She uses her communication skills to make people think that she is a star.....a perfect skill to have in an interview. [/quote]
JennaC, yes, but remember that Amy did some of that in her interviews and she got called on the carpet - big-time - for doing so by several of the Trumpies. And she had far more polish, experience and PM wins under her belt than Rebecca can hope to have at this point.
So while Rebecca can be impressive, Trump's interviewers will be looking for - I think - far more real-world savvy and hard-core experience that will immediately translate to doing well in the job. I just don't see Rebecca having enough of that to win or even make the final 2. I'll be surprised if the final 2 aren't Randall and Alla.
I'm liking Alla a lot more these days, and I think if we were making an Apprentice All-stars team, she's earned a seat, but I can see some of the interviewers questioning how well she'd fit into traditional corporate culture.[/quote]
True, but running a chain of spa/salons (or whatever she does) and starting at the bottom with nothing (and as someone new to this country) is likely to impress the Trumpies. Running a successful business, even the type of Alla does, involves a lot of corporate culture in its own right, and Alla seems like the type who runs a tight ship - she'll all business which I think will impress the Trumpies a lot. And the things that need to be tweaked or toned down (the outfits, etc.) are easily fixed.
I think she has the right amount of flair and drive to add more to the organization than Randall. He seems too 'soft' for the intense, super-competitive world of real estate at Trump's level - I think he's better suited to what he's already doing.
If not, she (Alla) faces an additional challenge in the final two as her past employment may come back to haunt her.[/quote]
I'm not so sure. I'd bet some of Trump's people have had some rough or less than perfect pasts and in some ways, Alla's past shows an amazing drive and desire to succeed...something I think Trump likes and probably respects. Spending year after year in graduate schools could hurt Randall (just as much as Alla's past could hurt her) since the Trumpies may wonder why he kept getting "book knowledge" and not jumping into the marketplace a bit earlier.
Booklord
Nov 11, 2005 @ 3:55 pm
A Moment for the last night's losers
Marshawn: Damn. That girl was corrupted to the dark side awfully quickly. An alomost Omarosa style dodging of responsibility.
Brian: Strike 1 : Idiotic decision to allow 15 Minutes travel time.
Strike 2 : Wimpy Response to Marshawn's ditching of any task responsiblity
Strike 3 : Actually saying "I'm a terrible presenter" in the boardroom.
The Final Six of season 4
Clay : Will not Win. Period. No chance. Even if he pulls a Craig and makes it to the interview stage by virtue of never losing, Trump will fire him there. With Clay's hissy fits, rudeness and overall poor attitude Trump will never give him even a chance to win. The only person Trump would like less than Clay would have been Markus and he is already gone.
Felisha, Adam: Both very similar. Both have a project manager loss under their belts and neither of them have distinguished themselves in anyway outside of those two tasks. Their only hope is to make it to the interview stage and face either each other or Clay as the part of the final three.
Rebecca: Rebecca has a loss as project manager under her belt as well. But she has a skill that Felisha and Adam do not. She can somehow come into a boardroom with a failing team and come out looking good. She did it when Toral was fired even though she had put her rep on the line for Toral in the previous ep. She did it in the Dicks sporting goods task. And now she has done it for the Star Wars task. It's almost hypnotic! If she can make it to the interview stage and apply her strange powers there she could make it to the final two.
Alla: Hard worker. Lots of common sense. Shows more drive than even Randall. But I think her rough, no nonsense manner may come to haunt her in the end. If she winds up in the final three with Rebecca and Randall then she could be taken out in the interview round. If not she faces an additional challenge in the final two as her past employment may come back to haunt her.
Randall: Randall continues to do an excellent, efficient job. He comes across as educated and well spoken. His only real danger is that he seems to enamored with playing it safe.
Next week.....
Rebecca (PM), Randall, Alla vs. Felisha(PM), Adam, Clay
-> Kind of lop-sided wouldn't you say?
or
Rebecca (PM), Randall, Clay vs. Felisha(PM), Adam, Alla
-> In which case Rebecca and Randall and thank the others for not giving Clay Immunity.
