I feel almost exactly the same.

Remind me: when has Debra been two-faced? She seemed pretty upfront about Lorraine in the boardroom - many people have criticised her for being too frank. Mona accused her of being two-faced about the "puppet" comment, but that accusation wasn't justified because she did re-affirm her low opinion on Anita in from of her. She toned her language down a bit for the boardroom, but that's not being two-faced.

Watchable, like and rate as a candidate: Debra & Yasmina

Watchable, like but don't rate highly: James & Lorraine

Quiet with potential: Howard, Kate & Kimberley

Quiet and don't see any potential: Mona

Has potential and I'm (very) slowly warming to: Phillip

Bloody useless: Noorul

Foot-through-screen: Ben

Kate's defense of Paula has made me warm to her. Phillip is turning himself around after two dreadful episodes. The last two he's done well and moaned a little less. Debra and Yasmina are both characters that can be harsh and abbrasive, but I think they're both strong and have potential to do Badger/Claire Young-like turnarounds.

Kate certainly presented the menu very badly in the catering task, but in fairness she really hadn't been properly briefed. She could have done better though, even with that disadvantage.

She presented perfectly well in the fitness task, and I'm genuinely mystified that you think she didn't. You're not confusing her with Lorraine there, by any chance?

She did sell very well in the soap challenge. Yes, she was part of a strong team with a good product, but that doesn't take anything away from her.

I'm looking forward to seeing her take on the PM role too.

The fact that she went of on her own to make the phone call to Mona, was a two faced act. She did admit she said it, only after Mona called her out on it. Before that she kept very quiet about it.

If that isnt two faced I dont know what is.

Thanks for explaining. Although I think there's an element of interpretation in that. It's Mona who initiates that call. Debra is mostly walking around. We don't know why - perhaps she was trying to find a quiet spot away from the noise of the road, or perhaps she didn't want hose water on the phone.

She had a low opinion of her team mates and spoke frankly about them on the phone when asked, but that's OK. We saw her earlier correcting one of Anita's mistakes, and doing her best to help her. I don't think she was keeping her opinions secret, really. Have you never vented about an incompetent co-worker?


I'm sure there are lots of things she said and did during the task that she didn't mention in the boardroom. That doesn't mean she's ashamed of them, just that she didn't see the need to bring them up. Remember that Sir Alan was focussing initially on the over-spend, so Anita's poor car washing wasn't relevant then. The first time it's mentioned is when Mona is picking who is to return to the boardroom with her. Until that moment, it hadn't been relevant. And Mona isn't calling Debra out on it; she is using Anita's poor performance as a reason for bringing her into the final boardroom.

Mona says Debra said that Anita wasn't pulling her weight. Debra clarifies this: the problem wasn't that Anita was lazy. She starts to say what Anita's problems were, starting with being out of her comfort zone when dealing with customers face to face, but Anita interrupts her.

I noticed a couple of things here. The first is that in what we saw of the original phone call, Debra doesn't mention either woman by name, so it's not clear why Mona picked on Anita. Secondly, Mona seems to have the idea that there was a split in group created by Debra. We don't see any evidence of a split, and certainly not one created by Debra. So either some relevant footage got lost in the edit, or Mona is reading between the lines and perhaps living in a fantasy world of her own.

For me, it's not so much that Debra is being two-faced, as she is defending her sub-team in the boardroom. She was similar with Lorraine in the fitness task. Then, she wanted to be clear that although Lorraine hadn't done a very good job, it wasn't through lack of trying. I think she follows the management style of starting with praise and then making a constructive criticism, because if you start with criticism some people close up immediately and aren't even receptive to the praise. Praise shouldn't be an after-thought.

It's always interesting how different people can see the same footage and reach different conclusions.

I can't stand Phil or Debra. Kate is my favourite at the moment followed by Mona, Kim and Howard.

I like Debra, Jasmina and Kate. Don't really like any of the boys and hope its an all girl final but Sugar will probably pick the horrid specimen called ben to win. he's Sugar's type

Or maybe she wanted to be out of earshot of her team, so she could stick the knife in. I believe they were in a carpark when she made the phone call, so not much road noise at all. Why was she walking around? she should have been cleaning the cars..with oven cleaner

I see you didnt address my second sentence.....as why she only mentioned calling the team 'puppets' once Mona called her out on it. She didnt exactly go back to her team after the phone call, and say I just told Mona you are a load of puppets.

I have vented against co-workers, its usually to their face....I am not the kind of person, who would go running to have a 1 to 1 with manager to slag someone of.

