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ARTICLE
A Dose of Reality: The Apprentice 5 - Episode 08: A Slice of Heaven
by Iris Blasi
Published: April 12, 2006

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Related Sites:
· The Apprentice: Official Site
· Sirlinksalot: The Apprentice

If you don't remember what happened last episode, then you have some serious short-term memory issues, as last episode ended about a minute and half before this one.

This week, two episodes of The Apprentice were shown back-to-back as a double header to clear next Monday's 9pm slot for the premiere of Celebrity Cooking Showdown. The CCS premiere's celeb roster doesn't look particularly compelling - actor Tom Arnold, country music singer Big Kenny , and Miss USA Chelsea Cooley - but April 18th promises Pattie LaBelle who, if you don't already know, makes a mean mac and cheese.Seriously. My friend swears by it. It's a heart attack on a plate, but it's supposed to be incredible.

And now, prepare yourself for Part II of this week's double dose of The Donald.

With his beloved Lenny now gone, Lee is crushed. "I just know I had one person to trust," Lee moans in despair. Okay, maybe not moaning. But theirs was a match made in (some crazy, alternate universe version of) heaven. And so poor Lee misses his pal.

Charmaine takes this choice opportunity to jump on him about his immaturity. "I think this is the first time in this process you've shown your age," she says about Lee's blind loyalty.

Though Lee's loyalty was indeed blind (and perhaps not such a good idea when one's hero-worship is directed towards a man who proudly paints a childrens' room "Communist Red"), his loyalty at all is surely a trait to admire.

And loyalty's something that Michael isn't feeling at all over at Synergy.

Andrea and Roxanne don't even give Michael a minute to revel in glory before they jump on him. Roxanne says he's lucky that they won the task, for he'd surely be out had they been in the boardroom. And Andrea again harps on him for his inability to make a decision. (She's entirely right, but - dear lord, woman - must you continue to harp on him for this? We saw you rolling your eyes at him all last episode. We get it. Michael = indecisive.) And, her piece said, Andrea goes back to waiting for her Queen of the World crown to arrive.

The next morning dawns bright and early. The candidates convene at the fountain at Cherry Hill in Central Park as Trump rolls up in the driver's seat of a DeLorean. Seriously - can this man get any cooler? The moment those gull-wing doors fly up, so does Trump's awesome factor. Forget the money, forget the power. This man has a sweet ride and that's all that really matters.

He swiftly pronounces Gold Rush "a disaster" (which is one of The Donald's very favorite nouns, if you haven't caught on to that yet) after three losses in a row, and sends Michael over in attempt to even out the teams and invigorate GR with some new blood. Michael's relieved to escape the team that hated him.

This week's task centers on convenience store 7-Eleven (which apparently opens a new store every five hours; you learn something new every day!). They're launching a new sandwich called a P'eatzza which is basically a sandwich with pizza slices for bread.

Thanks, 7-Eleven. Just what America needs.

The teams will both be given 7-Eleven store in which to sell, and whoever increases sales at the store by the greatest percentage wins. They both grab some sample sandwiches and settle down to business.

At Synergy, Andrea is temporarily appeased this week by acting as PM. She says, "If it were up to me, I'd be project manager on every single task." Oh, Andrea - we have that dream, too. The team decides that they'd like a promotional item to tie in with the sandwich, but have trouble deciding on an item. Should it be a cup maybe? That might boost sales, as people would also make drink purchases.

But Andrea wants a baseball cap, and that's that. "I'm letting you know right now, it is hats," she pronounces while polishing her Boss of the Universe Crown.

Over at Gold Rush, Leslie finally steps up to be PM, while her team wonders why she's let herself fly under the radar for so long. Lee proclaims that, as a native New Yorker who went to City University, he is their demographic. He, Charmaine and Michael go to scope out the store while Leslie and Tarek work on trivia questions. (Did you know that the largest pizza in the worldwas 122 feet in diameter? An amazing fact indeed, but it's hardly going to pull customers into the store as they think this trivia will).

On the Synergy side, Sean and Allie are conducting a photo shoot with race car driver Tony Kanaan for promotional fliers they'll give out tonight to advertise tomorrow's P'Eatzza offer. Sean and Allie are also blatantly advertising the fact that they're sleeping together.

