For the first couple of weeks was looking the runaway winner.

However Nick stopped him in his tracks which was good to see

Stlll feel Melody is the one to beat

What is so special about her. Her whole team was hopeless tonight. Havent they learnt from the last series in Manchester that you dont expect people to go up to the third floor. Is that lesson so difficult. I bet LS is sorry he even started it. I wonder if he can fire the lot. At the moment I would. Its always the simple things they get wrong.

Melody's not been outstanding and was too quick to shut Tom down regarding the location. But she made up for it by coaxing customers to take treatments later on - Felicity said on You're Fired that she wished she'd brought Melody down instead of Tom because she was good at securing customers.

I don't think Jim messed up badly tonight. But he should have shown a little more humility in the boardroom because he wasn't brilliant either.

The taping of this year´s series was around the same time as the last series was aired on tv, so I doubt that they were watching The Apprentice on telly (in the house) at time.

I don't see why Jim is perceived as a standout candidate. He put in one good performance last week for Sue's team but he was fairly average tonight and in week 2 where he made plenty of mistakes and has been on the losing team 3 times, one off someone like Vincent. I can't see much difference between him and someone like Leon who performed well this week but has been underwhelming before.

I don't really see Melody as a standout either. She has underwhelmed for the last two weeks and although she does have potential there has been nothing particilarly impressive so far. I'm starting to become slowly more impressed with Helen each week from the girls who at least seems to talk alot of sense and make good observations.

Natasha put in the best PM performance this series tonight IMO and she is someone who has risen in my estimation after tonight but again it was nothing hugely impressive. For me it says alot when Susan is considered a strong contender by many when she has been mixed in most of her performances in the first four weeks.

In all honesty we are still waiting for a very good performance from a PM 4 weeks in and as soon as that happens there will be a standout candidate because that what has been missing so far.

There still plenty of obvious fodder left to go(Vincent is the most obvious example) before the above will be troubled IMO but all of them have to show more.

Do you mean Zoe (who had all those lovely things to say about Natasha)?

All Helen ever does is stand behind and to the right of the PM and say "yeah, me too" whenever the PM says anything.

Exactly. That is what she did when Susan was being publically told off by Zoe.
Helen is a crafty one, a bit of a bootlicker imo.

The sort of person who would have told the captain of the Titanic ...... 'I agree, that iceberg isnt that big, we'll be fine.'

Poor old Jim. Selling beauty treatments are not his thing!
I think he will go far in the competition and I am so glad he survived this one.
Leon on the other hand embraced the uncomfortable situation and seemed to go out of his way to prove he wasn't a metrosexual type by flattering the ladies.

I remember Stella got a week like that "put down to earth by Nick and Sugar. I think Jim is still a contender.

So do I, unfortunately, he is a ruthless little creep.

He's definitely still a contender but he was named as the worst seller on the losing team and had no comeback against it, plus Darth Hewer majorly pawned him in the boardroom.

'£14 will not be enough to defeat the dark side, young Skywalker'

So what did Nick say or do in the boardroom to Jim?

Jim said he felt like the cavalry helping out in the treatment room.
Lord Sugar doesn't really see his point.
Jim goes on to say he encouraged two girls to come for treatment, but Nick says it only totalled to £14 worth of sales, Jim tries to explain the reason for the low price, but Nick says it's obviously because he couldn't sell it for any more than that. Jim then keeps quiet. lol

That "scene" jarred for me tbh. I think it was edited together. It didnt sit right that Jim just sat there staring back at Nick. Jim's been shown to be a full-on talker, and on the basis of what we've seen so far he would have definitely had another word.. not necesarily continuing arguing, but even if just "fair enough" or "yes you're right" Can't quite accept he just did a "rabbit-in-the-headlights" at that precise moment.

I suspect editing at work there

dont think he was the worst seller, they were jsut saying he didnt outsell others by that much

jims still my pick

It was just when Natasha was picked to come back into the boardroom for her poor sales and she said she sold more than Jim. I was expecting some sort of debate to happen, but everyone just went quiet like it was an accepted fact, even Jim didn't say anything. Was strange.
If I was Jim I would have defended myself with some sort of comment at least, unless I did do that bad.

He's certainly a contender still but he did take a step back this week in terms of screentime.

I know its early days and it was only week 4 last night, but, Lord Sugar must surely be thinking there is no one here who I would want to start a business up with. If it is his own money he will be using, then he must be getting a little bit worried.

Ah, mad, starey-eyed, sinister Jim. God I hope he goes soon.

On the face of it he would be getting worried.
But then again for 12 weeks face time on the BBC - £250,000 is a snip

That's true. Also it is £250,000 'in value'. I very much doubt that most of this 'value' will be hard cash. A lot will probably be Sugar's name or property he already owns.

"Four Hands, better then Two"

Jim did well at negotiating in the first task. He rescued a pitch in the second task. In the third task he was good at negotiation again (eg getting the steak for £70 less than the other team). On the fourth task he may have been too late to save the day, but he at least tried. He can also handle himself in the boardroom.

something like his professional steak negotiation could be the difference between win/fail one week

you get the impression that he is a pro, not a BS peddlar.