Finally, thankfully, 14 weeks after this loooong job interview began, we arrive Thursday (Dec. 16) at the finale of season two of "The Apprentice."

Of course, we still have to slog through two-plus hours of live/taped finale padding before we hear one of the two final candidates, Kelly or Jennifer, hear Donald Trump say "You're hired."

It's only fair to spare you reading about those two-plus hours before revealing that Kelly, a software executive who went undefeated as a project manager during the course of the show and never shied away from doing grunt work, got the job. He chose to take a position at Trump's luxury Manhattan development, Trump Place, over a gig on Trump's first residential development in Las Vegas.

Now, onto those two-plus hours. I suppose if you missed, you know, every single episode until now, the twelve minutes of Trump-narrated recap, including every firing, may have been helpful. For those obsessed with the show (or those whose job it is to watch, anyway), it was just the first of many incidents of filler.

We pick up where we left off last week, with Jen tearing NBA stud Chris Webber's assistant a new one for "backing out" of the charity hoopsfest she's organizing. C-Webb has said he never agreed to do the show, but he takes an on-screen beating nonetheless. (Given the Sacramento Kings' annual playoff flameout, he's probably used to it.)

Kelly, meanwhile, is trying to wrangle his intransigent employees the night before a polo match in Greenwich, Conn. Elizabeth seems willing to work, but her fellow firees Raj and John really couldn't care less, drinking wine, dissing the gift bag-stuffing task they've been assigned and wrecking a big display for the event's sponsor, Genworth Financial, which is also sponsoring the basketball game.

And, lookit here, Genworth is a subsidiary of General Electric, just like NBC is.

As event day dawns new little crises pop up (surprise). Just as the NBA players start to arrive for Jen's event, the power goes out, killing 10 plasma screens in an XBox lounge for the players. Jen, after first seeming dismissive of the XBox guy's concerns, eventually fixes things, and the players are free to blow stuff up to their heart's content.

In polo country, meanwhile, the club manager wigs out when painters start stenciling the logo of sponsor Wisk on the end of the field, something Mr. Manager is sure will spook the horses. Kelly makes the call to move the logos to the sideline, in front of the grandstand, which seems a good enough idea from here.

The events actually go off pretty well, save for a couple of Trump-related mishaps. At the hoops game, everyone's reminding everyone to invite Trump to the post-game reception, but no one actually does it. He leaves in the Trump-Copter, with a mob of children (or perhaps extras) screaming his name as he leaves. We also see that while Chris Webber didn't make the event, he at least left a signed jersey to be auctioned.

At the polo match, Kelly has taken care of lots of little details, but as he's walking Trump and Carolyn up to their box seats, he realizes he hasn't made sure it's in order. It's not, really, but he at least tries to spruce things up. Trump, nonplussed, tells him to go about his business.

Later, as legendary crooner Tony Bennett performs for the posh crowd, Kelly thinks he's pulled it off. And Elizabeth and Raj dance.

After 75 minutes, we get to the boardroom. While Kelly and Jen stew outside, Trump talks to their six employees. Jen's team, Pamela in particular, doesn't seem overly impressed with her leadership, wondering why she delegated some things that would have been better for her to take on as a CEO. As the always blunt Pamela puts it, "I think it's congratulations on a job ... done." Not "well done," just done. Raj, meanwhile, says that while he doesn't like Kelly, he'd probably hire him over Jen if he were in Trump's position.

When Kelly and Jen enter, George and Carolyn point out a few of the mistakes each made in their final tasks. When George relays some complaints the Genworth people had about Jen seeming to wait to be told what to do, she all but calls him a liar. Kelly, meanwhile, owns up to spending too much time with his laptop and not enough with his crowd.

After they leave, Trump consults with George and Carolyn, then repeats that he hasn't made up his mind yet. So he "want[s] to hear from you," and we go live from Lincoln Center.

After an applause-o-meter vote appears to favor Kelly, Regis Philbin trots out to help The Donald make his decision, heading into the crowd to solicit a few opinions. We've been no great fans of Jen throughout the show, but we started to feel kinda sorry for her after the beatdown she took. Person after person involved with the show goes with Kelly -- including, we think, Trump's COO Matthew Calamari, who freezes up in the live setting, and first Apprentice Bill Rancic.

Jen's law-firm boss finally speaks up for her, as do a couple members of the audience and her fellow candidates Pamela and John when they're brought out. But sentiment is running about 5-to-1 for Kelly among those people Reege interviewed.

And so finally, we figure Trump's going to make his decision, right? No. First we have to hear Kelly and Jen rattle off their accomplishments once again. Jen lists just about everything she's ever done -- she was president of her sorority! -- while Kelly pretty much says, Look at my record. It was better than Jen's.

Trump worries that Jen's teammates didn't like her, and he wonders about whether Kelly's Army background has really prepared him to be a leader. "Nevertheless," he says," Jen, you're fired. Kelly, you're hired."

Trump is clearly more polished on live TV than he was in April, but the climactic moment, maybe because it's just a two-word phrase, is just as anti-climactic as it was in April. Can we at least get some confetti or balloons or something?

Maybe in season three.