Depends on which team gets to choose who to send over.
aandt
Nov 11, 2005 @ 4:03 pm
zenner , I've been watching TA for a couple of seasons now, and I've yet to hear any of the firees admit they did anything wrong.....I doubt any of them ever will. I'm sure it goes along with the super-size ego one must have to be a business superstar.
What I'm wondering is: I know Brian stated he asked Marshawn to present because she had done very little else on the task, so why didn't he turn to his so-called SW expert Randall when she bailed? He proved he is a great presenter last week. Maybe I missed something.
Count me as a "not so much" on Alla. I think it's because she has a very harsh look, I don't know if it's the makeup, hair, or just her mannerisms. Or a combination of all.
nenyadr
Nov 11, 2005 @ 4:17 pm
I had the impression that because Randal was always coming up as a "super star" in the tasks, and because he was exempt, they didn't actually take as much input from him as they should have. I think they were trying to "shine" but failed because they got cold feet.
deaja
Nov 11, 2005 @ 4:25 pm
What I'm wondering is: I know Brian stated he asked Marshawn to present because she had done very little else on the task, so why didn't he turn to his so-called SW expert Randall when she bailed? He proved he is a great presenter last week. Maybe I missed something.[/quote]
I wondered that same thing last night, and I think what happened is Brian was still in "Marshawn, you can't back out 1/2 an hour before the task mode" when Rebecca said she would do it. At that point, he wouldn't have wanted to say "No, I'll ask Randal."
JTMacc99
Nov 11, 2005 @ 4:29 pm
JennaC, yes, but remember that Amy did some of that in her interviews and she got called on the carpet - big-time - for doing so by several of the Trumpies. And she had far more polish, experience and PM wins under her belt than Rebecca can hope to have at this point.
So while Rebecca can be impressive, Trump's interviewers will be looking for - I think - far more real-world savvy and hard-core experience that will immediately translate to doing well in the job. I just don't see Rebecca having enough of that to win or even make the final 2. I'll be surprised if the final 2 aren't Randall and Alla.[/quote]Well, I agree with your final two, but I disagree with your comparison of Rebecca to Amy. If I remember correctly, Amy got bad reviews because she came off as "full of shit", and I don't think Rebecca has made me think that about her. Bat-shit crazy and inexperienced? Yes. Windbag? No. Well, not yet. Given the Darth Markus reveal last night, I'm not putting any of my eggs in any of these baskets now.
You know what, I went back to see what
Miss Alli had to say about Amy's interview, just to help me remember. Here it is:
And now, let's discuss Amy. Norma thought Amy "would get on [her] nerves after a while." HA! Oh, how the flighty have fallen. Norma goes on to say that Amy seems to enjoy being the enthusiastic, super-happy girl with the "big smile and the perfect teeth." Snerk. "Honestly, Mr. Trump," Tom says, "she irritated the hell out of me." Again, HA! Tom says that Amy seems to have a lot of drive, but he's not sure "what her motivation is." Charlie says, "She reminded me of a Stepford wife." Ow. Charlie gets even more blunt: "Within fifteen minutes, I was dead bored with talking to her." I guess now we know why she wears the short skirts. "Her words had no content. Her answers were basically meaningless." Charlie even calls her out for having "an empty personality." Zoiks. [/quote]
CapeCodder
Nov 11, 2005 @ 4:53 pm
I wish Carolyn were in charge of this whole season. Imagine how different the teams would look at this point...I don't think she liked Trump's decision to fire Marshawn as well. She said "I agree with you on firing Brian" and kind of trailed off after that.
For all that Alla is perceived to be a strong and a good player, she isn't really a team player. She uses every opportunity to trash the PM that she gets and then turns on someone new the following task. She's done that from the beginning. The fireworks should be great as the group dwindles.
Susan StoHelit
Nov 11, 2005 @ 5:02 pm
Randal is good, but Alla has done quite a job with some pretty lousy teammates. She took over when Clay was too lazy, incompetent or whatever to run the Star Wars task (and she managed him well when she was his manager and he was being a jerk).
