Everything Nicole says/does just fills me with joy that Jacob will pick it apart in the recap.

Heidi? Fell apart! What the hell?

Kristine? You fell to Trump's whims and I'm sorry.

What the fuck was that?

Kristine? She wasn't even given a chance to fight. The wrong number was pretty bad but not firing Nicole after Trumpy was told she slept through most of the task? Horrendous.

These are suppose to be the brightest and sharpest young business people in America? Those last 2 presentations had all the nerves and lack of confidence that my 6th graders do while presenting their social studies projects in front of the class for the first time.

Nicole should have been fired too.

That was quite possibly the best thing I've seen this season, and yes Wampa, I'm also really looking forward to the "transcripts" for this ep. Just... I was shaking!

Unfortunately I don't think Frankie Suits is going to the final two, and I was disappointed he didn't use any farmer talk tonight (your lying is makin' me mad as a wet ham!), but he fought the good fight tonight.

That? WAS AWESOME!

Heidi's double talk, Kristine's indignation at not being able to defend herself and Frankie's smack down made for the best boardroom yet this season.

WOW. Just wow. I can't believe Frank and Nicole outlasted Heidi and Kristine. And, to my eyes, the brokedown footage in Frank's video was far worse than any brochure ever produced. That should have been a quadruple firing.

ETA: Here's what really gets me. The two worst presentations (in the history of presentations) were done by the two teams who had members who WORK IN REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT. If Nicole and Frank couldn't rock this task, they deserve to be sent home.

I cannot stand listening to Nicole for one more minute. I prayed that that phone number snafu was her fault but I was denied... and then she says indignantly how she could be fired because of that? WTF... I didn't see her do one thing on that task. She grates.. and yes she should feel a little bad that Tim was fired because of her.

I was happier than I've been during this whole season watching Heidi completely lose it, but then...Kristine? Her mistake reminded me of Randall's back on the XM Cafe task in S4, when he put the wrong station number on the poster. Granted, her error was bigger in that it was on a brochure intended for the public and involved Trump's own property, but still. She put the wrong number down based on having to do the work herself thanks to Nicole's general uselessness. (And it sounded like Nicole was the one responsible for gathering the information, too, meaning she gave Kristine the wrong number.) Guess it's true that Trump has a thing for Nicole.

Also, now it's an all Arrow Final 4? Isn't this a first?

Holy crapola. Who would have thought during the first few weeks of this season that the final four would all be from Arrow?

I did not see Kristine's firing coming at all. I thought it was going to be "Heidi, you're fired and you too Frank." Hee. I did fell bad for her when she didn't even get a chance to defend herself. Maybe she got the wrong number from someone else. And she really should have woke up Nicole.

Every time Frank called Don "Don Jr." I wanted to laugh and I think Don wanted to also. Loved Frank getting Heidi to shoot herself in the foot. That was great.


I know, what's up with that!

I loved the downfall of Heidi! Hehehe! Great!

Perplexed that Frank and Nicole are still there. Even more perplexed that the final four at all members of the Arrow.

Go Stefani!

I would never, in a million years, have thought that the Final Four would be entirely Arrow. Colour me gold with shock.

Poor Heidi looked as though she hadn't slept in several days during the boardroom. It certainly appeared that Killer Fatigue was a factor in the firings of both Heidi and Kristine.

I pick Stefani for the win: she's been consistently performing without drawing negative attention to herself, and she has a certain deferential yet no-nonsense air that I think Trump will find attractive (Eww! Not like that!). Frankie also looks to have talked himself into some future connection with Trump, so good on him.

eta: Hee! ThatBadgerChick, I guess great minds think alike!

It's really a shame about this silly time slot and the shrinkage in viewership, because the last few episodes have been A-ONE-AWESOME! What a fabulous episode! (on a side note, about that atrophying audience - I haven't missed an episode all year yet this is the *first* one I've seen live and not on Tuesday or something from the DVR).

