I'm guessing perhaps a man bought over from Mosaic to even their sides out. The "longing for Bradford" part seemed to indicate a new masculine presence. Wes maybe? He seems ass-holish enough to take over for the ass hole that left them...

Yes, I should mentioned that I don't think Raj will be fired on the restaurant episode. He's not the one with the emotional breakdown. I think that person will be most likely be Jen C. The guys probably will use their charm and "sexuality" to win this task.

Betting good money... Sandy will be the PM on this task and bring in Jen C., Ivana, and Lil Stacy to the boardroom. Can't wait to see it. Let it be Wednesday already!!

We do see him looking pissed in the previews, though.
I sure hope you're right.
Please! Let Mosaic win again!

But we also see Jen C. listening and looking out from the other side at the hallway while the group was gathering on the room in the inside. Of course we were shown the infamous "finger" that was blurred. I think she was pissed at the camera man getting up close on her while she was crying. Obviously she's the emotional one and dropping huge buckets of tears. She probably screwed up huge and got the blames pointing her way. Raj was debating as usual, but it doesn't seemed like anything out of extraordinary. I think the "finger" pretty much taken Jen C. out of the game and label her too "emotional".

I think that Ivana is the Apprentice most likely to have a nervous breakdown; however, I believe that Jen C. is my second choice. I don't think that Raj will have a nervous breakdown; I'm sure the debating scene was just him being at odds with the rest of Mosaic.

My speculation is that Mosaic wins the restaurant task next week by using sexuality and charm. I think that the Donald probably fires Sandy next week because she doesn't have the educational background/ work experience necessary to run one of DT's companies.

In week five, the Donald lets a depleted Apex choose someone from Mosaic. The summary points to Pamela; however, it could be one of the boys as well. I don't think that Apex would like the military style of Kelly and some of the other guys seem a bit sexist (however looking down on this group of women is perfectly acceptable).

NYCynthia, we finally disagree. I don't think the pictures are nearly identical. The Apex truck shot is of Stacie being mobbed by 20 or 30 people, most with their hands in the air, reaching for toothpaste. In the Mosiac shot, although John has a tube of toothpaste in his hand, he appears to be speaking to the people in front of him, not handing out free samples. There are boxes everywhere and none of the people around him have their hands up and are further away from the truck than the free-sample mob around Stacie. Also, Chris appears to be unpacking some of the boxes from the truck. The Mosiac gives me the impression that Mosiac is still unloading and that maybe Mosiac hired more than one person to help unload the truck at $20 a head. Oddly enough, some of the people in the Mosiac shot look like their wearing bathrobes.

I don't think my interpretation is definitive. And each picture is just one snapshot in time, so Apex could have initially unloaded the tubes directly from the truck (an inelegant approach, IMO) at one point and later switched to child labor for all I know.

With the new information from the blurb provided by ultrustic and looking back at Miss Alli's recaps for last season, I'm altering what I deduced previously. This is in part thanks to Tortolia's post so that I did some looking and thinking.

I'm no longer so certain Apex will get a new team member after losing Week 4's restaurant task. Last season the team shuffle happened in Week 5, but with two extra players this season as well as more episodes having been filmed, this might not occur until Week 7 or later depending on which team loses when.

To wrap it up --

Week 4: Restaurant task. 15 players. The boys sex it up and win. Apex falls apart, in particular one of them (it's looking like Shrimp!Jen), and one of the bitches is fired. Carolyn is very firm about telling them they failed. Bill is the Not!George for the week and gives the losing team hell in the boardroom per his interview on the Today show. Yay!

Week 5: QVC. 14 players. Mosaic loses. Boo! The women manage to win despite themselves because they finally get a hardassed, likely micro-managing, PM. No clue as to who gets fired on Mosaic.

Week 6: Unknown. 13 players. Ivana's still there for the task, whatever it is. Boo! Is she the one fired? We can but hope.

