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Sixteen men and women have been
chosen by the queen of good things for a 12-week job
interview, in which only one can be named president of one of
his companies.Who
will Martha Stewart choose as his next Apprentice? Keep track
at the
Portfolio.
Recaps by Julie Suchard, GSNN |
FACT FILE:
Host:
Martha Stewart
Assistants: Charles Koppelman and Alexis Stewart
Creator: Mark Burnett (based upon "The Apprentice")
EP: Mark Burnett, Donald Trump, Jay Bienstock
Packager: Mark Burnett Productions, Trump Productions
Airs: Wednesdays at 9:00pm ET on NBC |
Copyright Statement
ALL ORIGINAL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1999-2004
GAMESHOWNEWSNET.COM. All rights reserved.
No infringement of copyright is intended by these fan pages; production companies of shows this site covers retain all rights to the sounds, images, and information contained herein. No challenge to copyright is implied.
Web design by Jason Elliott. Logo by Chico Alexander.
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Sweet Suite
- October 13
We start this week with a brief recap of last weeks
disaster for the Matchstick (artsy-fartsy) team. They
made a wedding cake that nobody bought, and Shawn was
hoisted on her own petard.
Cut to the Primarius team, celebrating their victory on
a balcony overlooking Manhattan and toasting one another
with wine. They go back inside the loft to find that all
the Matchsticks are missing, although some of them left
their luggage behind. Where did they go? Did they all
quit, or get canned?
Back in the conference room, Martha puts her foot down
and fires Shawn, even though project manager David
didnt nominate her to go on the chopping block. When
Matchstick returns, the Primarius team members are a bit
shocked that Shawn is gone. Carrie, sporting a
button-down vest with a Union Jack design that anyone
over the age of 7 would be embarrassed to wear, says
that Shawn was one of the stronger members of the
opposing team. Jim regales the Primates [my shorthand
term for the Primarius team members] with the story of
Fake It Til You Make It! Jim tells the camera that
the Primates were too smug, and he cant wait until they
go to the conference room so he can drink their tears
like nectar of the gods.
A new day dawns, and Amanda [the freaky bird-woman]
answers the phone. Marthas secretary Julia tells them
all to meet with Charles and Alexis in the conference
room at 9:00 a.m. Jim helps Howie tie his necktie while
Marcela blow-dries her hair. Martha joins them from a
remote location, because shes a busy woman [with an
ankle bracelet]. Shes at her farmhouse on Turkey Hill
Road working on a project [but she wont tell us what it
is]. Martha and her husband had a VISION in restoring
and decorating this farmhouse and the grounds, and she
wants the applicants to use their own VISION in the next
task.
Each team will get an empty two-bedroom suite at the
Westin hotel at Times Square. Westin has a new marketing
campaign about RENEWAL. The teams need to design a
lifestyle suite, but they have to have a VISION. [Does
eating hallucinogenic mushrooms count?] They will be
judged by a group of Westin executives and members of
their Platinum Preferred Guest Program, and the team
that loses [Who wants to bet now that it will be
Matchstick?] will see Martha in the conference room.
Because Matchstick sucks so badly and has lost three
members so far, Martha and her cronies have devised a
plan [Anyone wanna bet that some member of the Primates
has to switch sides?].
Alexis asks, Primarius, which one of you thinks youre
the strongest team leader? They all raise their hands
and beam smiles like in the Orbit chewing gum
commercial. Then Charles asks, Well, who thinks they
can lead Matchstick to victory on the next task? They
all immediately [and appropriately] put their hands down
[cuz nobody can lead those losers effectively]. After a
short pause, Leslie raises her hand again. [Leslie who?
I really dont recall ever seeing her on the show before
now, so I guess its a good thing for her to step up to
the task or wed never get to see her at all. There are
still a few other Primates who I dont know by name yet
either.] Charles instructs her to join the Matchstick
team, and says that TPTB at MSO recognize someone who
has the courage to take a chance [and yet, they dont
offer her immunity if her team fails to win this week,
which is the obvious reward].
As the teams leave the conference room, we hear a
voice-over from Leslie saying that she knew she was the
only one who could pull this off. Then Amanda tells the
camera that the Primates were perfectly happy with
Leslie leaving, because she was the weakest person on
team anyway. The fact that she left didnt hurt us at
all. We were pleased.
The teams all travel to the Westin to check out their
new project space. Primate Jennifer explains that they
had a huge space that has been totally stripped bare,
with no curtains or even light fixtures. She doesnt
think anyone could renovate and furnish the space in the
time they have allotted [We arent told how much time
that is, but it seems like only a day and a half].
Amanda asks if its OK for her to be project manager,
and the other Primates agree. She starts the
brainstorming by saying, Its almost like we need to
have a niche-market, but then again it cant be too
niche-y. [Wow, what vocabulary!] Sarah suggests an
Entertainment theme, and they go for it: Westin
Entertains. They want to make the suite about dinner
parties, movies, and with games scattered all over the
suite [5,200-card Pick Up, anyone?]. Carrie already has
a color-scheme picked out, but Amanda wants to use a
professional interior designer.
