The Apprentice just keeps rolling along, and here we are down to the final five…I can almost taste the ending!
The teams met with Trump in the Donald J. Trump watch showroom….I kid you not. Is there anything this man won’t put his name on? This week the henchmen are Bill Rancic and Ivanka-the-Pouty. The teams are to set up in-store displays in Wal-Marts for the X-Box 360, the winner will be based on judgement by executives by both companies. Sean would be Project Manager for Gold Rush and Tammy for Synergy.
This week someone finally did what I have said has been missing on this show for ages…they outsourced! BUT, they did it incorrectly. Sean opted to hire pros to build his display:one for signage one for floor and roof so he could make a 360 degree display. The signage guy came through, but the floor and roof guy didn’t, causing the display to look like it was falling down. His problem was he didn’t build in penatlies for failur of completion. Any time you are going to work on a time sensitive project you have to build in fauliure-to-deliver penalities. I wish someone had mentioned that, but oh well.
Over at Synergy…they decided to go with a “Red Carpet” type event, but it ended up looking more like a living room and too inviting to just sit down and relax. Their signage was your typical Kinko’s type signage which was way too small and too easily lost in a sign-heavy enviroment such as Wal-Mart. The other problem had was a total lack of respect from Allie and Roxanne. Nothing says you have to respect your boss. Just like any situation, a person has to earn respect, in a team situation, team work is essential. Instead of working with Tammy though, they questioned him and then committed the ultimate faux pas, Allie rolled her eyes about Tammy repeatedly in front of Bill when he came to visit. You know, I don’t care how much you dislike your boss, you NEVER show disrespect in front of their superior. It reflects on you, it refelcts on them and it reflects on the corporation.
I know this isn’t exactly a recap more than it is a commentary. but this episode was one of the best episodes yet for showing differences in business operation. While Gold Rush’s display was unfinished they met the requirements better. It was a full experience, cross-sold accessories and focused on actual products as opposed to making it an event. That is what so many people have forgotten over the years of this show, it is ultimaely about serving the needs of your clients, and the client here was Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is about sales. So even with an unfinihsed display, Gold Rush won it. THeir prize was to fly our to Dreamworks SKGs production facilities and recorded voices for their upcoming movie “Over The Hedge“.
Meanwhile, Synergy headed to the board room and Tammy was fired for having no control over her team, but both Allie and Roxanne also gor verbal dressing-downs for their actions.
Over all it was a great episode for business lessons. Nice to see that happen once in awhile.
Survivor Exile Island is over! *runs around until he passes out* Let’s crank this mother out!
Danielle and Cirie had their fire challange and after a couple of false starts, Danielle takes it.
The next day, Terry & Aras continue their competition even to fishing. Aras caught the bigger fish. Good for him. Still though, they had to head off to see Jeff Probst for waht turned out to be a Reward Challange (odd for this late in the game):
“…for this Reward Challenge, the Survivors must race to the top of a three-story climbing wall using four individually-shaped pegs. First, they must make their way through a table maze. Once at the end of the maze, each will release a bag containing their first two pegs and move to a spinning wheel. Reading the clues, each must spin the wheel clockwise, counter-clockwise, and clockwise again like a combination lock to find the one bag that contains their final two pegs. With the help of the pegs, the players must get to the top of the wall and place their pegs in the proper slots, which will raise a flag. The first person to raise their flag wins the Reward: a high-protein meal and a cot to take back to camp. This Reward will give the winner a huge advantage in the upcoming Immunity Challenge.”
Aras got out fast, with Terry nipping at his heels, Danielle was never really a factor. As Aras hit the wall, he seemed sure to win it, even after he slid and was only saved by his shirt catching on a peg. He made it to the top first, but somehow Terry managed to get his pegs in first, lowering his flag and winning the important reward. Aras tried to brush it off as nothing by eating some big fish back at camp.
The next morning, everyone got up early and headed off to Exile Island for the “Tour Of Losers”…I mean when the final three have a chance to reflect on those who were voted off…forget it…Tour Of Losers. They walk around, try to come up with som edopey good memory and then move on. Once they had gone through them, they put the torches into Exile Island’s giant skull and built a big bonfire. You know, this kind of disappointed me. They usually auction the torches off for charity. Guess not this time. Which I do think is a shame.
At the Immunity Challange, it wasn’t so much the usual endurance as it was balance.
…the Final Immunity Challenge will be a test of balance. Starting on the largest of a series of floating platforms, every fifteen minutes the Final Three will move to the next smaller platform. As the platforms get smaller, it will get tougher for the Survivors to maintain their balance. Only their feet can touch the platform. If their hands touch the platform or they fall off, they are eliminated. The last person standing wins Immunity and a guaranteed slot in the Final Two.