I just found this description of Episode #6:

Episode #6 "Crimes of Fashion" -- The candidates compete in a world of high style and beautiful women - the sexy, cutthroat world of fashion. One candidate spends too much time hitting on the models while another candidate is given menial tasks so they don't get in the way. The winners pop champagne with celebrities at an exclusive party while the losers come apart at the seams in the boardroom as the 6th candidate is fired.

from Episode #6 release

I hope the women lose every assignment that Stacie J would have had some expertise, mainly the restaurant and the fashion show.

I wonder if that means they're putting on a fashion show for charity... Interesting possibilities. My bet on the lecherous one is Andy after the way he got that girl's digits in during the ice cream task. The person getting the menial tasks? It has to be Ivana.

I will eat dirt if this isn’t Andy.

ETA: Heh, goobaletta’s fast. Great minds...

Oh please let it be that Apex loses this task. I'm still disappointed that they actually win the Home Shopping Network task. There was a recently deleted post that raked Pamela over the coals. The poster claimed to have been at the Forbes photo shoot. Poster called Pam a loser. I'm guessing from that comment (which may or may not be true) that perhaps she is the one fired over the Shopping loss. Maybe she picked the sandwich maker thing to sell. Has anyone heard anything different?

I'm thinking it's John or Andy depending on who's left.

Goobletta, I'm thinking coporate reshuffling won't happened for awhile until someone lose 4 or more task in a row until it's seriously low in depth-wise for the team. Last season's mens team was basically flawed because of serious mishaps by the PM, they actually were fired (Jason & Sam). This year's losing PM basically got lucky because of various situations in the boardroom.

The women of APex badly needs corporate reshuffling to survive the long run or they'll get creamed. Last season, I don't think the final four guys would make it far if it had not happened been saved by the corporate reshuffling. It's possible for both of the Jennifers & Sandy to survive if they could just hang on until reshuffling and mixing of the team occur. Different atomsphere, different work enviornment, and definitely good for the soul, different teammates might give them the fuel what is needed to strive for the apprenticeship.

Or possibly Wes...

Ultrustic, in this post of mine I altered my previously held view.

It could be Pamela, not that there is anything wrong with that....just saying.

Heh, given that Wes- a) is married, and b) looks like Macaulay Culkin's older brother, that would be troubling to watch on at least two levels.

My vote's on either Andy (for obvious reasons), or Chris, because he seems like the smarmy model-slavering type we see way too much in this city.

ETA: And of course, they could always be *male* models. So it could be...Chris. Hee! Or more likely Jenn C. if she survives...I can hear it now, "ohh, he's just flawwwwwless". Shut it, bangs.

You know.. that is true. I never thought of it in that it could be a woman hitting on a male model. Don't be surprised if it's Pamela asking the model if they know how many steps they need to strut in the boardwalk or what is their motivation to go out there and do their thing. Someone need to chill her out.

Hm, I think this verbiage is slightly different than what we've seen to this point; I got this from Yahoo's local TV listings for my ZIP code:

Veddy intedessstink, no? At least, more fodder for my speculation.

Seeing as how Trump’s interviews referred to the, ostensibly, non-racially motivated firing of Stacie as having racial tensions, I’m wondering if drooling over models is what he was referring to when he said that “Love is in the air” (Post article goobaletta linked to in the Media thread). The weeks don’t match up, but it does seem to fit his definition of romance and neither Trump nor the Post are renowned for their attention to detail.

Re:
Andy could probably fit into Pamela’s clothes. Boys in drag, maybe?

Now would that be another one of his ideas, or would someone else come up with it? Heh.

I'll admit it: when I read this, the first "unique" use of sexuality I thought of was the men flirting with male restaurant customers or the women flirting with female customers. I can see a couple of the guys being very charming and flirtatious with other men to make a sale; but for the life of me, I can't imagine any of the women coming on to other women, even in jest.

random speculation, not spoiler. Oops.

