Can anyone give me info on how to correct a bad woodstaining job?

I hope someone can answer this quickly…

A friend came over to help stain a table that had been stripped and sanded down to the bare wood. I cleaned it and got it prepped. He insisted on doing it himself because “he had done this sort of thing before.” I said, “Fine” as it isn’t rocket science, right?

Before leaving him to do his thing, I said, “Don’t forget to follow the grain of the wood, okay? In a straight line across.” He said okay.

I left for about two minutes and came back. He was going totally against the grain of the wood! I cleared my throat, “Hmm…uh…don’t forget about the grain of the wood.”
“Oh, yeah,” he muttered and started to change course and go in the right direction. Which would have been okay, but now it looked like a right mess. Then, I noticed that instead of adding the stain in a straight line, he was making swoops and arches big ones. I was horrified.

“It’s not straight, ” I said. “Uh…look…you can see where you ended the strokes and it’s not in a straight line.”

“Oh, it will all even out when we put on the second coat,” he assured me.

I just checked. You can see the swoops and the crooked lines and it looks like a very bad paint job. The worst thing is that you can see where the sponge was lifted and where it was put down all over the place.

Will the second coat make it better? I am throwing this to someone who really knows what is going on. I am hoping to dissuade him from putting on the second coat. Is there something I can do to correct this?

HEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP.

(Yes, I promise, I learned my lesson. I will ask an expert or do it myself next time.)