It wasn’t until the third pad everyone had problems. Terry never really got his balance, Aras was uneasy, Danielle was steady as a rock. Terry went down, Aras looked at Danielle, she nodded, he jumped off. Now, the thing is, you thought she had an alliance with Terry…guess not. Danielle wins final Immunity and the power to decide who goes with her to the final two.
There was lots of back and forth, Terry seemed at ease, Aras was threatening, but in the end, Danielle took Aras to show tribe loyalty. Seems a shame after Terry worked so hard, but oh well. On their last day, the final two were given champagne and food for breakfast. They celebrated, drank champagne, went for a walk, Aras feel on his cutting himself open requiring multiple stitches…..perhaps Survivor shouldn’t give booze to mal-nutrioned people? Considering the last time we saw the Survivor Medical Crew was in the Australian Outback, they were called out *twice* this season! Way to go schmucks.
At the final tribal council, we had the usual random questioning and bitterness, with Shane asking them to pick a number between 1 and a million…is anyone surprised by this? Well, the votes were cast and in a 5-to-2 vote, Aras is named the Sole Survivor. Eh…who cares. Boring season for the most part. See you next season for Survivor Cook Islands!
Next to last of the Survivor Exile Island episodes…yay! We started off with everyone returning from Tribal Council and Cirie commiting the most horrible of crimes…SHE DROPPED HER TORCH IN THE IMPROPER PLACE! Now now…settle down, no need to run for the exits. Terry did take exception to it, but that only led to yet another Terry vs. Aras verbal throw down. No big shocker there. So instead of enjoying their first night as the final four, they instead had a blowout argument. Good times.
The next morning, everyone gathered for a fairly complex Reward Challange. I’m surprised Jeff Probst didn’t run out of breath.
“The castaways will each be attached to ropes by one of two carabiners. Using the two carabiners, they will clip and unclasp from one rope to another as they navigate their way around each other along a main thoroughfare that leads to six stations: poles, hermit crabs, rocks, iguanas, shells and fish. Each time they get to a station they must count the number of items, race back to the start, and find the answer tile with the same number on it. Once they’ve been to all six stations, they will have six numbers. They will then place those six numbers into an answer grid. Using the combination, the two numbers in each column will open the locks. If the lock doesn’t open, it means they’ve counted wrong and they can go back and correct their mistakes. Once they’ve opened all three locks, their tribe flag will drop. The first person to lower their tribe flag wins the Reward: a luxury yacht tour of the Panama Canal. “
Yeah…I never did quite get it myself. All I know is Danielle just ended up messing with everyone, Terry and Aras got in fights and it just got weird. Once Aras and Terry had done all six stations and gone back out to do recounts, Terry thought you could only do one station and then come back, so he whined when he felt Aras was doing more than one. Jeff over-ruled him and Aras made fun of Terry for whining. In the end Aras won the trip and picked Cirie to go with him. He sentanced Terry and Danniele to go to Exile Island.
Once out on the island, Danielle and Terry discuss the possability of eliminating Aras due to his picking Cirie for the reward makes it obvious they are an alliance. Danielle agrees it is time for the to team up. When Aras and Cirie return to their camp, Aras decides to rest and Cirie takes up th eflint to make her first ever attempt at making fire. She succeeds and squeals with joy, waking Aras who is very proud of his friend as he reflects on how far she’s come since day one.
Everyone gathers for the Immunity Challange and is for a mixture of brain teaser and phyical challange:
“For today’s Challenge each Survivor will work to solve three puzzles. Using a set of coordinates, each castaway will cross two ropes. Where the ropes intersect, a bag of puzzle pieces is buried in the sand. They must dig up the pieces, then race back to their respective answer boards to complete their puzzle. The puzzle will reveal the next set of coordinates. The first person to solve all three puzzles wins Immunity. “
Aras got his puzzle pieces first and never relenquished his lead. Danielle got stuck on the second bag of pieces for quite awhile and Terry got close to catching up, but never quite made it. Aras ended up winning and breaking Terry’s amazing streak. Back at the camp, Danielle and Cirie figure out the vote will probably be 2-2 and will result in a tie breaker. In the recent past ties have been solved with building a fire, so both girls practice.
Sure enough, the vote is a tie and since Terry is the one with the hidden immunity, no one can save themselves. Danielle and Cirie go to do the fire challange and….to be continued?!? Blast you Mark Burnett!
So, this week the Amazing Race brought us down to the final three teams. As the race began, the teams decided wether or not to help the penniless, and clothesless, BJ & Tyler as they left. Ray & Yolanada left a pair of pants for BJ, Eric & Jeremy left sandles for the shoeless BJ, commenting that he was still a human. While I have said nasty things about Eric & Tyler in the past, I do applaud them for this. Mojo? Didn’t leave anything. I hate them. BJ & Tyler were grateful for what they did receive, but made note of what team had left them nothing.
