In order to spare our reading audience the pain of wasted time, this recap will jump twenty minutes into the finale, omitting the first third of the show which consisted of a step by step recap of all of the tasks and firings.

Live from the campus of NYU, welcome to the Apprentice finale. This year's Apprentice finale took on a courtroom feel. Tana and Kendra sat poised waiting for the questioning with their team members sitting in jury boxes on the opposite side of the stage. At the bench sat Trump, Carolyn and George, and the prior two winners, Bill Rancic and Kelly Perdew. After the band finished it's rendition of the Apprentice theme with a flourish, it was time to get down to business.

Donald immediately attacked Tana for the ways in which she spoke of her team during the last task. She had referred to her assigned employees as "the three stooges" and at the end of the task claimed all of the credit herself, saying that she had run the NYC 2012 Athlete Challenge successfully in spite of her team. However, on this evening, Tana came across apologetic, admitting that she was wrong and acted inappropriately. Further she said that she had personally apologized to her teammates and felt that she had made amends. When Trump challenged her, questioning how he could hire someone who treated her employees in such a manner, Tana reiterated that her actions were a mistake and that she learned from her errors making her a stronger leader.

At this point, Trump made potentially the most telling statement of the evening telling Tana that she had an uphill battle, and would have to make up a lot of ground.

Trump then proceeded to address the missing American Flag. As you may remember, Tana could not find an American flag for Governor Pataki to lead the processional with causing a mild embarrassment as the only American flag was found hanging from the rafters. She quickly claimed that NYC 2012 had provided an individual who screened all of the flags and had assured her that the set of flags was complete. This attempt at an espousal from blame was quickly accepted, making it Kendra's turn to go under the radar.

"I hated it when I saw you cry," said the Donald, referring to when Kendra cried with her teammates after her last task, the Best Buy Video Game World Championships. Trump doesn't like crying, especially in the boardroom. Kendra gives potentially the one-liner of the night when she says, "I have seen 300 lb. linebackers cry when they raise the Super Bowl Trophy." …And the crowd goes wild. No, really. The audience at NYU erupted into cheering allowing it to be made very clear who the audience was rooting for.

Now, to get some background information, Trump asks Kristen what she thinks of the two remaining candidates. After waking up from what appeared to be a day-dreaming daze, Kristen gave Tana strong accolades and even gave her credit for apologizing for her name calling and learning from her mistakes.

Flipping to the Book Smarts side, Erin, who seems to be significantly more alert, tells Trump that Kendra was amazing and even inspiring. Further she campaigned for Kendra saying that Kendra never called them names and that she, Danny, and Michael certainly weren't stooges, but were valued employees. Again, the crowd goes wild.

After the commercial break we get to see a bit of what Bill and Kelly have been doing since they were hired. Bill is working as Trump's eyes at the Chicago Trump International Hotel and Tower construction project, focusing on sales and marketing. Kelly is working many projects including, Trump Place in Manhattan, marketing Trump Ice, managing the office building 40 Wall Street, and promoting a new luxury condo complex, Trump Tower Tampa. Bill, additionally, has just received an extension on his contract. All of this may serve to counteract the Newsweek story claiming that the Apprentice jobs are less than what they seem.

Returning to the grilling, Bill fires a shot saying that he doesn't think Tana is able to motivate her team effectively. Tana, frustrated by this comment says the opposite in that she feels that she motivated her team very well. In response, Trump told Tana that he didn't think that her team really liked her, to which Tana said to ask them. So Trump asked Chris what he thought of Tana, and here comes Kendra's competition for one-liner of the night.

But before we hear what Chris has to say, Trump introduces the two jobs the winner will get to choose from.

1. The Miss Universe Pageant: planning, coordination, etc.

2. The Palm Beach Mansion: renovation of a 68,000 square foot mansion south of Trump's Mara Lago

In a twist, each candidate must decide up front what job she would prefer, and predictably, Tana goes for Miss Universe while Kendra goes for the mansion renovation in Palm Beach, her home county.

Now back to Chris. While he thinks that Tana is a good leader with an incredible personality, he feels Kendra is a strong leader and is a better fit into the Trump organization with her real estate background.

Tana, fighting for any point she can get, alerts Trump that Chris' opinion on Kendra is invalid considering that the two never worked together.

…And now Chris' quote. You be the judge.

"I have not worked with her as far as this show is concerned. Outside of the show I have been involved in some things that we are potentially going to be doing together and I just think that she is better suited for the job."

(Hoots, hollers and hog calls.)

Kendra later attempts to clears the air pointing out that she and Chris are moving into the Las Vegas (real estate) market.

Now for some final evaluations. Carolyn feels Tana is a strong saleswoman but can not be excused for the manner in which she treated her team. George says that Tana has the most raw enthusiasm that he has seen in his life, while he was disappointed that Kendra chose to hide under the radar for so long before becoming project manager.

In final speeches, Kendra feels that her education gives her an advantage and Tana agrees, feeling that while her own personal lack of a degree might hurt her on paper, she has learned all the book smarts that are necessary as she is only 28 credits short of a degree.

Trump raises one final question asking Kendra why she was not willing to take credit for her work on the Pontiac Solstice brochure, and rather chose to let it be spread amongst her team. Kendra stated proudly that she is a team player and wanted it to appear as if the entire team stood behind their product.

Tana, who oddly seemed delighted by this, spoke up and said that she was the reason that the Pontiac executive loved the brochure. …And the crowd goes wild with booing. What are we to expect when it appears that Tana is trying to steal credit from Kendra? Tana steps out further saying that she conceptualized the round design of the brochure and dares Kendra to deny it, to which Kendra affirmed Tana's claim. WHAT?! The crowd switched its tune to cheers as Tana's energy soared. Trump admitted that he did not know of this until Tana brought it up and that the style was a big reason why Pontiac loved the brochure.

With the pot stirred up nice and hot, Trump called it a truce and let Tana know that with this new revelation, he has been affirmed in his belief that she is amazingly talented, even more so than Kendra for the majority of the job interview. However, he was impressed that Kendra came through during crunch time and further he felt that the way she treated her employees was remarkable, so, "Kendra, You're hired!" With that and a Pontiac Solstice, Kendra walks away with the win, leaving the Donald to plug the upcoming seasons of The Apprentice, featuring himself and Martha Stewart. Of course, we'll be right here with the recaps, so until the fall this is the Apprentice over and out.