Heidi - what an absolute meltdown. She totally froze. I kind of wished she would have cried, just for comic value, but I do give her self-awareness props at the end to say "yea, I sucked and should have been fired". Kristine - well, I could understand her going. Bad, bad mistake. It's not like some of the other 'wrong number' mistakes made in presentations in years past. If this is an actual marketing material to be released to the public, CHECK THE PHONE NUMBERS. That would get you fired in a real situation.

And when Stefani was talking in her outdoor confessional - wearing that strapless top - about Trump liking BIG ideas and BIG buildings and gesturing with her hands at chest level, surely I wasn't the only one to add in "and BIG boobs"??? :)

Now that Trump knows Nicole slept through a task, she's Dead Apprentice Walking. Frank may squeak through, since Jr. was complimentary toward him, and I believe Stefani has never been PM at all.

Frank/Heidi's video was terrible. I could have done better on my little digital camera.

Why couldn't Kristine just say, "Mr. Trump, the mistake was because my teammate didn't pull her weight and I had to do everything. As a result, I made an honest mistake. I was working for two people instead of one." Although I am not sure if that would have mattered. And Heidi, she was just free-riding on her teammates. Frankie is amazing!!! I loved that he put up such a good fight. What is Trump's obsession with Nicole? What has she done till now? I think that he fired Kristine only because she said bad things about Nicole behind her back - Trump's sweet Nicole.. I can't stand her anymore, and I cannot believe that not only did she read Tim's letter out loud on National TV, but she also did not blink!! Maybe she was over him - who knows.
Will Trump hire Stephanie, who has never been a team leader? All in all, I loved this episode a lot, and actually this season was not that bad. I have kind of been looking forward to this season. I must say Trump is smarter than I thought - sent them out to verify the phone number - how awesome was that. He is a tough customer!

Boardroom no-brainer...Heidi said she should be fired for her performance on this task, and Kristine ruined any possible connection with the reader of the brochure via the wrong phone number. Considering Trump needed to keep 4 in the cast for next week, there was nothing else he could have done.

I really hope I don't appear as nervous during presentations as these people did.

Wow, who knew Trump has more patience than I do? I would've kicked Kristine to the curb the second that James verified that she'd put the wrong number in the brochure; and I would've gotten rid of Heidi as soon as she started her ridiculous tapdance around what exactly she was responsible for.

And boy, Stefani's presentation skills are superb.

That was totally awesome. Hah! Frank has really grown on me. And it was so fun to watch Heidi squirm, I never understood what Trump saw in her. Trump's ego is hilariousl, this task was all about him. It was like "tell me how great my building is. Tell me how great my image is. Tell me how great my lifestyle is." James got that. Trump's one good point was that nothing sells itself. Things where it might seem like they do, people have busted their butts to keep it looking that way. Nobody ever got to the top by resting on their laurels. He should have fired Nicole over Kristine, Kristine got the number wrong but at least she did something. Nicole did jack all.

Yeah, Frank won't be the next apprentice but he was good tonight (and he calmed the hell down too). It was good when she finally admitted that she was responsible for the brochure. Heidi is a great leader when she manages a group of self starters.

Frank should have been fired too for that horrible video.

Hey! Didn't Stephanie and James win? Where was their reward?

That was freaking awesome! I am so glad Heidi was fired, and Kristine, as well, if for no other reason than I hate smug and they both wore it like a second skin. But, Heidi proved yet again that she gives lousy boardroom. Really lousy boardroom. And what's up with all her prefacing everything she says with "honestly" or the like? Especially when what follows is, apparently, not. Yeah, I don't think Frank has the polish to get this job, but yowza, he was the master of that boardroom opposite Heidi.

It was kind of cold not giving Kristine a chance to defend herself (and, to my mind, Nicole should've likewise been fired for sleeping through the job), but hey, I'm not quibbling with her getting gone.

Who would've thought at the beginning of the season that the Final Four would all be from Arrow?

This show is such a joke. I don't know if it's sad or funny.