The first clue the teams had received intstructed them to fly 7,000 miles to Bangkok, Thailand. Once there they would take a bus for 97 miles to the city of Lopburi, and find the Three Spire Pagoda, a Buddhist temple. The teams got to the airport and all booked flights on Qantas, landing in Bangkok at 11:00 PM, except for BJ & Tyler. Mojo complained to Eric & Tyler for giving BJ shoes because it would have kept him out of the airport. Eric & Tyler lied and denied giving him shoes.
BJ & Tyler set out to the bar district to beg for money, and seemed to have a good bit of luck, but this caused them to miss out on the plane everyone else got on to. They instead lucked out and got a flight that would get them there 15 minutes earlier. Oops! Due to various changes in flying though, the 11:00 PM flight arrived at 10:15 PM and the 10:45 PM flight arrived at 11:00 PM, so BJ & Tyler thought they still had a slight jump on the other teams. Eric & Jeremy and Rat & Yolanda made it on the midnight bus, and Mojo was told the first morning bus was at 4:50 AM. It wasn’t. The first bus was 4:20 AM and BJ & Tyler made that one.
The temple didn’t open until 8 AM, all the teams were there except Mojo. Ah…poor Mojo. When the temple opened, teams opened their clues to find the second Fast Forward of the race:
“In this Fast Forward, Teams had to travel two miles by taxi to a nearby restaurant and take part in a favorite afterschool activity in Thailand. What Teams didn’t know was that the activity was feasting on a bowl of stir-fried crickets and grasshoppers.”
BJ & Tyler and Ray & Yolanda headed off to the Fast Forward, but as Eric & Jeremy had already done one, they had to do the Roadblock instead:
“In this Roadblock, one Team member had to prepare a ceremonial feast for the sacred monkeys that inhabit the shrine much like the locals do during an annual festival. After completing the feast, the Teams would present the feast to the monkeys to earn their next clue.”
At the resturant, BJ & Tyler were hesitant at first, but after only one bite, Ray & Yolanda backed out and wished them luck and ran back to the Roadblock. While they raced back though, Mojo showed up at the Shrine and were encouraged to think they would be ahead of one of the two two Fast Forward teams. Ray & Yolanda showed back up and all three teams were going at the vegtable presentation. The teams soon learned the biggest problem was that the monkey’s were pulling the fruit off as fast they prepared it. As the teams finally finished though, and received their clues, they were told to take a cab for 90 miles to the Chao Phraya River and then go by ferry to Koh Kret Island, and find the Buddha Garden.
While the teams followed the directions, BJ & Tyler finally slogged their way through the Fast Forward task and received their instructions to go to the Pit Stop at the Marble Temple, a Buddhist shrine built in the 19th century. While the other teams got to the Buddha Garden and find their Detour for this leg:
“In Move It, Teams had to make their way on foot to a pottery factory and transport 72 clay pots through the winding, narrow streets of the market to a boat docked on the river using the traditional Thai method of carrying the pots on wooden boards balanced on their shoulders. In Altar It, Teams needed to make their way on foot to a nearby temple and create a shrine to Buddha by assembling the shrine and then gold leaf a statue of Buddha.”
The only team to take Move It was Mojo, who was just a complete disaster at it. Which amused the heck out of me. It took them three trips to get all the pots moved, which allowed Ray & Yolanda and Eric & Jeremy to jump ahead of them. So, long story short…adios Mojo! The final three teams are set and next week, after nine seasons, at long last…TOKYO!
So The Apprentice did give us a darn funny moment at the beginning this week. Tammy tried letting Allie and Roxanne know that Sean wasn’t out to get them. Well, Allie wouldn’t have any of it and would not shut up about how Sean had sided against her during their last board room. Sean was trying to sleep, but they would shut up and just kept demanding he apologize…Sean had ear plugs with him, he put them in and just let them keep going. Just too funny and so deserved.
Trump met the teams on the football field of Rutgers University and wanted to even them up. Funny, Sean wasted no time moving over to Gold Rush, making it all men, and leaving Synergy as all women. This weeks task would have the teams setting up Outback Steakhouse tents in different parking lots for tailgating parties. The team to bring in the most money would win the task. Lee stepped as Project Manager for Gold Rush and Roxanne for Synergy.
Gold Rush quickly got an idea to lock the Rutgers cheerleaders in to an eclusive apperance and make an event out of their tailgating party with a money pit, food eating contest and make it a party atmosphere. In the meantime, Synergy went to try the Outback food and then got to planning, putting them far behind in promotion. They lost out on the cheerleaders, missing promoting themselves at the pep rally and not hitting the parties that night. They tried to get some of the cheerleaders, but ended up getting shot down. Michael thought they could be ncie and give them a few, but was quickly shot down by Lee and Sean as being an idiot for evenn considering it.