I hate you, Allie. I really do.

Anyway -

Both teams are debating price point. Synergy wants a $7.99 sandwich, with 2 for $8.99, while Lee (who is accused of always taking the contrary opinion to the rest of the group) argues that that the price is too high. I'm not quite sure how, with their promotional cooler, it makes sense to have a sky-high price for one sandwich with the second one only costing 99 cents. But whatever. You're the business people. Gold Rush's decision to sell each sandwich for $4 sounds a lot more reasonable to me.

On the day of the task, Gold Rush's Tarek is outside screaming to commuters to stop and taste the "P'Eatzza" (I really hate writing that word). "You're life will never be the same," he yells, his voice cracking, to passersby paying him absolutely no attention. Meanwhile, Lee overhears two store managers talking about the incredibly high price and reports this information to Leslie. But Leslie swats him away, saying that the morning of the task isn't the time to fiddle with the price.

And Synergy is psyched for the day. Andrea thinks the hats look good, though Carolyn can't understand the connection between the product and the promotion. "Trust me, I'd keep walking," she says of their supposed lure. Allie's a super little saleswoman, declaring every customer "her favorite" while Andrea is her usual awkward self and essentially the worst salesperson on the team.

Back at Gold Rush, no one can find Lee. Well, he's off trying to make a deal with a local business man. And if he can sell this guy 1000 sandwiches, Lee will have saved the day. Trying to be a little Trump-in-training, Lee haggles with the buyer about the price. The guy wants to pay $2 per sandwich, while Lee wants $3. Lee asks Leslie for permission to go down to $2.50, but the buyer won't budge. SO the deal falls through and, instead of being a hero, Lee is just a zero.

And all I can think about is how much I want a Slurpee.

Gold Rush, with their neat promotional cooler and high price point, increases sales by 608%. Synergy wins, though, with their dumb baseball caps. In their fourth consecutive win, they increased sales by 997%.

Their reward is to fly to Washington, D.C. to have breakfast with New York State's senior senator, Chuck Schumer, whose grandfather was friends with Trump's father when they were builders in Brooklyn way back in the day.

Schumer has some excellent and simple advice: the Monday test. "Do you feel in the pit of your stomach that you want to go to work?" he says. "And if you can say yes to that, then you're in great shape." (Excellent advice, really, except for the fact that I am currently unemployed. So my Monday is really just part of the long, extended Sunday that is presently known as "my life.") Sean gets all teary when they go to look at the White House. Having just gotten his GreenCard a few months before, he's proud to be a new American. Everyone finds this very touching and profound, while I’m still steamed Allie is sleeping with my boyfriend.

Gold Rush is back in the boardroom. With 6 loses to their two wins, they're really demoralized. At this moment, there's an interview clip with Michael saying "at least I feel like I fit in." It's pretty funny.

Leslie blames Lee as Trump flirts with Charmine and Carolyn smiles knowingly. Leslie brings Lee back into the boardroom. Yes, the price was set too high, but Lee took all that time out to execute a deal that fell through. Lee says he was right about the price being too high. Leslie says that, since he disagrees with the group one everything, his being right is really just a matter of odds. So Lee tries to trace his rationale, proving that -- in accordance with Trump's lesson of the week - he really did "know the customer."

"Who is the most price-sensitive group in the market?" Lee asks Trump.

"Who?" Trump asks, playing along.

"College students and senior citizens," Lee pronounces.

"Oh," says Trump, in a wonderful moment of delightfully almost-but-not-quite politically incorrect television. "I thought you were going to say something else."

In the end, Leslie's sent packing. Turns out, it's her birthday.

Well, Happy Birthday, Leslie baby. Happy Birthday to you.

And remember, kids - no episode next week, but be sure to tune in to see Tom Arnold in Celebrity Cooking Showdown. I'm sure he's a man who knows his way around a kitchen.

Until next time,

Elena

Past Recaps: Episode 01 | Episode 02 | Episode 03 | Episode 04 | Episode 05 | Episode 06 | Episode 07