Extras, Episode 10: If There’s A Bustle In Your Hedgerow
The Apprentice: Los Angeles, Extras, Episode 10: If There’s A Bustle In Your Hedgerow by Kathy Lonergan -- 03/28/2007 Was there a task on this week’s Apprentice? There must have been one in there somewhere, but Recapper Kathy discovered that the extras this week focused on the romance between Tim and Nicole. Hello, gentle readers! I’m in a romantic mood, as my husband just whispered sweet nothings through the hedge to me… oh wait, that wasn’t my husband and me, it was Tim and Nicole! This week’s webisode focuses not so much on the task as it does on the ongoing soap opera that is these two. What do you think, The Young and the Hedgeless? We begin the webisode with a Trump voiceover telling us that he needed to have someone from Arrow come over to Kinetic and that James was the one to make that choice. We see James ask for volunteers, followed by deafening silence. Trump continues to hammer James for a decision, and so he makes one—to send Nicole to the other team. This decision is met with another round of deafening silence, but this time it’s punctuated with dagger-like looks from Nicole. Poor James; you see him make his decision with what I feel was a plausible explanation, but the lack of understanding and support from his team is painful to watch. My husband suggested it would have been fairer to draw names, but I think James was right when he said that he needed a team that was well-rounded in terms of skill sets. In choosing Nicole, he kept the team in balance. Perhaps since he felt Nicole and Tim offered the same skill set, he might have appeased them by flipping a coin; this might have made them feel more valued and that the decision was less personal. Perhaps James truly did feel Nicole was the weaker player of the two; at this point, we can’t know. The webisode continues with Kinetic’s brainstorming session. Nicole tells her new teammates that Arrow will have a big idea and begins to share some insights into the personalities and strategies of her former teammates. In an interview, Kristine says if Nicole is willing to “vomit information” about players from Arrow, she’ll be glad to use it to Kinetic’s advantage. She cites a specific example of information: Frank’s tendency to spend money freely. We cut to a scene of Arrow’s brainstorming session, in which we hear Frank rattling off a list of expenditures. In case we didn’t get it, the editors hit us over the head by giving us a glimpse of Frank’s legal pad, upon which an abundance of budgetary information has been jotted. I don’t know that this information was of particular use to Kinetic, but it serves as proof that Nicole knows Arrow’s members very well. The next scene takes us to Universal Studios, where both teams are working hard to win the task, which is to use AdWalker technology to sell annual passes to park-goers. The team with the highest gross sales wins. We see Arrow’s “big idea,” which is essentially a kiosk with signage to attract potential customers. Arrow offers free water bottles to each person who buys from them. Kinetic takes the mobile approach, rollerskating around the park and approaching guests. A selling war ensues, and Kinetic clearly disapproves of Arrow’s aggressive approach. Like it or not, it’s effective, and, as Ivanka reveals in the Boardroom, Arrow wins the task. In the Boardroom, Trump continues to harass Tim and Nicole. Now, I make my living teaching teenagers with behavior disorders and emotional disturbance, and I swear Trump is a bigger provoker than all of them put together; talk about someone who likes to stir the pot!! He tries to get the sweethearts to profess their love for each other, but when they’re unwilling to swallow the words he’s stuffing into their mouths, he finally relents. Ivanka jokingly pulls a “see what I have to endure?” sympathy plea and everyone laughs. Trump remarks, incongruously, that Tim and Nicole are a good-looking couple. Apparently ugly people don’t merit his time and effort. As the final Boardroom looms, we see Pyramis and Thisbe—er, Tim and Nicole -- talking through the hedge. Nicole is still angry with Tim for not having voiced opposition to James’ decision, a point that is just lost on Tim. Nicole’s new BFF Heidi, tells Tim, “She just wanted you to defend her!” and “You sold her out!” As the girls talk later, Nicole says she doesn’t care, but you and I both know the only people who say that are the ones who care a lot! Meanwhile, the men of Arrow sit on the patio and discuss the whole situation. Frank and James reassure Tim, while James confesses that he will never understand women. In an interview, Tim acknowledges how dumb it was for him to get involved in a relationship during this process, but he couldn’t seem to help it and still wants to preserve what he and Nicole have. In an attempt to do just that, he tries to talk to Nicole the next morning, but she hasn’t changed her position on the issue. Tim tells her he wants to put it behind them because