It really looked like Gold Rush had a huge party going on with tons of people hanging out at their tent. Synergy had a mostly empty tent, but then got the idea to go out and offer to deliver the food to people’s cars free of charge. Business picked up quickly for them, but they still didn’t seem to be as busy as Gold Rush. You did start to notice that Gold Rush’s business wasn’t converting in to sales though, just lots of gawkers at their events. Guess what…it worked. Gold Rush sold $1,750 and Synergy $2,750. Oops.
As Synergy’s prize, they were flown to the Raphael Winery and got to pick grapes, stomp them and make their own wine. Gold Rush got to discuss which of their own they were going to devoud in the board room. Lee and Sean decided Michael was to blame for the loss and ecided to team up on him.
In the end, it really boiled down to just his willingness to even consider giving Synergy cheerleaders that lef to Micahel being fired. Adios loser.
Considering this is the tenth leg of the Amazing Race, you would think the teams would finally have an inkling of when an “equalizer” was coming. Considering Eric & Jeremy were the first out of the Pit Stop at 11:47 PM, and were instructed to travel 15 miles to the Swan Bells Tower, a building housing 18 church bells given to Perth by England to celebrate the Australian bicentennial, you would have thought they would know the place wouldn’t be open. Oh well, better safe than sorry I guess.
Mojo (If you don’t know that is Joseph & Monica by now, too bad) were the second team out. They joined with Eric & Jeremy in the calling of cabs, and while they waited, BJ & Tyler arrived, receiving the cold shoulder from both teams. Talk was sparse and the air frigid. You could sense things are only going to get worse.
And guess what? The tower didn’t open until 8 AM. What a shocker. The teams slept the night and the next morning Ray & Yolanda and BJ & Tyler called ahead for cabs to show up at 8. Eric & Jeremy called, but used a fake name. They then cancelled the other teams cabs. Let’s talk about low blows. I understand this is a game, but man that just seemed low. I hope they remember such a thing as “karma”.
Once the tower opened, everyone raced to the top and got their clue telling them to fly over 1,700 miles to Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory. After they get there, there to drive to a local crocodile park, wade into a pool of crocodiles and get their next clue. Everyone raced back down to their “waiting” cabs. BJ & Tyler jumped in the first cab they saw, but learned it was reserved for Mojo, and got out. After wandering around, looking for their taxis, Ray called in to the cab company and discovered someone had cancelled the cabs. Since Mojo was the only team with a cab, they assuemd Mojo had done it. Eric and Jeremy kept their mouthes shut as karma had indeed gotten them and their cab was nowhere to be seen either. Oops.
At the airport, Mojo quickly booked a flight on Qantas, arriving in Darwin at 7:10 PM. When the other teams arrived, and started attacking Mojo for the cab stunt, they realized Eric & Jeremy had framed them. Once BJ & Tyler showed up, they tried suggesting Eric was hitting on Monica, and Joseph should keep an eye on them. To say things are tense in this race would be an understatment. To add to the fun, all the teams ended up on the same flight.
Once the teams got to Darwin, they drover to Crocodylus Park and found it did not open until 9 AM. Big surprise huh? BJ & Tyler continued to suggest something was up between Eric and Monica, which Mojo did not find amusing. Once the park opened, everyone took their turns wading in to the pool of crocs (which were tiny) to get their clue. Once opened it told them to drive 50 miles to an airfield. They were also informed a much anticipated Yield awaited them.
As the teams drove like mad people to the Yield, Mojo passed BJ & Tyler, knowing they planned to Yield them. When they pulled up though, BJ & Tyler had a better parking strategy and won the foot race to the mat. They immediately yielded Mojo, and got nasty comments in return for doing it. Hey, Mojo, guess what, you would have done it to them, and it’s built in to the game GET OVER IT! The drawback to the viewing audience was getting to listen to more Mojo bickering…lucky us.
As the teams opened their clue, they found a Roadblock:
“In this Roadblock, one Team member had to choose a plane, climb to an altitude of 12,000 feet and tandem skydive.”
Bj jumped for the Hippies, seeming to enjoy every minute of it, Ray and Jeremy followed right after. When the teams finished, they opened their clue and learned that they to drive 20 miles to Litchfield National Park and find the Magnetic Termite Mounds, which all face magnetic North in an effort to shield themselves from the sun.
As BJ & Tyler ran back past the still Yielded Monica, Tyler apologized for Yielding them. Joseph replied with “Don’t act nice. If we weren’t in this Race, I’d beat you down.†Nice…real nice. IT’S A GAME! How can people not get this? Mojo went back to arguing, and in their stupidity, did not see the hourglass expired. Oh how I chuckled at them still standing there when they didn’t need to be. Monica jumped for the team and then they raced off.
