Having watched the series again I reckon Zoe is manipulative and is being very strategic in her game playing.

a. Anyone noticed that as PM she always does the menial tasks. E.g. sit in the treatment room and not selling in the Beauty task. And also doing the grafting in the rubbish task when she should have been doing the more important job such as securing the business.

b. She picks on the weaker members to make them feel uncomfortable. E.g. in the Beauty task she attacked Susan unnecessarily to establish a scapegoat and then again the boardroom before they even knew that they won. She was also rude to Glenn when she laughed and hung up on him. And she was downright rude to Susan in her mannerism and tone.

c. Her boardroom strategy to bring in people that she feels can't stand up as well for themselves. She took in Edna and Susan who both did more than Leon and Glenn collectively. Edna arranged the appointments and Susan did some excellent negotiating for the copper that got them the vast majority of their income. And Zoe had the cheek to say that Edna and Susan didn't contribute, they both did more than Zoe!

I think Zoe is rude, immature and a downright horrible person. For those who think Susan is immature, I think the last episode demonstrated exactly how mature she is. She always spoke to Zoe in a professional manner even when Zoe was attacking her. Susan dealt with the copper deal very professionally.

Finally I laughed so much when Zoe was complaining to Susan that she was annoying in the taxi ride back when Zoe herself was behaving like an immature annoying brat doing impressions, while Susan was just asking for professionalism.

The Mrs. and I really cannot stand Zoe.

Zoe was doing loads of tan treatments on her team, she weren't just sitting there?
The other team however, had three of them sat up there doing nothing all morning.

She confronted Zoe, she didn't attack her, because Susan was insisting they should buy loads of the product because she could easily shift them. Turns out she couldn't shift half of what they bought, so it's a good job Zoe didn't listen to her and buy more.
How many did they have left again? Wasn't it like 30 bottles?

I'm not even sure if it's a tactic with Zoe, maybe it's just her personality or what the business side of things brings out of her. I mean even that Jenny Celerier seemed quite pleasant AWAY from the tasks and didn't realize what sort of monster she turned into.

Zoe seems to look at everything on a personal level, basing all her decisions on whether she likes someone or not. Like asking Susan if she's trying to sabotage the task, it's like wtf!!!!

I saw on one forum someone refer to her as Zogre. I like that.

All I saw was Zoe massaging 1 person's foot for the whole day and complain at Susan for not selling. Helen did tan treatments.

Her confronting Susan in the middle of the day had no benefit to the team whatsoever.

And they bought 30 bottles of tan to sell between 4 people in 8 hours in a day, which does not seem impossible to me.

At the end of the day I remember Leon saying that they had £80 worth of stock left over, including all that nail varnish they bought. So it can't have been that many bottles left over.

Its a competion! Of course she's going to want to bring in the weakest possible contenders to the boardroom - she wants to survive to the next round.
Its actually a dangerous strategy though, as Lordalun will frequently demand "Whats xxxx doing here?" and has often expressed his distaste for PMs bringing in team members simply as they are percieved as vulnerable.

Zoe can sly strategy me anytime she wishes.

At least she has something about her.

That's because she's rubbish and she would just be exposing herself as a weak candidate if she did anything important.


I think that's just the sort of horrible person she is.


I think she brought them in because she knows they're both better than her (especially Susan) and she feels threatened by them. If Lord Sugar fired one of them instead of her, she'd have less competition. I think that's how she sees it anyway. It's nothing to do with their perforance. She'd be a useless judge on that anyway.


You're absolutely right, and that's an excellent comparison of immature stupid Zoe and mature clever Susan.

To fair to Glenn he WAS the one that motivated the team for day 2 when Zoe started tearing up; so would have been unfair - on what we saw to bring him back - Leon we cannot judge, on the show did nothing but what was cut out. However agree with the basic premise that it was a personality choice with Zoe rather than task.

Am I missing something here, because OP's abc of points actually illustrate someone operating a good strategy to win a competition... isnt that what we're watching?

There's been enough series of the apprentice to know that the only way to stay in is to pick weaker candidates than you in the boardroom, look at ways to show others are weaker (eg strategically hide yourself away if applicable) let them shoot themselves in the foot.... etc etc

Zoe may not be likeable to everyone but she is doing a damn fine job getting further than she might do. Thats what its all about, isn't it???

If I want a popularity contest I'll watch the x factor or strictly come dancing good on you Zoe, this is what the apprentice is all about... Ellie's comments when she was fired were very gracious - she was not "that type" but, sorry OP, thats precisely "the type" that goes far in this programme

You're right in that Zoe is great for TV. But what I'm highlighting is that she is playing games not bringing the right people into the boardroom and behaving in an unprofessional manner, not suited for a 'business' program. I feel that her mannerisms and strategy have caused her to shoot herself in the foot because ultimately LAS hates people who strategise.

Her behaviour towards team members and that depressing attitude makes her unemployable in my eyes.

Yep, I think we are pretty much agreeing here
Point being, in my eyes anyway, LAS already has his business partner in mind - (i don't believe in a million years its Zoe) Zoe is doing a great job in providing entertainment for the "entertainment" element of the show that wins ratings and earns a further commissioning from the beeb... all equally of value (if not greater!) on his scale to "appointing" the right business partner

If LAS went into business with Zoe he would lose his £200k faster than if i put it all on Vitali Klitschko to win in the Wlad Klitschko vs David Haye fight.


