First time poster, long time lurker. :)

I have to agree with alot of what netful said about Brent:



Brent is over-compensating for the way people have probably treated him his whole life. It's a defense/survival mechanism. He may say that these kinds of comments don't bother him, but how could they not bother him...he's a good man to brush them off, but inside, it must hurt.

I'm not a huge Brent fan, but I feel for him. He does need to tone it down a bit. I hate that he gets absolutely no respect...nobody is even giving him a chance to talk (unless it's a really bad edit of him).

Anyway, I agree with the firings the other night.

Pepi didn't seem to have a good grasp on what it means to be in charge.

Stacy - RUDE!

Lee, while young and inexperienced, is probably on this show to gain exactly that. IMO, he would make a perfect apprentice...isn't an apprentice a person there to actually learn from someone? :)

Lenny - he cracks me up. He probably won't make it - he's not flexible enough. He was definitely right in this task, but he probably needs to back off a little, too.

The first 2 tasks have really been lame. They've surely not required any "skill".

I would love to know where the budget went for these 2 teams...I can't believe they didn't hand out razors to those who did send in a text message. Oy!

BTW, can someone do a quick recap of what the Stacey J incident was? I've watched every season of the Apprentice, but just can't remember what happened here. Thanks!!

I didn't mean to imply that his behaviour should be excused. Just that it's easy to see, for me anyway, how he may have come to be the way he is. I don't think for a minute that he's going to win this thing. Honestly, from first glance, I'm not seeing anyone win this. Maybe at the end of the Season, Trump will say, "This season, no one demonstrated that they are capable of working for me, therefore, NO ONE is hired". Wouldn't that be fun?

It's interesting to note that two of the qualities that Stacy said a good manager should have are empathy and compassion. Another good example that BS walks!

Word, and I also agree with the poster above that he needs to tone it down. I think he could be successful, now that the rest of the team realizes they can't just target him, and might have to listen to him, but he will have to take it down a notch.
LOL. That's rich, thanks for digging it up netful.

Another thing--I too got a strong whiff of "substance abuse" from the three guys, so I'm hoping there is additional rehabilitation other than just, "Here's your new suit, now go get 'em, tiger!"

Like Carolyn has started doing. Ivanka's questions were reminiscent of a job interview, "So how did your actions affect the task that was given?" or whatever she said. Carolyn is more sorority girl, "There's no gift? Whatever!"



I remember how much I loved this show the first season because it seemed so different from other reality shows. People were trying to be the best, weren't just trying to make others look bad.




Two things here.

One, with Lee (and Andy before him), the producers and Trump know upfront that he is young and doesn't have as much experience. He will then get fired for these exact qualities. So hypocritical. Fire him for doing a bad job. Fire him for not having common sense. But don't fire him because he is "young". Not to mention, you are hiring an apprentice not a CEO. He's supposed to gain experience from you.

And two, while I love Lenny (he's a breath of fresh air) I don't like the way he was yelling at Lee. No one on this show seems to know how to be anything but "in charge". Yes, Lee was confused, but if I had started yelling into the phone at my boss, "Come here right now! Come here right now! I'm hanging up!", I would have received a text message saying, "Get back here and clean out your desk." Show some manners for God's sake.

It's called a "compensatory facade" and the armchair psychologist in me says Brent has it in spades. He has constructed a personna that reflects the qualities he thinks a successful person has, but like most people who do this he has over compensated.

That said- there are tons of folks like him floating around and the sooner everyone learns to deal with it the better. He is not going to stop- they just need to keep giving him rope. A stint as the next PM is about all it would take.
He has a lot of good qualities- persistence being prime among them. It's just that he's such an annoying schmuck.

And Lenny?
Oh how I love him and his pragmatic nature.
But IMO most Russians in US society are seen as too blunt- and as someone upthread put it "overbearing and discourteous".
I think it is not that at all, but only a combination of accent and a disinclination to get overly involved in the idiomatic syntax that seems to rule American speech.
Meaning that our American ears may hear him as being "overbearing and discourteous" but in actuality he is not. Kinda like Jessica Rabbit; "She's not bad- she's just drawn that way."