First, Trump says one team will be fired, then he says, what the heck, he'll fire one person from two teams. He can't even hold to his own rules within one episode.

Nicole was sleeping and did nothing on a task, and she's still here? WHY? So in Trump's eyes it's better to do nothing than to make a mistake about a phone number? Give me a break.

And with that final 4, he has made the show ridiculous.

If he hires Nicole, well, it's a complete farce, because of this task and because she is 0-1 as project manager. Same with Frank.

If he hires Stephanie, he is hiring someone who has NEVER been PM. Am I recalling incorrectly or is that really true? Frank lost, Nicole lost, then it was Michelle and Aaron, then Aaron won one before he lost. Then Surya won several times before he lost. Then it was James until this episode. How can he hire someone who never tried to be PM without making the whole concept of the PM meaningless?

If he hires James, he is probably hiring the right person but can he hire a man for the 5th time out of 6 without looking like he has no respect for women?

Trump, you're a moron and your show sucks. I'm only watching the final episode to see the rest of this farce play out.

He should have at least kept Kristine.

I have been TA's bitch for all six seasons and this has to be one of the best boardrooms EVER! And I am still reeling from how it went down. I am in shock. I was convinced that Heidi would end up winning this season! To see her go like this is incredible! But she deserved to be fired, which is pretty baffling. Kristine didn't really deserve to be fired, but it's not like she was going to win anyway. Nicole will never win. Neither will Frank. Stefani has gotten hardly any airtime, so I guess that makes James the winner.

Frank's boardroom arguments tonight, IMHO, were among the finest--if not the finest ever on this show.

Instead of arguing with Heidi, he had her paint herself into a corner. The candidates typically sit there and argue based on "what does Trump want to hear?". The problem was that when Heidi did that, she contradicted herself over and over. All Frank had to do was ask questions and hand her the rope to hang herself. Masterful.

Frank probably should have been fired tonight, but his boardroom conduct saved his neck and probably caused Trump to actually take a second look at him.

I loved the controlled fury in Frankie's eyes when Heidi totally punted the presentation to him unexpectedly. I've been in that very situation myself, and it's so hard to collect yourself and move on when all you're thinking is "YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF @##$##$#%$".

How frustrating that Heidi and Krisine went before Frank and Nicole (and even James, who's speaking manner bugs enormously).

And how much more awful will it be if Frank or Nicole pulls some last minute magic and gets hired by Trump? Oh, wait...Trump gets the Apprentice he deserves so he should hire BOTH Frank and Nicole.

But honestly, Heidi's presentation was one of the worst ever. She did deserve to go, as did Frank because they both cosigned that bullshit campaign (for whatever reason), as did Nicole for being horrendous. It should be a final 3 with Kristine, Stefani and James.

I'm glad Heidi just decided to stop trying to save herself, but I was soooooo hoping when she started with the "You know what?" that she was going to quit. That? Would have been the best ever.

Heidi, Kristine: Total class. Best, most honest exit interviews ever. Combover doesn't deserve either of you. Guess it's Stephani. Can't wait until that whiny Nicole is gone forever!

I don't think he can penalize Stefani for never being project manager since he had that ridiculous thing this season where you stated PM until you lost. It was such a bad idea!

That may have played into it. Trump is all about loyalty and Kristine was ready to gun down Nicole even before they knew they lost. Which, I'm sorry really bothered me. She let Nicole sleep just so she'd have something to badmouth her with.


It looked like she wanted to. I kinda hoped she would.

Quite honestly:

Only James and Stefanie should have been left standing for the final task. Even though we have four left, It's clearly in my opinion down to those two barring a massive shocker.

I'll post my full thoughts on this once I've seen the extended footage and webisode.

