^^ This. She shot herself in the foot. My husband was sitting here saying "just stop talking, David (my husband is also called David!) and she'll do it all for you"! She did not know when it was wisest to just shut up!

She wasn't even incompetent. She's sold well, negotiated, did the research much better than David and was able to tell a fool when she's was confronted with one - she just doesn't suffer them enough in silence. She was doing a perfectly good job taking the postcode of the seller until David, who doesn't even know what the NATO alphabet is, started talking over her and telling her to write down what she had just written down. I think most people would lose their cool confronted by David. Her mistake was not to play it a bit more calmly and let the rest of her team attack David.

I think she went because the numbers were in danger of getting out of hand if yet another male left and David is so useless that he had to stay for TV value. Lord Sugar is otherwise very hit and miss whether he sends the loud pushy females home early (last series of the adult show) or like Debra , Claire or Ruth he keeps them till the semifinal or final.

There was no justification for keeping Stephen either. He also showed he knows very little, and did very little right.

I think Amy was a bit unlucky to be fired, but if she had just remained calm in the boardroom she would probably have survived. The problem was partly that she was too argumentative, but also she was unremittingly negative in everything she said. Ashleigh's comment about her back at the house was quite telling, I thought - she was clearly an emotional and energetic drain on others.

I just don't see what some others see in David - in this episode more than the previous two he was shown to be utterly ineffectual. Behind the quippy soundbites there doesn't really appear to be much going on in his head.

Like Maria, I suspect he'll survive for several weeks for entertainment value, but he will never win. Maria may actually be quite good, but her tendency to announce constantly and loudly how crap everyone around her is does not bode well. If Amy was blunt and aggressive, Maria is ten times worse.

Basically, this task was all about the car. Andrew got a lot of things wrong in this task, but he negotiated strongly and nailed the car - which was not only the most expensive item but the one offering the opportunity for the biggest discount. That one item made all the difference - it accounted for their entire margin of victory and more.

Other thoughts in my weekly recap over on my blog, if anyone's interested:

http://slouchingtowardsthatcham.com/...t-the-car-man/

What? Amy kept repeating after the person "126" when the person in fact said "26." David tried to tell her the correct number after she misheard third time. You can hear the person getting annoyed with Amy for mishearing him third time.

What David should have done, though, is write down the correct number and give it to her when the call ends as this wouldn't piss Amy off so much.

Amy was belligerent and rude. I gasped when she called him useless, lazy and stupid in the boardroom. I would have smacked her in the mouth if she dared to say all that to my face. I'm glad she went.

Never mind that, what was he wearing during the trip to Hamley's?! Someone should tell him that cycling shorts went out of fashion during the 1990s.

I have to admit I was the subject of jokes for days after I pronounced candelabra as 'can-del-brella'.

Eh! She was shouting at David whilst on the phone, she was obnoxious throughout and doesn't know when to give an arguement a rest.

She was shouting at David long before the postcode came up, he was telling her the price of the item, which she managed to get wrong 5 times, the guy on the phone was getting angry with her too.

Right person went tonight, at last.

There must have been more to thre boutique cash register story than we were shown. Surely even if the owner was selling a dress to another customer, the sudden arrival of a BBC camera crew and a pair of eager young children in the shop wouldn't just be almost totally ignored. It seemed a bit odd the way the shopkeeper who presumably was expecting them after a phone call then didn't want to serve them when they showed up.

Now that you mention it, it did seem like a setup. What did they say again? It was a 'random tip' that told them about that cash register? Yeh it was definately a setup by the BBC.

----

I find Maria insufferable, despite being 5 years my junior I would not be able to tolerate her.
The moment she said "As the only woman in the group..." in episode 2 I knew she would be playing that card throughout, and indeed she did. She even had the audacity to say that the professional market researchers were wrong....seriously, Maria? Your misguided pride will be your undoing. That other girl who was with her and Patrick this episode has little nice things to say too, though she was in the right in defending the PM last week but she strikes me as the person who simply sticks up for whoever shes currently grouped with. It looks to be that the main method of winning the prize is to discredit your fellow collegues this run.

Amy was an aggressive wreck. Not anywhere near as bad as Maria but it was still pretty annoying. I'm sure she'll feel the same way about herself as she watches the episodes, but the main thing I fault her for was for turning into a yes-lady. Note that she only had a problem with the PM calling her to ask if things are okay when LS only insinuated that it wasnt the right question. When the PM called her out on this, she couldnt answer yet continued to run her mouth.

The two boys who were PM's this episode were the two I believed would make it to the final 2, its possible they are the two already pre-determined and they recruited other expendable children just to see how much they can get on their t*ts. All things considered, these two boys handled the peer pressure quite well for their age. (As opposed to the boy from the previous episode who was constantly manipulated by Maria. Kid, always remember: Bros before Hoes. Or in your case: Nerds before Birds.)

The two stronger females seem to be that girl who was with David and Amy (forgot her name but she, I honestly dont mind, she is clearly still learning ["whatever"] but I don't fault her for that as long as she learns) and I guess theres that other prissy brunette. Her attitude the previous episode was very crude, she was clearly as fault yet re-directed the blame. The short haired girl is a mixed bag atm, but she certainly has less undesirable traits than most of the other girls.

