Episode 14 - Final 4

It's down to the final four, with Alex left team-less after last week's boardroom and facing the intimidating trio of Tana, Kendra and Craig.

Donald Trump, however, immediately summons the four remaining candidates back down to the lobby to let Alex  choose a teammate from the opposing squad. His decision rattles Magna setting the stage for a competitive final four showdown.

Trump assigns the teams to create and design a commemorative t-shirt for apparel giant Hanes that will "celebrate fifty years of t-shirt culture."  Each team works with a renowned pop-culture artist-Romero Britto for Magna and Burton Morris for Net Worth - to manufacture the t-shirt and sell it for one day at the Manhattan fashion boutique "Scoop." The team that generates the most profit wins.

During the task, one team scores a marketing coupe by working with the artist's fan database while the other team bedazzles their product with rhinestones and kicks up profit considerably.

Back in the boardroom, Trump ignores George & Carolyn's wishes and unleashes an unexpected cobra. The winning duo takes off to the skies during a "Top Gun" air combat reward.

"The classic T-shirt is a must-have in everyone's wardrobe, helping people express their individual style for an amazing fifty years," said Sidney Falken, Hanes Brand Champion. "Hanes was thrilled to partner with The Apprentice in celebration of this milestone, and we were so impressed with both original designs that we are going to begin selling them immediately following the air-date."

Consumers can visit Hanes.com on how to buy the Hanes Apprentice T-Shirts.

Comments

[Who'll be fired this week?]

Have any of you looked at the yahoo fantasy game questions for this week? What do you think? I think it will come down to Alex or Craig. Both players really don't have a chance at this stage in the competition. Questions 7, 8 and 9 are directly linked to Alex, especially 7. But Question 4 does suggest a serious error by Craig, unless he decides to give discounts, which would be an error (like Kevin from Season 2), but not fatal. Personally, I think it's Alex, but I'm not sure? Any thoughts?

[Wow]

"Back in the boardroom, Trump ignores George & Carolyn's wishes and unleashes an unexpected cobra"- What is that about?????

[Wow]

Sounds like the team that goes into the BR must have something lacking if Donald goes after one and G & T did not like the other. Very interesting.

[Rebatum]

Well, lemme tell you what I think. I saw last week after Bren's taxi confessional that the preview included Kendra fighting with someone (I think Craig) in a taxi. Could this mean that Alex chose Tana? If that's the case, Kendra and Craig will have a hard time winning, especially because they hate each other so much. If they lose, I believe that Craig will go (even though it's Kendra's turn to be PM). Craig doesn't seem to communicate his ideas well enough to succeed in Trump's organization. However, if the other team loses, Alex's head will be on the chopping block... unless Tana does something VERY stupid during the task or in the boardroom. Though I don't expect that she would, she definitely disappointed me during the Pontiac episode, when she ditched Kendra and then stole her moment during the presentation. In spite of that, again, I still believe it would be Alex's turn to take the taxi home if Tana was his competition. Thoughts?

[Gman]

"Back in the boardroom, Trump ignores George & Carolyn's wishes and unleashes an unexpected cobra"- What is that about?????

If Tana and Alex lose Trump tell Tana she did a poor job
as PM, wasted time and failed to come up with an innovative marketing plan, He makes it sound as though he is going to fire Tana, George and Carolyn defend Tana as a better candidate than Alex. Trump seems to ignore their advice and continues to focus on Tana, when Tana tells Trump some fact that proves Alex lied And Trump agrees and says why did you lie Alex- You fired.

[Gman]

The key to understandint the "Cobra" is that Trump can ignore the advice of G&C during the buildup in the boardroom and still fire G&C's choise but only after it looked like he is going to ignore them.

[Wow]

Thanks GMAN.

[JB]

Trump ignores Carolyn and George's advice... could we be seeing an unexpected (ie. not Craig or Alex) firing this week?

Since the Yahoo questions seem to point to Alex and Tana losing... could Tana be sent packing?

[JB]

Actually... it's really really obvious that Alex will be fired this week, and each time it is obvious like this, they try and make that person look OK during the show, so maybe they are just going to show Carolyn and George supporting Alex in the boardroom when he loses to make it look less obvious... yeah that's what I think.

Fool me once (Audrey), shame on you, fool me twice (Chris), ummmm yeah, uhh, shame on you again... fool me three times (ALEX THIS WEEK) shame on MOI!

[Grace]

Did you see Raj's prediction's on the fantasy game. He predicted it to be Craig that gets fired?

[Mike]

I like Raj's comments a lot but he has not been right on with his firing predictions.

[Elaine]

I think its going to be Alex that gets fired this week. Obviously by the picture him and Tana are together. It should be interesting to see Tana in the boardroom because she has only been there once and she wasn't even at fault. It can get heated!! I can't wait for the last show to see how Tana and Kendra fight it out. Kendra has never been in the boardroom for a firing.

[JB]

I think that if Tana and Alex lose, Tana is certainly vulnerable to firing. Just because she was always on a winning team, it doesn't mean a thing.

Although I believe it will be Alex, don't count your chickens Tana fans, Trump has done stranger things!