Everyone made it to the Termite Mounds and found this leg’s Detour:
“In this Detour, Teams had to choose between Wet and Dry. In Wet, Teams needed to drive six miles to a roadside park to hike and swim down a daunting one-mile course down a jungle river inhabited by large spiders and poison plants. In Dry, Teams had to drive six miles to an intersection and another six miles off road until they come to a natural rock formation known as the Lost City. Once there, they needed to choose an Aboriginal instrument known as a didgeridoo and, following the sound of music in the air, locate a nearby Aboriginal. The pattern on his didgeridoo must match the pattern on the Team’s didgeridoo. If it matches, the Aboriginal would teach each team member how to play a note on it. Once each team member played a note successfully, they would receive their next clue.”
The Hippies and the Frat Boys headed off to do Wet, Ray & Yolanda and Mojo went for Dry. I have to say, Wet sounded easier to me, but it wasn’t anywhere close to being. Dry went much, much faster than Wet. As the teams finished their tasks, their clues told them to drive to Lake Bennett for the Pit Stop.
Ray & Yolanda came in first by quite a bit, but then the craziest ending to a leg I have ever seen, happened. The three reamining teams ended in a literal photo finish as they slammed into each other while running to the mat. The frat boys got second, and after a poor choice of where to run by BJ, Mojo got third, leaving the Hippies in last place. Monica looked on smugly as the Hippies learned they were last…her expression didn’t seem quite as thrilled when she learned it was a non-elimination round and the Hippies weren’t leaving. Poor Monica.
The problem with non-elimination rounds is you lose all you rmoney and any clothes you are currently not wearing. Well, after Wet, BJ had taken off his shoes…BJ is shoeless for the next leg it looks like. Not good.
Survivor Exile Island opened with Shane returning to camp, surprised by the seemingly unexpected ousting of Courtney. Cirie and Aras tried to convince him that it was a last minute decesion due to them overhearing she was going after Aras. They actually got Shane convinced that it was for the greater good. Terry also suffered a seeming betrayal by Danielle. Ah…this is the Survivor we all know and love!
Everyone headed off to a huge reward challange:
“The tribe convenes with host Jeff Probst, who explains that this Reward Challenge combines elements of past Challenges put together in a four-stage obstacle course. First, the five tribemates will dig in a circle of sand, each looking for a bag. The first four to find their bag move on to the second round. In the second round, they will carry their bags with them to untie a wooden snake. The first three to get to the finish with both bag and snake proceed to the third round. The third round, they will carry the bag and snake as they race over a sand hill and into a water pit, where they will untie a large fish. The first two to get to the finish with fish, bag and snake will move on to the final round. In the last round, the last two standing will go head-to-head, carrying all three items that they have collected through a series of wooden tunnels and towers. The first person to the finish wins the Reward: face-to-face in person with a loved one. The winner of the Challenge will be responsible for allocating who wins love and how much love they get.”
Shane was shockingly the first one out. The next round eliminated Cirie in the snake untying and then Danielle went down in the fish round. In the final round, Aras dropped his bag and had to go back for it, causing him to lose. So, Terry stands there the winner and now he had to decide who got what amount of love. He took his wife with him for the overnight reward and chose the same for Shane and his son Boston. Cirie’s husband would go back to camp, Aras got to hug his mom and Danielle got nothing and was sent to Exile Island.
Terry and Shane enjoyed the time with their loved ones, Cirie put her husband to work around the camp while Aras laughed. Over at Exile Island, Danielle used the machate on various items, prentending they were Terry’s head. Terry did share everything with his wife and Shane quickly learned that Terry’s wife was even more competitive than him, and as Shane said, sarcastically “What a charming woman!” It was rather amusing.
What wasn’t so pretty was after everyone had left, and Terry returned to camp. Terry immediately went on the defensive about how spouses took precedance over mom’s and Aras took offense. He attacked Terry verbally non-stop about how his mom is his rock and who was he to question that. In their solo interviews the attacks on each other continued, spilling over into attacks on each other’s age. I’m thinking this is not going to end pretty.
At the Immunity Chllange, they were reunited with Danielle and got the low down on the challange:
“…the Immunity Challenge will test the Survivors’ balance and accuracy. Each tribe member will stand on a very small perch at the top of a 20-foot poll in the water. When the game begins, they will lower a bucket into the water to fill it, then pour from the bucket into a very narrow bamboo shoot. As the bamboo shoot fills up with water, it will raise a flag. Once the flag is high enough to reach, they must carefully grab it and raise it above their head.”
Shane poured his water in the wrong place for quite awhile. Terry and Aras remained neck-and-neck for the majority of time and…yeah, you guessed it, Terry won. Yadda yadda, Shane and Terry think Danielle is going yadda yadda Shane goes in a vote of 3 – 2 and makes random comment about eating chocolate as he leaves who knows. Hope he remembered his BlackBerry.