Interesting about Kristine's strategy to take down Heidi. Had the two of them paired together, they would have blown Frankie & Nicole out of the water. Kristine and Heidi both seem to have the personalities that feed in a positive way off other grounded type of personalities, and while Frank is a hard "worker" (as Tim so kindly pointed out), he's useless when it comes to "theme" and "overall concept" etc. Stefanie would have carried whoever she was paired with, and James could have been a victim of a Nicole or Frank as well. I can't believe Nicole & Frank oulasted Kristine and Heidi. Especially Kristine. Kristine's made some BAD mistakes over the course of her Apprentice tasks, but I still believe she is pretty smart, tough cookie. Heidi I have lost respect for. I think her looks and charm have carried her far. If she was ugly and didn't look all polished, she's just passive and wishy-washy, and has never really been a leader. But she looks like she fits the part, and is smart enough, so she's made it pretty far.....she was most impressive as the dirty housewife, I could see her on a 90210/OC kind of show!



Oh yeah - word to this. Frank was like kick a$$ lawyer tonight, trapping Heidi in her lies, calling her out on her double talk. Donnie J. picked up on it right away. And LOVED his comment that he would LOVE to have Frank at one of their sites. Yay!

I hope the producers of this show get good feedback from this episode. It was more like The Apprentice should be than most of the episodes since the first season. It showcased a valuable business skill, it actually was relevant for Trump's organization, and all of the "drama" was relevant. Stuff like this is much more interesting to me than watching people trying to sell Universal Studios tickets or complain about sleeping in tents.

I loved that all of the teams got to see the others present. This might seem cruel, but there's no better feeling than hitting a presentation out of the ballpark only to be followed by others that are horrible. Very self-fulfilling. That truly was the reward for the winners tonight.

Trump set the groundwork for this tonight, by firing Kristine with Heidi, instead of firing a team, as he said he would, and in firing the 2 women who had what looked like the most legitimate shot at winning the show, which would have happened if he fired the all-woman team of Kristine and Nicole.

Next week, I can see Trump getting rid of Frank and Nicole, and nobody will bat an eye, because neither is suited to the job. That leaves James and Stephani, who are just about equal in terms of skills, but James has won twice as PM, and Stephani (because of the stupid PM rules of this season) never was PM at all. So James wins.

I think Heidi was totally thrown off by Frank, and couldn't handle the fact that Frank is so easily distracted. Everybody on Arrow had dealt with Frank for weeks, so being on a pair with him would have been easier to do (James was masterful in his, "Look! Shiny object!" approach to Frank on the plane). Frank can't present, can't write, and is generally useless when it comes to leadership, but I think Heidi really believed that he'd do a solid job on the video, and when he didn't, she lost the task for herself right then and there.

Kristine, on the other hand, did a pretty good job, but instead of letting Nicole lead, she decided to just do it all herself. She didn't type up the number for the brochure from nothing, but unless she had notes in Nicole's handwriting showing that Nicole got it wrong, by taking on the whole task herself, she left herself wide open for a firing.

Nicole and Frank coasted into the Final 4 on incompetence. Incompetence of a stripe that Trump loves, which is either do nothing so you can't be blamed for anything (Nicole) or bully your way through the boardroom (Frank, this week and last).

I was pulling for James and Stephani and they didn't disappoint. They seemed to be on top on things, worked smoothly together without any glitches or melt downs. And not once did either of them take a power nap.

Heidi and Frank? There are no words. That brochure sucked like we've never seen stuff suck before. And the video? All I saw was some footage of the marble shower in the bathroom. This also must have been the first non-theme non-presentation on the show. WTF?

It was interesting to see Heidi melt down without her team to support her. Trumpy was right to fire her. The loss was way more her fault than Frank's. She couldn't even get her lies straight.

As for Nicole and Kristin: Yes, putting the wrong phone number was a yooge boo-boo. But Trumpy said he liked the brochure -- which Kristin did. I think Nicole should have been fired instead. She couldn't even get her stupid power point presentation to work and she was basically a lazy tool on this task.