Now whether or not Trump will see past his grammar is the question.
But as it stands "The Russian" is the only one I give a crap about.

I AM UPSET OF THE DECISION OF FIRING PEPI IN THE LAST EPISODE. TRUMP SHOULD HAVE GIVEN HIM ANOTHER CHANCE AS HE DID MICHAEL. STACY AND BRENT MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR PEPI TO PUSH HIS TEAM TO VICTORY. HIS RESUME WAS IMPRESSIVE. TRUMP ONLY KEPT BRENT FOR OBVIOUS REASONS- HE NEEDS A CLOWN TO KEEP HIS RATINGS UP. WHAT A SHAME AND WASTE OF TALENT. LETS SEE WHO BRENT WILL BEAT NEXT...

Welcome, Jolie. Do yourself a favor and read the site FAQ. Typing in all caps is frowned upon.

It's all good, netful. I understand what you're saying.



I made the "overbearing and discourteous" comment, and it still rings true to me. There may be some cultural/ethnicity factors at play, but for me it's not the accent nor the lack of idioms (that's actually refreshing, IMO). I'm okay with blunt, but when you're yelling in the phone and demanding someone to do something - someone who, for the moment, you're supposed to be reporting to - I just find it rude.

I think Lenny saw that he was going to have to be a little rough with Lee to get him refocused. Yes, I think he was a little over the top in his phone call, but it did work, and I think Lee "got" what Lenny was trying to do.

Brent is not smart, in my opinion, because regardless of his emotional stability or lack of it, he has to be aware that people like to save time in life by making snap judgements about people. Especially in a situation like this, where they don't have a lot of time to be intelligent with each other, and deep. Because he has a disadvantage that is apparent to the naked eye, he needs to make sure that he doesn't give additional ammunition to people who are looking for a reason, any reason, to exclude someone and have them disappear from the competition. Each of them should be as circumspect as possible, but someone like Brent, who is at a disadvantage because of his appearance, needs to counteract that negative visual impression with unique characteristics that make people concentrate on those, rather than on what he looks like. And I mean this especially with regard to Trump. Trump is an exceedingly superficial man. He is impressed by Mensa, big numbers, and superficial statistics. I think the way Trump's mind works is: stupid mistake, she's beautiful, good manners, she's beautiful, should I keep her around, she's beautiful, etc. And for Brent, it's loud and obnoxious, he's fat, he's a disaster, he's fat, his team hates him, he's fat. The only way someone like Brent could win is if Trump's thoughts were more like Brent did awesome as Project Manager, he's fat, his team seems to love him, he's fat, he saved that team at the last minute, he's fat, etc.

Speaking of Mensa, I never minded Tarek or any of these people building themselves up and exaggerating their accomplishments, because always in the back of my mind is that this is a job interview, and that is the one place where people have permission to show themselves at their very best, and even stretch the truth a little bit. It's like a resume or cover letter. Do statements on these documents always reflect the strictest level of truth? No, but I don't mock people for exaggerating on them, either (I'm not saying people shouldn't mock people like Tarek; people should do whatever they want. I'm just saying I disagree for the reason I've stated). Saying you're in the top 2% of the world for intelligence is inept in a social environment, but these people are not operating in a social environment; they are operating in the context of a job interview, so I totally excuse Tarek for his bragging.

Also, Charmaine and Leslie were right there as well, and they were both exasperated with Lee's request: they were calling out that no way were they going back to the suite, etc., and that they needed Lee down at Times Square right away. So Lenny wasn't alone in his sentiments. Lee wasn't earning much respect for himself at that moment, although I think he earned it the next day.

I don't feel that the normal employer-employee relationship and the accompanying expectations really apply to the Apprentice, because every two days or so, someone else is going to be "the boss," and thus there's no stable leadership and no management structure. Probably, it would be better if, on every task, team members would treat the current PM in the same manner that they'd they'd treat their "regular" boss, the one who provides their paychecks, and promotes them, or doesn't promote them and makes their life a little better or a little worse. But on this show, PMs are like subway trains: wait a little while and another one will come along. So Lee needed to establish himself as a leader: he shouldn't just rely on having the title of leader, or so I feel. I'm not sure that Pepi was really respected by his team, at least not for his performance as PM: I feel most of them were supporting him mainly because they wanted to get rid of Brent.