Do my eyes deceive me? Was The Apprentice actually..*gasp* halfway interesting?!? As the episode opened, Synergy returned from the board room, and the firing of Andrea. Allie decided she needed to confront Sean about his siding with Andrea in the meeting. After a lot of screaming, Roxanne ended up crying about the team unity being shattered. You know what? Sean sided with Andrea, get over it, move along!
This weeks task involved the teams each throwing a grand opening event for two new Hair Cuttery locations. Let me just say how much I despise the name of this company. That’s like calling a video renteal store “Video Rental Store”. Did this company wait until the day before they opened to name their company? Yeesh. Anyway, the team to make the most money would win. I actually kind of liked this task because it was about actual business tatics and entrapunership. You could actually learn something from this one besides “Wow, we should have hired a specialist to do this!” Tammy stepped up to lead Synergy and Charmaine for Gold Rush.
Synergy got to work quickly and got their fliers printed up quickly and got out on the streets to start handing them out. Allie and Roxanne took a break for dinner and discussed how they felt Sean had sold his soul by siding with Andrea and that Tammy would want nothing to do with him. Flash over to Sean and Tammy hugging and squeezing their way through the night. When they stopped for dinner they were cozy and ate from each others plates. Yep, she wants nothing to do with him. Uh-huh.
Over at Gold Rush, Charmaine was obsessed with getting all of the products set-up just right on the shelves before anything else could be done. After Lee had spent most of the night setting up his area, she told him he had done it wrong and wanted it done again. Lee’s concern was they should already be out promoting and doing the shelving later, but that didn’t look like it was going to happen at this point.
At the grand openings, they couldn’t have been run more differently. Charmaine sent out Lee and Tarek to put fliers on windshields (something I can personally say does you no good) and they both mocked her as they travelled around. Back at the Gold Rush store, there were hardly any customers, employees milling around and Charmaine getting her hair done. Yes…getting her hair done…during the working hours…I was amazed as anyone. While Synergy was hopping and worked hard at upselling their products to those getting haircuts.
In the end, Synergy earned $1,005.47 and Gold Rush only earned $700. I actually expected a larger difference from how busy the stores were, but it was still a good example of the different styles. Synergy’s reward was to spend an afternoon with Burt Bacharach writing a song. They couldn’t even agree on lyrics. I think Synergy’s days are quickly dwindling.
In the board room, Charmaine was raked over the coals. She claimed there loss was due to a lack of product sales, and not because of her poor leadership. Trump asked why she spent part of the day getting her hair cut and she said it was because she felt she needed the Hair Cuttery experience to better sell it. Let’s all soak that one in shall we? If you had a month to do the task, sure, great idea. One day? You are a moron. The lone, calm voice in this whole thing was Michael, who impressed Trump with his words of why Tarek was hard to lead and should be fired. It was all downhill after that as Tarek and Charmaine went in to all-out attack mode on each other.
When Trump had his fill of the ickering he fired Charmaine, but quickly told everyone to remain sitting and he fired Tarek for being impossible to lead. After everyone was gone, Trump said he figured they would still be bickering in the cab. They weren’t, it was silent as death.
I have to say I am excited Survivor Exile Island is winding down. For some reason this cast just never excited me that much. Sure, it’s fun watching Shane being insane, but even that wears out.
Overall this week was fairly predictable. At the beginning it was looking like Shane was really losing it as he had found a piece of wood shaped like a BlackBerry and was spending time on his “thinking stump” sending text messages to people. Yeah…it was nuts as it sounds. Terry was trying to catch fish, albeit with no luck.
The Survivors went and met up with Jeff Probst for reward challange:
“…for this Challenge, the tribe will be divided into two teams of three. Each team member will be attached to a rope that spans the length of an obstacle course. They must follow the rope while navigating the various obstacles. When the final platform is reached, they will unclip from the rope and, one at a time, race across a lily pad run, jump into the water and retrieve one of three bags. Once all three bags have been retrieved, they will clip onto the rope again and make their way back through all the obstacles to the beach. The first team to reach the finish with all three members and all three bags wins the Reward: a barbeque feast.”
The teams were Terry, Courtney and Danielle against Shane, Aras and Cirie. It really wasn’t a challange as Cirie got massively tangled in the bamboo. By the time Terry’s team was done, Shane was just going for the first bag. It wasn’t good. Terry’s team banished Aras to Exile Island.
After Shane and Cirie left, Probst informed the winning team of a second reward challange.
“Jeff Probst explains to the three winners that they will compete for yet another individual Reward. With a brand new fully loaded GMC Yukon on the line, they will use a slingshot to fire marbles at three tiles. The first person to break all three tiles wins the Yukon.”