it would be such a shame to end what they have. “I’m crazy about you, you know that,” he offers. Awww. The webisode ends with Trump firing Angela and Nicole risking her safety by asking Trump for a favor. Rather than high-tail it out of the Boardroom, she tempts fate by suggesting that Trump give Tim the opportunity to come to Kinetic because she’s anxious to see his response. In the closing voiceover, Trump says we’ll have to wait until next week to see if he took Nicole’s suggestion to heart. So much for the webisode! Next up, there are a few replayed scenes: one in which we see Nicole pitch the rollerskating idea (to which Angela responded very enthusiastically, I might add) and the other one being the “meeting in Frankie’s bed” scene. In the latter, we hear Arrow correctly predict how Nicole is interacting with her new teammates; Tim says she’s probably getting them all riled up, but in a good way—motivating them to out-sell Arrow. What I found interesting about this scene is something James says about their team’s ability versus Kinetic’s. He commentsthat until now, the teams have never had to execute their tasks at the same location. For the first time, their customer base is the same, and it could get ugly. Perhaps he was just randomly naming names, but he asks his teammates, “Here’s what it comes down to: Can you (Frank) beat Heidi, can you (Tim) beat Nicole, can I beat Angela, and can she (Stefani) beat Kristine?” If this were a basketball game, I’d say James was going for a person-to-person defense. Assuming the match-ups weren’t random, would you have changed the assignments? Discuss. Speaking of discussions, there is one deleted scene this week, and it’s Kristine and Nicole discussing the upcoming Boardroom. Both women target Angela, albeit grudgingly. “She’s so bright!” Kristine says, and Nicole adds, “I wouldn’t put down her character or say she did a bad job.” They agree that it’s not what Kinetic did to lose the task, but rather what Arrow did to win it. As for the winners, we see Arrow’s members arrive for their helicopter ride, which is the most awesome reward I’ve seen yet this season. (Note: I have to digress a bit here, as the timing of this reward was too coincidental. If you don’t want to read the sidebar, skip down to the next paragraph. I won’t be mad, I promise.) I LOVE helicopters and have always wanted to fly in one, About two weeks ago, my husband remarked that he had a very special surprise for my birthday. Since this one is the big four-o, he wanted to give me a special gift. (Yeah, I realize I’ve blown the whole suspense aspect, but that’s ok.) On Sunday, we took a helicopter tour of the Illinois River Valley—it was great, and an experience I highly recommend. Needless to say, our trip was much smaller in scale, but amazing nonetheless. Imagine how weird it was to come home from my adventure and watch the same thing on The Apprentice. Imagine again how nice it was that neither helicopter had “TRUMP” scrawled on the side! OK, I’m done. Thanks for indulging me, those of you who did. As for those who didn’t, they’re not reading this anyway, so let’s go gossip about them through the hedge. Oops, got catty there—must have been channeling my inner Trump. Meanwhile, back to the extras: the Arrow players love their reward, and it is a beautiful view; we see Griffith Observatory, the ocean, Dodger Stadium, the Hollywood sign, and a multitude of skyscrapers. As she passes over Universal Studios, Stefani points out the red carpet area where Arrow won its task: “That’s our area! That’s US!” Amusingly, the scene’s background music is the same music over which Tim obsessed during last week’s challenge. As I listened, all I could picture was Tim and Frank wiping down the shower door with Soft Scrub Deep Foaming Cleanser (which is safe for all surfaces, lest ye hath forgotten!) Our next scene is of James preparing for the Boardroom. He is not sure who will be fired. Frank remarks that Kristine is a strong player and therefore an easy target for James. James says he is going in with a clean slate, except he plans to go after the person with the rollerskating idea, since he thinks that was horrible. It’s not clear at this point whether he knows that person is Nicole; at first it seems like he doesn’t, but then in an interview, he says, “It’s hard to be objective because I like Nicole and she was on our team from the beginning.” James is then reminded by Frank that Trump’s books advocate “crushing your enemies.” Stefani adds that he has to eliminate the competition without regard to his personal feelings. She goes on to say that, with no offense to anyone, they’re not there to develop personal relationships, but rather to beat each other out for a job with Trump. Frank agrees and adds, “We can do that after the show!” I’m hoping he’s referring to the “making friends” part and not just responding to the words “beat each other”! Tim, not surprisingly, is silent. As the rest of the team goes on, Tim slips out the door and heads