I think another thing to keep in mind is that little by little, we've seen Magna cut down to its core... although they do fight a lot, maybe Craig and Kendra just make things happen more than anyone else! It appears that by picking Magna members off one by one to go to Net Worth, and Net Worth losing all the time, Trump is really finding out the truth behind all of the Magna wins... Tana is great but in terms of taking action and creativity, the Old Married Couple is doing a fantastic job.

Of course, this message is a load of crap should Magna lose this week!

[Hermie]

The part about someone lying made me think.

Remember when Alex spoke about his studying in Israel? That was a seemingly unimportant item that I thought would've been edited out.

What if...and it's a big if...Alex did a little resume 'padding'; and Trump found out the truth.

[JB]

There was something about Alex being a lobbyist that was false or something...

[dd]

I agree that Kendra and Craig will win this week. One team capitalizing on a fan database seems like a Kendra idea since she has been instrumental in marketing to a broader crowd for many tasks. I can't see how this can fail to attract more customers than "beads". (Also this is the team said to fight like cats and dogs.)

I am ready for a surprise on the firing. The Yahoo game alluded to Alex storing up facts to use against Tana in the boardroom. It really could go either way. It will be interesting!

[kung fu rocks]

Nope...Alex didn't pad his resume. He really did lobby in WA DC. He wasn't the president of the united states...but he did lobby in WA DC. Trump won't "find out about resume fraud" and fire Alex. :)

This week...hmmm...could we have two winners? Hanes says it will market BOTH Ts.

[dj]

Alex is dumb to take Tana, if he does.
This is how I see it. Alex Takes Kendra, and they go off to win. Craig gets fired. We know Craig gets fired because Craig says, Mr.Trump wants to fire me.

Alex should be fired at the moment he chooses Tana to be her teammate.

[dj]

My apologies. I didn't see the picture. Sure that makes it more interesting. =P not!

ok. Alex idiodically takes Tana, and he gets a loss. Alex gets fired. There we go!

[Linda]

Tough to say...Tough to say...Unleashing the cobra suggests that Alex or Craig may not go this week. It sounds like to me that one of the women leave. . .for whatever reason. Of the two women, I would rather see Tana go then Kendra. But then again. You never know.

[Hermie]

Or the 'unleashing the cobra' might mean something else.

Let's assume that Tana and Alex lose and are in the Boardroom. Perhaps, to see how much Tana can take from Alex, Trump decides to prod Alex into saying something that unfairly casts Tana in a bad light; something which George and Carolyn feel is not needed since they all feel Alex should be gone anyway. Alex takes the bait and slams Tana, who responds to the attack and cleans Alex's clock.

Tana is 'the cobra' who only strikes when attacked.

[Hermie]

I just can't see Trump letting either Tana or Kendra go.

Alex has made too many mistakes. He might call himself a risk taker, but to take risks, screw them up, and then say how great you are...it just wouldn't be that attractive to Trump. How would you like to have someone working for you that costs you a fortune each and every time, and still has a large enough ego to say that he was a great manager.

Craig has too much of a communications and attitude problem when it comes to working with others. He can't get along with younger workers and his treating them like children when he can't get them to back down cannot be attractive traits to Trump.

Both Tana and Kendra are far more superior to Alex and Craig in terms of strategy and work ethic. They would be far better assets to Trump.

[Levi Wallach]

Ok, so it seems pretty obvious that if Tand and Alex lose that Alex has to go. Just look at the records. Tana has been successful in the tasks she's led and for the most part stayed out of the BR. Some may discount her creativity or usefulness, and cast her has a glorified salesperson, but she's been a lot more successful than Alex. Alex made one impressive decision early on in the mural task to ask his target market for ideas. Since he moved to Net Worth, he's made mistake after mistake and like Chris has escaped Trump's wrath again and again, although last week he was finally called out and only kept his place because Bren was "exhausted" and just didn't want to fight to stay on, even though it could have just as easily been Alex to be fired. As others have noted, unless Tana does some horrible mistake, which it doesn't look like she does, than I can't see how Alex won't be the one to be fired.

Kendra and Craig are a bit more complex. Each have a perfect record on the tasks they've managed and while most of us think Craig is an ass because he picks on Kendra for no reason and can't communicate, I'm not sure if Trump picks that up in the BR. Kendra can talk about his lack of communication, his disrespect, etc., but Trump can counter that you will be faced with such people in business, so if you can't handle them here, how are you going to handle them in the real world. To be fair, of course, Kendra "handles" Craig by just toughing through it but also telling him how she feels - at least some of the time. Of course this doesn't seem to do anything because either Craig is so caught up in his own world or because this is just a ploy to "break" Kendra so she will show how she can't handle a difficult coworker and Trump will hold this against her. Whatever the case, I think it would be unfortunate if Kendra left instead of Craig, but I think it's much less of a sure bet than with Alex vs. Tana...

[tunji]

This is how I see it.
Alex needs to go this week. He has being making big time mistake week after week and Trump finally catch up to him. He is less talented among the remaining four. However, his reliance on his skill as a lawyer was instrumental for his staying power.

[Grace]

I think the decision "rattles" Magna because of a glimpse from last weeks episode when it is shown that Kendra still favor's her buds from her old team. I think everyone thought Alex would choose Kendra as they were originally on the same team so when he chooses Tana- this rattles them. IMHO, of course.