The Apprentice Review: Weeks 7 and 8

As we rolled into the 7^th week of The Apprentice it dawned that there were only three chaps left in the process. With that, all eyes were on Daniel who was yet to actually lead a task. The task he landed on in the dazzling assortment of potential business venture the contestants tip their toes into was urban landscape gardening.

The candidates had to buy some greenery locally, don some suitably bright polo shirts and hit the town, doing up balconies and patios all over London with what they had brought.

The other team was headed by Tom who runs his own tree surgery firm so was a shoo-in for winner until the boardroom where Claude and Karen dished out the harsh reality of their business. Tom was enthusiastic and clearly knew his stuff but was equipped with a team that wasn’t selling particularly well.

Kayode, who usually showed his vim and entrepreneurial spirit was uncharacteristically deflated, milling about disinterested in a business that clearly needed his attention. Tom’s allocation of resources left Jasmine’s sub-team with a few hanging baskets and some yellow paint as their only resources to jazz up a penthouse garden.

Daniel’s team seemed to be doing even worse with them putting AstroTurf on a bar which causes a potential fire hazard and also something that could have been gratuitously messy with the drinks that would have likely been prepared there. There was even a moment where Khadija and Jackie were paid simply to leave the garden of a client.

Despite all that and thanks to some impressively ballsy salesmanship, Daniel’s team won out and Tom was left in the boardroom with Sabrina and Kayode. It shocked everyone when Lord Sugar decided against taking fan favourite Kayode any further by binning him off in a cruel but fair twist.

Now there were only two lads left as token members of their gender to pad out the increasingly spare team Collaborative and Typhoon. The next week saw the candidates’ jet into Glasgow for them to be told that their artistic taste would be let loose on a task. Early rivals Jasmine and Jackie took head of the two teams.

Jasmine’s team decided on selling sculptures to their clients and there was a bit of an issue with communications with Sabrina choosing to focus on schmoozing clients rather than selling merch, the task Jasmine had allocated her.

Jackie and Daniel proved to be a surprisingly effective sales duo and while neither of them new that much about art still managed to blag their way into not only the collector’s but also the artist’s good books.

With Daniel sporting a new fringe and pocket square it seemed in the bag before, predictably, the corporate client decided they were less interested by the oil paintings that had been chosen as they didn’t fit the style of their studio space that they had tried to convey to Sarah-Ann and Khadija.

However once again Daniel found himself on the winning team and it was Tom, Jasmine and Sabrina that faced the axe.

After some strong words for the trio who had each been in that same position three times, Lord Sugar took a special swing for Jasmine who he deemed ‘too corporate’ in her language and behaviour to make it as his business partner.