EXCELLENT!! That was one of the most enjoyable BRs of all time for me. And never, never have I loved Donald Trump more than I do right now! When he said he was going to fire two of them I yelled at the screen, "As long as one of them is Stacy I don't even care who the other one is!"

Good on Trump for proving he's finally learned something after 5 seasons. I was so afraid we were in for Stacy J redux with that "threatening" and "mental illness" crap again. While I agree Brent is unusual and outrageous in his behavior, that hardly makes him mentally ill. I honestly think the people on this show don't hang around regular people very often if he's the wildest thing they've ever seen. So glad Bill, Trump and Ivanka (who rocked, I have to admit) all had their BS monitors set to "High" for once and got right to the root cause of the loss, which really didn't have anything to do with Brent. He may not have contributed much except for his questionable "dancing" but nothing he did cost them any messages as far as I could tell.

Also glad that they quickly sized up Stacy and her story. Not only did they realize it was probably highly dramatized (like someone upthread pointed out, how threatened could she feel with a camera crew five feet away?) but also recognized that she would not have the toughness needed to roll with the "boys" at the Trump Co. I think Stacy overestimated many of the men who work for Trump by saying no one like Brent would work for him. I'm guessing there are many much like Brent and possibly some who are worse. Getting along with others at the work place, no matter how bad they get, is just part of the game and if you can't play it, you can't work for Trump. A woman especially can't come across as too dainty in that respect if she want to win this competition.

I couldn't help but wonder to myself how Ivanka, my new idol, would have treated a situation like that with Brent. Somehow I have a feeling she would have stopped him dead in his tracks with a frosty glare. So would Carolyn. I think that kind of aloofness and coolness in a woman may be a prerequisite to make it in Trump's world, or maybe in the business world in general. Stacy didn't have that. The only woman in this crew who I think might be capable is Andrea, but we haven't seen enough of her for me to know yet.

And Roxanne emerged tonight as one to watch. Her astute yet diplomatic remark in the BR was right on the money as was her ability to size up Stacy's motives by noticing her changing story about being "threatened." All the women who have demonstrated that kind of sharpness in the past have all made final four or even final two, except Marshawn, who was brought down by her own stupidity. So as long as Roxanne doesn't pull a "Marshawn" I think she will go far.

If Roxanne woke her team up at 6:30 a.m., as it appeared she did, then why did it take them until noon to get to the location? I mean, I know NYC traffic is bad, but it can't be just that. Were they still formulating a plan? And just how long were they planning on sleeping anyway? It just seemed very sloppy and poorly planned. For that reason alone, IMO, the PM deserved to go.

I totally knew Brent was safe the moment Trump said the "you can't judge a book by its cover thing." So I was pretty confident Stacy was going all along which made the show that much more fun to watch.

Oh, and speaking of Stacy, I have a message for her:
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Love, RhondaGC"

Word. Besides, everybody else on the team loved Michael's idea. As it turns out the whole Synergy is somewhat dumb...
I really liked Roxanne today. Her honest opinion about Peppi and disappointment with "threatened" Stacy are truly commendable.

Actually, I was hoping that it was Michael getting fired instead of Ay Papi! I felt bad for Pepsi because he was trying to unite the team when that asshole Stacy kept bitching about Brent this, and Brent that. But Michael was the one who got on my nerves with his smug ass sense of self-entitlement. Dude, get over yourself.

As for the Gold Rush Casino team, I think they won despite Lee. Lee was like a lost gazelle surrounded by a pack of wild cheetahs. Dude had absolutely no control whatsoever. Also, Lenny is the scarier male version of Alla to me. He really nervouses me (tm NY (*karate chop hand motion*)...New York). He has good sense and a clear head on his shoulders, but I find him too abrasive in his approach.

Ivanka was brilliant in the boardroom, despite looking like an amateur porn star.

That would be Alexis....she sends her love.

Anyone else notice the rack of pink and yellow suits? Were those for the pimps and ice cream salesmen?

Silly me. I thought the whole "really unattractive and gross looking people can be valuable business assets" was a parable about Trump!



Trump Tower to Times Square is what? Two blocks over and fourteen down? They could have walked it in fifteen ot twenty minutes. After all, being in their robes, I would hope they all wore sensible shoes.

