Frankly, although Felipe is weak Daniel was pushing his buttons, so far from surprised he got fed up and pushed back.

Agree it was unprofessional, but as has been seen all through this series, Daniel just doesn't shut up and doubt many would be able to hold back with such a mouthpiece on your case.

Exactly it isn't the real world, it is a competition and if Felipe wanted to get further in the competition he had to pick Mark to sell the hot tubs as he has proven himself to be the best sales person. Daniel has proven himself to be a liability to the degree that even if they had willing customers I could still see him messing it up.

I actually assumed Felipe would pick Mark to sell the expensive items anyway as he is the best sales person and Felipe is the acting manager and presumably he wants to win. Surely this is the kind of decision making that matches the real world.

I didn't really see Felipe being manipulated at all. I saw Mark tell him he was the best sales person and that he was needed to win the task. Felipe acknowledged this and chose him. Daniel no doubt would have tried himself to get to sell the hot tubs if the roles wee reversed but it wouldn't have worked as he doesn't have any foundation to back the killer line: 'I'm the best salesperson'.

I agree. The edit makes it look as if Felipe is manipulated by Mark, but as you say we don't know whether or not he would have made that decision himself. For all we know, Mark might have put his case to Felipe, at the end of which Felipe says "I agree - that's the decision I was going to make anyway." But it's more fun to edit out that last but and build the perception of Mark being sneaky and Daniel being unfairly done out of a job he didn't merit anyway.

And as I've said elsewhere, just because Daniel procured the vendor didn't automatically entitle him to sell the product. Sourcing and selling are two very different tasks in the real world.

But he did if Mark had said to Felipe in the car "I'm the best sales person this team's got, I need to be selling the hot tubs", then no problem. But he didn't he said something along the lines of " Well you'll need the best salesman on the hot tubs" and a little later he then mentions "of course I've got a great track record of selling". So he put the seed in to his PM's head, then watered it.

Now if this was anyone else, we wouldn't be discussing this to the enth degree, but Mark has a track record of being sly. Once about Daniel in the car (Mims), again with Lauran in NY etc, now they may be justified, but he does like working on people, behind their back and spreading rumours about others.

I'm not sure Felipe would of made the decision by himself, it took him a long time to actually tell Daniel that was the reason, he even backed Daniel when Daniel suggested swapping over mid way, it was after Daniel's rant at the others, that Felipe finally broke. He's a nice guy trying to please everyone, you cant always do that.

Your interpretation is entirely possible, and it's actually the theory I favour. Just saying we don't know for sure - it's more inference than it is clear deduction.

I can understand (but not approve of) Felipe caving after Daniel's constant badgering - I was glad Mark and Katie pushed back on his request (as if they were ever going to do anything else). For me, that did suggest a lack of steel in Felipe - he should have just stuck to his guns and said "no means no".

As I've said elsewhere, as a leader Felipe is an "accommodator" who likes to build by consensus. There's nothing wrong with that, but some situations require a more directive style of leadership ("this is how we're going to do it - get on with it") - this was one such instance.

Indeed, most Apprentice tasks require this directive form of leadership because of the time pressures and egos/agendas involved. You're never going to get everyone to agree on everything, so you take input, make a decision, then follow it through. (That's not the same as being a dictator, though, there's a big difference between showing decisive leadership and being autocratic, something James failed to understand.)

you've made some good points about the editing however mark did admit on camera that he was sneaky in how he went about making sure that he got to sell the hot tubs rather than daniel.

^^ Totally agree, Felipe was very week, if he had indeed thought the best seller needed to be on the big ticket item, why not send them to see the item. I know you tell us buying and selling are 2 different areas (I agree) but we know Mark is good at negotiation so why not send your best to claim the big ticket item, if that is indeed what you think and not be told "whose best".

I did wonder about that - I think I said somewhere after the episode that Felipe's biggest mistake was not sending Mark down to Somerset on day 1 anyway - as you say, he's a good negotiator and it would have nipped the resultant unpleasantness in the bud. Having said that, perhaps Felipe also recognised the importance of product selection in the task, and he trusted Mark's opinion more than the others?

IN fairness to him, I do think Felipe was to a certain extent stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the assumption that he felt he was better off doing product selection than talking to vendors, if he'd kept Daniel with him I don't think he'd have trusted his opinion, and if he'd kept Katie with him (her common sense would have been helpful) that would have meant Mark and Daniel working together.

Perhaps the best solution would have been swapping both sub-teams around - Felipe and Mark to Somerset, Daniel and Katie staying behind. Of course, hindsight's a wonderful thing.

For sure. I've always agreed that Mark was sneaky, and he did admit as such. What we don't know for sure is whether Felipe would have made that decision himself. The edit suggests not, but it's not definitive.

Mark is the best candidate by far. You have to play the game a bit as they are competing against each other as well as working as a team. Mark has proved himself on the tasks and is not just all talk like most of them.

Mark pretty much admitted to manipulation in the show, so its clear that's what he did. He knew Felipe would bend to his will, because Mark dominates him.

i'm sorry but i had to giggle at mark "dominating felipe"

^^Shudder

There was no knowing whether it would have changed the outcome or not, and I mentioned earlier that I sincerely doubt it would've lost them the task, but that isn't the point I was making. As for whether he was manipulated, Mark openly admitted to getting into his head during a cut-away segment. We also saw that Felipe even tried to reverse the decision and choose Daniel to sell the hot tubs half-way through, to which Mark refused.

I noticed again tonight that he was ready to stab Katie in the back after that oil deal. Notice how he said 'Katie just jumped straight in at 49 pounds, we could have got a better deal and if we lose this task by a couple of pounds I will bring this up' or something along those lines. As it turned out her deal on the oil was brilliant considering the other team spent over 100 pounds on theres so he couldn't use it against her. Also he was very quick to jump in when the whole skeleton thing blew up and tried to make it seem like both him and Katie didn't know what was going on when they did and neither of them spoke up and said 'Don't risk it guys, if you do that's your decision but we don't support it.'

Mark is a snake.

Mark is just demonstrating his passion and cunningness to win. He's the most shrewd left in the process. But sanjay is the fittest

Mark was SILENT when Dan said he was bringing Katie in. But in fairness to Dan, he had to bring one in

^^ Yep couldn't really understand why Daniel didn't say "well one of you has got to come back" I think Katie is playing a very "tight game" and assumed Daniel would bring back Mark. But Katie did screw up the rope, the lady in the garden centre even offered her a pair of scissors!! If she had not go the rope they would of been better off, I don't imagine a 1m rope costs £50.

This task was very weird as usually they have a customer who will inspect the items and accept or reject them based on their own desires, not on some LS whim. Do we really think that some £50 bottle of oil is the same as a £150 bottle! Can you imagine the Savoy sending one of their flunkies down to some London council estate to buy more.

The fine was 52 - £2 guide price plus £50 fine

Best moment was him saying they called Daniel back and told him to get another Skeleton and after being called out he backtracked and then he said they never phoned lol. The guy is a proper ********

Yeah sorry read that on another post after posting this one

Yeah, no worries. The numbers flashed by so fast I'm not surprised everyone has had difficulty catching everything - hence the chart in my review post, which breaks it down in detail. There was definitely a big advantage this week in having had access to preview the episode! (It's one of the reasons I don't overly like this task - with the fines and everything, it's so confusing to follow.)