No kidding. Trump and Nicole have the EXACT same view on reality. She loves his idea of "luxury" and "the big life" and even our wonderful recapper mentioned last week that a comment of Trump's took a very Nicole view of things, so I think they're a match made in the Ninth Circle of Hell.

As for Kristine, I think while she made a major mistake, they work on such a short timetable that mistakes can happen. Also, her team member who could have checked everything for accuracy was ASLEEP! I mean, come on! Will be so glad to see Nicole go.

Wow! That was awesome, except I think all four of them should have been fired....Frank's video presentation looked like someone's YouTube of where they spent their vacation, Heidi was a lying mess, Nicole was asleep and when awake, had no grasp of what to do and also couldn't present, and then Kristine's one mistake is like THE mistake you cannot make...it completely usurps the purpose of sales if the sales office cannot be contacted easily.
James and Stephanie were completely on top of things. Their presentation was smooth, cohesive, informative and descriptive. I would love to see Stephanie win.

I enjoyed this too. The professionals definitely distinguished themselves tonight. I wonder if Nicole realizes that she is on borrowed time or if she is deluded into thinking that she is just as good as Frank, Stefani, or James.

Nicole may be good at something, but she is definitely horrible at prep work and endurance. This is not the first task that she has gone to sleep on when major work needed to be done. Somebody forgot to tell her that she is on a job interview (I'm still pretending that its a job interview anyway).

Perhaps, but I would have preferred a trip to pick out diamonds! ;-)

Exactly what I was thinking, tonypitt!

Damn, those are two ugly-ass buildings Trump is putting up. And how predictable that he'd put his name on top of both towers. In a world that's ever-changing, there's one constant on which we can rely: Trump's utter tastelessness.

Let me get this straight. Frank is in the real estate business, he's given a marketing task, and his approach is that the buildings will sell themselves? If that doesn't warrant getting sent home in ignominy, nothing does.

"YOU'RE FIRED!"

Classic Trump!

This is the Trump from '04! Brash, blunt and, well, Trump. I'm no Trump fan but the appeal of his show is that he acts like TRUMP. He's no longer phoning it in. He's totally engaged and ready for the final 4. NBC should find a way to give Trump at least one more season.

Well, Frank may not be Trump's apprentice but he has a good shot at being "Don Jr.'s."

The emotion between Heidi and Frank in the boardroom. Man, that was some intense fight. Whew.

Possibly the Best.Episode.Ever.

Getting to see the other four fall apart at the seams like a good B movie?

That was, imho, the best Apprentice I've seen, and I've seen them all.

Heidi fell to pieces and shoved the presentation onto Frank. I can't fault Frank for falling apart at that, I would have as well. That's being put on the spot by definition.

Kristine should have woken Nicole up, as much as Nicole should have stayed awake. If she had I think Nicole would have gone home. I so wish Nicole went home. I can't stand any little piece of her. No redeeming factor at all. None.

Wow, Frankie! He one-two punched Heidi like nobody's business....that was incredible. Frankie hasn't really impressed me so far but that little display showed me how "out of his league" Tim was last week when he took him on.

Those last two presentations were unbelievable! The kids in my classes do better jobs, and they are only first-year college students.

I thought he should fire all four: Nicole, Kristine, Frank, and Heidi. Every one of them was so obviously unprepared.

Me too! And was anyone suprised that Nicole snores?

I loved at the beginning of the show where one of the women (forget now which one) said something about "I can't wait to go see Trump...and kick some ass!" because I totally heard it as "kiss some ass" which is also an effective strategy.

I'm torn on the Kristine/Nicole thing- I loathe Nicole but also thought, well maybe Kristine should have woken her up. But then, maybe not. Nicole sleeping should be enough to hang herself. Also, Trump set it all up to make Kristine look like he WANTED to get her alone and hear about Nicole. She was kind of railroaded by him in that, and not having a chance to ever speak in the boardroom other than that.