Rebecca was smart - taking on the presentation was a very safe move. I can see what Marshawn was thinking - and Yoda was right. "For your job you fear. Fear leads to withdrawl. Withdrawl leads to loss. Loss leads to the cab side."
I was cheering when no one on the team gave Clay the exemption. He was a lousy leader, the only good thing is that he had no problem stepping aside and letting Alla lead the task. And that bit with leaving her to do the work while he goes off and flirts with that guy is nonsense. Not the first time it happened (I remember a previous season where they were working with models, and a ton of other times when one of the guys saw an attractive girl, or vice versa, and wasted time flirting), but always shows a real lack of a work ethic.
heebiejeebie
Nov 11, 2005 @ 5:06 pm
Why is Randall impressive?
I found his recent pep-talk "seminar" to be vapid and puerile.
As a self-professed SW maven, what did he do to insure a win? Nada.
That said, IMO Trump does not want another Ivana.
[/quote]
I think both Alla and Randall are competent to an extent. But neither would ahve made the cut of the fifty candidates I just suffered through on the first round of interviews for eleven spots. In comparison to the rest of the field, the two just are not as bad as the rest. Damning praise in my eyes. Being the only thing floating in a toilet that isn't a turd is not something to brag about. I think that in terms of dynamics, personality, imagination and skill, this is one of the weakest runs ever. I think that even when the top tier on Stewart's show follow the safe and tried route on their tasks, they still stand head and shoulders above Randall and Alla.
Randall I find mediocre at best. A nice guy. Personable and polished enough to talk to for a little while, but I don't see any real gleam of charm that many others see. A nice guy. But hardly dynamic as his choice of seminar showed. A great follower. A great person to delegate to with strict parameters. So in a sense perfect for what Trump relaly wants -- surface polish, book smarts to impress and nothing that will outshine him when the two show up on the Today show together. Randall has no wow. He just stands out in a herd of blechs.
Alla has a good sense of specific task goals. When she has a vision it is either spot on, like last night, or horribly rigid like the car task. Which she lucked out by having the men do worse -- I still think both teams should have been given a failure on that task, but like the last dual fail, have one person go home. Alla is shrill and self-involved a bit too much to be the face of PR except for herself. She actually believes her own press. And she is a vindictive bitch. There is way too much effort put into making one person a target that has hampered the team over and over again on her part (and others). She is someone I would love to contract for a specific job but would never in a million years actually want to work for me or with me on a regular/permanent basis.
What would have been awesome at the end of the cab ride was if Brian just let Marshawn run out of steam and the turned to her and said, "Oh... now you're willilng to make a presentation?"[/quote]
That would have been awesome indeed!!!
nubbs
Nov 11, 2005 @ 5:21 pm
One thing I didn't quite catch in this episode. When one of the judges was standing in front of Brian's Folly, was he inferring that the location of the DVDs was sub-optimal?
I didn't think their display was particularly novel, but I thought the DVDs were pretty prominantly displayed. Minor point I suppose.
One thing that would be interesting to know is how much scope they have to do things. For example, I believe that Trump said they had access to the whole creative department. But do the apprenti have to prod to find out what exactly that means? I mean, would Brian have known that costumes were available, and chose not to bother, or did he simply not think of it? That would make a big difference to me in judging, because it would serve to show how far reaching (or not) a team's thinking is.