I can, but then again I'm an unrepentant pervert!

Subway is NOT a restaurant!

No but Stacie, built, owned and managed a jazz club and restaurant named Jazzmin's in Atlanta. And I am sure the BLS would disagree with you that Subway isn't a restaurant.

OK, big possible spoiler here.

Tenderfoot, you beat me to it. I just now posted that in the media thread. Different paper, but the Associated Press source of the story is the same.

In a nutshell, an offshore betting operation has been getting too many large bets on the possible final two contestants. Coming from New Hampshire of all places. At any rate, per this story the bets are being made on Jennifer Massey and Kelly Perdew. No idea if this means anything. I suggest y'all go read the story to draw your own conclusions.

I could so live with that.

The one thing the article doesn't mention is when the bets started being placed. That could impact things somewhat.

Still, Jennifer and Kelly? Rock on.

The thing that makes me give this one a little more attention than I might is that, as the article points out, a similar thing happened with Survivor: Pearl Islands, tipping off Sandra as the winner.

Elizabeth is the contestant that breaks down this week. She says that she does not like being told/viewed (??) that she is incompetent. It was on Inside Edition.

I think it would depend on how many bets were placed. My heart leapt into my throat initially when I read it until I saw the bets placed were $300. I could be persuaded to bet that amount on Kelly and Jennifer at this point, based on the fact that they seem to be among the competent few. It could mean nothing. Or it could mean that DT and MB are sitting around on a yacht, chuckling.

Well, the $300 is the maximum bet. What alerted the betting folks was the number of maximum bets being made. The article says the average bet is $25.

It's true that it's the maximum, but from the tone of the first half of the story, I was expecting the bets to be some enormous amount. $300 isn't that much, depending on the number of bets placed.

Aww, who am I kidding? I just don't want to be that spoiled, that quickly.

On the other hand, I could easily see Kelly winning this whole thing. I suspect The Donald approves of his military style of strong leadership. So far he's smelling like a rose, certainly more than any other candidates, IMO.

Right. Like Tenderfoot says, it's not so much that the bets are higher for Jennifer and Kelly, it's the fact that this trend has happened before.

I'm also now curious if this sort of spike has happened in the past for reality show losers. The article doesn't really say.

Regardless, I'm leaning towards some inside info, because while Jennifer is looking good, she's also still with Apex, and probably has some healthy guilt by association built up. Kelly looked solid while leading week 2, but other than that, he's been pretty much interchangeable with half of Mosaic.

If we'd seen a few more weeks of footage, I'd lean more towards the "Educated guess from the shows" explanation, but it's still too early for that, IMO. So I'll lean towards inside info, as well as simply being hopeful that two of my favorites are the final two.

Of course, Jennifer M and Kelly are probably the safest bets possible. Jennifer because she's the only woman contender who seems to have her wits about her (except Pamela, who's a leeetle weird), and Kelly because he's demonstrated quiet competence. I think Trump and Burnett would like to have a woman finalist if only for PR's sake: to quiet the criticism that the show casts nothing but bimbos. And of the men who have made an impression so far, Kevin seems to me too young and Raj too eccentric to make the final cut. So if I were a bettin' man, I'd put my money on Jennifer M. and Kelly, too.

Yeah, but it's also a little too early to know who is going to be in the finals even though Jen M. and Kelly are both in my final four. I think that it's probably inside info.

What is the likelihood that multiple max bets on multiple days would be placed from New Hampshire? I definitely think it is inside information.

The above quote is from the official press release from NBC about tonight's show.

What I want to know is..........

....Which teams begins to gel as a unit?
....Which "major alliance" is broken?
.....What is the "creative way" of using sex to sell?



So, after watching E! and Access Hollywood, they both give the impression that the women go to the boardroom tonight.

