On ‘The Apprentice’ season finale we learned what Trump’s surprise was supposed to be, we learned that Randal can be shrewd when he wants to, but most importantly we learned that the plural of apprentice is apprenti. Who knew?

We saw a side of Randal Thursday night that I didn’t know he had. The country had essentially picked off Donald’s nasty little secret and was eagerly anticipating the crowning of two champions. What do you do when you have overly qualified applicants? The same thing you do when some French judge steals the gold from a couple of Canadian skaters. You change the rules, right? Not so fast.

Randal said the same thing as the Russians. With the audience eager for dual ownership of the title and the Donald giddy over his big surprise, Randal said, “Mr. Trump, I firmly believe that this is ‘The Apprentice,’ that there is one and only one apprentice, and if you’re going to hire someone tonight, it should be one. It’s not ‘The Apprenti,’ it’s ‘The Apprentice.’”

It doesn’t sour what was a great season though. The candidates this year were head and shoulders above the final two last year. The phrase, “Top 20 in Mary Kay sales” was not a bullet point on their resumes.

Randal has five degrees, five companies, a gold medal, the purple heart, a moon landing and preferred customer status at Home Depot. Rebecca was voted a top 20 most influential teen by Teen People magazine and everybody knows that Teen People sets the standard for candidate qualifications. Isn’t that the equivalent of finishing first runner up for Seventeen Magazine’s Miss Seventeen title? Considering Britney Spears won that same award, I’m not sure how much credence that distinction deserves. All jokes aside, Rebecca does have the record that makes you say, “My God, what have I done with my life?” The words Colin Powell and Al Gore have a bit more punch than a publication that once had Joey Lawrence on the cover.

Despite their credentials, things got off to a tenuous start last week as both sides showed their colors. Rebecca’s selection of Toral ranks somewhere between Kwame taking Omarosa and the Rockets taking Sam Bowie. Randal showed some chinks in the armor last week as he came off too bottom line. I’m not sure what was up with the Autism lady, but she wasn’t feeling Randal. Overall, I think she needed to lighten up and take a nap. She looked exhausted.

Immediately, the pre-arranged problems appear. Every year, they get worse and worse. This year there was a rapid boar loose in the comedy club. Apparently, it happens. Actually, Joe Piscopo had to cancel as MC due to union constraints. Rebecca was able to remain poised and hire some local comedians.

At Camp Randal, they failed to place any credence on the thirty percent chance of rain and decided to forego the construction of a plan B. When the guys from Queer Eye are your Plan A, I wouldn’t need a thirty percent chance of rain for a Plan B.

Rebecca’s event turns into a Yahoo! commercial complete with Yahoo-tini’s (Ugh.) which were yahoo-rific and blinking purple ice cubes that only electrocuted four people. They lost sight of the fact that that event was to raise money for the Elizabeth Glasier Pediatric AIDS foundation.

The local comedian overcame his huge noggin to put up a decent performance. He pummeled George unmercifully who took it well. I was hoping he would pull a Zell Miller or wet himself. No such luck.

Besides the Queer Eye guys, Randal lined up Jerry O’Connell and Sugar Ray Leonard. Apparently, Tony Danza was not available. He took his star-studded line up indoors for a live auction when the rain came to fruition. It went over well.

There were some entertaining moments from the live finale. We had a Dikembe Mutombo moment when Rebecca was described as a “diamond in a haystack”. Yup, for Rebecca, it was just a walk in the cake.

There was a vibe right away that both were going to be hired. The Donald was not subtle in his phrasing of questions. He often alluded that both were more than qualified.

Randal had other ideas. He wanted the limelight to himself and expressed his desire to be the “sole” apprentice. After Randal was announced as the winner, the Donald asked him to return to his seat and his latest hire made a bold move in the face of popular public opinion.

It’s obvious that Randal will not be a “yes” man in his new endeavor but I will say that I would liked to have seen Rebecca have her day. She was clearly second best but it wasn’t a distant second. In twenty years, I think we’ll know more about Rebecca’s achievements than Randal’s. I’m not sure what Randal’s decision will do to his popularity or his tenure as the Apprentice but it did make for awkward television. It took some guts to stand up to the man himself. I don’t think I could have done the same.

Good luck Randal, you’re off to an auspicious start. Only time will tell if your first mission critical decision as ‘The Apprentice’ was a good one.