Episode Report Card Miss Alli: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Office space
By Miss Alli | Season 3 | Episode 13 | Aired on 04.20.2005
Skyline! We arrive at the Rainbow Room, where Magna is escorted in for breakfast. Tana talks about the spectacular view, and then George and Carolyn arrive. Craig talks about the importance of getting "access to Carolyn and George" outside the bad environment of the Boardroom. George starts by congratulating them on a good presentation yesterday, and asks Craig whether it was intentional when he knocked over his box of pencils. Craig says that it was. Kendra interviews that she was rather stunned to hear George and Carolyn being funny. Carolyn tells them about her awesome kids, and the fact that her husband's name is also George. George's wife is named Trump, and...no, not really. Tana calls it a chance to meet "the best." George, taking a gusty walk down what must be a fairly rainy memory lane, recalls for the candidates that he met Trump when Trump was only in his twenties, and had some wacky hotel scheme that George considered insane. He doesn't say how it turned out, but I'd say that from what I know, it's about 50-50 that George turned out to be exactly right. Carolyn says she's been with Trump for ten years or so, and George teases her about not having known what she was in for. "Yeah, what the hell was I thinking?" she wonders aloud. Everyone laughs. Aw! Camaraderie born of Trump-related wariness! I can relate. Breakfast ensues.
Alex and Bren go out for coffee before one of them has to be banished. Alex says he thinks they should take responsibility for their mistakes, but remain "steadfast" in insisting that they made the better product. So...they'll be specializing in internal contradictions, then. Because...what? "I take responsibility for all of my mistakes! Of which, fortunately, there were none." Anyway. Bren makes some weird-ass comparison to arguing in front of judges, and confirms that indeed, he believes that the judges were clearly wrong. Apparently, not only the Staples people were wrong, but the office managers who said the product didn't meet their needs and they wouldn't buy it were...also wrong. They would buy it, apparently, and they just don't realize that they would buy it. They'd find, once they returned to their offices, that there was such an outpouring of passionate desire for the Pack Rat that it would become a company benefit, like health insurance, that you simply had to offer in order to keep your top-level people. Bren tells us that he continues to have "faith in that design." He also says that he doesn't want to be told that he's a loser, or "have [his] nose rubbed in it." Boy, he picked the wrong show, didn't he? Bren tells Alex that he's been "meek" and "humble" in the Boardroom, but that's not how he wants his kids to turn out. Yeah. Humble, yuck! He says that he "doesn't care what it costs [him]; principle is more important." Yeah, principle! Principles like the Pack Rat! Principles like folding desktops! Those are both in the Bible, by the way. Alex tells Bren that he's only concerned about how long he will now go, one way or the other, without seeing Bren. Tragedy! Alex interviews that the only thing on his mind during coffee was "saying goodbye." He insists that all he felt was, "I don't want to lose my buddy." You're a great man, bro! I love you, dude!
But for now...Boardroom. Ding! Alex and Bren stroll past Robin and are seated with Carolyn and George. Trump enters. "So you're both lawyers," Trump says. "Can lawyers be creative?" (I, personally, want to take this opportunity to vote "no.") "Absolutely," both guys insist. Trump refers to their design as a "monstrosity," which isn't a really promising start, except in the sense that the best Boardrooms are sort of explosions of hyperbole. He asks them what they think of their stink-o secondary desk in retrospect, and Bren says it's "spectacular." Alex repeats his wish that he had the rights to sell it, and Trump basically offers the rights to him, since it sucks. Trump really hates this design, you have to understand. In fact, I think if they don't take it back to the L-Pal, Trump is going to have it crushed into dust and sprinkled on top of a sundae that will then be served to whichever guy remains. The words "eat it, boy" may be used. Trump brings up again the stupidity of the Plexiglas top, and Alex argues again that this will allow you to see what's in your in and out baskets. He tries to explain it as people having "two periods of work," sort of the now-work and the later-work, but...it's not flying. "I don't get it," Trump says. Not that that's really determinative. Trump asks whose design it was, and Alex says that it was his. "Every component on there came from an uncreative lawyer," Alex says, missing the...complete lack of irony, I guess. It's hard when you accidentally hit a completely accurate declarative sentence when you didn't mean to.