And the use of sexuality? It's the men. It was implied on E! that the critics that review the guy's team's restaurant are gay. So Chris was given the suggestion to untie his shoe and go over to the table, turn around and bend over to tie his shoe. Yeesh.

I still don't understand all this talk about "alliances" with the women. Seems to me that they all pretty much hate each other and the only alliance is of the "let's all gang up on the same person this week to get her fired" variety. Which means it is "mutually opportunisitic and transitory" as I seem to remember someone saying once. Hmmm . . .

Anyway, goobaletta posted this article containing a bit of a spoiler over in the media thread, but I thought we might want to discuss it here. See it here (scroll down).

Apparently, my speculation about Stacie J. possibly returning later in the show is not unfounded. What isn't made perfectly clear is whether she will return as an actual contestant, being given another chance to compete, or if she will return sort of in the same way that Omarosa did last year to harass the final two candidates. The beginning of the article, where it talks about Trump "regretting" his firing of Stacie J. seems to imply the former, but it seems much more likely that the latter is what they are referring to.

It's interesting looking at the QVC task information now that we know that Pamela's returning to Apex.

It makes me wonder if her return is the catalyst for the victory, or if it still comes down to the women selling the more desirable item.

If nothing else, while I still want most of Apex gone, it does make me happy that Pamela and Jennifer are safe for another week. I can take solace in that, at least.

I think it will have nothing to do with Pamela, but rather the fact that attractive women are on TV selling something. Plus, the women choose the more common product (steak knives). A Paninni maker isn't exactly something that every kitchen needs to have.

I agree. Panini makers are just another appliance to take up storage space in the kitchen and most kitchens don't have enough storage to suit most folks. Also I doubt many people would use a panini maker often enough to make it worth their while.

Somthing just occurred to me - the sixth task has to do with fashion. I bet Stacie J. is brought back as a model. That way she'd be on the show for effect but not really be in the competition, which would mean she didn't really have to do any acting in her post-firing interviews. Coming back as a model is entirely different than O's return or being put back in the game.

Wouldn't it be awesome if they found some reason to bring Stacie back in every single task from now on out so the Coven will have to constantly see her and (maybe) be reminded of their misdeeds (well, it might work on the one of two who actually have consciences. Or souls.)

It'd be just like the heartbeat the murderer constantly hears in "The Tell-Tale Heart" or the ghost of the cat in "The Black Cat." (Man, I read waaay too much Poe growing up).

Anyway, I know it won't happen, even though it would be totally jawsome! I'm just happy she's going to be back in some way. And having her back for the fashion task would make sense.

Well, we know it won't be Pam who leaves next week because she will be on the winning womens' team. Thought she was a goner. (darn, I really wanted to see Apex lose every task) It won't be Raj because he was the winning PM on the last task. Don't think he'll pull a Bradford. Any ideas or rumors who gets fired next week...and which woman becomes the PM on the next task that makes the women long for Bradford? My bets are on either Stacy, Jen M or Pam. All seem a "bit" bossy.

Edited to cover my tracks... I was kind of led to believe there would be a "rehire" by that blurb, but of course I suppose that is what I am supposed to think. Convenient media blurb? Of course. If each and every boardroom "breaks the rules" why not completely upend things by hiring rather than firing. You know, for "the boardroom you won't believe!"

For the first time ever, I actually have something for the spoiler thread. In early May my husband and I spent the day in Chicago. We found ouselves behind the Sun Times building, desperately searching for a bathroom. There was some filming happening at the top of the building, and then behind the building as well. There was a sound man, a camera man, and then a couple more people holding something to reflect the light. We took a good look at the woman being filmed, just in case she might be an Apprentice, and sure enough when the first episode aired we instantly recognized her as Jennifer M. So perhaps one of the tasks - or the final task - takes place in Chicago?

I remember seeing TD do an interview just before the premiere where he basically said that they took the show pretty far afield this year. I think it's more than reasonable to deduce Chicago is part of a task.

Excellent work, kate2!