But those really were some embarrassing presentations. When I was in school we had to give presentations ALL the time and it was never my strong suit but damn... I did not go to any top tier school and my job is a lot less "high level" than these people profess to have but I DID learn to give a presentation without shaking and stuttering and throwing my presentation partner to the wolves. Maybe my school was better than I thought because we got instant and very honest feedback about things like that.

It was interesting that they all gave their presentations in front of each other. That's never happened before, has it? I enjoyed them doing it that way and seeing the other teams react to the opposing teams' presentations, in the boardroom and in confessionals. If they continue this show I think that's an interesting way to do some of the presentations. It's harder, IMO, to give your presentation in a group like that. It's harder to focus solely on what your presentation is, and avoid the temptation to compare how you're doing before you're done.

Best episode since Season 1!! Loved the Heidi meltdown, loved that Frank got her to admit that she wrote the brochure, loved it all! It was very unfair that Nicole did not have to answer at all for going to sleep and not helping with this task, but the awesomeness of the Heidi-Frank fight overshadowed that.

But most of all, finally a great task, that actually directly relates to Trump's business. Have we seen that since Season 1?

So we have a final 4.

Two candidates that can now be revealed are the brash, loudmouth, uncouth, bastard children of Donald Trump, and the two candidates that he should hire to join the ranks of other talented folks who keep Trump's name in lights.

We really do have a reprise of a former season that was "Book Smarts vs. Street Smarts", except this Final 4 is "Talented vs. WTF?"

Trump will either hire both James and Stephanie in 2 weeks, or he will hire Nicole and/or Frank, have the Apprentice cancelled and it will go down as the most amazing final episode of a show since Newhart.

Game On Trump!

Wow, I did not see Kristine's firing coming. Well, I was expecting two firees, but not in that abrupt manner. So in a way, I was a bit sympathetic to her. I wish Trump fired Nicole as well, since she annoys me so so much. Found myself grinning each time Frank made a (surprisingly) valid point against Heidi. Begone, Heidi!

Since I first saw the previews for tonight's episode, I was always wondering how Heidi and Frank teamed up. And it did made sense, based on Kristine's strategy and Nicole's pettiness. And I liked how Frank spun this one as "we're the first PMs" thingy. However, I missed how James and Stefani decided to work together. Was it shown or did I just miss it?

Loved, loved, LOVED James' and Stefani's presentation. Awesome. They had to edit out parts of the presentation, I guess, since it was polished and informative enough and was thus proprietary. That would most likely mean that Trump Org would be using (some, if not all) their ideas. Awesome.

I did not like the idea of a Final Four going into a Final Task. Does this mean that everyone, and not just select candidates, get to work on the final task? That seems fair. Starting with the second season, I always wondered how they came up with the pool of contestants that the Final Two got to choose from. And it should be interesting that they are all going to work on a single event and get to see each other's performances up close (sort of like what happened tonight).

I also noticed how Trump often referred to James during the boardroom. "James, go outside and check the number". "James, what did you think of Frank?" "James this" "James that". Methinks James is going to win this, unless Stefani can prove herself to be a valuable leader on the final task.

Obviously, Frank and Nicole were retained for their real estate experience. The Trump Organization is, after all, primarily a real estate firm. Even Don Jr. was kind enough to consider Frank's credentials. And Nicole can probably sell a bunch of condos (if you like being sales-talked to in that grating voice of hers).

Total agreement. They both presented themselves better in earlier episodes. Watching the other presentations, good and bad, didn't help either. Stefani and James are a pair of smooth operators, that will be a tough choice. I have already dismissed Frank and Nicole from contention.

I was glad they weren't crying in the car. I hate that. Loved the "i'll get you back" remark. It's a small thing, but i'm glad the nice man puts your suitcase in the trunk for you. I can't stand that one last humiliation of getting the bag into the back of the taxi.

I missed the beginning, i guess the tents are gone for good? That was the worst gimmick ever.

Hey, I've seen high school kids with better presentations. And I made a better brochure than Frank and Heidi's back in middle school. In the early 90s. With a dot matrix printer and cut outs from magazines.