TotalAddict
Nov 11, 2005 @ 5:33 pm
I was cheering when no one on the team gave Clay the exemption. He was a lousy leader, the only good thing is that he had no problem stepping aside and letting Alla lead the task. And that bit with leaving her to do the work while he goes off and flirts with that guy is nonsense. Not the first time it happened (I remember a previous season where they were working with models, and a ton of other times when one of the guys saw an attractive girl, or vice versa, and wasted time flirting), but always shows a real lack of a work ethic.[/quote]
I think Clay may be delusional. There was all the mess last week when Clay felt unjustly accused and "lied about" (which, to be fair, had a lot to do with Adam's and, to a lesser extent, Alla's complete failure to properly emphasize his *inappropriateness* rather than The Other Comment). But the look of shock and absolute betrayal on his face as his teammates voted not to give him the exemption was priceless. And sick. I think he has absolutely no understanding of how his behavior is suboptimal. I don't know if that's because he has a persecution complex or just lives in a fantasy world in which everyone loves him. But... DUDE.
tuneman570
Nov 11, 2005 @ 5:40 pm
I have to admit, i enjoyed this episode, and its my second favorite...second only to Trump's bizzaro boardroom about sex. Among the loves:
Marshawn, clearly tossing in the towel with that expression on her face like she really didn't care, then going into the boardroom and claiming Brian's been phoning it in.
Alla, risking looking disloyal by butting in during Clay's presentation -- which was fine -- and instead of simply telling TD that the work was hers, skewering Clay on his own pertard.
Randall, super geek. (why they didn't just let him run with the task amazes me. Just amazes me.)
Brian lost the task in two ways: by missing the meeting, and by not looking Marshawn in the eye and saying "we're not discussing this. You will present or die." The issue wasn't that she abandoned her team; the issue is that her PM allowed her to abandon her team. A good boss knows when to say "shut up and get to work."
I almost fell off the couch when he said he was from Murray Hill. Of course, everyone, including the Donald, missed the even funnier point: It takes an hour to get from Trump Tower to the Best Buy in Chelsea by cab. By Cab. By fucking subway its closer to 10 minutes -- 15 if you account for a teammate on crutches. God forbid these business superstars should swipe a MetroCard like a commoner!
(For those non-manhattanites: Trump Tower isn't even two miles from Best Buy. Its almost a straight shot too -- Trump Tower is at 57th Street and Fifth Ave; Best Buy is at 23rd Street and Avenue of the Americas also known as Sixth Ave.)
They were ONE BLOCK from the F train, which would have taken them almost to Best Buy's front door. By cab, however, morning traffic would have been hell. On a good day. And I don't wanna hear any crap about Rebecca's crutches. Plenty of people hobble down those stairs to the subway every day, and Rebecca's such a team player, you can just see her doing with a smile on her face. Brian's home neighborhood of Murray Hill, is just East of Chelsea, so he really should have known that!)
The Cab ride! The Cab Ride! It could have only been improved if, after all Marshawn's little Brian sucks tirade, if Brian had just leaned over and calmly said "Shut the fuck up!"
retrose1
Nov 11, 2005 @ 5:41 pm
Enquiring minds want to know; Brian, just how much time did you give yourself in the morning when you were meeting Trump?
Viajero
Nov 11, 2005 @ 5:43 pm
In defense of Rebecca, she has had very little screen time since the Toral fiasco beyond the odd interview. But the little we have seen of her seems to indicate that she has consistently made a positive contribution to her team.
The key for her will be how she does the next time she’s the PM. Her failure the first time around was is part because of the utter contempt she felt for most of her team mates. Now that most of those flakes are gone, I suspect things may be different.
I also still think Alla is the most awesome woman this season. Sure she can be bitchy, but she can back it up with her performance. The whole “former-stripper” thing may still hurt her, but notice how Alla never uses her sexuality to get her way. In fact, she comes across as one of the least flirtatious woman we’ve ever had on this show. You’d never guess she was a former stripper (well, except maybe for her preference in shoes).
Though I like Alla and Rebecca as far as this show goes, I would also note that in the real world I’d hate to have to work under either one of them. Of course, that also holds true for all of the others with the possible exception of Randall.
As for who might make the final two, this season has had so many twists that I’m hesitant to make any predictions; particularly with this crazy songwriting task coming up.
I wish we'd seen footage of Alla and her Allalings discussing the withholding of exemption from Clay. I was surprised that Adam, of all people, was the first to speak up on this, and I suspect that that was a result of behind-the-scenes discussions that left him certain he was spearheading the response rather than crying in the wilderness. [/quote]
Though Trump did specifically call on Adam first for his vote, I agree that it also seems likely that the three of them had discussed this before hand.