But Gold Rush left at 5:30 am right? And didn't get started until 8:00 if I am figuring the timeline correctly. So maybe they had to go somewhere else first? If not? Taking 2 hours to pick the right spot? Really diminishes even the slightest bit of accomplishment Gold Rush might have felt for winning the task.

Trump pimps three bums' rise (slight tailoring pun, sorry). Had to be the worst "reward" ever. At least Martha had the reward accomplish something tangible and lasting. And it let the people who got the reward actually be the focus of the appreciation of those who benefited from it. Instead it was all about Trump and some really ugly menswear. But I di think it was appropriate that a business task that had no real business involved resulted in a reward that really wasn't.

Michael and Tarek both seeming to be on trump's hitlist despite, poor, but hardly horrific efforts makes Prison Break all the more appealing. Because if the eye candy goes early, I probably will too.

Yeah, there were some glaring holes in their stories. Don't know if it was necessarily drugs or alcohol, but how do you suddenly go from being a stock broker one day to being on public assistance the next? Mmm hmmm. I'm thinking there was something in between that he neglected to tell us.

And when Trump was spouting all that crap about helping out the jobless guys all I could think was, "Well, you could help them out by giving them *a job*! At least it wasn't as bad as the "people are being killed in Africa" speech last week.

Did anyone else understand what was going on with Lenny and the girls who were downtown NYC at night begging the team to come see them there? What were they doing? They sounded like they wanted to get people texting right then, but I thought the task was the next day. That didn't make sense to me.

And I think Brent is smarter than he's letting on. He played the BR perfectly tonight. He had to know they were gunning for him. He had to know they would come at him with accusations about his behavior being outrageous and whatever. But he did exactly the right thing by being very calm and reasonable, barely ever raising his voice, letting his teammates be the ones to get all hot and bothered. It made him look like the sane one in front of Trump. That's smart.

RE: Ivanka

Yeah, one of my favorite parts tonight was at the beginning, after introducing the task, when Trump leaned over and spontaneously kissed her on the cheek. Awww! It seemed genuine and almost habitual to me, so it was kinda sweet.



Having the next season in LA where, I'm told, people can walk down the street naked and people won't even break stride should be interesting. Actually, now that I think about it, being in LA will probably require some rethinking of tasks as they don't have the foot traffic that NYC has; everyone's always in a car or a bus or something, right? Heh. It would be fun to see Apprenti trying to stop cars on a busy street.

Re: Brent~~~It was all about ostracizing the uncool kid. Brent~~~Lose the hair on the forehead; you sweat too much. Loved your robot!

Re: Lenny~~~LOVE! Like some Bond-ian villain. "Get here NOW!"

Re: Stacy~~~HAHAHA!! Not quite the story you had written in your threatened little mind, eh?!

Re: Ivanka~~~Kudos! Plus, her brothers got the fat gene!

Re: TD~~~Totally telegraphed that Brent was NOT leaving, with that "You can't judge a book...." homily.

Re: The Task~~~TSq is like, Get AWAY from me! central. Bathrobes? Oh, good---Bellevue peeps! Why couldn't the teams give away Gillettes, or at least coupons, upon proof of text-messaging? Eh. I didn't care for this task.

Yea, verily, Brent is a trainwreck but at least he did something to try to get folks to text message. The rest of Synergy stood around with their thumbs up their butts.

I'd guess all of us know a Brent, and sometimes they are really bad but he's not a total loss. I don't think his hair looks any worse than DT's. I thought his team members were incredibly rude to him and ganging up on him during the meeting, disgraceful! He's not gonna be hired but I'd rather hang with him than most of the others.

Okay, here are my thoughts on this week.

I was certainly impressed with Lenny and Leslie in tonight's episode. They got Lee, who was pretty much stumbling through his leadership, on focus. Lee, otherwise, was a good leader. Except for the stumbling.

As far as the boardroom's concerned, I thought it was quite surprising that Trump flat-out told them that he'd be firing two people. And I knew, just watching the episode, that Stacy would be one of them. You can't handle a threat? You can't work for Trump. Which is just what he said. I didn't foresee Pepi being the other one until later on, though. He was a terrible leader. I'm glad Michael survived, as he's dead-on with many of the things he says. Roxanne was impressive, too, for not going the convenient scapegoat route with Brent, which now leads me to believe that Allie, Andrea, and Sean, as much as I like them all so far, won't win, because they did go that route.

