Apprentice blog: Episode Eight

"Are the French very fond of their children?"

This week, Lord Sugar wanted to get the candidates out of their dreaded comfort zones. So, he shipped them to Paris and asked them to introduce some new products into the French marketplace. They had to choose two British items to try and sell to the unsuspecting retailers of the French capital.

Tom, the only candidate yet to have been a team leader, was put in charge of Team Logic, whilst Susan, determined to prove her assertiveness to Lord Sugar, volunteered to run Team Venture. This week, however, Sugar wanted to measure individual performances and gave each candidate an order book to keep track of their sales.

Susan struggled from the start to get into the French mindset. Do they drive cars? Do they prefer their children or camping equipment? It was tough for someone so young. Eventually Susan chose to try and sell a phone-holder-of-sorts and a booster-seat-cum-backpack. Elsewhere, Tom quickly settled on some 3D postcards, but was torn between the backpack and the teapot-shaped light. Luckily, team-mate Melody was on hand to help. Her extensive market research – she asked ‘at least four people’ – proved that people don’t even drive cars in Paris (Susan, take note), so why would they need booster seats? So poor Tom was suckered into choosing the teapot light.

Melody continued like this for the rest of the episode. She refused to share any of the pitches she had arranged with the rest of the team and spent much of the episode treating Leon like a second-class citizen – or like someone from ‘up north or something,’ presumably. Leon dared to ask if he could try selling the teapot light at one pitch: “Sure, why don’t you take the sale I made,” Melody replied, her forked tongue wedged firmly in cheek. She did get results though.

Meanwhile, Tom and Natasha’s performance at the pitch that Lord Sugar had arranged for the teams was terrible. Team Venture, who, to this point, had looked like they were heading for a significant loss, fared much better with their appointment, thanks to a composed and persuasive pitch from Helen. Susan, leading from the front, went on to sell over €11,000 worth of mobile holders thanks to an impromptu visit to a phone shop. Perhaps this task would be tight after all.

It wasn’t. Helen’s excellent pitch had been to La Redoute, one of the biggest retailers in France, who bought €214,000 of backpacks. Natasha and Tom’s rubbish pitch was rewarded with no orders. As Lord Sugar said, it was an ‘annihilation.’

Things didn’t look good for Tom. He had been overpowered by Melody for most of the task, didn’t have a single sale in his order book and was on the losing team for the sixth time. For the final boardroom he brought back Melody, who he thought had been too domineering and selfish, and Leon, who he thought hadn’t done much at all. "I drew a teapot," Leon objected. Perhaps Tom wasn’t certain to go after all.

Then Sugar started brandishing Melody’s CV. Surely he wasn’t going to try and put Melody, the ‘Outstanding Asian Woman of the Year,’ in the firing line? “My job involves improving the lives of young people,” she told Sugar while I readied the champagne. I begrudgingly put it back in the fridge. Curse her endearing philanthropy. This revelation was actually irrelevant as his Lordship found her aggression endearing. Somehow. This left Tom and Leon hanging precariously. “I’ve got the potential to be greater than Dyson,” inventor Tom offered, with the humility of a typical Apprentice candidate. Lord Sugar was certainly sucked in and decided to send Leon packing.

This was the eighth week of The Apprentice and the eighth straight win for Helen. With such a winning streak, and now a sale worth €214,000 next to her name, she is surely pulling away from the other candidates who, with just a few weeks left, are running out of time to catch her.

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