for the hedge. At this point, Frankie Suits goes all Joe Pesci, ranting and raving to James about how “wet behind the ears” Tim is and how he can’t believe Tim’s acting like this over a girl he met “two weeks ago.” Now, something tells me Frankie knows his way around a good hyperbole, but I have to wonder just how long Tim and Nicole have been an item. Technically, this is “Week 10 of (your) 16-week job interview,” as Trump would say, but I realize the tasks aren’t filmed in real time. That said, what kind of timeline are they following? There’s obviously no way they’ve done 10 tasks in two weeks, so I am curious as to how much time has actually elapsed. If anyone can enlighten me on this topic, please e-mail me and let me know. Otherwise, I’m going to lose sleep over it, and if I can’t sleep, I can’t dream about riding in a helicopter with William Petersen, so please help me out. We then see Tim talking to Nicole, tipping her off to the fact that her rollerskating idea is going to be the focus of James’ attack. Upon his return to the house, he claims only to have wished Nicole good luck, and defends himself against Frank’s criticisms. Things are more than a little tense between the team members. In the last scenes, we see Kinetic face Trump and this week’s viceroys, Ivanka and James. He begins by commenting on the large margin by which Arrow defeated Kinetic: $7000, or a 23% differential, which is a YUGE loss. Trump adds that when the loss is close, it makes it hard to fire someone, but when there is this much of a difference, it seems someone is clearly to blame. Who is that, he asks Angela, who begins by saying she feels they lost due to a flawed selling concept. She adds that Nicole gave them pertinent information about the way Arrow operates: an inside scoop, if you will. Despite that, Kinetic still lost, and when Nicole is called on the carpet about it, she defends herself, saying she gave good ideas to help and that she was “dead on” about what she predicted Arrow would do. She adds that she doesn’t know what more she could have done, since she worked as hard as she could. Ivanka validates her efforts, saying the passion was there and in fact, she was surprised Kinetic lost by such a large margin. When Trump asks James the secret to his team’s success, he says Arrow had a soundproof plan. (pssssssst, James- I think you meant “sound” or “foolproof,” seeing as there weren’t any acoustic panels around your kiosk.) As for Arrow, their strategy was to have a stationary location and a mobile force. He says Arrow sold with their hearts as well as their minds. When James is asked why he sent Nicole to the other team, he does his best to compliment Nicole and avoid fault-finding, but when Trump asks if she was the weakest member, James has to admit that was the basis for his decision. Nicole looks crestfallen, but never fear- SuperIvanka is here! The Donald’s daughter jumps to Nicole’s defense, asking if she feels she’s being set up as Kinetic’s scapegoat since the perception may be, perhaps falsely, that she’s a weak link. Nicole says she feels she’s at a slight disadvantage, but adds that every member of Kinetic told her they were glad to have her on the team because she brings such energy and enthusiasm. Trump then regresses to junior high and starts asking Nicole if Tim is in love with her. She gracefully avoids responding and reiterates that she is there for one reason only: a job with Trump. When Trump asks if she is in love with Tim, her embarrassment gets the best of her, but she indulges his line of questioning. He points out Tim’s many positive qualities: a good job, a Harvard education, and the fact that Tim’s so smitten with Nicole that he can’t breathe. However, he takes Tim to task for not defending Nicole when James elected to move her to Kinetic. Nicole admits she felt the same way and that she told Tim this; Trump gives Nicole a pep talk and tells her to make him cry. He sticks up for her and, in essence, tells her not to let Tim mistreat her. While it’s not really appropriate business conduct, it is a rare glimpse into Trump’s paternal side, and hey—that’s good TV. The Boardroom continues with another clip, this one primarily focusing on Angela. Before Angela takes her place in the hot seat, however, Ivanka wants to know if James sent Nicole to Kinetic to separate her from Tim because of their personal relationship. She wonders if perhaps they were ineffective together, but James assures her that they were not, and adds that their relationship is what made it so difficult to lose Nicole to the other team. Nicole adds that they worked very well together, in fact. It is at this point that the conversation shifts to Angela and her effectiveness as a leader. Trump asks the other members of Kinetic whether Angela was a good leader, and all of them speak highly of her, as if they are reluctant to call her a poor leader, choosing instead to say she is not a micro-manager, and emphasizing what a good team player she is. Trump goes