It looks like Theresa and Andrea will be the Project Managers next week. I'll be waiting to see how that goes.

I don't think that this has been mentioned yet, but what was up with the Gilette's "Apprentice Candidate Sucktastic of the Week" Award?

Synergy:

If they have any brains at all they'll nominate Brent to lead the next task. Their only hope is to give him enough rope to hang himself.

Gold Rush:

Can't help but feel that Lenny was right. Lee was dragging his feet. It seemed to me that the winner was the one who got out there quickly with any half-decent idea.


I think Trump wanted to break up the "Beating up on Brent" routine.

Or at least make it clear to them that Brent might get fired, but one of them was going with him. Hee hee! I hadn't thought of that. It makes me smile to think of Trump being intentionally vindictive to those three.

And I just rewatched the credits (long story) and, there's a guy named Bryce on this show? Seriously? I think maybe he's only legendary. Maybe he'll be this season's Adam who I didn't know existed until at least four episodes in last season.

Oh. my. god.

What a pack of hyenas.

I really don't watch this show, I've only seen it a few times in the past. But caught this episode. Which perfectly embodies everything I dislike about the show, "big business," and the practitioners of it. It sucks.

Or, just to get meta--, name the team "Buzzword."

(BTW, I detest the word 'synergy.' Utterly loathe it. I understand, on some level, that it is supposed to be 'syn-' like in 'synthesis' + 'energy', but on my first read of it, I took it to mean 'synthetic' + 'energy' --- and I just can't shake it.)

When Trump showed up I half expected him to ask the three guys to join the show.

I was thrilled that Stacy got fired. From the first time she interrupted Brent (when he started to say, 'can I go over two ideas I have?') I called it. Her rudeness and disruption was making me cringe. He handled it the way he should have - took her off to the side to tell her she was being rude. Would she have preferred he call her out in front of the team? I guarantee if it were another male teammate she wouldn't have reacted the same way. One more of those blown out of proportion events like the magic 8 ball and Stacy J. And for Dog's sake, do they not remember that CAMERAS have the whole thing on FILM? It's NOT a 'he said, she said'. Show the damn footage in the boardroom if it is that important! Kee-Rist.

Good on Trump for seeing through the bullshit. I'm glad he's not going along with the gang-up on someone mentality this season (so far...). That said, I can't stand Brent. He's a whacko and won't be around much longer.

I did appreciate that both Allie and BAG (British Accent Guy) did say that they weren't doctors and couldn't diagnose Brent's exact mental problems, unlike in seasons past where all of the weasels were amateur psychiatrists when it came to analyzing their 'whacko' teammates.

I think I have a girl crush on Ivanka.

I have a dark confession to make.....I (*gasp*) loved Brent's robot, too!

Oh aaaaaa-agonyyyyyy!

You know for these people to be the "best and brightest" that the business world has to offer is one scary thought. It seems that every year at the start one person is thought of as a physical threat or what not (such as Stacy J. or Brent) and the whole team gangs up on them with a mob like mentality. Now maybe I am wrong,but if these people are the best and the brightest should thay not know how to deal with the various types of people in the work force and not let petty little disagreements boil over into massive witchhunts.

ITA, but then, I have plants that show more emotion than Alexis Stewart... and they send their love as well.



Why be so narrow, I think it's more like:
I'm from [insert place] and when I'm trying to [insert any task, including breathing] the last thing I want is some weirdo in a bathrobe trying to get me to text message anything.

Last week Brent was just annoying. This week, he brought out the full HAAAATE. Disclaimer: I didn't have a problem with this week's firings, or with Brent's behavior during fingergate 2006. What I had a problem with was a) he called that dancing, b) he considers it one of his talents, c) his smug, I-am-the-greatest-thing-to-ever-walk-the-earth-and-have-the-greatest-ideas-ever-so-everyone-should-bow-before-me attitude (which Tarek has going on a little bit too, and I hate him for it equally, even if he is pretty).

Anyone else think that Brent will try to pull a Rebecca and insist on being the PM next week? That will be worth watching because it will be a clusterf-uck of epic proportions. God, I miss Rebecca. Hell, I'm even starting to miss Marcus (ok, I'm mostly kidding about that last part, but this cast is terrible.)

And while everyone else is talking about Brent can I ask something else?

When did Michael turn gay?

I mean, I'm all for hot guys turning out gay, but what the hell does this week's Michael have to do with last week's Michael?

Are they even the same guy?

And, for that matter, sexually ambiguous Michael of last week was actually hotter than this week's Covenish Michael.

Was it when he shaved? I'm watching the rerun right now, and, as everyone else has noted: Bitchy.

It comes from the Greek SYN– "together" and ERGÕ "work", it means "working together" and is generally applied to something perceived as being greater than the sum of its parts. i.e. the parts "work together" for a greater goal.

That said, obviously this team is grossly misnamed — unless "Synergy" is referring to their toxic bullshit. Perhaps "Killer Instinct" was more apropo after all.

ETA: the above etymology holds, but I just looked up the immediate parent word in my Greek dictionary: synergia, meaning "joint-work; assistance; cooperation." But it then says when used in a bad sense it means "conspiracy; collusion." So I suppose the name is appropriate, after all!

Aww, I miss Markus, too. I openly confess to it. Brent is no Markus, but I will say that he has Clay's raw potential.



He does give off subtle 'mo vibes.

Please. Rebecca, Markus, and Clay were all FAR better to watch than any of these asshats.

Roxanne, though? Please! Let's have our first black woman to actually be competent and not emotionally unstable!

My favourite Apprentice ever. Apropos of citing Rebecca off topic, I'll cite my Theory Of The Early Camera Hoggers.

They never last. Brent is toast. Lenny may actually be in trouble for drawing attention to himself so soon. Roxanne may be the new Kendra. Always disregard the early episodes except as entertainment. Unless that means Lenny is going home early. Because Lenny has to make it to at least Final Four.

How stupid can the Synergy tools be? Brent helped save their bacon on the first task b/c he had an idea that created value (manicure/massage). Even during the time he suggested it, he was already designated the weak link and was belittled. Yeah, he was so full of it.

If I am a contestant, I try to figure out A) who is the true weak one, and B) how can I make sure that person is the last one standing between me and Trump, Inc.? The last thing I want is to go against a Randall. But these fools are trying to eliminate the least now.

There is no way a Brent is sooooo weak that any given task is futile. He plainly was not to blame this time, right? Now, the beautious part of my strategy at this point is that if I can embrace Brent and utilize him in any meanigful way whatsoever, I'll be seen as a friggin' genius!

Pepi demonstrated his uselessness by not telling Stacey to stfu so Brent could reasonably be heard. Instead, as many others have noted, he was a mealy people pleaser. Again, how idotic are some of these folks? Are they not aware that the Trump organization and its' rivals are dead-eye sharks?

Marshawn was more than competent, at least until she was injected with Markus Fluid and self-destructed.

I missed last week's opener and almost skipped tonight - yikeys! Stacy brought the BITCH, man. My Apprentice viewing partners and I were all rooting for her to be Cobra'd (and it's almost sad at how happy we were when it happened). Trumpy gets props for actually firing the right people for once; Pepi should lassoed that whole trainwreck of Team vs. Brent right away and made it clear that a successful task was the first priority, not beating up the geek.

Lenny owns. I am totally looking forward to the day he PMs ("you haff not my four hundred posters? Kneecap 'im, Lee"). His phone call to Lee rocked, and obviously taught Lee a valuable lesson: when the Russkie says jump, you say how high?

I actually feel the beginnings of affection for Ivanka and her crap-calling. I was disappointed that Carolyn wouldn't be there to grill Stacy, but Ivanka filled her shoes admirably. She seems very level-headed and straightforward plus she's pretty, though sometimes scarily Donald-like. (A female Trumpy? No thanks!)

Edit:
I like the way you think, trojan69. Very ingenious. I'd like to see an Apprentice-wannabe try it.

I don't think Lenny is going to go down because he draws attention, I think it's far more likely that he'll go down because he doesn't suffer fools well.

That, and we don't know enough about him yet to see if he is, in fact, also a fool.

I can already see it happening based on this task. He'll get openly frustrated that a PM isn't going fast enough for him, and he'll suddenly strike out on his own. On a task like this one, where even gathering 20 IM's the night before could be the difference, that's fine. (or whatever he was doing. Could it be that Lenny was out talking to NY'ers to see where to set up?) On a task that requires a team effort for a final payout, like the Pontiac ads or the Zathura float, that'll be his death.