The continuing debacle that is Matchstick Corp. also
starts to brainstorm. But its more of a brain-drizzle
accompanied by light zephyrs. Leslie says that she knows
they can win if they organize themselves better, but
shes obviously not the one to do it properly, since it
takes over 6 hours before they anything resembling a
cogent plan. Both Dawn and Jim agree that Leslie,
frankly, sucks.
Ryan found an interior decorator for the Primates.
Carrie keeps trying to interject her own color and print
suggestions, and gets shot down by Amanda again and
again. Amanda goes with the decorators suggestion of a
wallpaper that literally looks like filthy tiles with
moldy grout for the bathroom [WTF!]. The overall color
scheme is [hold onto your seat] grey. Ryan isnt happy
with his teams choice, but says Im not feeling as
confident I was with the past tasks, but theres one
thing Ive learned is that [you should] never
overestimate Matchstick. No matter how bad we do, they
will always find a way to do worse.
Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin
into the
future, as Matchstick talks some more about their plan.
David tells the camera about a team of 8 contractors
they have hired, who are waiting in the suite for
something to do, but his team still has no plan:
Contractors sitting around does not sound like a
winning formula. Jim suggests the idea of FLOW, Its
like zen, its like feng shui. Leslie wants to go with
the FLOW, and wants to use it as an acronym. Jim rapidly
comes up with For Leisure Or Work and the team all
cheers. Dawn says that 6 hours of brainstorming was
just bad time management.
Amanda checks out the newly wallpapered bathroom and she
really likes it. Everyone else gives her looks as if
they think she must be doing drugs. Howie specifically
says that the bathroom looked like Atlantic City on
crack. God-awful. Carrie and Sarah think its very
industrial-looking with all the grey. Jennifer says its
a dismal, bleak environment. Amanda tells them all to
stop worrying about the paint color, because theres
plenty of other stuff to do.
Matchstick goes to Crate & Barrel to order their
furniture. But its nearly closing time (9:00 p.m.) and
theyve only got a few minutes. Bethenny rips through a
catalog and orders everything they need, while
simultaneously ripping Leslie a new one for her terrible
time-management skills. If he is paid on comission, the
store clerk probably had his most profitable 5 minutes
ever. Total sales were $3996 with tax.
Marcela returned to the suite, and then calls Leslie to
let her know that the contractors [who havent done
much, if anything] had to leave a midnight. Before they
left, the contractors told her that the only way to
finish is if the painting was done tonight. Although
everyone is upset, Dawn basically states that she wont,
under any circumstances, stay up all night to paint.
Jim, David, and Marcela are up at 2:15 a.m. painting,
but Dawn is lolling around with her eyes glazed over;
Leslie calls her the laziest person in the entire loft.
At 5:30 the next morning, Leslie starts to wake her team
up. David fell asleep with his glasses on, reading a
book. Everyone is dressed and ready by 6:15, but Dawn is
still sleeping. David tries to wake Dawn up, but she is
resistant and is wearing ear-plugs. Marcela wants to
know why Dawn wasnt getting ready to leave by 6:30, and
Dawn says no one told her what time to get up.
At the suite, the Matchstick contractors start their
work in earnest. Hardwood flooring is installed, lights
are put up, and it begins to look like a spartan
quasi-Oriental tea house. Marcela is shown bent over,
and we would see her butt-crack except that the angle is
too obtuse.
As the Primates get ready to leave, Amanda gives them
all a little gift. Because they are all so SHARP, she
gives them sharpened pencils with a cute little note
attached. Its majorly hokey, but they all appreciate
the gesture. They decorate the suite with games, poker
chips, jars of candy, and a popcorn stand: all to foster
the entertainment theme. Charles and Alexis approve [or
at least Charles does, because Alexis doesnt say
anything, as usual].
Over at Matchstick, Charles likes the wood flooring, but
doesnt know where anyone would sit. Most of the
furniture hasnt arrived yet. Two hours before the
Westin execs are supposed to come, Bethenny is screaming
into the phone asking where the furniture delivery truck
is. The phone calls and screaming continue, but to no
avail. At the last moment, they think the furniture may
arrive only 7-8 minutes beforehand, and they all run
down to the hotel loading dock, but the truck doesnt
make it in time.
Dressed in her best impression of a 1980s stewardess
outfit, Amanda greets the Westin evaluation team. We
thought of a room that is called Westin Entertains,
and [in] every single area you will touches of
entertaining. [Including those unexplained spots on the
sheets?] She shows them the poker chips, candy,
kitchenette, wide-screen TV, and the popcorn making
cart. The Westin folks arent terribly impressed, but at
least theyre not disappointed.
Matchstick is lolling around, wondering how they will
possibly cover up the fact that they basically have no
furniture. Jim sums it up as, No couch-ie, no win-ie!