Lee's interview says he finally "got" Lenny but I truly don't think he truly did so much as Lenny just wnet his own way and Lee didn't know how to do a single thing about it. Lucky for Lee, Lenny does have a bit of simple common sense. Whether this translates into being able to lead or manage or actually come up with some kind of working business paradigm the show pretends to nurture, coax and demand remains to be seen.

Though only two episodes in, I have my doubts we ever will see a true exercise the requires and receives such.

Lenny steamrollered Lee and Lee put a decent spin on it. I was more interested in seeing Lenny's hindsight review than Lee's. Or even Tarek's (he finally got something right! Granted it might be the only time!). Or Charmaine or Dan who I think are being Kendra'd this time round.

Some thoughts:
-Brent should have re-iterated the fact that pepi and the team was late to get to times square
-Stacy realized she was in a no win situation when the team was trying to push her into saying she was attacted and felt threatened. Her backpedeling was hilarious. "i dont remember saying that"
-I wish the black lady (forget her name) told trump that she had to wake up the whole team including pepi
-Dissapointed with ivanka. She seemed to side with stacy against Brent
-I was more annoyed with brent in the first episode. I actually felt bad for him on this one.
-It seemed to me Tarek wanted his tean to loose the task to get back at Lee for last week. I saw him do nothing. Mr. brainiac is one devious fuck
-Go Lenny the russian-lmao!! He is great!

I've re-watched and I have to say now that it was a truly miraculous trasformation from "hot English guy" to "creepy-looking sleazy fish face" in just one episode.

Did he get an extreme makeover between tasks or what?

Also neglected to mention that I thought the reward was creepy.

You know what cracked me up? Stacy accused Brent of needing to be the center of attention!! ROFL! She's a bigger attention whore than he is.

How can anyone say Brent is stupid. He's an attorney. He's a lot smarter than I'll ever be. And he must have some sort of people skills, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten on the Apprentice.

All the Apprentices are cut from the same cloth - thin and good looking. When someone who's different comes along, fat and loud, they feel threatened and as such band together to try to destroy the odd ball.

I don't get Jacob the reviewers' rant about Brent in the recap of this episode. I'm looking for a more detailed explanation in the full recap, because right now I feel like I watched a different episode.

Maybe Brent hasn't shown himself to be a star, but can anyone really bemoan the firing of either nasty-Mctournney and StinkyPepe ? At least the fat guy tried.

Personally it was a pleasure watching Bill and Trump dismantle Pepe's poorly conceived Man-Coven. I felt more dislike for this team as a whole than the durring the Crazy-Stacy episode.

I think Im watching to much t.v. because Bill Rancik=Austin Peck and Ivanka = Becky Connor.

I think I caught her rolling her eyes at Trump when he walked into the baordroom.

I agree wholeheartedly. Charmaine and Leslie were screaming to Lee while Lenny was on the phone with him to come to Times Square. Lenny was right-this task had nothing to do with finding the right word to text message. It was more simple than the whole Earth, or air, or water. Getting the most text messages was what was going to help them win. Also, Trump is looking for a leader. This is not a regular job where you just listen to your manager right or wrong. Candidates have been fired for that. The candidate who fights (not literally) for a win and lets his PM know how to do something better if the PM needs that kind of help will go further than someone who just sits there letting his PM fail.

I'm curious about this, lancer78. In the interview video for S4 Alla (like she needs the S4 but it seemed appropriate), her interviewer specifically asks Alla's net worth and she responds, "10 mil, give or take." I think this was the interview actually with production people, though I could be wrong. Can you clarify for me what's the big deal about being worth 5mil+?