Task sucked. Reward sucked. Firings did not.

Pepi should be the name of a chihuahua, not a man...and chihuahuas are usually feisty, which is definitely not an accurate description of Pepi's leadership style. It's bad enough having to be dragged out of bed by your teammate while being told that your competition had left an hour ago, and Pepi looked a thousand times worse by not jumping up and rousing the team and getting them out the door pronto...instead, he insists on a leisurely picking over the corn flakes and yawning while his team is getting creamed even before they leave the suite.

Brent is obnoxious and not long for the competition, but he wasn't the reason the task failed; and at least HE wanted to do whatever was necessary to attract attention and get people to text. A clear contrast to last week's Summer; and his old college try deservedly saved his bacon for one more week. (However, I would have liked Trump to have given him a stern warning at least as serious as the one he gave Michael; maybe that would have kept him from making that sickeningly smug smile as the elevator doors closed.)

Bill saw Stacy's allegations right away as CovenCrap, and I'm glad that Trump at last has learned a lesson and made more subtle troublemakers like Stacy prime firing material. Not only were her stories inconsistent, but according to the edit shown she was interrupting Brent long before his words were becoming tedious, she seemed to just want to rudely shut him up before he had a chance to make himself heard, which frankly was not a smart idea...you might as well let Brent ramble on like Markus and thereby have indisputable proof of his unsuitability.

Lee wasn't great shakes either as PM, but at least he had the sense to listen to Lenny and realize that dragging the team back to the suite would have been a disastrous time waster. How many times has a task been lost by a PM insisting on one more "quick" meeting that sucks up another couple of hours?

Lenny: difficult to understand, but at least he does seem to have a sense of salesmanship and the value of time.

Roxanne: good work trying to shake up your team and by not joining the GetBrent Committee. Please, please, don't disappoint me by flopping at task.

Allie: Too bad you WERE on the GetBrent Committee, but you weren't a leading member, so I'll forgive you this time.

Trump, you're wrong (surprise!): this week's reward was typical in the sense that it stank. What's next, the winning team gets to be Ivanka's personal slaves for the day? (Hmmm, well, maybe that wouldn't be toooo bad.....)

Ivanka, you're no Carolyn, but you're still far better as a Viceroy than Charles, and far, far, far better than Alexis.

Why didn't they just cut to the chase and call themselves Team Cliche and Team Hackneyed?

So glad to see Stacy go. She was rude to Sweaty from the beginning, interrupting him and talking over him. (Not that his ideas didn't 100% suck.) And she was full of crap about him threatening her. She obviously thought that she'd be safe in blowing off the fat sweaty obnoxious guy, and that no one would question her story. Whoops.

I'm not defending Brent, 'cause he is an obnoxious, entitled ass with far too high an opinion of his own crappy ideas, who will undoubtedly be fired very soon. But Stacy dear, don't make a mountain out of a molehill. She would have done better to just ignore his stupid spouting-off; she didn't need to be rude and call negative attention to herself.

Brent? It's called rice paper. They sell it in pretty little packets that you can carry in your man purse. You use it to blot your sweaty face. Check it out. Or carry a farging towel or something.

More! Ivanka! Please! Bright, articulate and down-to-earth. Who knew?!

I can't keep the names straight, but one of the brunette women rolled her eyes in the elevator when (I'm thinkin' gay) Michael suggested the bathrobes idea. Whoever it was, why the heck didn't she speak up?

So grateful to have a fellow Lenny proponent. I was on Lenny's side last week when he sat by the stream, giving his interview, and just clearly looking like he was looking for a place to hide Tarek's body.

The best thing about Lenny is/was the best thing about Alla: Being right. Being right is hard to argue with. And the ex-stripper made about, maybe, one mistake during her run.

And Lenny is funnier. And he still hasn't made a mistake yet.

And now he has Lee on his side.

"In Gold Rush Corporation, bullshit tells you."

Agree with many that Ivanka is awesome. Gorgeous, articulate, and insightful. How old is she now, anyway? It must have been strange for the candidates to be critiqued by somebody who is younger than them and likely less experienced. (Exception being Lee).

