A TiVo-assisted retrospective on the last 3 minutes of last night's "Apprentice."

When Randal hears he's hired, he stands up, smiling, and we see all the other players reacting. Alla is overjoyed and demonstrative, shimmying up to Randal to embrace him as he ambles over for a group hug. Trump, over at the boardroom table, is yelling, "Randal, Randal, hey, Randal, Randal, Randal, sit down for a second, I wanna ask your opinion." Trump presents the question: "If you were me, would you hire Rebecca also?"

Then we see Randal, smiling, looking down and thinking. Behind him, we see the players. Felicia is mouthing "no," and sweet Adam is clapping with pleasure. Markus is unmoved. Alla is shaking her head in a big no. Randal makes his hard statement that the show is called "The Apprentice," not "The Apprenti," so there must be only one. Is that uncreative or just greedy?

Felicia nods her big approval. Jenthura looks happy. Markus pouts. Adam folds his hands in his lap and purses his lips. Marshawn bows her head glumly.

Trump smirks and says "Okay, I'll leave it at that then. I think I could have been convinced, but you feel that's the way it should be. I'm gonna leave it that way. Congratulations." Rebecca, who's been smiling calmly, now shakes her head, mouths a word ("bad"?), and then nods. We overhear a technical person say "That's a floor spin," and the thumping closing music starts. Randal gets up and walks over to the audience triumphantly. Most of the people are conspicuously not giving him a standing ovation. We can hear Trump say "Did you like that?"

I think it's safe to say that Trump did not like that. I'd say he structured the ending feeling sure Randal would reach out to Rebecca, and it would be a surprising, heartwarming ending for the man with a dead grandma and the girl on crutches. Instead, the series ended with a sickening thud, and the newly chosen Apprentice -- whose job is basically P.R. for the Trump organization -- begins his reign with a P.R. disaster.

IN THE COMMENTS: My son Chris writes: "Mom: We do not hear a technical person say 'That's a floor spin.' We hear Rebecca say 'That's unfortunate.' It is unfortunate...
that you got that wrong."

AND: There are a lot of good comments here and in the earlier post on the final episode, here, including my own complaint about the way that Randal was always praised and not criticized for spending his young years pursuing 5 academic degree. And what was his multi-million dollar "consulting business"?