all Brooklyn on us and asks again whether Angela is a good “lead-ah.” Eventually, it becomes clear that while her teammates hold her in high esteem, Angela is viewed as being at fault for the loss. Ivanka feels Kinetic’s sales strategy was unusual, and James notes that he perceived their sales pitch to be weak. Trump adds that, as four beautiful women, they had an advantage, unfair or not, and should have outsold Arrow. Life isn’t always fair, he adds, but sometimes women have an advantage, and he admits that given a choice between them and James, (who he calls a “good-looking guy”) he’ll buy from them every time. Ah, Trump. Melania’s not going to like that. Better stage one of your fake phone calls and smooth things over. Better yet, maybe give Tiffany’s a jingle and have them send over a shiny new object—seems to me your L.A. digs are a little “bling-lite.” Trump begs Angela to defend herself, as he clearly does not want to see his Li’l Olympian sent home—for with her go her shiny medals. Though she’s a good sport about it, she knows her moments are numbered, and so his hand is forced- she’s fired. While I always felt Trump overestimated Angela’s performance on the show, she seems like a lovely person—never a bad word about anyone. I wish her well. And as we say goodbye to Angela, we take a look at her exit interview. In it, she says she wanted to pair her athletic achievements, which represent reaching for the top, with her academic accomplishments, to make her mark in the business world. She is a cum laude graduate of Harvard with experience in commercial and residential real estate. She feels fortunate to have competed in 3 different Olympiads and feels she learned many skills along the way. In reflecting on her final task, she says she’s not a sore loser; she’ll shake your hand and say good job—but she doesn’t respect when people cross ethical boundaries, and she feels there were several times that Arrow crossed the line. In retrospect, she laughingly says she doesn’t think the roller skates were a good idea. Going into the Boardroom, she felt confident she would be supported by her teammates, but when it soon became clear that no one was backing her, she got a strong feeling she wasn’t going to escape a firing. Angela says the best part of her experience was the exposure to such a wide variety of industries. At this point, she’s trying to figure out her career path. She feels there are many exciting opportunities that await her; it’s just a matter of honing in on the right path. And with that
The Apprentice: Los Angeles, Extras, Episode 10: If There’s A Bustle In Your Hedgerow by Kathy Lonergan -- 03/28/2007 Was there a task on this week’s Apprentice? There must have been one in there somewhere, but Recapper Kathy discovered that the extras this week focused on the romance between Tim and Nicole. Hello, gentle readers! I’m in a romantic mood, as my husband just whispered sweet nothings through the hedge to me… oh wait, that wasn’t my husband and me, it was Tim and Nicole! This week’s webisode focuses not so much on the task as it does on the ongoing soap opera that is these two. What do you think, The Young and the Hedgeless? We begin the webisode with a Trump voiceover telling us that he needed to have someone from Arrow come over to Kinetic and that James was the one to make that choice. We see James ask for volunteers, followed by deafening silence. Trump continues to hammer James for a decision, and so he makes one—to send Nicole to the other team. This decision is met with another round of deafening silence, but this time it’s punctuated with dagger-like looks from Nicole. Poor James; you see him make his decision with what I feel was a plausible explanation, but the lack of understanding and support from his team is painful to watch. My husband suggested it would have been fairer to draw names, but I think James was right when he said that he needed a team that was well-rounded in terms of skill sets. In choosing Nicole, he kept the team in balance. Perhaps since he felt Nicole and Tim offered the same skill set, he might have appeased them by flipping a coin; this might have made them feel more valued and that the decision was less personal. Perhaps James truly did feel Nicole was the weaker player of the two; at this point, we can’t know. The webisode continues with Kinetic’s brainstorming session. Nicole tells her new teammates that Arrow will have a big idea and begins to share some insights into the personalities and strategies of her former teammates. In an interview, Kristine says if Nicole is willing to “vomit information” about players from Arrow, she’ll be glad to use it to Kinetic’s advantage. She cites a specific example of information: Frank’s tendency to spend money freely. We cut to a scene of Arrow’s brainstorming session, in which we hear Frank rattling off a list of expenditures. In case we didn’t get it, the editors hit us over the head by giving us a glimpse of Frank’s legal pad, upon which an abundance of