I was wondering how NBC was going to show us "15 extra minutes" from the Boardroom on the Saturday airing of "The Apprentice" when the episode was allotted the same 1 hour as the Thursday episode. On previous weeks, the Saturday episode had as much as an extra half hour in which to show additional footage from the boardroom. Fortunately, I indulged my curiosity.
Basically, the first 15 minutes was Trump's recap of the episode, just up to the boardroom. That left the vast bulk of the episode to the boardroom itself, and this was illuminating as to why Stacie J. was fired.
First, Apex has some pretty clear divisions among the women -- not just the Elizabeth/Maria fracture, but also Jennifer (the blonde attorney), who was quite critical of Project Manager Elizabeth and actually defended Stacie J. as being a scapegoat for the loss, whereas Stacy and Ivana defended Elizabeth and kept up the attacks on Stacie J. Trump's assistants George and Carolyn were quite harsh on Elizabeth and Maria (though deservedly so), getting sharp and raising their voices on occasion when interrupted while delivering criticisms. I don't recall those exchanged being in the Thursday episode.
Second, the final three session of the boardroom, which grew to encompass all eight women, definitely explained why Trump, Carolyn, and George felt that he had no choice but to fire Stacie J. Maria explained that in episode 1 (aka "the magic 8 ball" incident), when the team was awaiting the results of the project, Stacie J. thought that the calmness displayed by everyone else on the team was due to the fact that they had inside information, knew that they had lost, and had agreed to get her fired. Maria claimed that Stacie J. went up to each Apex member and made him (Bradford) or her swear that he/she did not know the outcome of the contest. Elizabeth confirmed this account.
Trump then (as we saw on Thursday) directed Maria to get the rest of Apex. He did tell her not to tell the others why they'd been called back and not to tell them what to say, thus allaying my concern about "preparing" the others. (Though it still makes me wonder, why didn't Trump just have his assistant Robin call them?)
The others all took turns ganging up on Stacie J., and Jennifer, the one who'd defended Stacie J. as being a scapegoat for this project, probably added the final nail in the coffin when she (again, as we saw on Thursday) agreed that the incident was quite odd, though she added that it a confined episode that she hadn't seen again. When pressed, she admitted that the episode had made her nervous -- "nervous that you might get hurt?" Trump asked; "nervous that she might get more upset," Jennifer said. Given Jennifer's harsh criticism of Elizabeth earlier and her belief that Stacie J. was being scapegoated for the Proctor & Gamble loss, her agreement about the odd behavior must have led Trump to conclude that Stacie in fact did act quite oddly and deserve to be fired.
Speaking of Jennifer, she hasn't gotten much airtime, which suggests that she must go far in the game. Not only that, she wasn't selected to face the firing line even though she was quite critical of the project manager.
Anyway, I'm glad that NBC decided to air this "Boardroom" version, as it provides much more insight into the decision. I'm almost tempted to skip next week's regular airing (remember, it's on Wednesday next week), but then I would miss some of the little mistakes and intrigue that arise during the task.
Comments