Excellent point. The team itself would work better if they made an agreement to work that way, but it seems like team-playing is not a skill taught to "the best and the brightest." (Yes, tongue in cheek.) Each competitior is trying to distinguish him/herself from the crowd and avoid any career-threatening mistakes instead of realizing that winning is the simplest way to avoid elimination. How do you win? By having a team that consistently wins, thus requiring people to work together under the direction of the project manager, who may or may not need help.


Word. That is all.

I totally agree with this, however, I'm not advocating following the PM at all costs. In my previous post the point I made about Lenny was that he was rude. Whether or not the others who were with him piled on, I still think it was rude and they were rude too. True, a successful candidate needs to fight for a win, but a successful Apprentice also has to have finesse. I can't think of one winning Apprentice who applied bulldog tactics with his team members either as PM or as a basic player (I'll leave Kelly out because I checked out of that season). Again, my point isn't that Lenny was wrong or that he should've just sucked it up and went with Lee's misbegotten plan, nor is my point that everything coming out of Lenny's mouth should be coated in sugar. My point was and is that it's Lenny's behavior, not his underlying intent - which was good - that I didn't like. [/beating dead horse]




Word. You can't be pushed over if you're not a pushover. I know he's young and green but dude: step up!



I think there can be a difference between being intelligent and being smart. You can have all the formal education in the world and be very educated, but not be particularly smart. And frankly, some advanced degrees don't require smarts as much as they do tenacity and the willingness to study.your.ass off. I'm not knocking lawyers; I'm not one, couldn't be one, and I wouldn't even attempt law school so hats off to that accomplishment. But just because dude's a lawyer, doesn't mean he's smart. And just because he's on TA doesn't mean he has people skills. In Brent's case I just think it means he had qualities that would make for a good show.

This is what I really wanted to talk about. I didn't hear anything about exemptions in the first episode but I thought it would still be possible to mention them after the first task.

What really interests me is not only aren't they doing exemptions, but there's no discussion on camera at all that such a thing as exemptions ever happened! There's not a drop of discussion from Trump about why no exemptions or a mention from the candidates that they *might* have been expecting them to be in play but weren't. (We talked about this a lot in my Critiquing TV class about how reality TV shows (at least the MB variety) always exist without continuity. Each season contains a set amount of events which usually are supposed to be self-contained. I think having Bill Ranic show up more than a few times is about the closest thing to season continuity The Apprentice has. On MB shows, no contestant can ever mention a contestant from another season or reference action from another season. (Although we know they in fact often do, I even reand in MB's Survivor book he said any "first season" talk gets edited off the show and after that the second season people shut up about the first seasoners).

In fact I actually *thought* there might have been a tiny reference to season 2 and "Don't call Stacie J. insane because we're not doctors" with the Brent thing. I did hear someone say they didn't feel comfortable "diagonosing" Brent and I could have sworn it seemed like he was referencing the Stacie J. situation obliquely.

I *really* didn't like the reward and not because these guys aren't entitled to their live story. If they were fired because of drugs or mental trauma they should be allowed have their history. But when Trump announced the reward, I really thought he was going to be giving clothing to ex-hookers or Katrina victims and the Gold Rush people were going to have teach them business attire. I have no idea why it took 8 people to help 3 professional guys pick out clothes. (Clearly they already knew how to dress themselves). Instead I, and I imagine other viewers, were left really unclear how clothes are going to help these guys when they probably have bigger issues besides self-confidence. (Again, if someone has/had a problem with drugs, that's their business and they do need help. But having a sort of weird, unstated reference to the reason they're unemployed is because they don't have the right business clothing is very odd and probably unhelpful to the real people who are probably helped by this program!)

Does anything think that this charity does exist but that The Apprentice production staff probably went out of their way to find three "attractive" people who could be well-spoken for the camera and these guys aren't the typical cases the charity handles? This whole situation with Trump's "charity work" felt fishy.

I want to clarify what I said. I do not believe that he ever worked on Wall Street or was anywhere near lower Manhatten on 9/11. The others used drugs and alcohol as excuses for their plight, he chose to use 9/11. Anyone who worked in that area had extensive counciling available to them, etc. I think it is a convenient and not legitimate excuse. If he was there that's different. But I seriously doubt it.

