[Apprentice] Episode 5 discussion [SPOILERS!]

[Napoleon]

Well, as GG isn't up, and I hadn't seen a thread yet, I thought I'd post this topic here.

I really liked this episode, and was really rooting for the guys to win. I feared the worst, as this was pretty much the first time in a couple of weeks that they showed some "strife" within the guys team, with the setting of the price point. The high price point seemed to have saved the task, although at a price of 69.99, they might have sold a lot more grills.

Couple of random points and tidbits:

- The Project Leader for the guys was almost invisible. It seems like Kelly is a natural leader that naturally flows into the role. The only memorable moment of the project leader (His name is Chris, I think?) was that he answered the phone in his boxershort, and you could see he had his nipples pierced. I mean, seriously...yuck

- What a great reward for winning Anna Kournikova was superhot, Raj is my new hero for betting with her for a date and it looked like they had genuine fun (aside maybe from McEnroe who seemed to find it a bit dissapointing that most of the attention went to Anna's boobies )

- I don't really like Pamela, but she was dealt a tough card by having to switch teams. Especially since she had to be project leader right away. She's a hard bitch, but I do think she's quite a good leader. The price point of those silly spunge thingies was a big mistake though.

- Maria's performance on camera was hilarious I think she's annoying anyway, but that was a new highlight of looking stupid . I loved the remark Pamela made:  "It looks like she's having a seizure"

-Firing Pamela was probably the right choice. I thought nobody on the women's team did an exceptionally bad job, aside from Maria sucking as a salesperson. Still, the price point was definitely the reason why they lost in the end. So, it seems reasonable to hold her accountable, as project leader, for that mistake. However, that didn't seem to be the reason for firing her at all. Trump was going on about her bad people assessment skills...I mean, what? She came into the team for the first time, generally seemed to have placed everyone in the correct position, and when she saw that someone didn't perform, she quickly reassigned her (Maria).
Fire her because of the pricing mistake, or because of her incredibly hard way of dealing with people, okay, but not for something as lame as people assessment skills.
It also seems that George is content with just remaining silent when Trump fired Pam for the (IMHO) wrong reason. Carolyn is a friggin' suckup though. She MUST've slept her way to the top.

All in all, fun episode though!

[Napoleon]

Damn you, Yellowking and Rob Morton...I hear you're around here, so you'd better respond!

[rrmorton]

Sorry! The phone rang earlier today when I was reading your post and I never got back to make a reply. I don't have much to add and my wife needs the computer so I'll just say one thing:

At first I thought Raj was just the weird guy but lately he's emerged as my favorite apprentice. He's got a good head on his shoulders and I love how he tried to court Anna Kournikova.

[Arnold Yim]

I agree.

Pamela was dealt a cr*p hand.  She got stuck with the losers aka the girls team, and on top of that made the leader of the losers.  She had to be a strong leader to even hope of winning, and they came pretty darn close, being only 10 dollars off.

It was her first time working with them; I don't think Trump should have fired her for people assessment capability.  I mean, she put people where she AND they thought they would be good at.  If I was in her shoes, I don't know if I could have done any better.  What was she supposed to do, interview each of them for hours on end to see what they were good at?

In the end, though, she set the price.

I admire her though.  If Pamela was a conniving b***h like the rest of the team, she would have just let the lawyer girl make up a figure.  When they lost, Pamela could have just blamed her.

It's funny that the girls can't get along.  I would have thought the men would argue more than the women.  Boy, was I proven wrong.

[Napoleon]

A thought struck me today though...it's time for Stacie the small lawyer to finally put her money where her mouth is.

For two weeks now, someone was fired with whom she couldn't get along, first Jen C, and now Pamela (although Stacy Crazy was also a person she didn't like). She's been culling the herd, so to speak, it's time for her to prove herself, I think. Has she been project leader already? I don't think so. Time for her to try it out

I also really liked the very beginning of the episode, when Stacie and the other chick got back from the boardroom, and Stacie proudly proclaimed: "The witch is gone!". You can hear one of the men say: "Which witch?" Hilarious!

One more observation: is Sandy useful for anything other than decorating? I mean seriously...that's all she ever does.

[YellowKing]

I hate to spoil the Pamela lovefest, but the woman was a bona fide bitch. I have never seen someone act so rude and condescending to a team she basically just "met." I think part of good management is good people skills, and coming in and treating grown women like school children is not an example of good people skills. She handled the transition entirely inappropriately in my opinion. Yeah, the team she inherited sucked, but the "drill sergeant" approach just came off as so incredibly egotistic.

I agree about Raj. When the season started I thought he would be the token "crazy guy" like that wacky little dude from Season 1. However, it's obvious that Raj might be eccentric, but he's certainly not crazy. His ideas seem sound, and I can't help but think if the team had listened to his pricing ideas they would have won by a lot more than $10. His thing with Anna Kournikova was very funny and almost inspirational.  

I think Trump ultimately fired Pamela because the board room only had enough room for one enormous ego.

[Jag]

I flipped on the Sat night version with the extended boardroom. It was EXTREMEMLY different than the Thursday version. First, Trump asked Pamela why she didn't bring Sandy since QVC specifically told HIM that they "hated her". He basically accused her of picking people she didn't like, rather than someone who didn't perform.

Also, Pamela said something about lawyers not having good business sense and George got very angry and said on behalf of lawyers, he was personally offended. He also said that Pamela didn't know what kind of business training lawyers had before law school. Stacy piped in to say that she worked at an auction house before law school.

BTW, both Stacy and George both went to my alum, Brooklyn Law, so i thought it was great :lol:

[Easily Satisfied]

Wow. I always forget to watch Saturday's EXTENDED boardroom. It was obvious that Pamela didn't like lil Stacie.  And I agree that Pamela's way of coming into the team and taking charge immediately was pretty egotistical. As a leader you want to be respected, and she lost that the minute she opened her mouth.

I agree, at first I thought Raj was very strange, but I have grown to like and respect him. Challenging Anna was pretty funny and entertaining.

I am interested to see what happens this week. Not too many guys have impressed me, maybe I have just been concentrating on the girls too much (more entertaining to see how stupid they act)

 

[HarveyB]

It was a lot clearer on Saturday why Pamela deserved to be fired.

If NBC is going to do this, why not just break the show up like American Idol - have the task be the focus of the first night, with the cliffhanger being the winning team, and devote the second to the boardroom.

[rrmorton]

Yeah, I hate how the repeat has more content than the first airing of the new episode. F*cking retardo.

[Jimmy the Fish]

Based on the extented boardroom on saturday, it looked to me like Pamela sealed her fate with the comment about Sandy, "Sandy is useless, but at least she doesn't get in the way". That's a big WHOOPS. That and her insistence on setting the final price herself.

I don't know about anyone else, but every time I see Stacie walk into the boardroom and sit down, I just think, wow, she graduated from the kids table and gets to sit with the grown-ups now!