Flawless Victory: After the Week 5 task, she was never once on the losing team and had three victories as project manager. On top of that, she never once appeared in the final boardroom, one of only two other "regular" Apprentice season winners (the other being Brandy from Season 10) to win without ever once being brought back.note (Albeit with Kelly from Season 2 and Stefani from Season 6 only ending up in the boardroom by default on their final regular tasks due to so few people being left, and with Kelly being exempt anyway)
Ice Queen: Actually a fairly nice person for the most part, but she was very serious and focused on winning above all else.
I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Not really very nasty at all, but she genuinely wasn't too interested in making any friends, and saw everyone else as colleagues first, rivals second, and friends a distant third.
Tana
Blatant Lies: In the season finale she tried to claim all the credit for the success of the Week 12 task, when in fact she was probably the one least responsible for the win.
Complexity Addiction: Wasted a huge amount of time in the final regular task going from place to place to buy items to customize their t-shirts, which drastically cut into the time they had to actually sell them.
Loophole Abuse: A far more blatant example than Michael earlier in the season, as she openly refused to help Kendra at various points in the Week 12 task on the grounds that she was exempt and couldn't be punished if they lost. George ended up calling her out on this in the season finale.
Team Mom: Shared this role with Angie on Net Worth at first, and then took it on Magna when she got moved over. In the latter stages of the season however, she seemed to abandon this role and became more self-centred.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Gradually, over the course of the season. During the first several weeks, Tana was actually very kind and personable, in stark contrast to many of her competitors. As the competition progressed, however, she began to adopt a much more acerbic tone, taking potshots at the other candidates in her confessionals. Then in the final task, she became outright nasty towards her employees for sleeping in, which ultimately got her fired in the season finale.
Craig
And You Thought It Would Fail: Everyone on his team thought that his idea to run a box-building workshop in Week 9 would be a gigantic flop. As it turned out, it was simple enough that the whole family could get involved, while the other team's over-complicated workshop went down like a lead balloon.invoked
Black Dude Dies First: Inverted; he was the last of the male candidates to be fired.
Hated by All: His interviews were just a trainwreck, with all four of the interviewers seemingly agreeing that they wouldn't even trust him to work in their mail room, much less a high-powered corporate position.
The Load: He was this to Kendra in the final regular task, constantly arguing with her and selling their t-shirts for a very low price.
Alex
Bystander Syndrome: Part of what got him fired after the last regular task; Tana had made numerous screw-ups, but Alex seemed content to sit back and let her hang herself. Claiming to have lost once as project manager, when in fact he'd lost twice (Weeks 11 and 13), was the final nail in his coffin.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: Apart from the first task, Alex was generally seen as a frontrunner for the first two-thirds of the competition. Things started to go downhill when he left Magna for Net Worth in Week 10, which precipitated a 5-week losing streak—with Alex bearing heavy responsibility for the losses in all five.
Tempting Fate: Came dangerously close to getting himself fired after the first task, when he blurted out in the boardroom that it was actually him, not Todd, who only trained two cashiers how to work Burger King's tills. Trump told him that it was stupid to say this, though ultimately it just became more evidence against Todd, as it became obvious that he had done even less than Trump initially thought he had.
Bren
Epic Fail: Bren was against gay marriage, but he's the one who came up with a cucumber ad that didn't say anything about the product, but had some distinctly sexual undertones and came complete with a homosexual tone at the end of the ad. This and the other ad were quickly rejected and sent both teams to the boardroom for the first of two times in the show, and The Donald ripped him apart for even thinking of this idea. Had it not been for Kristen's belligerence, this one bad idea could have gotten him fired after four tasks.
Good Ol' Boy: The "Southern Gentleman" variety, especially evidenced in the Dove task when they showed up late to film their commercial, and Erin's insensitive handling of the matter nearly caused their cast to storm out, forcing Bren to salvage things.
Only Sane Man: Of the male candidates from this season, he was probably the one who looked the most like a serious contender for victory. However, his background was mainly in law rather than business, which ended up causing Trump to fire him over Alex.
Team Dad: He acted as this quite a few times during the season, most notably in the second task when Verna's sudden Screw This, I'm Outta Here plunged the team into disarray, after which Bren stepped up and got things running again.
Ambiguously Gay: He denied being gay in the Week 4 boardroom — after claiming that Magna's advert was "disturbing" in its homosexual connotations, no less — which the other candidates seemed less than inclined to believe.
Hair-Trigger Temper: Had a very short fuse and would fly off the handle at the slightest provocation, best exemplified when he went ballistic over Angie making a relatively minor criticism of him on the second task (bearing in mind that Brian had already said that he should be fired, and all the other criticism had been aimed at Kristen).
Perfectly Cromulent Word: Plenty in the presentation on the Pontiac Solstice. "Interiorally" and "exteriorally" aren't exactly neologisms worthy of Shakespeare.
Suspiciously Specific Denial: How Trump and the other candidates seemed to react to his apparently homophobic comments about Magna's commercial.
Angie
Older Than They Look: At the time of filming, Angie was the oldest contestant ever cast at 41. She could pass for early-to-mid 30s.