I know many lawyers. None of them went to law school to become public defenders. While they may be hard working anyone who was a top candidate from law school is hired in the corporate world. There may be hundreds of candidates but that's because it's tough getting hired by a law firm. Many law firms have their young attorneys to pro bono work for the public defenders office to get them experience, but they are paid by the corporation.

Regarding the reward, there's an old saying that if you give a man a suit you feed him for a day, but if you teach him to drive a cab you feed him for a lifetime, or something like that.

You have a Critiquing TV class? That's awesome.

Kind of Off-Topic: One place that the Survivor continuity cops dropped the ball is in the concept of "The Alliance." The first season of Survivor had alliances develop naturally over time- the second season had people trying to form an alliance on the first day. So there was a clear link between seasons.

I find it incredible that The Fat Guy nearly got axed this week, yet that drooling moron Marcus got to stay on for half the season.

I think that the exemption thing didn't have the impact that Trump or MB expected it to have and there's not a chance in hell that Trump would admit he made a mistake. That's why it's never mentioned. The candidates were probably told beforehand that there weren't any exemptions this year.

I finally saw last nite's repeat (thanks CheekyCricket), and can I say how much I hate Synergy? First of all, there's no way fugly Stacy would have treated Brent in such a fucked up fashion if he looked like, I dunno, Tarek. Tarek might be stupid but he is pretty to look at. Anyway. That planning session pile-on came straight out of high school. The rest of the team obviously thinks they're the cool kids, and Brent just doesn't fit in because he's fat.

And why does Stacy think she qualifies as a cool kid? More like a "special" kid if you ask me. Bitch looks like she fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down (tm Stee).

As soon as I saw Stacy pulling a little Stacy from a few seasons ago I knew that team was toast and that Stacy was gone. I was waiting for her to say she wanted to hide in a corner. The only semi-decent one on that team seems to be Rachel, the appellate attorney.

Pepi obviously left his balls at home. Don't think I've seen a more useless and ineffective PM in a long time. God, he sucked as a PM and in the BR. As did Stacy. When will these idiots learn that ganging up on a team mate because they're not cute doesn't work with Trump? Well, we know Brent's time on the show will soon come to an end but at least he'll stick around longer than a lot of his loser Synergy members. Hate. them.

I liked the reward. What I liked even more were the fake smiles on the winning team's faces when they found out they wouldn't get a shopping trip/day spa/restaurant outing/whatever. They did seem to enjoy themselves in the end, especially pretty Tarek. But at first they know they were pissed.

Sorry for the long post.

I think Stacy has them.

I do not think Brent has a chance at winning, but Stacy was way out of line to be so disrespectful in that meeting. I would have called her on it, too. And she blew that way out of proportion. She's a princess and I thought she was very rude and unprofessional. If I would had been the PM, I would have told her to allow Brent to finish his thoughts and then speak. The whole group acted like the hip kids in high school and Brent was the class geek. I don't think any of them acted like adults.

So far I don't really like any of the candidates. They all kind of seem cut from the same cloth. Ivanka is beautiful and very articulate. I saw an interview once with his kids. They're all very bright and well spoken. For all of his faults, DT seems to take being a dad seriously and did a good job with his kids.

Something that hasn't been mentioned about this task, is the nature of the product itself. A five-bladed razor?!!! Oh yes, I can see how this is going to be a quantum leap forward in shaving technology. Shaving will never be the same. In fact, you'll probably never be hired or promoted if you don't shave with this razor, because you'll look so disreputable. Where will it end? In season ten of The Apprentice they'll be promoting the Twedge, a 12 bladed razor. The head of it will be bigger than your cellphone.

Anyway, the point is if someone wanted me to listen to some pitch about a five-bladed razor, I'd tell them to bugger off whether I had to pay for the text message or not.

Is it just me, or is it difficult to separate the quoted parts from the newly-posted reply? I don't see any "boxed" quotes or attributions, IOW.

You know, the idea of having those 3 jobless guys join the teams might have made for excellent television, not to mention a boost in their fortunes. I for one would have liked rooting for them!

