The Apprentice: LA comes into tonight with only four remaining contestants.  James Sun is my favorite to win it all, although I do think that Trump has a certain affection for Frank and that, in a practical sense, Trump could put Frank on one of his construction sites and be happy about it.  We shall see.  What follows are my live thoughts while watching tonight's episode.

James is proud of himself after his performance from last week.  Everyone pats themselves on the back.

Trump makes a surprise appearance in the mansion right after last week's board room.  He congratulates the four contestants and tells them that they'll be receiving an award tonight: a cocktail party at the Beverly Hills Hotel with the five previous Apprentice winners.

Bill Rancic gets called away to a last minute meeting, so he can't be there.  Former winner Kendra spouts a record number of cliches in a 30-second span.

There will only be one more task.  Each team (Stephani and James, Frank and Nicole) has to choose two eliminated contestants to bring back for the final task.  They get thirty seconds to decide. 

Frank and Nicole choose Tim and Surya.  Stephani and James choose Aaron and Angela.

Trump wants the contestants to meet him at the Universal Studios backlots. 

Team reunions!!

Everyone says hello to each other, happy to be there. 

Tim and Nicole reunite!  Everything is right in the universe.

Surya and Frank have a little pow-wow.  They try to make amends.  Surya isn't very happy to be working with Frank it seems.  Surya does vow to give it his all. 

The contestants enter one of the film back lots that's dressed up to look like the Wild West.

Ivanka is back.  It's nice to see her. 

The teams final task is to make a “mini-movie”.  They have to write, direct and edit a 60-second commercial.  It's for a product called Renewzit air freshener, or something close to that.

Each team has access to a soundstage, with a ridiculous amount of sets.

Tim is taking over decision making for Frank and Nicole's team.  There initial idea: having a mom come to comfort her child in a hospital.  I'm as baffled as you are.

Stefani and James are going with a courtroom scene.  A dad is going to be on trial for stinking up the family's house.  Pretty good idea. 

Stefani is dominating this challenge, it seems. 

James is taking over the filming of the commercial. 

Frank and Nicole's commercial is pretty silly.  A mother and daughter are in the hospital, but find that they're next to a bum.  He stinks.  Funny, funny, ha ha. 

Nicole, somewhat pathetically, sucks up to the Renewzit execs. 

Stefani is upset that James is being too much of a perfectionist. 

James and Stefani are filming a lot of takes and are running out of time to finish before 10:30.

Nicole and Frank head to the editing booth. 

Tim and Surya don't seem to be doing a whole lot. 

Frank and Nicole scuffle in the editing room over whose in charge of cutting the film.  Frank is upset that he's not in charge, but Nicole is doing well and wants to keep calling the shots.

It turns out that James didn't get all the footage he needed and his team is having an extremely hard time in the editing room, trying to make their commercial make sense.

Moment of truth.  The execs, along with the Trump children go to an AMC theater to watch the two teams' commercials in front of a packed theater.

James and Stefani's commercial goes first and it was okay, I guess.   The courtroom scene was clever enough, but fairly silly.

Frank and Nicole's hospital/bum commercial seems to strike more of a chord with the audience, but I thought they were both pretty terrible.

The two teams explain their commercials to each other. 

Trump hears from the Renuzit executives. 

They both liked James and Stefani.  They were a little wishy-washy on Nicole and Frank as a team, but thought both were good as individuals.  Frank gets a lot of love for just being Frank.

Boardroom time. 

“Everybody was extremely utilized,” says Nicole. 

Everyone speaks well of each other.  There's really no conflict here in the boardroom.  I don't know who Trump is going to fire.  It's going to be tough.

He doesn't fire anybody, and sends them home from the boardroom.

All four will be at the live boardroom next week on the season finale.  Crazy. 

 

-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer