The Apprentice 5 - Episode 2 Summary

'A Definite Lack of Synergy' By ARnutz

Tarek returns to the suite to thunderous applause. It seems everyone is happy he’s back and Summer was fired. I’m sure this will only be a momentary victory because he’s now a marked man, as far as the Donald is concerned! Tarek says Summer’s mistake in the last boardroom saved him. She just couldn’t keep her mouth shut! Want to relive the moment? Well, Estee wrote all about it here!

So we move on to the next task: The teams have to come up with a text message for people on the street to send and pass the word around about the new Gilette Fusion razor. It has five blades! Five! One to grab the whisker, the next to pull it away from the skin, the third to cut it, the fourth to cut it more and the fifth to rip your skin from your face!

It seems that Carolyn and George are off on some more business ventures this week, either that or they are having a romantic rendezvous! We are told by Donald that Bill Rancic, the robot who won the original Apprentice, and Donald’s daughter Ivanka will be his eyes and ears for this task! Ivanka went to the Wharton school (way to plug your alma mater, Donald) and she is very business savvy! You know, she kind of looks like Donald except she’s much cuter and thank goodness she has not inherited her dad’s hair! Her hair is so much nicer. Picture Donald’s face, much younger, with a cute, little, blonde bob.

Anyway, Lee, the young 22 year old guy, who looks like Apprentice 2’s Andy, is project manager for Gold Rush. Pepi, not Pepe, as in the cartoon skunk, but Pepi who stinks just like one, is project manager for Synergy. The teams get together to brainstorm ideas for a simple text message that will fit the product. The goal of this task is to get the most text messages to their number from people on the street.

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We are shown team Synergy in a conference room and Brent trying to tell some ideas. Stacy keeps talking over him and babbling on about other ideas. I really don’t even know that she had any good ideas because I never heard any of them with all the babbling! Brent is obviously frustrated and it shows. He decides he’s going to nip it in the bud and confront Stacy to tell her to stop shooting him down. He gets her in the hallway and tells her to knock it off. She tries to escape, but he points his dreaded, threatening finger in her face. She goes back to the conference room and tells the whole team she was just threatened and wants Brent off the team! Pepi takes Brent out to the hallway and talks to him, saying how the team wants him to be fired. Brent tells Pepi the only one who has the right to fire him and send him home is Donald and somehow, Brent stays.

Over at Gold Rush, the team seems to be working well together. Well, except for Lenny who gets very impatient with the others and tries to control the task. They all get along much better than the other team and, of course, we aren’t shown too much of their brainstorming session because there is not too much drama… and we know this show is all about the drama! Early the next morning, team Gold Rush is heading out to get started with the task. We see Roxanne getting up to shut off an alarm clock at 6:30 am and waking up her team because the other team has already left!

Synergy finally gets up, eats breakfast, discusses the location and is shown at the task at 11:30 am! Hmmm… do you think they really went out there 5 hours later? Me thinks this was an editing trick to fool us into thinking they are complete and utter morons! Frankly, this team didn’t need that editing trick for us to come to that conclusion! *rolls eyes*

Anyway, it was decided, by Michael ~ the really hot guy! *swoon* ~ that Gold Rush would go out on the street in their bathrobes to attract attention! Michael, honey, you’ve already got my attention. I’d like to see what’s under your bathrobe!

Brent, being the class clown of this bunch, decided he was going to attract lots of attention by dancing around, doing jumping jacks and the robot. Oh the picture! As weird as he was, he probably did get a bunch of people to text! I would’ve walked right past and shook my head in disbelief, but this is New York and he probably wasn’t any stranger than the normal bunch of characters found daily in Times Square!

Meanwhile, Gold Rush is shown standing in front of the TKTS line where people are lined up waiting for show tickets. Lots of people are shown texting to their number! Basically, we now know which team has won this task, if we didn’t know before! Way to keep us in suspense here, Mr. Burnett!

Just in case you missed it, the teams head to the boardroom to get the results. Team Synergy got a total of 458 text message and Gold Rush got a total of 683 messages. Gold Rush wins! …and for their reward, they get to help out three guys who have been down on their luck in the job situation by helping them pick out new wardrobes!

The three guys show up to meet with Gold Rush at Trump’s Suit Showroom. Gold Rush is working with Career Gear for the reward. The gentlemen look quite dapper in their new outfits, but here’s a tip, Donald, why not just give them jobs with one of your many companies? Wouldn’t that be better than just giving them clothes? I’m sure you have some openings, don’t you? ...or better yet, just get those guys on the show to compete for the Apprentice spot! I bet they wouldn't be any worse than this bunch of candidates!

So, back in the suite, some of Synergy’s members are having a pow-wow and discussing the problem child, Brent. They are trying to figure out how to dump this character when they get to the boardroom. Sandy, who said she was threatened by Brent earlier, now says she was not really threatened. Roxanne doesn’t like how wishy-washy she is being, which she tells us in a confessional. Thank you Roxanne! You can see through the drama and be the voice of reason.

Off to the boardroom! Team Synergy goes in and almost everyone attacks Brent, saying he brought the team down and he needs to go. He is called a distraction and various other things to which Brent replies he was the star! Sandy says, “Yes he was the star in the clown role!” Then they discuss the wearing of the bathrobes and how that was Michael’s idea.

Donald tells the Synergy members that this loss was so bad that he is going to fire two people and that Pepi may choose to bring back two people or three. Pepi chooses Brent, Michael and Sandy. The others are sent up to the suite. While they are in the lobby, Donald asks for Bill and Ivanka’s thoughts. Bill says: Stacy has to go. It was all about location. While Ivanka says: Brent is a disaster, but Pepi wasn’t a good leader and this loss falls on him.

The 4 team members are brought back in to the boardroom and Stacy again says she felt threatened by Brent. Come on Stacy! What’s it going to be? First he threatened you, then he didn’t and now he did? Yes, Roxanne had you pegged! Wishy-washy is a good term for you! Brent defends himself again. Donald asks Stacy how she can feel threatened by Brent when she is an attorney and sees all kinds of odd and questionable characters in her job. Pepi is shown waffling when asked by Ivanka, “How were you a good leader on this task?” He brings up his managerial experience, but is asked how that came out on this task. Michael is mostly quiet during this whole thing and besides, those bathrobes really were a bad idea, but that was not what lost this task.

So, let’s get to this already! Donald tells Michael that he was terrible, but he’s going to let him stay for now. Michael says it won’t happen again. Donald tells Stacy that she picked a bad location, which is everything in real estate, and if she can’t handle Brent, she can’t handle his business! Stacy, you’re fired! He then tells Brent that he is a disaster and he probably won’t last long, but he can stay for now. On to Pepi and Donald tells him he basically was not a good leader and says, Pepi, you are also fired!

They leave the boardroom and Michael and Brent get in the elevator. Brent is smiling like a cat that ate the canary! He is grinning from ear to ear! I bet he is looking right at Stacy too, although we aren’t shown that. Pepi tries to say something to Stacy in the lobby and she tells him don’t even go there!

The cab ride is shown and Pepi babbles something about the experience and how he thinks he did well or something while Stacy tells us that Synergy is almost guaranteed failure with Brent on their team!

Next week: newsomewayne will be telling you all about the teams swimming with the sharks!

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