TVSquad

(S05E13) Good evening. I have a brief statement, then I'll open the floor to questions.

I was informed by some commenters that my 'Xbox' joke, which appeared in last week's review of The Apprentice, was one of the worst ever written on Earth. Ladies and gentlemen, I am here to say... You're so right! It was horrible; the worst piece of comedy ever written since the premiere of Cop Rock. I can't believe I took a telephone gag that has been expertly performed by Bob Newhart and turned it into a pile of poop. Mr. Newhart is probably rolling around in his grave right now. I have no... Excuse me, my phone is ringing.

Oh hi, Keith (the lovely Keith McDuffee, another head blogger at TV Squad). What? Bob Newhart is alive? Oh, what does it matter! The joke was horrible and now my public hates me! Excuse me? I get paid no matter what our commenters think?

Oh.

And now, heeeerrrrreeeee's The Apprentice!

We are now down to the final four: Lee and Sean for Gold Rush and Allie and Roxanne for Synergy. Lee has grown on me for the last few weeks. At first I thought he was just someone who attached himself to a potential winner, then moved on to another team member when the winner turned out to be a loser. Since the teams have been whittled down over the weeks, Lee has shown a lot of maturity for his age and a fairly keen business sense. As for Sean; I've always liked him. He seems to be very charming and fairly easy to work with, yet has some strong leadership skills. Plus, he really got a raw deal from the Synergy girls a few weeks ago that he didn't deserve, which made me root for him even more.

The task for Gold Rush and Synergy this week was to design new uniforms for the employees of a large suite-hotel chain. Lee and Sean went the route of tweaking the established designs to allow for more comfort and functionality. While Lee was the project manager Sean, who is a self-proclaimed metrosexual, really took control of the task by working closely with the designer and choosing the fabrics for the new uniforms.

The Allie-led Synergy went the route of redesigning the uniforms from the top up. Obviously Allie never heard the phrase 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' They went with fitted skirts instead of slacks for the front desk staff, and koolats for housekeeping employees. Koolats? Was it just me, or did everyone who watched this little piece of the show say to themselves 'That's it, game over. Synergy lost.' Allie also tried to tell her fashion designer how to correctly design the stylish uniforms they wanted. Of course the designer, who had years of experience under his belt, listened intently to this medical sales manager.

The uniforms were shown to the hotel employees at a fashion show, held on their behalf, where they voted for the ones they wanted to wear. The Gold Rush uniforms were functional, comfortable, and well liked by the audience. The Synergy uniforms featured koolats, shiny fabrics, and puffy shoulders. They looked like they came from a mid-1980's teen movie, or something the staff of Tomorrowland would wear; I couldn't decide which. Sean had a number of cheeky things to say about Synergy's uniforms. One in particular was that the cast of Dynasty called wanting their shoulder pads back.

Needless to say, the men of Gold Rush handily beat the women of Synergy to win this task. Their reward was to dine with the Trump kids, Ivanka and Donald Junior. Frankly, I would have dumped Don Jr. and just went out with Ivanka. Actually, this was a pretty decent reward as Lee and Sean got to know both of Trump's kids and find out what their Dad was really like. Plus, we officially found out that Sean was smitten with Tammy and he hoped to have many little apprentices with her in the future. God, the man is charming! Must be the British accent.

Back at the suite, Roxanne and Allie were hugging and sobbing over each other that this would be the last time they were together. Of course, as soon as they entered the boardroom, you never saw one iota of that closeness as the women accused each other of poor management and initiative. Allie even mentioned that Roxanne was the hardest person to work with since the beginning of Synergy. Harder than Brent? I don't think so. Trump wasn't too happy about either woman's attitude toward each other, and he was fairly disgusted that they could turn on each other so quickly. So, Trump fired both of them.

Whew! So, now it is just Lee and Sean. My money is on Sean.

Next week is the episode I never like: the one where old team members return to assist the finalists. There is always one or two people on each team who want to sabotage the finalist's chances. Until then, have a good holiday.