Btw, the comments about a contestants appearence isnt just uncalled for, its just scummy and pathetic, they're children ffs, grow the **** up. I bet most of you are the typical ugly northern benefit-thieving scumbag anyway, you wouldnt make it on TA due to your looks alone. (and the fact you havent dont a decent days work your entire lives)

I agree with you there. David tells some wrong things,which i think he don't mean. But other candidates are too keen to back stab him and remove him. I feel sorry for him. As Karen said,he has to be himself,he takes back when he needs to be forceful and being forceful when he needs to back a little bit. He needs to be true to himself and then i think he can do better than last weeks.

I really thought Stephen might have gone, he was a bit useless as Team Leader and didn't really have much to say for himself in the boardroom.

Also, Amy was a loud mouth and argumentative, and those types usually get kept for a few weeks entertainment value.

Amy, though young, seemingly came across as a stroppy teenager with a serious attitude problem.

I doubt she was that bad in real life, but rather turned up the volume when having a camera infront of her. She got herself fired.

Amy is clearly a smoker (yellow fingers) and perhaps long spells in a car and being unable to smoke on camera may have been the reason for her aggressiveness.

Something that's been bugging me....how does an opera use a German car as a prop? Isn't that a bit impractical for the stage.

If you have a big enough budget, you can get anything on a stage. Comedy of Errors at the National Theatre had an ambulance onstage!

I thought both Amy and David were going.

Amy because we had 3 weeks of her being overly aggressive, quick to point fingers, and not really pulling her weight.

David because he's just doing nothing at all, he should've been caled out week one for slashing the prices from the start just to get a sale and look good. Week 2 because without Andrew he would've got nothing done, and it was only the rejection of the focus group that saved him. Week 3 because he sat back and let Amy get frustrated at his apathy.

Why do they keep editing it so there are moments of fake silence, and a reaction shot which is not from the same point in the scene. Im sure they never used to do this.

They could have ended up with two I'm sure whoever has to pay for all this is thanking their lucky stars it wasn't insured .

My thoughts on the candidates after another week:


Navdeep - Love her more and more every week! She seems to be genuinely a nice person but also at times she has fire in her belly, so to speak. She's able to stand up for herself and make reasonable points well as well as work well, so, yay. Navdeep is my favourite.
Lucy - She's gone up in my estimation this week. She really was the medium between the squabbling children. Very mature and I like that. She's sensible and probably the most sophisticated of those remaining.


Andrew - He's had an off week. Still one of my personal favourites but he wasn't the best PM in the world, although I do commend him for at least having a strategy, unlike Steven.
Ashleigh - I haven't really cared for her in the past. She was probably the strongest girl in the first week but was practically invisible last week. This week she did well again, she worked the woman in the candle store amazingly. Good performance.


Steven - I like him still but this wasn't a very good week for him. He's been one of the strongest, if not the strongest in the past but this week he really messed up. Poor PM'ing combined with a loss. Although I felt bad watching him squirm in the boardroom.
Alice - I do like Alice but there's something still not clicking with her as a candidate. She's clearly a strong-minded person and this week was better than last week. I think she has the potential to be a favourite to win... We'll have to see!
Patrick - I don't like the guy but this was by far his strongest week. He seemed to have the right idea regarding the geography element of the task so fairplay to him for that.


Amy - I've always wanted to like Amy and I have done in the past but this week her squabbling with David was very immature and she really showed herself up. I don't think she should've been fired over David but I do see why she was. She was very aggressive and that's not needed in a candidate, when the 'chosen' controversial one is somebody else.


David - Ergh. Lord Sugar, put him out of his misery already! He's just U S E L E S S. Has he done anything of use in three weeks now? He just gets in the way and is useless. Dull and shocking and has deserved to be fired for weeks now...
Maria - She is a massive bitch. Her endless snipes at Andrew were completely uncalled for and you can tell you wouldn't want to work with her. Very difficult and high maintenance, presumably from what we've been shown of her at least. Would hate to have to work with her, hence why I don't like her.


Verdict:
Navdeep, Patrick & Lucy seemed to have the best weeks this week whilst both PMs who had shown a lot of promise seemed to have their first cracks emerge. Amy, Andrew, Steven and once again, David, had poor showings this week but i'm sure at least two of them can rebound. Apart from moments of greatness, Alice and Ashleigh were both pretty invisible in my opinion and really need to come out of their shells a bit more. Hopefully that comes in time. Maria is getting the bitch edit now, but apart from her constant bickering and bitchy moments she was pretty invisible too. All talk, in my opinion.

Things the Daily Mail wouldn't say?

i love patrick's personality - he's very laid back and measured when he speaks. Not sure he'll make it to the final tho cos he's a bit too passive

Hmm. I don't think the gender was relevant. He should have been able to see that Andrew's case was backed up by a focus group while Maria's was just backed by shouting.

My two least favourite candidates this year are the Irish girl and Amy. One of them has gone. I'm delighted. I don't think they are necessarily poor candidates. I just don't like the huge chips on their shoulder and shouting and stropping like Mardy teenagers at every opportunity is completely unprofessional.

I think The whole address thing Amy was totally wrong, she also refused to admit it then took it out on David because she thought he was weak. If I was him I'd have demolished her in the boardroom for that alone.

Finally I'm not surprised so many independents are going out of business with such poor customer service. The guy in the flower shop was an arse and in the little boutique the woman didn't even acknowledge other customers were in there. We always accuse big corporations of poor service but we witnessed some awful service on Thursday night.

This is from the London Coliseum website - No idea what opera it is.

http://www.eno.org/__assets/asset4755.jpg

Amy had the emotional control of an 8 year old. For that reason she should have stayed.