Just drop the 9/11 thing altogether, please. Thanks.

I agree Brent won't make it very long - he's not what Trump is looking for.

My bet is on Roxanne. Not only did she not join in attacking Brent, she happens to be a black female - that's two minorities, folks! And she's pretty.

Does anyone know what type of attorney Brent is, and what's his track record?

This is the comment of the week as far as this episode's concerned:

Pepi obviously left his balls at home.

I think Stacy has them.

Netful, I'm cracking up laughing as I'm writing this. If that didn't sum it up, I don't know what would. Thanks.

But seriously, Brent should really watch his back in the next task. Everyone hates him for how he treated a woman. Whether you agree or not, anyone that is selected for The Apprentice must remember the number one item--it's a job interview, not a popularity contest! Would anyone act like these candidates are acting if they were interviewing for any high-level government position or Fortune 500 company? No, they would'nt. So, as this show progresses, pay close attention to their body language as well as their words. What you do tells much more about who you really are than what you say.

As for the next task, Brent will fall on his face! Hard!

I think, though, that is exactly what Lee did. I can't help but wonder if he really does not like Tarek. Tarek did not pick him off the bat and left him pretty much to the end. The look on his face illustrated that. Can't blame him, but he also needs to approach things a little differently. His suit was still something I felt misplaced and nowhere near being effective in any way -- wearing a suit and offering business experise that reads right off the Sam's Club membership flyer was an issue that Trump conveniently ignored. However his team also let him get away with it. Not sure I wouldn't have either. But I would have been curious to have heard some opinions from teammates who actually had a chance to listen in to those "business advice" mini-seminars Mr. JC Penny Get it On suit boy was giving out.

I wonder how much of Lee's decision to take the PM on this task stemmed from not only proving himself, but sticking a finger in Tarek's eye and "Trumping" him in more ways than one for taking him to the boardroom. Even if they lost, I think Lee might have thought Tarek's stock was low enough that he could have taken him in and gotten rid of him.

All in all, Lee did nothing to win the task. Which is the weakness for this show's premise if it truly abided by such. Lee pulled a Kelly-on-Wedding-Dress-Task as far as I was concerned. What was interesting was that everyone on the team barring Lenny and Charmaine (?) seemed okay with that. Interesting and stupid. Tarek seemed to play it low and safe and stuck close to Lee despite his criticisms of Lee's lack of leadership. So I think Tarek knew Lee could be gunning for him.

I'd really like to see the actual statistics of calls per hour etc. as I wonder if Lenny really did save the task as the editing and my own thoughts imply, or whether it simply was won due to the fact the entire team realized the simple logic in the most hours spent schilling meant the greater the number of possible calls.

I just wonder how many more seasons The Hair plans to wring out. The Apprenti have become more distasteful with each year! I only like Lenny and Roxanne; that means they will not make it to the Final 2.

From what I saw, Lee was over it, but Tarek was the one who was not and had to make that dumb comment about Lee supposedly being in over his head.

I also think that Lee just wanted to prove to Trump that he could be a good PM and win because he was taken into the final boardroom and because he wanted to establish himself early. I think Tarek was hoping Lee would not do well because he didn't seem to be helping at all. I would have expected Tarek to jump on Lenny's idea of lets find a simple word and go out there and get people to text message. On the other hand, maybe Tarek kept his mouth shut so if the team lost, he would not be brought to the final boardroom because he did not want to face Trump a second time. My personal opinion is Tarek couldn't care less if Lee had hung himself because he was still smarting from Trump's wrath.

In the final scene with Brent going up the elevator - they had him lit like an evil clown with that odd smile of his. So they are keeping the token Canadian around for the amusement factor - sigh we're not all like that...(JMO)

Quite possibly the best opening of any recap, ever. The ass of his own specialness.
This is not helped by the fact that every time I read “Tarek”, I think “Sarek” and picture Spock’s daddy en robe. With Tarek’s hair.