Leslie bows with hands folded across her chest as the
Westin execs enter. She knows that shes basically
selling air, but wont let that affect her overly
obsequious demeanor and outright bullshitting. She makes
up some crap about doing market research, and finding
that the customers are all looking for FLOW [and
apparently furniture messes FLOW up]. We didnt put in
a lot of big fluffy sofas, because you would expect
that
.Instead were focusing on zero gravity. One of
the Westin execs says, This reminds me of my first
apartment, graduating college, when I couldnt afford
any furniture, and they all laugh
except for Leslie.
Martha enters an anonymous boardroom to meet with the
Westin executives. The matronly Westin lady says that
they were really blown away with what the teams could
come up with on such short notice. They understood the
Primate teams concept right away, and the popcorn
machine acted as aromatherapy. They liked the wood
floors and the idea of openness that Matchstick
created
but there wasnt anywhere to sit, except on the
floor. Surprisingly, they liked the Primarius suite
better [really now?]. Amanda pumps her fist in the air.
Martha awards Primarius perhaps the most useless team
reward ever: they get to return to their suite and
relax. Thats it, just sit on your butt. Martha comes up
to the suite, chows down on some M&Ms, and gazes
nostalgically at the Jersey side of the Hudson River
where she grew up. They all pretend like they enjoyed
this reward.
Dawn expects to be called back to the conference room
for the 4th time running, since shes sure Leslie will
try to blame her. [Well why not, when you refused to
help paint overnight?] Leslie pulls Bethenny aside to
tell her that she thinks Bethenny did an amazing job,
but that shes planning on calling her into the
conference room along with Dawn; she wants Bethennys
support in putting all the blame on Dawn. Even though
she deserves to go the conference room for the missing
furniture fuck-up, Bethenny doesnt understand why she
should be placed at risk, and refuses to blindly follow
Leslies lead. Both Dawn and Bethenny think Leslie
should go due to her incompetent leadership and time
management. Leslie says that if Matchstick is ever going
to win they have to lose some dead weight, and the
biggest anchor on all of us was Dawn.
In the conference room, Martha asks whose idea FLOW was;
she says it was a collective effort, but Jim came up
with the actual acronym. [And for once, he acts very
reasonably, and accepts this small accolade with grace
and humility.] Martha liked the design idea, but knows
that it was frankly an unfinished room. Leslie blames
Bethenny for the lack of furniture, then both Dawn and
Bethenny try to shift the blame on Leslie due to poor
time management. They both state that the team spent
about 6 hours initially brainstorming, and Leslie denies
this easily provable fact. For unclear reasons, the only
times that Charles and Alexis talk is to underline the
missing furniture issue, but without making it clear who
they think is at fault. Martha chimes in saying how
responsible and efficient she is.
Leslie remarks that Dawn is consistently negative and
unhelpful, defusing another attack at her atrocious
management skills. Martha is appalled that Dawn refused
to help paint. Leslie reports that Dawn was late in
waking up that morning, and Dawn tries to deny it. Dawn
eventually admits that shes a heavy sleeper and
sometimes ignores the alarm clock; Jim laughs out loud,
seeing Dawns defenses crumble. Dawn wonders why she
wasnt told when to wake up, and Martha wants to know
why Dawn didnt ask. Dawns response to every criticism
is that it isnt true [Must be nice to live in your
little perfect world].
Martha asks Marcela who should be sent home: Dawn. David
says that Leslie is most responsible. Jim says, Anybody
but me. When pressured to name names, Jim meekly
suggests Dawn over Leslie. Leslie says Dawn should go.
Then Leslie chooses to bring Dawn and Bethenny back to
the conference room. Once they leave, Charles points out
that everybody keeps bringing Dawn back, and there must
be a reason for it. Martha says, Her attitude is just
not a good attitude.
They re-enter the conference room and make all the same
arguments as before. The only small surprise is that
Bethenny announces Leslies plan to bring Bethenny into
the conference room to augment the anti-Dawn crusade,
even though Bethenny was the hardest worker in the
group. Alexis says, Dawn, I like you, because Im
usually the person everyone likes least on the team. But
no one has ever said that I didnt work really hard.
Dawn says that she did work hard, but Alexis reminds her
that everyone else agrees about her crappy work ethic.
Martha asks Bethenny if Dawn worked hard, and Bethenny
says that Dawn has been the weakest link on every single
task. Leslie thinks that Matchstick can win the next
task, but Dawn has got to go for that to happen [Thats
a good one, Leslie].
Martha isnt happy with Leslie, but wants to give her
another chance because she had the guts to leave a
winning team and join the losers. Shes not happy with
Bethennys lack of furniture, but she did like the
design concept. But Dawn is making excuses and not
functioning as a member of the team, so she has to
leave. She thanks Martha, shakes her hand, gives
Bethenny a hug, and makes the walk of shame. Charles
tells Martha she made the obvious right decision [even
though he said just a few minutes ago that the choice
was too close to call], exhibiting his excellent yes-man
skills. Martha suggests that some reshuffling will have
to take place [so look for that next week].
Read Marthas letter to Dawn: http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice:_Martha_Stewart/letters/index.shtml |
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Episodes:
September 21
September 28
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