I didn't understand the whole gist of the task. You text a message to that number they were giving out... but for what? Do you get a text message back from Gilette talking about the Fusion razor? Do you get an annoying telemarketer or automated message calling you right back so you can listen to an ad? Or do you get a free Fusion sample? I thought it would make sense that you would get a free razor if you text messaged the number, but nobody ever really mentioned that, so I think it probably didn't happen.

Everytime Bill opens his mouth to smile or talk, I keep thinking to myself "Fixodent, and forget it!"

The world we live in. Not suffering fools is now a flaw? I think I want to kidnap Lenny and convince him we're on 'The Amazing Race,' like, forever.

That's what my boyfriend said: "Bill's waiting for his kiss." But, really, it would be awfully difficult for Trump to kiss Bill on the cheek when Bill's lips have been surgically attached to Trump's ass for the past three years.

Roxanne is awesome. No BS.

Brent is sweaty, annoying and full of himself. And nobody can be taken seriously with hair like that. Except Trump, apparently, but he only gets taken semi-seriously.

I was surprised by Ivanka; I was prepared to bring the hate for all the nepotism involved. But she was good in the boardroom.

Stacy was a horrible sorority bitch whose face looked like the Scream mask. And girlfriend needed a VO5 Hot Oil Treatment just as much as Brent needs blotting papers. They could both benefit from a tall, refreshing glass of STFU.

Finally, that British guy. The shots of him in the boardroom were so unbelievably terrifying. He looked like a serial killer crossed with a registered sex offender with weird, overstretched vagina lips. So horrible.

How about Team "Swing for the Fences"?

Thank you for noticing. When Sean went from Charming English Guy in "My Fair Lady," to Scary-Ass English Guy in, I don't know, "The Fucking Wicker Man," in one week I didn't even know what to say.

Fortunately, the rest of you did. How, exactly, do you go from "Hot" to "Not" that quickly? Because, wow, I've had dogs whose asses looked better than Sean's face did this week. And compared to last week? What the hell happened. I was drooling over this guy last week.

WTF?

As for the teams getting up/sleeping in, I had no idea that the task took place on a SUNDAY!! Check out the Yahoo! video for this week. There is a shot of the alarm clock that Roxanne turned off and the day of the week clearly displayed was Sunday.

I noticed that too, but then I remembered about a thousand things I've read in forums where we've been told again and again that all of these shows (The Apprentice, Survivor, Next Top Model, et al) have their own calendars which are primarily tied to production schedules.

Christmas would be an inconvenience.

But I was a bit gobsmacked when the travel clock said "Sunday."

Maybe it's just, you know, "No rest for the wicked."

Although, a Sunday would be a great day for a street task in New York.

I wonder what Ivana (Ma) thought about the whole thing.

Or, for that matter, Season 3 Stephenie.

I scared the dogs, I laughed so loud! All Lenny needs to do to win my heart forever is to look at the camera during an interview and say, "Moose and Squirrel."

Ivanka was wonderful. She's pretty, the Trump side softened by her mother's genes. She is articulate and certainly able to wade through the bullshit being spouted in the Boardroom.

I wonder if Trump ever read her bedtime stories about YUUUUGE corporations and how her daddy was so powerful and made so much money. That would certainly put me to sleep.

I like this season so far. Some interesting characters and it looks some fun times ahead!

That Brent was very "argumentive" along with being batshit crazy!

I know! It's like the ridiculous "gift bag...with no gift!" idea (which I heard all about from my sister who is a fellow Apprentice bitch). My cellphone plan doesn't include text messaging, so sending just one would cost some ridiculous sum (as opposed to unlimited for $5 monthly). There'd have to be a seriously nice reward apart from watching the fat guy dance for me to do that - though I am the kind of person who would do something just because a fat guy doing awesomely stupid dance moves told me to.


That is hands down the awesomest description I have ever read, and dead on the money, too. (PS Love the name, DanniPintauro, I always wanted Jonathan Bower for my boyfriend.)


Fo' reals. That was what immediately attracted me to Lenny tonight; he thinks in black and white. None of this crazy "we have to pick the awesomest word EVER for our text message! everyone will totally go bananas for our word! okay, everybody brainstorm so that we can figure out the awesomest word to use'" crap, just the fastest and simplest method to winning the task: getting out on the street to maximize the time available.

