15 candidates sitting in the boardroom,
15 candidates sitting in the boardroom,
And only one of the candidates was actually told ‘you’re
fired’
But there’ll be 13 candidates sitting in the boardroom…..
Week 4 and the candidates are put to work at department
store Liberty of London, where they are tasked with providing a personal
shopper service and designing and advertising their own product range.
5.45am, and Trishna answers the phone – they’re told to be
at Drapers Hall in London. Dillon is seen doing Special K’s hair in an odd show
of male bonding. Sofiane struggles to remember if he’s PMed previously (answer:
no).
Drapers Hall turns out to be a guild of wool and cloth
merchants. LAS tells them that they need to provide excellent customer service,
and that the team with the most sales will win. Grainne puts herself forward
for PM as she’s worked in department stores previously, and nominates Frances
as sub-team leader as she also has store experience. This is the point where
Smug Git announces that she’s leaving the process as she’s found it ‘too
stressful’ *not such a smug git now are you?*. Sofiane makes himself PM, Samuel
and Dillon put themselves up for sub-team leader but Dillon is told he’s ‘not a
strong enough leader’ and Samuel gets it.
In the car, Teen Titan worries about Sofiane as PM trying to
be a one-man band *no chance of that I think*.
9am and at the store, McEye tries to make out he’s an expert
in leather goods, The Incredible Sulk seems to disagree.
Dillon makes a good point about the feline scarves being
unisex *see, lessons have been learned from week 2 where they didn’t know what ‘unisex’
actually meant. Who said this problem wasn't educational?*, and then tops it off by calling them an ‘interesting twist on
the pussy bow’. Sofiane’s sub-team *well Dillon mainly* convince him to go for
scarves, whilst Grainne ignores all but McEye and goes with handbags over
scarves.
Both teams have a sub-team creating the window display. They
get a quick training session on window dressing *not the political kind please,
although both teams have a male who gets into that area later*, where they are
told that having someone in the window itself can get up to 50% more sales
*keep this last sentence in mind as it becomes the theme of the ep*. Dillon
goes the whole hog with this and comes up with Jess leaning out of a furry paw
print frame, draping the scarves about. Samuel wonders what on earth ‘Cool for
Cats’ is (their potential tagline), and Dillon tells him it’s an old 80s song
and the girls try to hum along to the tune. Grainne meanwhile feels McEye is
trying to take over with the window display *you think?* due to his suggestion
of having Rebecca in there with the bags, which she vehemently disagrees with
*I’m not sure if she’s objecting to Rebecca being a ‘bag lady’, in which case
props to her, or if she thinks it’s suggesting something more sinister. The
edit seems to suggest the second*.
Frances, Special K and Rebecca are in the shoe section, with
Frances trying to get information from their personal shopping client, she asks
some good questions and then ruins the brownie points she’d just built up with
me by smugly going ‘smashed it!’ after finishing the call *I might have to
recycle the Smug Git nickname I had for Aleksandra and start using it for
Frances*. GBBD doesn’t do as well, she kept going ‘erm….’ *channelling Dara O’Briain
right there*, failed to ask questions like what sizes the client is and what
sort of style or colours they like, and she also tried to push other items on
their client, big no no.
Window display reveal – Sofiane loves what his team have
come up with *best thing he’s ever seen apparently, he’s clearly been very
sheltered*, whilst on Nebula McEye tries to explain to Rebecca what’s going on
and what the display represents (random fabrics and architecture representing a
New York skyline and the island of Menorca, allegedly) and also her part in it,
but Claude doesn’t get it *neither do I Claude, neither do I*.
Day 2 and Sofiane moves over to the other sub-team on the shop floor.
Frances and Special K are on personal shopping duties for Nebula, Grainne
deploying Special K as Frances’ runner (‘this is the best place for you’) *more
like ‘this is so I can throw you under the bus if we lose and say you didn’t do
anything of note*. Dillon is duly appointed as sub-team leader for Titans after
his efforts with the window display, but Teen Titan and Samuel are unsure about
where they are meant to be and PM Sofiane doesn’t offer much help, telling them
to get familiar with one section of their product *their product basically is
one section isn’t it?*. Dillon is not happy that he hasn’t been given any
details on the client, but he manages to glean some of the information that
GBBD should have provided by some clever questioning of the client *well played
sir, well played*.