I'd agree. John Terry, Nicole Appleton, Aunt Sally. Probably Howard as the fourth - though he could turn out to be a bit like the Matt Lucas lookalike from last year. Or maybe James - he crumbles under pressure in the boardroom, but he's a team player in the tasks. As long as he doesn't get pulled back into the boardroom too many times, he should last the distance.

Debra's the most competent - but also a backstabber. She'll win more tasks than she loses, and when she does lose she'll be able to hold her own in the boardroom. Very much like Claire last year and Ruth Badger - she won't win the competition, SAS doesn't like strong female leaders - but she'll get through to the last four.

Phillip is a bit negative - but he might just be reacting in disbelief at the stupidity of his teammates. He's not done anything wrong - yet.

Kate is the obvious eye candy - but she also hasn't done much wrong. However - has she done much right? She falls into the Michelle Dewberry category - when she's team leader is when we'll see whether she can issue instructions and whether her team follows her instructions, or whether she can only follow instructions given to her by other people. Her poor capabilities when selling the sandwiches also reminded me of Lindi last year, selling the laundry services. I almost expected a 24-hour sandwich hotline to be mentioned.

I Like all 3 as well.

My other finalist would be Lorraine, because she makes me laugh lol she was funny this week, perhaps unintentionally, but still I like her. Her presenting skills are atrocious though.

That's what I mean by "interpretation". There's no reason to think that, but you don't like her so you want to ascribe to her the worst possible motive.


The phone call interrupted whatever she was doing. And it did look busy and noisy to me.


I did - I said it wasn't relevant during the early part of the boardroom because Sir Alan was focussed on the over-spend. It's the second half of #31.


Of course not. But she did make it clear to them she didn't think they were cleaning well, to the point where Anita calls her "bossy".


She didn't go running to her manager. Her manager phoned her up and asked her how it was going. It was part of her role to deliver an assessment of the people working under her. You can't be scared of hurting people's feelings when you do that. Sometimes you have to be brutally honest, even if that leads to them getting fired for the good of the business.

You seem to spend exactly as much time 'interpretting' what we see and hear as anyone else.

Interestingly it usually seems to be in a way that vindicates one of Sugar's more 'interesting' decisions.

Interpretation is unavoidable. I try to be guided by what actually happens in the broadcast, and often rewatch bits on iPlayer to make sure my memory isn't playing tricks. Generally I try to give candidates - and everyone else - the benefit of any doubt; the evidence generally has to be quite compelling before I will damn them. I have my weak spots, though. Mona is one this series, Alex was last year.


I don't agree with everything he does, but like with the rest of them I make an effort to see where he's coming from.

Seems fair enough.

I honestly can't say if I would be so certain that he was wrong on the 'soap' task if I didn't dislike Ben so much.

Then again the main reason I dislike Ben so much is that (in my view) he got away with seriously letting his team down on that task.

Maybe I just would care as much if he 'unfairly' got rid of someone I really didn't like.

I really like Yasmina, Howard and James (the latter mainly for his utter buffoonery in the boardroom, but also a tiny bit for showing a few skills in the last two weeks).

Kate I think seems very good, but needs to be PM soon to show us what she can really do.

Kimberly seems very, very nice, but needs the chance to show off her skills as well. Nice isn't going to win her the job.

Noorul is just beyond useless, and I am completely baffled as to how he got picked for the final 16 in the first place.

I don't like Philip very much... SO miserable, constantly moaning about everybody else without doing much himself (apart from his exercise thing, which pretty much won that task for Debra).

Debra... I'm not sure about. She's obviously very determined and ruthless, which often comes across as bitchiness but perhaps it's just her way of being assertive. Either way I think she is competent and should do well.

Mona is really neither here nor there, is yet to shine for me. Ditto Lorraine.

Is that everyone...? Oh yes, Ben. Oh, Ben. Contrary to popular opinion, I actually don't hate Ben. He is rather hot-headed and arrogant, yes, but I actually think a lot of what he says, albeit often in an unnecessarily heated manner, is actually quite sensible, especially what he said to Paula in the boardroom this week. He may not have said it in the most polite way, but he made some very rational and reasonable arguments.

He is obviously not going to win, what with his appalling interpersonal skills, but he is certainly good entertainment, and that is, after all, what this show is about.

My faves change all the time.
At the minute I like Philip, Debra and Yasmina.

I did like Mona but with that new info about her, I'm not sure.

There is something about Kate that tells me she will screw up as PM, similar to Jenny Maguire last year. She probably works better for people rather than lead people.

Kim seems useless as does James and Lorraine.

Noorul has to go. I'm serious.