budgetary information has been jotted. I don’t know that this information was of particular use to Kinetic, but it serves as proof that Nicole knows Arrow’s members very well. The next scene takes us to Universal Studios, where both teams are working hard to win the task, which is to use AdWalker technology to sell annual passes to park-goers. The team with the highest gross sales wins. We see Arrow’s “big idea,” which is essentially a kiosk with signage to attract potential customers. Arrow offers free water bottles to each person who buys from them. Kinetic takes the mobile approach, rollerskating around the park and approaching guests. A selling war ensues, and Kinetic clearly disapproves of Arrow’s aggressive approach. Like it or not, it’s effective, and, as Ivanka reveals in the Boardroom, Arrow wins the task. In the Boardroom, Trump continues to harass Tim and Nicole. Now, I make my living teaching teenagers with behavior disorders and emotional disturbance, and I swear Trump is a bigger provoker than all of them put together; talk about someone who likes to stir the pot!! He tries to get the sweethearts to profess their love for each other, but when they’re unwilling to swallow the words he’s stuffing into their mouths, he finally relents. Ivanka jokingly pulls a “see what I have to endure?” sympathy plea and everyone laughs. Trump remarks, incongruously, that Tim and Nicole are a good-looking couple. Apparently ugly people don’t merit his time and effort. As the final Boardroom looms, we see Pyramis and Thisbe—er, Tim and Nicole -- talking through the hedge. Nicole is still angry with Tim for not having voiced opposition to James’ decision, a point that is just lost on Tim. Nicole’s new BFF Heidi, tells Tim, “She just wanted you to defend her!” and “You sold her out!” As the girls talk later, Nicole says she doesn’t care, but you and I both know the only people who say that are the ones who care a lot! Meanwhile, the men of Arrow sit on the patio and discuss the whole situation. Frank and James reassure Tim, while James confesses that he will never understand women. In an interview, Tim acknowledges how dumb it was for him to get involved in a relationship during this process, but he couldn’t seem to help it and still wants to preserve what he and Nicole have. In an attempt to do just that, he tries to talk to Nicole the next morning, but she hasn’t changed her position on the issue. Tim tells her he wants to put it behind them because it would be such a shame to end what they have. “I’m crazy about you, you know that,” he offers. Awww. The webisode ends with Trump firing Angela and Nicole risking her safety by asking Trump for a favor. Rather than high-tail it out of the Boardroom, she tempts fate by suggesting that Trump give Tim the opportunity to come to Kinetic because she’s anxious to see his response. In the closing voiceover, Trump says we’ll have to wait until next week to see if he took Nicole’s suggestion to heart. So much for the webisode! Next up, there are a few replayed scenes: one in which we see Nicole pitch the rollerskating idea (to which Angela responded very enthusiastically, I might add) and the other one being the “meeting in Frankie’s bed” scene. In the latter, we hear Arrow correctly predict how Nicole is interacting with her new teammates; Tim says she’s probably getting them all riled up, but in a good way—motivating them to out-sell Arrow. What I found interesting about this scene is something James says about their team’s ability versus Kinetic’s. He commentsthat until now, the teams have never had to execute their tasks at the same location. For the first time, their customer base is the same, and it could get ugly. Perhaps he was just randomly naming names, but he asks his teammates, “Here’s what it comes down to: Can you (Frank) beat Heidi, can you (Tim) beat Nicole, can I beat Angela, and can she (Stefani) beat Kristine?” If this were a basketball game, I’d say James was going for a person-to-person defense. Assuming the match-ups weren’t random, would you have changed the assignments? Discuss. Speaking of discussions, there is one deleted scene this week, and it’s Kristine and Nicole discussing the upcoming Boardroom. Both women target Angela, albeit grudgingly. “She’s so bright!” Kristine says, and Nicole adds, “I wouldn’t put down her character or say she did a bad job.” They agree that it’s not what Kinetic did to lose the task, but rather what Arrow did to win it. As for the winners, we see Arrow’s members arrive for their helicopter ride, which is the most awesome reward I’ve seen yet this season. (Note: I have to digress a bit here, as the timing of this reward was too coincidental. If you don’t want to read the sidebar, skip down to the next paragraph. I won’t be mad, I promise.) I LOVE helicopters and have always wanted to fly in one, About two weeks ago, my husband remarked that he had a very special surprise for my birthday. Since this one is the big four-o, he wanted to give me a special