McEye is still trying to get Rebecca to be in the window, but
Grainne is still against the idea *this essentially sets the tone for the rest
of the ep, this particular argument*.
Special K is seen asking good questions of the personal
shopper, Claude agrees he is doing ‘quite well’; the client says their choices
are magnificent *redemption arc for Karthik underway?*
Dillon does well with his client, but GBBD and Trishna try
(and fail) to sell the scarves to the female there. Jess gets a lot of sales,
whilst PM Sofiane is struggling, Sofiane isn’t happy with Jess selling and puts
her back in the window *petty, absolutely petty and he continues his sexist
streak from last week*. Incredible Sulk and Grainne get some sales *even though
Paul clearly doesn’t know much about the handbag that he sells*, and Incredible
Sulk then recommends a client to Frances for personal shopping *good teamwork
there*. McEye however, is not selling *karma is a bitch isn’t it McEye?*.
Trishna and GBBD are not happy that Sofiane and Dillon
wanted to send Jess over for their next client *well clearly Sofiane wants Jess
to stop selling downstairs, whereas Alana and Trishna are kind of spare parts,
as is JD (more on him below); but Dillon did have a good reason for wanting
Jess to come over as his next client was female and Jess has a fashion line
herself*. Special K gives us a nice metaphor about fish climbing trees *I say
it’s nice but I have no idea what he’s actually on about*, however their next
clients (teenage girls) don’t seem to like anything they’ve picked. Dillon’s
next client doesn’t seem to like their selections either and GBBD is pointed
out by Karren to be butting in to try and push for sales. McEye eventually gets
a sale, but he’s still trying to get Rebecca in the window and argues with
Grainne, whilst Incredible Sulk and Rebecca try to defuse it *different role
for Paul compared to last week*. Samuel and Grainne get some sales, and
Dillon’s client is happy in the end.
Both teams are confident they’ve won *well at least one of
you will be wrong….*
In the BR: LAS jokes about Smug Git’s departure by saying
he’s ‘saved himself a cab fare’. Titans – Sofiane admits scarves probably
weren’t the best idea *really? I thought they were the best option of the two*,
Dillon explains the window display well, and Jess gets praised by Karren for
still selling whilst being in the window, and she was the top seller to boot
*take that Sofiane*. GBBD is criticised for not getting the details from the
client, who it turns out Dillon sold £1k of items to but had a budget of £5k
*Dillon gets the blame for this, unfairly imo as Alana should have asked about
it initially. I think there may well be something in the task rules that those
questions couldn’t be asked when the client was actually there with them*, and JD
gets called out for not doing anything but Karren does admit he makes a mean
cup of tea *story of his life probably Karren*. Nebula – McEye tells us that he
worked in Italy for 2 years in leather goods and accessories, and Incredible
Sulk is asked to explain why he wanted scarves. McEye tries to defend the
window display but Claude counters by saying the message didn’t come across at
all, to which McEye admits that perhaps it was a little too abstract. It turns
out that the store Grainne had experience in was Liberty itself, so she’s
criticised for going with handbags when she would have known that Liberty’s
signature line was in scarves. Frances is praised on the personal shopping side
for getting her client to spend twice their budget *which she brags about*, and
Special K informs us *for the first time of many* that he almost sold that
client a £1k bag.
Titans – personal shopper £1264.38, department £3995 =
£5259.38
Nebula – personal shopper £1205, department £3172.99 =
£4377.99
Titans win again, and the treat is croquet and drinks.
Dillon reckons he’d proven his worth, but that he was under-valued initially
and could have sold more *I tend to agree, if GBBD had got the information on
day 1 then I reckon it would have been a landslide win. He did brilliantly
considering the circumstances*.
Over at the Café of Shattered Delusions: Rebecca brings up
the window (and McEye) but Grainne shuts them down, as she has done the whole
way so far. Incredible Sulk says he came up with the logical choice of product
and blames McEye for influencing Grainne out of it *this is an important
point*. Special K felt that he was better suited to shop floor, but Grainne
reckons she put the team in the correct places.
