£1.50 - was that the price of the magazine or the computers?

She couldn't possibly have answered Sugar's question without being derogatory about James. James had been aware of what criticisms to make against her because they were the same ones Sugar had just made.

If people liked James' game, well, all I can say is I just don't get it; to me it looked dire. Zara's game wasn't very inspired, but you can't expect much in the short time they have from people who've never done designed games before.

I [and my family] weren't really fans of Zara [whose game and viral were very 'safe'], and we weren't fans of Mr in-your-face James from week 1 either [but we preferred him in the end - he also looked far healthier I noticed?].

Both did tone their extreme traits down over the series though more than anyone else [Harry M calmed down halfway through, then reverted to being a sulky brat again in his last two weeks] I felt.

James' viral was more memorable, and his game more open to expansion than Zara's [so if this had been a normal task I'd say he'd have had it in the bag].

In the boardroom however, James shot himself in the foot by bringing up education and having no business idea [even Helen's from the Adult series, as dire as it was, was still a tangible business idea], sadly.

Zara had a credible business plan going forward [like her or lump her], so I guess coming down from the shock of watching it [finally] last night, I'm not too surprised at LS' decision now.

In Zara's [small] defence though, I thought the long debate on how articulate and 'flowery' her use of language is was completely irrelevant to the matter at hand. Abit of snobbery from LS there I felt. :sleep:

Lastly, the ads and pitches in this series [in general]? - take heed Adult Apprentice wannabes!

I don't think he wanted to choose Zara at all. It was obvious last week where it was engineered for Harry H's team to win but for mysterious reasons Morrisons went with La Popcorn. Then this week he lumps her with all the useless contestants except Lewis. Unfortunately for him he picked the wrong person to compete with her: Haya would have had a decent plan whereas there's no way he would turn the prize into a university scholarship. He really had to scrape the barrel to find criticisms of her. If the worse you can say about a woman is that she's articulate, there clearly isn't much wrong with her.

She was a worthy winner but I don't know how much help she is going to get from LS.

I agree - Zara was astonishingly articulate and driven and James was also very gifted in his own way. I can see him emerging as the next Alan Sugar in years to come.

I thought that the youngsters did better in the tasks and handled interpersonal relationships better than the regular Apprentice candidates

Haya had the best performance on paper after James and his 2 PM wins - but over the series featured more errors than great moments -not sure if she would have come up with with a better idea or led as well. I didn't detect any signs of great interest in her. I don't think Harry H features that highly on Lord Sugar's list as he doesn't tick any of the Apprentice winning boxes - he has no more great moments than Harry M , Zara, Lizzie or James and he doesn't have the PM win or the boardroom time for LAS to get to appreciate him. He fits the mould of the very competent people who are well liked and only win in the year that the job requires someone with a particular look. Because he's never been in the boardroom, we never find out if he's got an entrepreneurial card to play, as he doesn't have to argue his case - its possible Lord Sugar has read one in his CV but we don't know it.

Lord Sugar seemed to like Harry M and James because they were the ones who brought off some of the game changing deals in some tasks. He's got past form for supporting that - from Syed and Tre onwards. Harry M had the weakest show record though and probably needed a PM win. Lord Sugar, I would imagine, now looks for more concrete evidence of real ability after his mistake with Stuart and Liz. Harry M lost his chance when he let Harry H lead and when he couldn't quite find a convincing alternative to a product he sensed was wrong. On the other hand, James managed to go with a product that had wider appeal and Zara picked up points both producing it and selling it.

By the time he gets to tthe final, James still has no entrepreneurial idea to justify his win, Zara has a business and her ability to produce films and photography has been thoroughly tested. The final also tests her ability to run the weaker team to a win. Its a win for Zara all around. The interesting questions remain unanswered as, en route, he managed, I think, to miss Lizzie's smarts and business sense, and we never find out what Harry H or Lizzie, or Harry M, would have offered to use the money on.

Thought the same. Zara was better in the boardroom than many of the better adult female candidates - she got the balance between defence, tact and attack better , spotted arguments quickly and managed not to raise his suspicions because she could see what he was thinking.She presented better than most of the adult candidates, managed to produce edible product and her biggest mistake, Croydon, was similar and smaller than a winner's, (Yasmina), similar mistake (truffles) on the same task. Interesting that both Kate and Liz supported her.

That carries through to them as a group as a whole - there were no mega howlers, the adverts were arguably better, the ideas were no worse and often better, most of the presenting was as good as most adults managed or better, the planning was better than many adult PMs organised, the bargaining in many cases as good. One of the adults even twittered some would have been strong competition.