Team Mom: One of the consistent voices of reason among a generally dysfunctional group. Her work as project manager on the third task really stood out in this regard, as Net Worth completely imploded in the tasks either side of that one.
Stephanie
Accentuate the Negative: She had a tendency to do this, which rubbed many of her teammates the wrong way and nearly got her fired in Week 5.
The Friend Nobody Likes: Stephanie's negative attitude did not win over many of the other contestants. When she was sent to Net Worth in Week 8, project manager Chris jokingly asked if he could send her back to Magna.
The Generic Girl: Stood out the least of this season's female candidates - and with the probable exception of Todd, the least of any candidate overall. Though when you consider the reasons why many of the other candidates stood out, this could be called a case of Tropes Are Not Bad.
Erin
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Usually put on a nicey-nicey persona, but in the Confession Cam inserts she was much bitchier and snarkier, most notably with regards to Verna's Heroic BSoD in Weeks 2 and 3.
City Mouse: Was often out of her element when it came to more hands-on activities, such as working a Burger King cash register in Week 1 or playing golf in the reward for Week 7. It eventually became her undoing when she refused to contribute anything during Week 9 because home improvement was not her forte.
Hypocrite: Frequently raked Michael over the coals for his defeatist attitude in Weeks 3 and 5, chastising him in both the boardroom and her confessionals for not giving it 110% in both tasks. Guess what she wound up doing in Week 9, when the task was to create a D.I.Y. showcase for Home Depot.
Manipulative Bastard: Successfully persuaded the rest of the team to go after Michael following the Week 3 loss, and then attempted to persuade Trump to revoke Michael's exception in the boardroom, though this time without success. Granted, the team was pretty upset with Michael's performance, so it's not as if they took much convincing.
Tempting Fate: During her final boardroom session, she suddenly tried getting flirty with Trump, indirectly being disrespectful to Carolyn and George in the process. Not surprisingly, she immediately got fired.
John
The Leader: The charismatic variety, best evidenced by his ability to motivate his teammates and Burger King employees during the first task.
Single-Issue Wonk: Negotiated essentially the same prize from all their celebrities in the charity auction task, meaning that they ended up all attracting roughly the same bid and getting blown away by the much bigger prizes the opposing team negotiated.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Actually seemed like a decent enough guy for much of the time he was on the show, and notably refused to go along with Kristen in trying to throw Audrey under the bus for the Dove commercial fiasco. In his last two weeks however, he suddenly turned into a massive jerk.
Audrey
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Unwittingly made it look like she was committing this by bringing back her only ally, Angie, into what turned out to be her final boardroom. She was almost certainly bringing Angie back as an advocate (which is a bad idea in itself), but forgot to actually make it clear.
Ignored Expert: Could have helped Tara make a better Gran Turismo advert, if Tara had shown the slightest bit of interest in listening to anybody else.
Only Friend: Nobody on the team actively disliked her in the same way that they did Brian or Kristen, but as the weeks wore on she started rubbing more and more people the wrong way. Angie was the only person on her side throughout... at least until Audrey brought her back to the final boardroom in the week where she was fired.
Tara
The Diva: In the positive sense of the term (i.e. without the Prima Donna tendencies). Tara is a very intelligent, articulate, strong, and confident woman. The flipside is that she can be very headstrong and sometimes struggles to accept responsibility, which ultimately becomes her undoing on the sixth task.
A Firing in the Limelight: Tara doesn't really get a lot of focus during the first five tasks. Then in Week 6, she becomes the project manager and is suddenly thrust into the spotlight, whereupon she drops the ball royally and is fired.
It's All About Me: When presenting to the Sony executives in her turn as project manager, she constantly talked about how great her concept for her advert was, and how she guided the team every step of the way. When the team lost the task, it ended up making it kind of hard for her to distance herself from its flaws, though that certainly didn't stop her from trying.
Never My Fault: Tried to place all the blame for the loss on Audrey and John for not giving her more information about the Gran Turismo games... even though they did give her advice, only for her to blow it off because they were advertising Gran Turismo 4, and Audrey and John had only played Gran Turismo 3. How exactly she expected them to have played 4 in any great depth when it hadn't even been released at that point is head-scratching.
Tragic Mistake: Tara decided on an advert concept before even speaking to the Sony executives, losing sight of the fact that it was a marketing task. Bringing Craig back into the boardroom just because he criticized her leadership didn't help, although it's unlikely that her original plan to bring back John would have gone any better.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Tara seemed far more concerned about making a socially-conscious artistic tribute to Harlem than a video game ad.
Michael
The Friend Nobody Likes: Quickly turned into this starting with the third task, due to his worsening performances and accusations that he had abused his exemption.
The Load: Was generally seen as this by his teammates. In Weeks 3 and 5, his attempts at marketing Nescafe and massages (respectively) were half-hearted at best.
Loophole Abuse: What the rest of the team accused him of, after he got exemption for winning as project manager on the second task and then did a spectacularly crap job on the third. That said, he never actually waved his exemption in the rest of the team's face, as Tana would do later in the season.
