to take the job
due to a sense of responsibility, no because they are
going to get laid.'
George is listening in, and asks what is going on. Andy
wisely says that it's just them planning an exit
strategy when we should be focusing on trying to win the
task. Andy is absolutely right, and although he'll get
the boot if he loses, he'll be in great shape if he
wins.
Someone who is not in great shape is Elizabeth, who now
creates a different campaign to Kevin, who is pissed
that Elizabeth hasn't made a decision. They are now 5
hours away from presentation time and they still don't
have an angle. "I think our project manager sucks. Flat
out." She leaves and everyone else wonders if they can
fire Elizabeth. Well, you can't, and Kevin wonders why
Elizabeth can't make up her mind. She says that she has
made a decision - and she wants Kevin to manage it. He
tries to talk to her, and in a painful 2 minute sketch,
she isn't listening to Kevin - at all. A frustrated
Kevin gives up and walks away from her, as he plans his
own exit strategy.
Back to Mosaic - Kelly wants to be the person to do the
speech, even though Andy has been a debating champion.
Andy says that Kelly joined the military (not the police
force) and even though they clearly don't like each
other, Andy will give Kelly some of the presentation,
adding that Kelly doesn't respect him. Respect - or
jealousy?
Elizabeth says that she did her best to try to soften
her campaign, while the team is trying to convince her
otherwise and Carolyn is noticing the animosity and
disorganization that is forming as a result. They try to
convince her some more, but nothing is happening and all
of Elizabeth's team has walked away from her in a
mutiny.
That's not going to help as Deutsch, Linda Sawyer and
Kathy Delaney are there to judge the competition.
Elizabeth does relent and joins the Front Line campaign,
and the TV commercial, to be honest, seems like
something you'd see more in an embattled third world
nation that is about to experience an uprising than NYC.
Elizabeth says that action is needed, but you can see
the look of pain on Deutsch's face as he sees the
campaign.
It's Mosaic's turn, and Andy is the person who is giving
the speech, while Kelly foes through the print ads. The
theme is "When is the last time", which pulls you into
your own soul to ask those questions. What was even
better is that they had the police people at the
compound saying the lines, and Deutsch said it was
perfect and seamless. There's no competition here, it
seems, as the women thought Mosaic hit it right on the
money in terms of the emotion, while Apex's ad could
actually scare people off.
Deutsch calls up Trump and tells him that Apex turned
New York into a military state, while Mosaic followed
the directions exactly. Mosaic wins it in a landslide.
As the reward, the group will get surprised tomorrow at
9am. The losers will have to go back to the Board Room,
where someone will get uprisen personally by the Donald.
Andy says that he is happy that everyone knows that some
22 year old kid led them to victory. They get picked up
for the surprise - in Times Square. The surprise is that
their ad gets played in Times Square for everyone, which
uplifted everyone's spirits.
Those spirits are equally downtrodden, as Wes tells
Elizabeth to be opinionated - and hope that her opinions
match the Donald's. I agree with it, but it's going to
be tough with the rest of the team against him. Jen
overhears Wes and calls him for it, adding that he
shouldn't be helping her. Why not? All's fair in love
and Apprentice, and if it means that he can get a strong
player out of the way, then he should do it. Wes tells
Jennifer that all he told her was "Don't be a p#ssy," to
which she replies, "She can't help it." OUCH!
Raj asks what she is thinking - and she tells him that
she disagreed with his idea. Raj realizes that he is
going to be the person under fire, and he needs to set
up a strategy to defend it. That could have been a
really bad move for Elizabeth to broadcast her
strategy...
...and we will see what happens when they all go to the
Boardroom. Donald asks her what went wrong, and she said
that they didn't have a good idea. She says the team
didn't come up with a good idea, adding that their
definition of a good leader is someone that stands with
their convictions. She says she followed through with
that - the problem was that they couldn't come up with a
better idea.
Donald asks to see the ad - and he does. He looks just
as in pain as Deutsch does and Carolyn adds that it's
awful. Donald: "Forget about shooting the Apprentice - I
should go upstairs and bolt my doors. Most wives aren't
going to tell their husbands to go join up... unless
they have a very bad relationship and want to lose their
husbands."
Donald asks Raj if it was his idea, and Raj says that he
pushed it because it was the only idea on the table. "It
was better than any of the alternatives - which is
none." Jen says that Raj took a position, which Jen and
Chris agreed, as Chris added that there was no
direction. Ivana says that Raj pushed it because there
was no pushing by Elizabeth. Donald: "Was she weak and
ineffective, or just weak?" Ivana: "Both." OUCH.
Jennifer adds that she was weak, ineffective and
indecisive to the point of paralysis. "Other then that,
I thought she was terrible." OUCH!
Elizabeth adds that she wanted to come up with a better
campaign, but Kevin, her only ally, seals her coffin by
saying that she did have a better idea, but the team
made changed her mind. Donald says that the team can't
make a strong leader change her mind, and he says he
sees no leadership. Donald asks her who she would bring,
and she says Raj and Chris. Donald doesn't think it
would be necessary, and he fires her right there, adding
that he doesn't want to waste any more time. Whoa.
So for the first time in the series, we get no miniature
Board Room session as Elizabeth gets canned. He says it
was a no-brainer and Carolyn and George agrees. Well, at
least we won't have any guessing by everyone at the top
on who is going home.
Since we have no mini-board, I'll say what I think the
rationale of Kelly is. He is going after Andy because
it's not that Andy is too young, but that he is the
biggest threat for him to win everything. Based on what
happened this episode, you would think that Kelly's fear
is realized, as Andy is now a new threat to win
everything. With that, we get to the ratings -
So Far, So Good -
Jennifer M., Kelly, Andy, Kevin
So Far, Not So Good - Wes, Sandy, Chris
In Trouble - Raj, Maria, Ivana
You're Fired - Elizabeth
Next week, in an episode that should have been aired
this week, the ghosts of their past come back. That
spells trouble for Maria and Ivana, who were
instrumental in getting rid of two of said ghosts. We'll
see if that comes back to haunt them. |