gift. (Yeah, I realize I’ve blown the whole suspense aspect, but that’s ok.) On Sunday, we took a helicopter tour of the Illinois River Valley—it was great, and an experience I highly recommend. Needless to say, our trip was much smaller in scale, but amazing nonetheless. Imagine how weird it was to come home from my adventure and watch the same thing on The Apprentice. Imagine again how nice it was that neither helicopter had “TRUMP” scrawled on the side! OK, I’m done. Thanks for indulging me, those of you who did. As for those who didn’t, they’re not reading this anyway, so let’s go gossip about them through the hedge. Oops, got catty there—must have been channeling my inner Trump. Meanwhile, back to the extras: the Arrow players love their reward, and it is a beautiful view; we see Griffith Observatory, the ocean, Dodger Stadium, the Hollywood sign, and a multitude of skyscrapers. As she passes over Universal Studios, Stefani points out the red carpet area where Arrow won its task: “That’s our area! That’s US!” Amusingly, the scene’s background music is the same music over which Tim obsessed during last week’s challenge. As I listened, all I could picture was Tim and Frank wiping down the shower door with Soft Scrub Deep Foaming Cleanser (which is safe for all surfaces, lest ye hath forgotten!) Our next scene is of James preparing for the Boardroom. He is not sure who will be fired. Frank remarks that Kristine is a strong player and therefore an easy target for James. James says he is going in with a clean slate, except he plans to go after the person with the rollerskating idea, since he thinks that was horrible. It’s not clear at this point whether he knows that person is Nicole; at first it seems like he doesn’t, but then in an interview, he says, “It’s hard to be objective because I like Nicole and she was on our team from the beginning.” James is then reminded by Frank that Trump’s books advocate “crushing your enemies.” Stefani adds that he has to eliminate the competition without regard to his personal feelings. She goes on to say that, with no offense to anyone, they’re not there to develop personal relationships, but rather to beat each other out for a job with Trump. Frank agrees and adds, “We can do that after the show!” I’m hoping he’s referring to the “making friends” part and not just responding to the words “beat each other”! Tim, not surprisingly, is silent. As the rest of the team goes on, Tim slips out the door and heads for the hedge. At this point, Frankie Suits goes all Joe Pesci, ranting and raving to James about how “wet behind the ears” Tim is and how he can’t believe Tim’s acting like this over a girl he met “two weeks ago.” Now, something tells me Frankie knows his way around a good hyperbole, but I have to wonder just how long Tim and Nicole have been an item. Technically, this is “Week 10 of (your) 16-week job interview,” as Trump would say, but I realize the tasks aren’t filmed in real time. That said, what kind of timeline are they following? There’s obviously no way they’ve done 10 tasks in two weeks, so I am curious as to how much time has actually elapsed. If anyone can enlighten me on this topic, please e-mail me and let me know. Otherwise, I’m going to lose sleep over it, and if I can’t sleep, I can’t dream about riding in a helicopter with William Petersen, so please help me out. We then see Tim talking to Nicole, tipping her off to the fact that her rollerskating idea is going to be the focus of James’ attack. Upon his return to the house, he claims only to have wished Nicole good luck, and defends himself against Frank’s criticisms. Things are more than a little tense between the team members. In the last scenes, we see Kinetic face Trump and this week’s viceroys, Ivanka and James. He begins by commenting on the large margin by which Arrow defeated Kinetic: $7000, or a 23% differential, which is a YUGE loss. Trump adds that when the loss is close, it makes it hard to fire someone, but when there is this much of a difference, it seems someone is clearly to blame. Who is that, he asks Angela, who begins by saying she feels they lost due to a flawed selling concept. She adds that Nicole gave them pertinent information about the way Arrow operates: an inside scoop, if you will. Despite that, Kinetic still lost, and when Nicole is called on the carpet about it, she defends herself, saying she gave good ideas to help and that she was “dead on” about what she predicted Arrow would do. She adds that she doesn’t know what more she could have done, since she worked as hard as she could. Ivanka validates her efforts, saying the passion was there and in fact, she was surprised Kinetic lost by such a large margin. When Trump asks James the secret to his team’s success, he says Arrow had a soundproof plan. (pssssssst, James- I think you meant “sound” or “foolproof,” seeing as there weren’t any acoustic panels around your kiosk.) As for Arrow, their strategy was to have a stationary location and a mobile force. He