It’s all been a bit quiet on the Apprentice since James Hill left last week. Even Daniel Lassman was been behaving himself – for the most part – as he took the helms, leading team Tenacity to what looked like certain victory. That is, until Lord Sugar penalised poor Felipe Alviar-Baquero for thinking like a lawyer.
This week it was the ‘buy stuff’ task, in which contestants were given £1000 to purchase nine items from the previous seasons – including the Belfast sink – for the lowest price. One such article was “a full size anatomically correct human skeleton”. Instead of buying a plastic, pre-assembled frame, Alviar-Baquero opted for a paper model to save money. He cast his lawyer eyes over the specification and decided this would be suffice.
But there was no bones about it; Lord Sugar wasn’t impressed and Alviar-Baquero was ousted for “trying to be too much of a smart person”. That’s what you get for thinking outside the box.
Candidates’ negotiation skills were really put to the test this week. Lassman may have wangled 30% off a kosher chicken but Summit’s resident jewel-thief Roisin Hogan was the real diamond in the rough. Using her Irish charm, she essentially stole a diamond from a dealer, having paid £50 the precious stone, originally valued at £145. We do hope the dealer’s wife wasn’t watching, because it got a little awkward.
All credit to Lassman, who, despite weeks of accusations that he was difficult, puerile, inept, divisive and brash, actually proved himself to be quite the competent chief. He even held another teammate’s hand while crossing the road. However, we saw the same old schismatic Lassman when it came time to pining the blame for failure on someone else with all the temperament of a stocky wolverine.
Alas, Alviar-Baquero met his destiny and Lassman remains. But for how long? 