In the BR: Frances points out the rest of the team voted for
scarves, and McEye admits that his personal preference was for handbags as he
knew about them rather than scarves. Claude tells him that Incredible Sulk was
correct in his reasoning for scarves *more support for my perception of him as
a Neil Clough mark 2*. Grainne called out for not putting Rebecca in the window
*it’s the running theme of the ep isn’t it ‘put Rebecca in the window’?*, and Special
K argues well for why he should have been on the floor (McEye admits he asked
to go on personal shopper, but Grainne tries to shift blame to him so this wasn't touched upon after, which for me it should have been). Incredible
Sulk says the decision on who to bring back should be based on sales, and so we
are informed that Rebecca only sold 2 bags. Grainne chooses McEye and Special
K, McEye for the window display and Special K for not being able to place him
anywhere; she changes her mind (Rebecca and Special K) and then back to McEye
and Special K.
LAS aside: Grainne – mistake was the handbags, Special K –
leopard doesn’t change its spots, McEye – no commercial acumen and more of a
consultant but not putting anything he says into practice.
Final 3 BR: Grainne makes a good point about McEye being a
bag expert but only selling 1 bag, which she then loses for the generic female
‘I am a strong woman’ comment *I wanted her to be fired after that*. Special K
waffles *only realised when going to post that those 3 words together make up a decent breakfast* whilst trying to explain why he should stay but argues well that he
hasn’t had a chance to show leadership *'because the teams don’t listen to him’
though, wonder why?* McEye claims that he should stay because he has started 3
businesses. LAS says his decision will be based on past performance as well as
this task *Grainne is safe then*. Fire-teases Special K, but LAS feels McEye
influenced Grainne wrongly *exactly what Paul said in the café* and fires him. Grainne has potential, he ‘has eyes
on’ Special K but lets them go back.
McEye says Grainne should have gone but ultimately LAS’
decision *that’s the point of the show my dear*. JD, Paul and Jess adamant
Mukai has gone, well done guys.
My take: Kind of agree with Frances Dickens on YF that
Grainne had a lucky escape, she went with Mukai and handbags at the expense of
the rest of the team, and didn’t put someone in the window (Mukai was right
there). Again they should have listened to Paul - I still feel he’s being set
up as the Neil Clough of the show, with shades of Tom Pellereau starting to
sneak in. Jess had a good week, Dillon too. I agree with who won, but I kind of
feel that Sofiane won because of his team rather than anything he did himself,
didn’t see much leadership from him personally. Sofiane’s team did all the
right things: they had a better display, they chose the right product, and everyone
did well at selling (apart from Sofiane).
In terms of edit - Paul’s definitely final 5, Grainne’s
getting a villain edit (especially considering what she does next week, I’m
starting to get Selina vibes sadly), think Jess and Courtney might also be
final 5 (with how much praise Jess got this week and Courtney doing well but
UTR which is where you want to be really), Sofiane I’m struggling with as he
looked brilliant in week 1, but he did come across as petty tonight when he
moved Jess back to the window after she had some brilliant sales. Frances,
after a shaky start, is coming along nicely; Karthik is slowly improving too. Dillon's done pretty well overall but I can see him being another Myles Mordaunt and leaving just before top 5. Sharks are circling for JD (pointed out as not doing much for 2 weeks out of 4,
but did well if not shown much in week 2), and Rebecca (hard done by week 2,
but pointed out for lack of sales in weeks 1 and 4).
My picks for final 2: Courtney and Frances
Other final 5: Paul, Jess, and either Sofiane or Alana
(leaning more towards Sofiane)
Next week: the candidates are launching new cycling products, but they have to do this through crowdfunding - they need to film a PR stunt, shoot a campaign video, work out the rewards for the pledges and then pitch to cycling retail experts.
Tonight’s Cast:
Expert, my ass! And Firee: McEye
You Better Be Like Britney and ‘Work Bitch’: Grainne
Keep on Running: Special K
Pure Pettiness: Sofiane
Top Girl: Jess
Mr Cool Cat: Dillon
The New Smug Git: Frances
Scarf Defender: The Incredible Sulk
(Not) Window Dressing: Rebecca
Needs Telephone Training: GBBD
One line and done: Trishna, Samuel
The forgotten: Teen Titan
Smug Git Walking: Aleksandra
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