One-Hit Wonder: Actually did a pretty good job of project managing the second task, but after that he crashed and burned.invoked
Single-Issue Wonk: As part of his fall from grace after the second task, he constantly tried to push for whatever they did in the tasks that followed to incorporate scantily-clad women. Preferably Eastern European women at that.
Kristen
Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: In contrast to her bleached-blonde hair on Murder in Small Town X, Kristen sported brown hair during her time on The Apprentice. Averted in the season finale when she went back to blonde.
Complexity Addiction: Insisted that Brian draw up a full, detailed budget for the entire task before they even ordered a dumpster. Even the rest of the team, who soon came to agree with her about what a complete mess Brian was making of things, pointed out that they were going to need the dumpster no matter what they did with the motel units.
Epic Fail: She was the Project Manager for Net Worth during the infamous Dove commercials fiasco, when both teams created ads that were complete misfires. Both teams were brought back to the boardroom, and while Magna was heavily chastised for its product, Kristen was the one who wound up getting fired when she tried to deflect blame onto everyone but herself.
Ice Queen: Tana puts it best: "You never saw a smile."
Jerkass: Even for a season with a notoriously nasty cast, she stood out as being by far the worst, as evidenced by her behavior towards Brian in the second task and the hired actors in the fourth.
Jerkass Has a Point: Or rather, she would have had a point about how much of a pig's ear Brian was making of the second task, if she wasn't causing just as many problems by constantly bitching and screaming at him (in front of their guests, no less).
Never My Fault: Refused to admit that she had royally screwed up the execution of John's idea for the team's advert in the fourth task, and tried to place all the blame on Audrey just because she tended to argue a little bit (she also blamed the actors in the ad for being uncooperative, which got blown up when Tana stated they were simply not asked to use water, which was supposed to be Kristen's call). This is was got her fired.
Prima Donna Director: Just to prove that her crappy treatment of her teammates was nothing personal, she was also borderline abusive to the actors in their Dove commercial, and then claimed that they were "difficult to work with" when the teams failed the task.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Seemingly learning nothing from her time on Murder in Small Town X, Kristen brought pretty much the same Survivor-esque mindset that had previously put her on the outs during her first reality TV outing. This time around, she didn't last as long.
Danny
The Ditherer: His fatal flaw, and what ultimately gets him fired in Week 3. Danny had difficulties making decisions throughout his time on the show, and he
Epic Fail: The promotional event he came up with for the first task, which was to set up a crudely-made cardboard box painted with a target, and encourage people to throw a tennis ball into a hole cut out in the middle of the target in order to win a free burger. Contrast this to the Las Vegas holiday the other team were offering as their promotional scheme, and it's little wonder that everyone on the team (except Kendra) tried to blame him for the loss, even though Todd and Alex were more directly at fault.
Nice Guy: One thing he definitely had going for him, evidenced when he tried to help Verna through her depression. In this particular season however, nice guys finished last more often than not.
Older Than They Look: Would you ever have guessed that Danny was 39 at the time of filming?
One-Hit Wonder: He did horribly on the first and third tasks, getting fired after bombing as project manager on the latter, but on the second task he was the one who had the idea to throw a pool party, which played a huge part in the team's victory.invoked
Significant Wardrobe Shift: After Trump called him out for his decidedly non-corporate attire in the first task, he switched to wearing much smarter clothing for the remainder of his brief time on the show.
Verna
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: During the second task she suddenly had a breakdown and tried to walk off the show, leaving the team's motel and wandering aimlessly around the nearby streets. Carolyn had to chase her down in her car and persuade her to come back. Verna stayed on for the rest of the task, but decided to quit anyway at the start of the following episode.
Brian
The Friend Nobody Likes: A variation; during the second task Kristen was actually more actively disliked by the rest of the team on account of her being a massive bitch, but Brian's work as project manager got a 0% Approval Rating from the rest of the team. His decision to waste most of the budget on toilets identified Brian as one of the dopiest candidates to appear on the show.
Skewed Priorities: The team's initial inspection of their motel revealed that the main things it needed were new beds, carpets and paint jobs. So Brian naturally decided to blow the whole budget on buying new toilets instead.
Suicide by Cop: When the initial boardroom session began, he told Trump straight away that yes, he was entirely responsible for the loss and should be fired. An attempt to regain some traction after this of course led to nothing, and he became the second candidate to be fired at the end of the initial review, bypassing the final boardroom scene.
Todd
Bystander Syndrome: While he seemed to be doing a good job of leading the first task, once the sales day at Burger King began in earnest he mostly just slipped into the background and let the team run itself. This got him fired even though the entire team (barring only Kendra) had tried to blame Danny for the loss.
The Generic Guy: Between the episode mostly focusing on Danny's antics, and Todd falling into the background once the task actually began in earnest, we never really saw much of him.
We Hardly Knew Ye: After backing off leadership and attempting to take a hands-off approach on the first task, he more or less guaranteed that he wouldn't last long at all on The Apprentice.
"vegetable porn" advert in Week 4.