BibiBella
Nov 11, 2005 @ 5:51 pm
It takes an hour to get from Trump Tower to the Best Buy in Chelsea by cab. By Cab. By fucking subway its closer to 10 minutes -- 15 if you account for a teammate on crutches. God forbid these business superstars should swipe a MetroCard like a commoner!
(For those non-manhattanites: Trump Tower isn't even two miles from Best Buy. Its almost a straight shot too -- Trump Tower is at 57th Street and Fifth Ave; Best Buy is at 23rd Street and Avenue of the Americas also known as Sixth Ave.)[/quote]
tuneman570, IIRC, they didn't go to the Best Buy store, but to an office building at 12th and 20th-something street...I specifically recall hearing "12th Avenue in the west 20's"...and to get there by subway? A lot longer than even 30 minutes, not to mention that you'd have to walk from the 7th Avenue line once you're even on the west side of town or grab a cab at that point.
I'd say even going from Trump Tower to the Best Buy store in Chelsea would take closer to 20-25 minutes given that you never know how soon a train will come along, and that you have to walk to the subway either at 59th street or 50th street/Lexington and that can take 5-10 minutes or so.
RocketMelee
Nov 11, 2005 @ 5:55 pm
Oh my. This season is waaaaaaaaay more entertaining than last season!
But do you know what I wanted to see during the cabterview? Everything exactly the same -- except for Brian making his hand do the Talking Puppet just next to and slightly behind Marshawn's head.
That would have made my night...
Nutjob
Nov 11, 2005 @ 6:07 pm
Randall, super geek. (why they didn't just let him run with the task amazes me. Just amazes me.)[/quote]
I think it's because, as someone else upthread mentioned, the rest of the team didn't want Randal to run with it, get another win, look like a superstar, and make the rest of them just look like hangers-on.
Alla, risking looking disloyal by butting in during Clay's presentation -- which was fine -- and instead of simply telling TD that the work was hers, skewering Clay on his own pertard.[/quote]
I loved this. After Clay's insistence on being PM and his vow to work harder than anyone else, he just let Alla do all the hard stuff and tried to look like a big shot. I'm sort of on the fence about Alla, but she did exactly what I think she should have--worked hard, won the task, and then voted down Clay's exemption with a reason that made her look good.
Hamhock96
Nov 11, 2005 @ 6:12 pm
Alla never uses her sexuality to get her way.[/quote]
Really don't see how she could, since every other woman on the show was better looking than she is. She looks ugly, hard and used to me.
Doug325
Nov 11, 2005 @ 6:42 pm
I am new to seeing The Donalds version of the Apprentice this year,and usually see Martha's version (like CSI, have zero interest in Lost). Anyway, some comments
Brian decides to allow only 15 minutes to get to an important meeting. I don't live in NYC, but I heard by others on this board that the trip was some 30 blocks. Even I know that it would be tough to get that far in 15 minutes if you were going at 3AM, let alone the middle of the day. Hell, I would've planned to be at the meeting site fifteen minutes early. Being late alone should have gotten Brian canned. What I don't know is why none of the teammates didn't prod him along to get going
Second, how is it that only Randal has seen the SW movies. I thought virtually everyone has seen them (but then again, my parents only saw the original-- I was with them and I was 10 at the time). The fact is even people who haven't seen them know that Anikan/Darth Vader is the main character of this movie. Lets face it, he is also the coolest character in the SW movies too. Vader should be prominently displayed.
I got the Ep III DVD the day it was released (It was at a Best Buy too). Apparently, this episode was filmed fairly recently as the DVD was released 1 Nov. At the display I saw, they had a front table with the movie and the game. Further in the display, they had a sample of the movie running on a surround sound-fancy TV system (think it was showing the battle at Corscant). There was a guy dressed as Vader and a couple of good looking lightsabers
intrepide
Nov 11, 2005 @ 6:43 pm
I must I admit that I love this season's change to the exemption, that the team votes on whether the PM gets it. For the most part and especially this episode, teams have made wise decisions. Had this been in place in season 2, I wonder what would have happened with the Kelly-pseudoled bridal shop task?