I am so glad Stacey was fired. So Junior High School. Running to the group saying she was threatened and trying to get the team to bench Brent. Ridiculous. It's ironic that Brent's antics on the street got them the most text messages than the other candidates on that team.
Roxanne will be the only one that lasts from Synergy.
As someone said upthread Andrea does sound like a man and imo she looked like a man too. In the Boardroom I could have sworn she was a man at one time. I looked for an an Adam's apple but her neck was covered.
I adore Lenny. He gets it. It's so refreshing watching a candidate using common sense. And props to Lee for admitting quickly that Lenny was right and that Lee is learning. He will go far in life because he is not afraid to listen and then change course when warranted.
Pepi needed to go. Way too soft as PM.
Did I say I adore Lenny? "This is more simple than Earth."

Ivanka did a great job. Kudos to her.
For the first time, I did not want to throw something at Bill in the BR. I liked that he called out Andrea saying that's lame when she wanted Brent out. And I loved that he so emphatically told Trump to get rid of Stacey.
Michael may have come up with bathrobes but the whole team went with it. No one else said they have a better idea.

ETA: The reward was Trump just wanting to show off his clothing and accessory line for the audience to want to buy them. Otherwise, he could have given the clothes to the three guys privately and given the team a reward, not a lesson in giving, especially since it was the Trump line they were giving away.

I like the fact that the, you know, disadvantaged people were interviewed.

Unfortunately, they weren't good enough on camera to pretend they didn't all have pipe probelems.

Now, I'm not saying they didn't all deserve some help. because that's what these clothing charities are about.

I just think it was cruel to put these particular people through these particular hoops just to get them some nice clothes, and force them in front of the interview cameras, and then just toss them aside.

The way the three charity cases were treated was embarassing.

It was almost tokenism. And if that's the case? Indefensible.

Okay, the thing that had me yelling at the screen was the choice of BLADE5 as a keyword. If you are trying to get people to send text messages, make the keyword as simple and easy to enter as possible. Asking people to mix letters and numbers is just foolish. (A smart keyword is one that a phone's T9 software will recognize with the fewest number of keystrokes, such as "BLADE" by itself.) It's too much extra work to change from letters to numbers in mid-stream. Bad planning there, Synergy.

Sunday makes total sense -- the only matinee days for Broadway are Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. And Sunday shows are at 3, usually, instead of at 2, which gives more time before the streets "empty" (not enough, but significantly) once everyone goes inside the theatres.

I thought it was funny that Trump's message was that you could be handsome and dressed in beautiful clothes and still be a loser -- contrasted with the hobos du jour getting nice clothes from Trump. Hmm, was he calling them all losers, even in their new duds?

Didn't Trump do a charity reward of some kind during Season 4, right after Martha did her charity gardens reward? I thought I remembered her doing it first but with his show right behind.

And speaking of Martha, I hate to see the Alexis bashing. She was one of many things I loved about the Martha edition, which I prefered to The Donald's Season 4. I especially loved how she would often pick who stayed in the "conference room" and who went back to the loft.

I keep reading that the bathrobe idea was the only idea but that is not the case- Brent had a shaving cream idea, which is not as bad, or maybe only equally as bad as the bathrobes, but we never heard the full idea because Stacy kept running over him.

I am not feeling the Ivanka love. She is going to have to do way more than stand there clutching her handbag and saying about 5 sentences before I will consider her brilliant or insightful. To me she looked stiff and scared. Perhaps I will like her more when I see more of her, but I think it is too early to reap all the praise on her. Now, if she convinces Daddy to do something with his hair, I will think she is brilliant!

You have to hand it to Trump. He gets a free commercial for his clothing line and gets to act altruistic to three losers at the same time. Blaming 9/11 for losing your job is ridiculous. The firings were correct. Lack-of-Pepi had no leadership and Stacy works in the Manhatten Public Defenders office. The lawyers who work there do so for one reason, they can't get another job because nobody wants them. Back to the non-threatening murders and rapists for you babe.