But this is probably why Exemptions were removed from play. On a more far-sighted level, Lee does get to sight this victory on his record if he ever makes it to Interviews or Final Two, but he doesn't get to enjoy a completely bogus exemption this week for a victory earned by someone he actively fought for a good part of the task.

In the real world, managers frequently skate by because of an underling's performance. TPTB have excised the travesty of Kelly getting the exemption for the Bridal Shop task. Let's just be thankful for that, and sit back and watch Brent's meltdown with unbecoming glee.

After re-watching this episode last night, I was very surprised at how different Brent and his behaviour seemed to me. I think that his robotic dancing in a bathrobe must have coloured my memories of him! When Stacy repeatedly shushed and ignored his attempts to contribute, he was obviously angry--his face was red around the edges. But he managed to hold his anger in check until Stacy just refused to listen to him in any way. He didn't seem like a crackpot at all, just a mature man who is unused to his peers treating him with such a lack of respect. The "cool kids" did indeed try to marginalize him. I would imagine that his co-workers in real life appreciate and enjoy his zany enthusiasm. Haven't we all worked with people whose persona is somewhat different from the self-impressed pompous blowhards who are to be found in every situation, even on The Apprentice? And haven't the candidates on this show learned anything in life -or even from watching previous seasons? It's not smart to waste time trying to marginalize one person when you are about to embark on a task in which the result depends on how many sales or contacts you make. If anyone has this on tape, take a second look at Brent.

I must add also that during the initial brainstorm, Brent politely asked Pepi if he could share his ideas; Pepi consented, thus implying Brent had the floor. But Stacy kept disregarding this with her rude interruptions.

I rewatched the episode and noticed this too so I can totally understand his frustration.

He's still an idiot and, as Ivanka said, won't be long for the game, but Stacy was in the wrong in the situation. Also, on a completely shallow note, she's one of those people that purses her lips into a little o shape and I simply can't tolerate that on my tv, so I'm glad she's gone.

Maybe the first season was more of a job interview, but it seems (to me at least) that it's become more popularity contest than interview.



Exactly. Brent is annoying and inappropriate. The way he dealt with being ignored left a lot to be desired, but in this instance I still believe he had a right to be irritated. And yes, perhaps if he was less abrasive and generally more socially adept, he wouldn't be ignored--and that's clearly something he needs to learn how to do--but that doesn't excuse Stacy or anyone else for being outright rude. We've all probably had to deal with a Brent at some point, but if you can't manage to behave professionally, you're not all that much better than him.

New interviews up with Pepe and Stacy at TVGUIDE.COM . Still unapologetic re: Brent, LOL. Stace was esp. harsh IMO.

This is true. But not true of Stacy. A brilliant do-gooder type would never go on The Apprentice.

I just watched some of the extended footage for this episode. Some points of interest:

Andrea is perhaps a Kristi or an Alla in the making. She called a Synergy meeting, prior to picking the PM, and she had a book where she had written down her perceived strengths and weaknesses of everyone, which she wanted to review with them. She went around the table and mentioned a strength for everyone (except for Brent, who didn't get a strength from her but a comment that he wasn't the people person he thought himself to be).

In the boardroom, Pepi also mentions that Andrea has a tendency to try and overpower the PM.

Michael totally raked Stacy and her location choice over the coals in the boardroom! He went on bashing the location and her reasons for selecting it for quite a while as she tried to defend it. It turns out Roxanne suggested they try somewhere else when they were having trouble and is the only one to do so. Love her. But I definitely got a vibe Michael was out for Stacy between this and then bringing up the Brent confrontation as we saw during the episode.

The look on Synergy's faces as Brent walked into the room and not Pepi was priceless. I sympathize with Andrea's tears. How they wished he would have been eaten by a shark was even funnier. How long will this idiot last...

I totally disagree. I graduated from an Ivy League law school. While many of my classmates did join large firms, some of us (myself included) turned down offers from the corporate world in order to become prosecutors, legal aid attorneys, or even public defenders. Just because someone ends up practicing in the public sector doesn't mean that they weren't a "top candidate" or that they couldn't land a firm job.

Brent is so annoying. I want him to be gone now, please.