The Apprentice 3 Episode 12 Recap: Kendra In the Driver's Seat

Kendra working through the night, possibly craving a Papa John's pizza


So the bell finally tolled for Chris, and it can hardly have been a surprise. A candidate can generally only lose for so long and stick around, Kwame's 9 losses notwithstanding.

Trump cited Chris' 7 losses as a reason for firing him, along with holding him accountable, as the Project Manager, for Net Worth's loss this week. "The bottom line," according to Trump, was that Chris was the Project Manager, and the "team was a mess. The project was no good." With that, Trump concluded, "Chris, you're fired. Seven weeks in a row. You are fired." This time there wasn't an Angie to save him; Trump had wanted to toss her for a long time anyway. Bren or Chris would have had to commit some screw-up of truly impressive, perhaps epic, magnitude, for there to have been any other result this week. Perhaps if one of them had started setting fires in the suite. Sometimes, it's just your time to go, and Chris probably knew it was his time. Chris may be a complete disaster (though if that's so, what does it say about Trump that he didn't fire him long ago?), but in the boardroom, he is usually fairly persuasive and sharp. Except for the times when he gets worked-up and yells, of course. This week, he was subdued and reflective, a bit too much like he was giving his own eulogy.

Announcer: It's not just about the task.
It's not just about the reward.
It's not just about who gets fired.
It's what happens after.

Female Voiceover: Oh God.
~ ridiculously misleading hype-filled promo for this week's episode, "A Lonely Drive"

NBC promoted this episode as featuring the "first-ever post-firing sobfest" and bragged that "Donald Trump feels so bad that he invites the firee to join him on the other side of the boardroom table and a sincere, tear-filled moment ensues." So I guess he's not a nice enough guy to not call people a loser or a disaster, just nice enough to create a Very Special Moment on T.V. if they cry after they're fired. I suppose that's swell too, in it's own way.

Speaking of taking credit where it isn't really due, we have Craig and Tana. Of course, there wouldn't be a credit problem if they had put in their share of the work. Okay, they may not have not learned the fine art of the all-nighter while doing the college thing. However, they're both doing the parenting thing. Craig has 4 children and Tana has 2. Raising kids tends to require sleepless nights, certainly when they're babies, but also when they're sick or hurt or have nightmares. Craig provided some information in his NBC bio, which helps clarify whether or not he is comfortable with working late-night hours. The bio states that he "is currently an EMT and firefighter working 24-hours a day, every 3 days." So much for bodies not functioning late at night.

It isn't just that he didn't want to put in extra work while Kendra was the PM, though. Bren said Craig and Tana don't do all-nighters. Maybe their reasoning was this: Why do more work than you have to when Net Worth always loses anyway? Not great reasoning when you're on camera at all times and you're in competition for a job, though. Trump hated that Alex even took a nap.

Especially baffling was Tana's decision to cite on camera her exemption from firing as a reason to not stay and work. In confessional, she told us, "My comfort level is, I like to get my ass in bed around one. So I have no problem saying, 'Honey I know I did a damn good job, I'm exempt, my ass isn't going anywhere, so good night, god bless.'" Did she forget that Trump has access to televisions? Should she make it to the final two, that statement, and its tone, will not be a mark in her favour. Not only did Tana decide to go rest on her laurels, she wasn't even nice about it. She could have slept for a few hours without it ending her contribution to the task. Why not tell Kendra you're sorry, but you really need to nod off for a bit? Suggest you sleep for a couple hours, come back with some food for her, and handle whatever work she would like you to from that point forward? Even if she didn't actually want to be hard-working, genuinely nice, classy, and professional, it's foolish not to realize that she should at least appear to be all those things if she wants to be hired. Shouldn't someone who sells make-up for a living be familiar with the concept of appearances being altered to conceal reality?

The ol' Jenn. M. trick at presentation time shows an awareness of appearances. Tana knew Kendra's brochure turned out well, likely much better than she expected it to, and good enough for her to want to take credit for it. Of course, since she had very little to do with it, all she can tell the execs is meaningless prattle like, "We just want to take the opportunity to thank you for the incredible opportunity to work with such an incredible car." Kendra smoothly took over, and Tana interrupted her. Not cool. Tana knew this was Kendra's project and that she was the appropriate person to talk about it. If she had any interrest in sharing those duties, she should have discussed it with her beforehand.

The editors apparently decided to bring back the thoroughly unpleasant Tana from the very early days of The Apprentice this week. There's the competent and sometimes adorkable Tana and every so often there's the pretty unlikeable Tana. The editors like to mix it up. Thing is, they can't do this without help from Tana. Yet with so little of the footage shot actually aired, it's hard to know just where the truth lies. Her performance and behaviour during this week's task were not apprenticeworthy, but they also may have been atypical, and this was an awfully negative edit for Tana.

Craig, on the other hand, is essentially a blockhead. A lot of adjectives could precede the "blockhead" to specify the many types of his blockheadery. He's extraordinarily sexist, reason enough to give send him to the taxi. The oft-mentioned communication problem apparently extends not only to his ability to make his ideas understood but also to his ability to process other people's ideas, and give them a fair shake. He bizarrely accused Kendra of believing in her own ideas when she suggested peppersteak pizza. He and Tana both immediately put the smackdown on the idea of multimedia content being included with the brochure. CD-ROMs are frequently used to advertise cars, and sure enough, the execs loved the inclusion of a spot for one. Kendra explained the theme of the brochure as "a love affair with the car," with a different emotion on every page. Craig complained that there was no theme. Even at the end of the day, he thought they didn't have "a concept, a theme, or an idea." He resented her having any input into the studio photo session. For some reason, when Craig is Project Manager, only his vision matters, and when Kendra is Project Manager, only Craig's vision matters. Yet once he saw how good her brochure was, he decided "we all delivered on this task."

During the box task, Craig's teammates came around and improved their attitudes. Still, Kendra said during a confessional that Craig was the only one who deserved the reward. Neither Craig nor Tana made such remarks ... unless they were left on the cutting room floor. Maybe they were full of regret for their behaviour, but there wasn't room for their apologies, what with all the footage of Kendra outrunning them and slam-dunking a basketball.