says Arrow sold with their hearts as well as their minds. When James is asked why he sent Nicole to the other team, he does his best to compliment Nicole and avoid fault-finding, but when Trump asks if she was the weakest member, James has to admit that was the basis for his decision. Nicole looks crestfallen, but never fear- SuperIvanka is here! The Donald’s daughter jumps to Nicole’s defense, asking if she feels she’s being set up as Kinetic’s scapegoat since the perception may be, perhaps falsely, that she’s a weak link. Nicole says she feels she’s at a slight disadvantage, but adds that every member of Kinetic told her they were glad to have her on the team because she brings such energy and enthusiasm. Trump then regresses to junior high and starts asking Nicole if Tim is in love with her. She gracefully avoids responding and reiterates that she is there for one reason only: a job with Trump. When Trump asks if she is in love with Tim, her embarrassment gets the best of her, but she indulges his line of questioning. He points out Tim’s many positive qualities: a good job, a Harvard education, and the fact that Tim’s so smitten with Nicole that he can’t breathe. However, he takes Tim to task for not defending Nicole when James elected to move her to Kinetic. Nicole admits she felt the same way and that she told Tim this; Trump gives Nicole a pep talk and tells her to make him cry. He sticks up for her and, in essence, tells her not to let Tim mistreat her. While it’s not really appropriate business conduct, it is a rare glimpse into Trump’s paternal side, and hey—that’s good TV. The Boardroom continues with another clip, this one primarily focusing on Angela. Before Angela takes her place in the hot seat, however, Ivanka wants to know if James sent Nicole to Kinetic to separate her from Tim because of their personal relationship. She wonders if perhaps they were ineffective together, but James assures her that they were not, and adds that their relationship is what made it so difficult to lose Nicole to the other team. Nicole adds that they worked very well together, in fact. It is at this point that the conversation shifts to Angela and her effectiveness as a leader. Trump asks the other members of Kinetic whether Angela was a good leader, and all of them speak highly of her, as if they are reluctant to call her a poor leader, choosing instead to say she is not a micro-manager, and emphasizing what a good team player she is. Trump goes all Brooklyn on us and asks again whether Angela is a good “lead-ah.” Eventually, it becomes clear that while her teammates hold her in high esteem, Angela is viewed as being at fault for the loss. Ivanka feels Kinetic’s sales strategy was unusual, and James notes that he perceived their sales pitch to be weak. Trump adds that, as four beautiful women, they had an advantage, unfair or not, and should have outsold Arrow. Life isn’t always fair, he adds, but sometimes women have an advantage, and he admits that given a choice between them and James, (who he calls a “good-looking guy”) he’ll buy from them every time. Ah, Trump. Melania’s not going to like that. Better stage one of your fake phone calls and smooth things over. Better yet, maybe give Tiffany’s a jingle and have them send over a shiny new object—seems to me your L.A. digs are a little “bling-lite.” Trump begs Angela to defend herself, as he clearly does not want to see his Li’l Olympian sent home—for with her go her shiny medals. Though she’s a good sport about it, she knows her moments are numbered, and so his hand is forced- she’s fired. While I always felt Trump overestimated Angela’s performance on the show, she seems like a lovely person—never a bad word about anyone. I wish her well. And as we say goodbye to Angela, we take a look at her exit interview. In it, she says she wanted to pair her athletic achievements, which represent reaching for the top, with her academic accomplishments, to make her mark in the business world. She is a cum laude graduate of Harvard with experience in commercial and residential real estate. She feels fortunate to have competed in 3 different Olympiads and feels she learned many skills along the way. In reflecting on her final task, she says she’s not a sore loser; she’ll shake your hand and say good job—but she doesn’t respect when people cross ethical boundaries, and she feels there were several times that Arrow crossed the line. In retrospect, she laughingly says she doesn’t think the roller skates were a good idea. Going into the Boardroom, she felt confident she would be supported by her teammates, but when it soon became clear that no one was backing her, she got a strong feeling she wasn’t going to escape a firing. Angela says the best part of her experience was the exposure to such a wide variety of industries. At this point, she’s trying to figure out her career path. She feels there are many exciting opportunities that await her; it’s just a matter of honing in on the right path. And with that