Do we think Lord Sugar would have fired Helen considering he supposedly wouldn't have known about her business plan before hand?

Good question. I'd have said had they lost then Tom should have been the one to go, but I think he'd have fired Helen over Tom.

Helen was PM so he would have had more reason to fire her, unless Tom screwed something important up.

Tom would have been fired... and considering how bad Jim/Helen/Susan's business plans were then Natasha would have probably won

Interesting point. Usually both teams have at least one total loser who can be fired without remorse, but on that occasion if Helen and Tom had lost we've have lost one of the two strongest. I wonder whether Lord Sugar was OK with that or whether he was pretty confident they wouldn't lose. I suspect the latter, because although the other team had more candidates, they were vastly weaker.

Based on past record, Tom would have gone. It would have been his fourth consecutive visit to the boardroom. Based on the task, it's hard to say, because we didn't really see either of them making relevant mistakes. Presumably the edit would have been different.

There is no way Shuggy would have allowed the candidates to do tasks for weeks without already knowing all about their business plans. NO WAY.

So, assuming he did know, I think it is not unreasonable to assume his eyes lit up as soon as he learned about Tom's nail file. I suspect this is what he wanted the whole time and the entire programme was just a bit of light entertainment. Tom was never, ever going to get fired. He was the winner before filming even began. Supporting this theory is the fact that he lost so many times and yet was kept in. If Shuggy didn't already know about the nail file then it is an amazing coincidence that the one guy with previous contacts in Walmart managed not to get fired despite his weak performance in the tasks.

I do not believe in amazing coincidences, especially not on "reality TV" which is far from real. But I'm not complaining, I still enjoyed the show and will watch next year. It's fun.

I think he may not have known the business plans in detail, but he would have known about the nail file. It, of course, wasnt the business plan.
But I too enjoy the show, the outcome isn't that important to me, I'm along for the ride. It makes me laugh.

Apparently they were allowed to take as many business plans as they liked into the house, and didn't have to decide which they'd use until 48 hours before the final. Helen had 2, Tom had lots. Lord Sugar wouldn't have known which they'd pick.


He could only be fired when he was in the boardroom, which he usually wasn't even when he lost. Lord Sugar actually only had 3 chances to fire him, and each time a worse candidate went instead (Loen, Zoe, Melody).