So, after a close race, Terry won and he was excited. Guess no one has told him of “the car curse”. Every season they give away a car, and no one who was the car has ever won the game. Oops.
While Terry and his crew were off enjoying the meal, and of course conspiring, Cirie decided it was time she did something to actually bring in food. Low and behold, she caught a fish! This was the most successful fish catch of anyone yet, and Shane seemed genuinely impressed. It was nice. This also led to many jokes from Shane about Terry’s total lack of luck at catching the fish.
Once everyone was gathered back together, they headed to Immunity Challange where the all mighty Jeff explained as always:
“Immunity Challenge will be a test of endurance. Each tribe member will kneel at the end of a long plank suspended over a pit of water. They’ll be holding on to two ropes connected to a weighted hook. Starting with twenty percent of their body weight, the weight will increase by another ten percent every fifteen minutes. When the weight becomes too much to hold, the ropes will slip from their hands, the plank will give out and they’ll fall into the water. The last person left standing wins Immunity.”
Shane, surprisingly, was the first to go. About 5 minutes later Cirie went, and she was the one I was expecting first. 1 minute later was when Danielle went, Aras’ time in Exile Island took an obvious toll as he fell off fourth. Down to Courtney and Terry, Terry looked to be straining, but once Courtney went, she went fast. This led to Terry winning his fourth straigh Immunity.
I won’t go into all the boring politics and schemeing that went on, but suffice to say, I was surprised when Cirie’s plan was the one that worked, and ousted Courtney. Has everyone been underestimating this nurse?
Amazing Race opened with everyone piling out of the Pit Stop, and some teams deciding to leave money in BJ & Tylers’s car since they had none for this leg of the race. Fran & Barry left them $20, Joseph & Monica (Mojo)threw some paper in their car because they don’t like the hippies, Ray & Yolanda left them $10 and Eric & Jeremy left them an IOU for $100. Guess we know who the good teams are now.
The first clue instructed everyone to fly 9,000 miles to Perth, Australia. Everyone headed directly to the airport except BJ & Tyler who had noticed a lot of hitchikers in the country, so as a final farewell, they picked up a Bedouin named Abdul Hamid who needed a ride in to Muscat. He gave them directions, and when they had to pull over for gas, he repaid their kindness by buying them gas and snacks.
While this was going on, all the other teams had been slowed on their way to the airport by a motorcade for the King of Oman. Once at the airport, the first four teams all found the same flight on Emirates Airlines, connecting to Perth through Dubai. As the teams sat on the plane, watching the time tick down, Eric & Jeremy and Mojo were giddy at the prospect of the Hippies not making it. Oh how I enjoyed their expressions when they walked in the plane.
Arriving in Perth, the teams bolted out of the airport in to cabs and headed for King’s Park War Memorial. Eric & Jeremy got there first and opened their clue to head to Fremantle and board a ferry to Rottnest Island, a well known vacation spot. The sucky part? The ferry wouldn’t depart until 7:30 AM the next morning, so all the teams once again caught up with each other. Stupid equalizers.
Once the ferry took off, the teams travelled 13 miles to the island, then rode tandem bikes for 3 miles to a lighthouse. And yep, Detour time!
In this Detour, Teams had to choose between Sand and Sea. In Sand, Teams would choose a pile of 40 large branches and drag them 126 yards to a marked sand dune. This task, known as “brushing the beach†is commonly done in Australia to prevent beach erosion. In Sea, Teams had to dive beneath the waves and search through 50 crayfish traps lying on the ocean floor. Only a few traps contained live crayfish. After Teams returned two live crayfish, they would receive their next clue. In both cases, Teams needed to first ride their tandem bikes to the Detour.
Eric & Jeremy and Mojo took the sea task and everyone else took sand. Eric & Jeremy did fine, but once again, Mojo didn’t read the clue close enough and only grabbed one crayfish on their first go around. They do seem to have a tendancy to do that. Once done, the teams next clue told them to return to Fremantle and locate Fremantle Prison. As the teams raced back to the ferry, Eric & Jeremy just timed it to get on to the ferry before it departed. BJ & Tyler got there just after, meaning waiting an hour for the next ferry. They opted to take another ferry to Hillarys and catch a cab to Fremantle, the other teams took the later ferry.
Once at the prison, the teams opened their next clue to discover the Roadblock:
In this Roadblock, one Team member had to search the prison block for several cells within Division 4 that contained Duracell coppertop batteries and a flashlight. Then, after finding an entrance to a darkened cavern, they had to descend deep into the ground and search a set of wet or dry tunnels to find their next clue.
The teams ran all over, but they all finally muddled through it and received the clue to travel 1 & 1/2 miles to the Yacht Club for the Pit Stop. Eric & Jeremy came in first with Mojo only seconds behind. BJ & Tyler moved up to third, Ray & Yolanda came in fourth and Fran & Barry came in fifth and were eliminated.