Don't rate Zoe at all, firing Edna instead of her was plain bizarre.

So what if she's manipulative, this is a contest and you have to live on your wits. Zoe's performed better than any of the other lot and steps up to be Pm when others shy away.

Zoe to win!

But wasn't that because, with her personality, she's not great at sales? Susan had sold well on the first task and was claiming to be brilliant at it, so it made sense to giver her her head, and as it turned out Edna sold even better than Susan. Once Leon got into it, his finger trick was brilliant. It seemed to me she made the best choice for the team. There's no need to look for more selfish motives.


She did both jobs. And as I recall, their problem was too much work rather than not enough appointments. That's why they had to reassign Edna to manual labour. Zoe did do the two pitches herself, which were important.

I'm not seeing either of those points.


She didn't pick on Susan because she was weak. She tried to give her a pep talk during the task because she wasn't performing. Even Edna sold better. In the boardroom, she had to give an honest account of the task and that was her opinion.


I'd hardly call that her picking on him. If anything, he picked on her when he phoned her up to demand respect. He was no weak push-over. Especially as he was PM that task. (Admittedly his ideas were laughable.)


Yes, I agree she lacks the social graces, but that's not the same as her picking on anyone. It only seems like that because Susan makes more mistakes than most people.


She brings in the weakest people, and the ones she feels most able to do the next task without. Which is the only sane strategy.

I don't agree that Susan and Edna can't stand up for themselves. Part of the reason that she has blarnies with Susan is that Susan never sits still for criticism. She always argues back, even when her position is indefensible. She also initiates conflict, like saying, "If it had been me I'd have done that contract for nothing", or in the taxi on the way home. Susan is tougher than you give her credit for, even though she does like to play the victim sometimes.

I'm not so sure about Edna, but frankly she scares me so I wouldn't have her down as an easy victim either.

Ha, good luck with that! Sugar will see through her soon. The kind of people who win this show are more amiable than her - to be fair, that's not difficult.

Lee won and he could be quite aggressive. I liked him, but when he had a go at Sara it looked worse than anything Zoe has done.

If she genuinely believes that that qualified as a 'pep talk', then she doesn't just lack social graces; she lacks any sort of social awareness whatsoever, and she should be fired on that basis.

But I'm guessing she was perfectly aware of what she was doing (ie. setting Susan up for a potential boardroom attack).

No-one claimed that Zoe wasn't doing anything. The OP's contention seems to be that she did the same thing Alex was castigated for ie doing the jobs that weren't likely to be screwed up on.


There's no dispute that Susan made a mistake (though it was a mistake based on some reasonable premises; Susan had calculated how many units each would need to sell an hour, and it did sound perfectly attainable). But confronting Susan about it achieved nothing, as the decision was made and couldn't be changed.

Jenny Celerier NEVER seemed pleasant!

That sound like a supremely dangerous tactic. Bringing in candidates stronger than you seems a very good way to get fired.

Jenny was really the main villain of that piece. Lee was stupid to join in the ganging up against Sara, because he'd been on the other team and didn't have a clue what she had or hadn't done.

She is not a weak candidate.

She is not the best candidate this year but she still has got some talent and ability.


She was right to call Susan out for what was a total cock up on the ordering of the product. It was a shocking mistake from someone who is supposed to be an expert in the beauty field.



Why on earth would she take two people back to the boardroom who she thought were better than her ?



Zoe is neither immature or stupid. Indeed the scene where she shed a tear showed her vulnerability. Have people ever considered that Zoe has to be like she is to get on in what is still a mans world. Being a Project Manager is largely a male environment and for her to succeed in it is all credit to her.

I do agree that Susan is clever, sometimes too clever for her own good. But she is very immature at times.

Of the two Susan is a better candidate simply down to what Lord Sugar is looking for this time. An entrepreneur. She has already proved that by starting her own business. Zoe is a nuts and bolts person, someone who is given a role and gets on with it. I have not seen anything from her to say she could start a business.

I agree with this completely. Of course Susan is a tough one. She has to be.

However you are right. Susan never accepts criticism, even when her position is indefensible. She will have a tough time working alongside Lord Sugar with that attitude. She does not have the same level of wisdom after the event that Natasha has but she the uncanny ability to be wise once something has gone wrong, unless it is her fault.

Oh yeah like Stuart "the Brand" who got to the last few last series, when it was clear early on what he was all about. How did Sugar describe him again, oh yeah like a "younger version of himself". Draw your own conclusions from that and what they says about Sugar starting out in business selling radios from a back of a van.

And as Lord Sugar endorsed the Labour Party and Gormless Brown to run the economy, he's not as good a judge of character as you think.

She criticised Susan for not selling on the beauty treatments task (in full view and hearing of team mates and potential customers) - but at the end of the day - only £80 worth of product was unsold - and that included lots of the nail polishes which Zoe chose! Its not as though their other product went like hot cakes and the tanning lotion didn't sell at all! I would love to know how many of the tanning creams were left at the end of the day.....

Susan may have overestimated the numbers they could sell - but whenever she was shown in action she was working hard on pushing the product.

And why should she simply stand there and take criticism from someone less able than herself?? It it wasn't for Susan - the other team would have got the tanning spray and would have won instead of Venture. Susan did more to win the task for them than Zoe the PM did. And don't forget that at the beginning of that task - Zoe couldn't wait to take every word Susan uttered as gospel....