Luke Owen gives his thoughts on last night’s episode of The Apprentice…
I am always one to admit when I am wrong. Last week I predicted that Kurt would make it to the final four. One week later, and he’s gone. Natalie’s gone too, but it’s Kurt I’m more upset about.
Last night’s edition of The Apprentice brought out some unhappy campers as Lord Sugar Daddy set the two teams on a task which required them to sell high price caravans at a trade show. Hilariously, my Mum got really excited about this task as she and my Dad were planning on going to this same event last year. She was less than enthused when Kurt and Alex professed their target demographic to be “old”.
Neil moved over to Evolve and was quickly made project manager because he’s really good at what he does. While on the other team, Scouser Kurt was put in charge because he’d been on a caravan holiday once. When he was 8.
This left me in a personal dilemma – my two favourite people were going head to head. One shall stand, one shall fall.
The teams were also given a selection of smaller products to pick from including camping chairs, a box of stuff for kids (priced at £99!) and motorised bikes (not motor bikes). Sadly for Endeavour, Leah and her boring manners sent the sellers over to the other team meaning they didn’t get the items they wanted. Her presentation is so stern and she’s got such a miserable look on her face like it’s constantly melting.
Speaking of unhappy faces, Kurt was going to see the caravans with Alex’s Eyebrows. In a display of excellent team work, the two made their decision to sell retro style caravans which were sold in small quantity and to a younger demographic. Yeah, they may work well together but they couldn’t see the woods for the trees.
For something completely different, Neil and Tory MP Jason were not getting along like a house on fire. I really feel for Jason as he’s always coming across like the last kid picked for the football game. Neil at one point said to the camera, “we don’t work well together” – aren’t you the project manager? If you don’t work well, why did you bring him?
It’s okay kids, Jason would get the last laugh.
At the trade show itself, sales for the caravan that doesn’t sell well were predictably poor. Kurt had upset Alex and his Eyebrows earlier in the day by placing him selling the smaller items because of his age (he’s only 22!) and look. From a certain viewpoint, I can see where Kurt is coming from. It wasn’t until the end of the day that Kurt made the call for Leah’s Melting Face to come over as a bit of “eye candy” (his words, not mine) which must have been a massive punch to the confidence to ‘plain old’ Natalie.
Speaking on being punched by an unknown force, Neil’s over-confidence took a massive blow when Jason – the man who he said was useless – was doing better at him than selling. Really well in fact. He may seem like a bumbling idiot who has signed up for the wrong show, but he was on fire when connecting with people. It was like a completely different Jason to the one we’ve seen peeling carrots. There was also a point where he looked at the camera, pumped his fist and said “score”. You may as well cancel the show now as you will never top that moment.
Before they’d got into the boardroom, we knew that Kurt’s team were losing. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that selling three caravans over one is going to draw in more money.
So it was Kurt that fell in a landslide victory that saw them make just over a grand, while the other team made over 30k. It was looking like Kurt’s number was up as they headed over to the Sad Face Café.
Back in the board room, Alex got shouted down for being overconfident in his abilities, Myles was called out on claiming to be a “Jedi Knight of sales”, Kurt was blamed for the failure of the task and Natalie tried to connect her work in recruitment with her ability to sell caravans. The only person to make it out unscathed, sadly, was Leah. Next week…. Next week…
Scouser Kurt brought back in Alex’s Eyebrows for picking the retro caravan and Natalie for not selling in what could only be a tactical move. This was brought up and I do think it was one of the contributing factors to Kurt being on the end of the Fingerpoint of Doom. I think the utter failure of the task didn’t help matters either.
But, in a not so shocking twist, Crying Natalie was also given the Fingerpoint and was sent to the taxi ride of shame. Surprisingly, they didn’t share a taxi.
I hate to admit it because I wanted to see him do well, but Scouser Kurt was right to be fired. It looked like he didn’t want to be there anymore and his tactics for selling (which appeared to be mumbling to the customer) didn’t help his cause. Such a shame. Natalie also needed to go. She couldn’t handle high pressured situations, as made evident by the fact she cried all the time, and she has offered nothing throughout this process.
Next week sees the teams delve into the online world of Internet dating – and it’s looking to be a corker!
Originally published June 13, 2013. Updated November 7, 2019.
