With some holes in NBC’s schedule following Leno’s demise, The Apprentice is back in spite of itself for a tenth season, this time without any celebrities. The Apprentice Season 10 cast consists of 16 contestants who have been impacted by the state of the economy. They’re all struggling to make ends meet, which makes you wonder what they’re really bringing to the table as people who are supposed to be the best of the best.
David says he lost his job and, as a result, his wife. His goal is to bring his family back together. Don’t bother with the gold digger, dude. Poppy is back at home and helping to care for her grandmother. Stephanie was a commercial banker, but she didn’t get a bailout. Nicole took a job, presumably a good job, but it’s not good enough for her. So basically the only reason she’s on this show is because she was in Miss USA. Gene was a financial advisor. Ironic. But he apparently did take his own advice because he has managed to live on his savings for three years.
The teams are split along gender lines. They will go and pick their team names and the project leaders.
The name Phoenix comes up from the men. Didn’t somebody do that already? They ultimately go with the name Octane. Dull. Gene has been nominated as the leader by Wade. He is onboard with that.
Not to be outdone, the women suggest Phoenix as well. Then they consider Inspire. A web search turns up their ultimate decision, Fortitude. Nicole willingly steps forward to lead this task.
The first task will be to design and build an ultramodern workspace, as opposed to a regular modern workspace. They will be judged on execution, functionality, and originality. Trump will pick which one he likes best.
Tyana says she has design or style experience. Nicole wouldn’t have guessed that by what she’s wearing. All of Tyana’s ideas end up being ignored.
Gene wants to create a green office space. Now he just has to figure out what that means.
The women have decided to go for a modern executive theme. Because that really narrows it down.
Mahsa is frustrated with Nicole. She wants to be told what to do, not think for herself.
James and Anand take control of the architect’s time. Clint is disappointed not to be able to get involved.
Nicole insists on dragging Stephanie with her to go shopping for equipment, but Stephanie insists they go get Tyana involved. Nicole doesn’t like this idea, nor does she like Tyana.
Gene assigns Clint and David to order plants. It soon becomes clear that these two guys can’t work together. A shouting match ensues.
Nicole reluctantly takes Tyana with her. She wants to have a good excuse when Trump asks her questions. Having wasted so much time, this will allow 45 minutes to pick out their furniture. Since Tyana is able to get the job done despite a time crunch, Nicole has decided she no longer hates her.
Since the men are unable to get anything together, Gene flips the switch. This is not a democracy any more. No talk, no breathe. It goes without saying that David won’t be able to bite his tongue for long. He needs a timeout.
Don Jr. asks Nicole who has been her biggest help and her biggest detriment. Her biggest help has been Tyana for helping with the creative, although yesterday she was the biggest detriment, unable to make up her mind like Cyndi Lauper. Overhearing this conversation, in which Nicole just got done saying she’s her biggest help, Tyana ignores that part and only listens to the complaint. With that, she proceeds to trash Nicole to Don.
Gene has been gone for a couple hours. When he gets back, he tells James that he doesn’t like what he’s doing and to start over. James attempts to tell him why this is not a good idea, but Gene does not want to hear anything. This guy just went from one extreme to the next. Eventually, James gets his way and can proceed with doing what he had originally been doing.
Trump visits both teams but keeps his poker face on. It’s not entirely clear whether he likes what he sees. The answer to that is he does not. Neither space is very good, but one is slightly better than the other. One thing he obviously did not like was that two people tripped over the rugs in the men’s space. Having been responsible for the rugs, Anand takes the hit for this.
David was proud of Gene at the end of the task, in spite of the rough start and barking orders. Gene struggles to give an answer as to who is his weakest link, but he finally kinda decides on David and James. Ivanka is surprised by this suggestion because James seemed like the leader when she was there.
Don Jr. points out that Clint’s the only one not wearing a tie. To him, tieless is casual.
Tyana didn’t think Nicole led, and she does not give her credit for what she considers a great job. Liza supports this theory, and so will Mahsa given the chance. None of them like the concept of having to make their own decisions.
Speaking of Mahsa, now it’s time to slip into assistant district attorney role. Yeah, she’s a bitch, and her insistence of how bad Nicole was goes overboard. Nicole would like to get a word in edgewise, but she can’t. Finally, Trump gets tired of hearing her and asks her to stop.
Ivanka likes how the men had a more open area, and she also liked the color better. Given the size of the space, the women were too constricted. Don Jr. agrees that the men did better. They had a modern workspace, whereas the women had a great 200 year old law firm.
Agreeing with his children, Trump gives the victory to the men. He likes the openness and James’ artwork. For his reward, Gene will get a meeting with a top CEO: Donald Trump.
Tyana blames lack of leadership for the loss. Trump disagrees.
Liza says they missed the boat on design. Poppy points the finger at Nicole for this. Nicole accepts partial responsibility, but is not letting Tyana off the hook that easily. Tyana agrees but doesn’t think she should be fired because she chose the most modern aspects, like the weird painting of the old guy who had nothing to do with anything.
Brandy says that Nicole should be fired for taking the risk of volunteering to be the project manager. Really? At least she stepped up.
Ivanka was shocked by how Mahsa ripped her leader apart, before even knowing what the end result was. This is an invitation for Mahsa to ramble on. During this, she asks Nicole a question. When Nicole goes to answer, Mahsa says “Let me finish.” Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to.
Poppy says that, if he’s going on leadership, Trump should fire Nicole. She does not have any other ideas for him.
Liza, too, would fire Nicole. There’s a problem with this attack on leadership. Trump already told them he thought she was a good leader. That was their cue to turn their knives in another direction and not focus singly on this one person.
Nicole would like to bring Mahsa and Tyana back to the boardroom.
Mahsa says she worked like a dog during this task. The only thing I can tell she’s working is her mouth. Can she be medicated already? Nicole is being very respectful and quiet, not wanting to get into a shouting match. Trump’s not a big fan of lack of shouting. After they leave the room, Ivanka says she almost wants to fire Mahsa for being so disrespectful.
Mahsa needs to go. She can’t work in a group. The problem with that theory is simply that Trump loves drama. She definitely brings the drama. People will hate her guts, and they will talk about it at the water cooler.
Ivanka thinks Nicole is the obvious choice, but Mahsa’s just digging her own grave. Don Jr. doesn’t like that Nicole is not shouting like the others are.
When they return to the boardroom, without any indication to begin, Mahsa starts yet again. She asks why she is there, and maybe this time she will give Nicole a chance to answer. She does. Briefly. Trump again has to tell Mahsa to cool down and let somebody else talk. In this final boardroom is when Nicole opts to be the bulldog, and this time she will keep talking until she makes herself heard.
What would Mahsa say if Tyana were fired? It would be a terrible injustice, which she would know as an attorney.
In spite of how obnoxious Mahsa is, Nicole suggests firing Tyana.
Nicole has been fired. She was the project manager, and she lost. At least try to come up with a good reason. When all’s said and done, Trump will be setting her up for an interview with Miss Universe because he does think she’s a good leader and that the rest of the team was wrong, no matter how much his kids harped on the rest of the team hating her.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Apprentice Season 10 Episode 2, which airs Thursday at 10/9c on NBC.