The 15 minutes travel time: Aside from the simple issue of courtesy, I look at Brian's decision as piss-poor risk analysis.
What's negative about arriving at the destination early? You risk looking too eager. How do you manage the risk of arriving too early? Get to the destination early and don't go the reception area until 5-10 minutes before the appointment.
What's at risk if you're late? You'll probably have less time with the sponsors/judges, and you risk missing the appointment altogether. How do manage the risks presented by being late? Umm, make stuff up that you think the sponsors might have told you had you met with them?
Seriously, you don't even need a cocktail napkin to do a pros and cons list on this one.
tuneman570
Nov 11, 2005 @ 7:04 pm
IIRC, they didn't go to the Best Buy store, but to an office building at 12th and 20th-something street...I specifically recall hearing "12th Avenue in the west 20's"...and to get there by subway? A lot longer than even 30 minutes, not to mention that you'd have to walk from the 7th Avenue line once you're even on the west side of town or grab a cab at that point.
I'd say even going from Trump Tower to the Best Buy store in Chelsea would take closer to 20-25 minutes given that you never know how soon a train will come along, and that you have to walk to the subway either at 59th street or 50th street/Lexington and that can take 5-10 minutes or so.[/quote]
True... I will give you increase in time, (because i walk fast!) but my badly made point was that their heads are so far up their asses, they can't even think of an alternative to sitting in traffic. Yeah, Brian should have left himself more time. But once you realize you're stuck in traffic, make a phone call, hop a subway, do SOMETHING! The knowledge that they were headed clear over to the west side just makes brian look more like a tool...
Miss Montana
Nov 11, 2005 @ 7:23 pm
Adam looked
waaayyy too comfortable in that Jedi uniform. It looked like he was wearing his jammies.
I can't believe that these people are supposed to be leaders. Why on earth didn't Rebecca, Marshawn or Brian just immediately say they would be PM?[/quote]
ITA. Why isn't
everyone jumping at the chance to be PM at this point?
Giving them 15 minutes to get to the meeting, I refuse to believe that Brian lives in New York. His complaint about Randal getting off the hook with his exemption was bogus, too. Randal wanted to be PM. The rest of the team didn't want to him to be PM because of his exemption.[/quote]
Wordy McWord. They also didn't want to go up against Randal if he ended up with three wins as PM. I also agree with others who have said they should have been sitting in the lobby at 10:00 a.m., not
leaving for their meeting at 10:00 a.m.
As much as I like Marshawn, she really made a mistake, when she backed off of the presentation. After the missed meeting with the executives, she could have talked in tongues and Brain still would have been fired. While I can understand not wanting to be associated with a poor presentation, this is one of those situations Marshawn needed to play along.[/quote]
Again, ITA. Marshawn could have walked out and said, "Light sabers are cool. Harrison Ford and Ewan McGregor are hot," and she wouldn't have been fired. Brian would have been fired alone, no questions asked.
Come on, only one out of the four of them had even the slightest inkling of what the movies are about. Did the others grow up in a bubble?[/quote]
I am stunned, absolutely stunned, at the entire group's lack of "Star Wars" knowledge. More reason for me to love Randal.
Since it was a Team of 4 (with Randall exempt), just firing without the PM picking was no big deal, because the PM only had 2 people he could bring back, so it would just be a lame formality for them to pick.[/quote]
Yep. There's no need to drag it out at this point.
I didn't realize how young some of these candidates are. Felisha looks way older than 29 to me. I'm shocked that Rebecca and Brian are both only 23. With that being said, I see Randal and Alla in the final. Rebecca will get the "Gosh, you're great Rebecca, but you're awfully young and green," and Alla will get the, "Gosh, you're great, but you don't have a college degree" excuse, and Randal will win (poor guy), and become the next apprentice.
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