Well:

I saw that about this task being on a weekend (October 1-2 of last year if I'm correct). Knowing this, one thing I would have done if I were PM for Synergy if allowed would have been to head for the main entrances to Penn Station (32nd and 34th streets on 7th avenue) and in the very late hours of Saturday night/early hours of Sunday morning (from around 1:00-2:00 AM until around 5:00-5:30 or so), when many people who live on Long Island or in New Jersey come to take early Sunday morning trains back to where they live after a night at the clubs in New York.

With a full compliment of nine people, I could have gone with three at each of the main entrances plus two more at the entrance to the 7th Avenue Subway in Penn Station (1 & 2 trains at that hour), or if the latter weren't allowed, having five at the main entrance at 32nd and 7th and four at 34th and 7th. The late Saturday-early Sunday crowd that takes these trains almost all falls in the desired age group, and there is more than enough traffic at that hour where they could have gotten many more text messages than at Times Square in the afternoon even if Times Square gets way more foot traffic then as opposed to Penn Station in the wee hours of Saturday night-Sunday morning.

I also liked the thought of going around NYU, though if so, the best spot for that would actually be near one of the dorm buildings where 3rd avenue and 9th street hook up with Stuyvessant Street or on St. Marks Place (8th street) where 3rd avenue actually starts. That area gets a lot of foot traffic that is mostly younger people as well, and would have worked a lot better, especially during Saturday night going into early Sunday morning as I would have been looking at doing.

In either case, my going very late on Saturday night into early Sunday morning would have severely cut down on Sunday morning traffic (where I would have chosen Penn Station for if it were up to me), but I think the number of people more likely to text late on Saturday night/early on Sunday morning would have been worth it.

As for Synergy, they actually wound up going to 42nd Street and 7th avenue towards 8th going west, which I recognized from the subway entrance being where I saw it. That was not a great location at all.

These last two episodes of The Apprentice lead me to have a curious dream last night. I was interviewing these Apprenti for a job, but rather than interview, it was an audition for carnival barkers. In the end, I gave the job to The Donald instead.

I could not agree more. This was the biggest WTF aspect of the task to me. I'm not going to pay money, even if its a nickel, so that Gilette can bombard me with whatever viral marketing they dream up in the years to come. It would've been good if, as someone mentioned upthread, there was some kind of prize for every tenth text message sent or something.

I'm in the minority in that I want Brent to stay around as long as possible because to me, he makes this show crazy and interesting ala Omarosa ala Markus ala Clay. Last season Robotic Rebecca and Randall bored me to tears. I like to have a side of crazy with my reality shows.

Having said that, I do like Lenny for his low tolerance for bullshit and his cute analogies.

I actually prefer Ivanka over Carolyn. I'm getting kind of sick of Carolyn's incessant eye-rolling and general smugness.

I couldn't help laugh at Lee with his repeated "hello?... hello?" after Lenny hung up on him. Poor Lee. He's this season's Adam. Like a little lamb.

To me his hairstyle just screamed flashback-Jack on Lost.

I agree. So after repeatedly being interrupted while trying to relay his ideas, regardless of how stupid they are, half an hour into the task and they want to fire him, boot him off the show... are they even allowed to do that? Regardless, it just showed poor leadership skills on Pepi's part that all he could think of to quell the situation was to just get rid of him.

I thought this also. But there's a caveat. They are the "best and brightest" of the business world out of one million applicants (a nice round number that surprisingly hasn't fluctuated season to season), but who are also willing to humiliate themselves on national television and "work" for some egomaniacal blowhard by sitting in a windowless office and make occassional appearances as his personal sock puppet.

I completely agree. They were so preoccupied with Brent-bashing that they missed their opportunity for real planning strategy and they all fawned over that bathrobe idea.

IMHO, this episode was utterly distasteful in every aspect.

The Brent Hate is unnecessary and childish. I'm glad Trump kept him around so they'll be forced to deal with him for at least another task.

But the reward? UGH! Trump says, "You'll be working with CareerGear to help these guys get themselves together and back in "the system." I scream at the TV, "The system?! The "system" sounds like PRISON you jackass! Call it the "workplace" and leave these guys with a little bit of dignity!"

I hope those guys were paid well for their appearances because that 5 minutes of TV made me very uncomfortable. You want to lend a helping hand to someone down on their luck? Fine. Just don't film it and pompously declare how the guys "feel like a billion bucks" so you can feel like a humanitarian for providing a suit and tie.

Seething hate for this episode.