I want Eric & Jeremy gone so bad, it’s not even funny.
Why? Why is The Apprentice tormenting us? I mean, I know I have said that every episode this time, but they are just getting downright more painful with each episode. This weeks task was just…bizarre and the product placement was beyond shoehorned feeling.
Lee came back from the boardroom to discover everyone had prepared for Leslie to return since it was her birthday. Oops! Oh well.
The next morning, the teams met with the Donald, Ivanka (who seems to have perfected the never-ending model pouty lip), Donald Trump, Jr. (already practicing his own bizarre hair style) and an Ameriquest executive to receive their next task. The two teams were to head over to Ellis Island, shoot pictures and create a souvenir program to be sold the next day with all the proceeds going to the Statue of Liberty Fund. The team to make the most money would be the winners.
Don’t get me wrong folks, I think the fund is a very worthy cause, but what does Ameriquest have to do with this? I have no clue. And again, this is a task that makes NO sense in the real business world! If someone came to me and said “Sean, go make a souvenir program!” My first question woul dbe “What’s my budget so I can get on hiring a proffesional team?” I know nothing about creating a program and I would have the brains to hire specialists.
Lee as Project Manager for Gold Rush. He sent Tarek and Michael out to the island to shoot pictures, while he and Charmaine stayed in the loft to work on bulk sales. They didn’t get very far, but it still seemed like a good idea.
Over at Synergy, Allie was up as Project Manager and she took the entire team to the island. Half the team shot the pictures, while the other half took the tour, which seemed like a waste of resources. Andrea also thought it was silly and told Allie that in front of the entire team. Nice tact. When they went to leave the Island, a few members got left behind due to a forgotten notebook. Good job guys. Their other problem was Andrea stepping up as an “expert” in graphic arts. What we later learned was she is an expert at HIRING graphic artists. Her “graphics” for the booklet were less than stellar.
The big problem, and death blow for Synergy, came when Lee had Gold Rush up at 5 AM so they could make sure to get the spots along the line-up to get on the ferrys over to the isalnd. Synergy fought an uphill battle all day as Gold Rush sold stacks of their books and even got some bulk sales from Lee and Charmaine’s phone calls. With one hour left Andrea announced to Allie she was an “expert” in book sales…yeah…I think Andrea is an “expert” as BSing is what I think.
Long story short, Synergy lost, Gold Rush went golfing with VJ Singh and Trump, Andrea was fired without anyone leaving the room *snore*
Survivor Exile Island was an odd one this episode. It was obvious from the getgo that Terry was everyone’s target, but he was also clear he was not going out without a fight. Meanwhile, Bruce was in pain from bowel problems.
When Tree Mail arrived for Reward Challange, each Survivor was issued a voodoo doll they were to decorate to make them look like themselves. They had a good time doing this and then headed off to the challange. As usual, Jeff Probst was there to torment them all:
“Each of the castaways will fill out a questionnaire in private, then the results will be tallied and the Challenge will begin. The questions will be posed to the group. At this time, they will guess whose name came up most often. Each time someone gets a correct answer, they’ll get to chop one of three ropes assigned to each tribe member. After three chops, the rope will release a torch that will in turn send their voodoo dolls up in flames.”
It is obvious this style of challange is always done to create strife, and it did. Terry was the first one chopped out and Courtney was named the most things, including most annoying, which had obvious signs of hurting her feelings. In the end, Cirie won and took Aras and Danielle with her on the reward, much to Shane’s obvious anger. Cirie wondered through out the reward if she had made the wrong choice, but by then, it was too late. She also chose to send Terry off to Exile Island.
The meat of the episode happened back at camp as Shane tried talking to Courtney, who was still upset about the things said about her at the challange, and they seemed to reach an allaince in the end of it. In the background of all this though was Bruce in an incredible amount of pain that continued to mount through out the episode. As night came, it finally got to be too much and the Survivor Production team called in their medic to examine Bruce. After not much time it was decided that Bruce needed to be taken back to base camp for more observation, so in the middle of the night, Bruce was taken out by stretcher to a boat and taken away.
The next day, Cirie, Danielle and Aras returned to camp, not knowing what had happened. As they learned, they of course got concerned and waited to hear what was going on with Bruce. When they saw Jeff approaching in a boat with Terry, they knew things couldn’t be good. Jeff gathered the tribe and explained that Bruce’s bowel and urinary track had shut down and he was out of the game for good. It had not yet been decided if he would be in the jury. Due to this, there would be no Immunity Chllange and no Tribal Council. This has only happened one other time when Mike Skupin fell in the fire in Survivor Austrlian Outback, that was pre-merge and pre-jury. I wish Bruce well!
