I thought it was the most dramatic thing I've seen on telly for ages. Much better for the evil one to find a sliver of humanity and have her conscience tell her what to do.

You could see her wrestling with the decision, it was powerful stuff.

There's a time and place for venting and just maybe on public TV, knowing it's going to be broadcast nationally isn't the right time...unless, of course, there's a hidden agenda

If she's your sort of woman, you're more than welcome to her. Personally, I'd rather plump for a woman I could trust further than I could throw her but I guess I'm just old fashioned

I almost got the impression that Sir Alan had "put her through" but would willingly retract it if he couldn't decide between Simon and Kristina - like she was safe, yet wasn't. I got the impression he grudgingly put her through, like he still wasn't convinced - hence why he went back to her

I don't think she redeemed herself. After all the weeks of fighting with people and trying to assert her position as a worthy candidate and how she was so amazing and perfect for the job. THEN stating she hadn't trodden on any toes on her way to the final. She looked a bit silly.

She'd already trodden on the toes of everyone fired up until that point. It was a bit weird she suddenly got all heartfelt and tragic that she'd hate to see either Simon or Kristina miss out on her account - when she's slated both of them over the weeks.

She's just a drama queen.

She didn't redeem herself. Sir Alan read her perfectly and totally called her bluff.

After weeks of seeing her manipulate and talk her way around people, it was amazing seeing the tables turned.

I assume this is meant to be a joke ?

Game player and actress who seems to believe she's the actual equivalent of the various roles she's been playing. I forget his name but one of the interviewers sussed her out completely (another one half sussed her out and the fat unshaven loutish guy had no idea whatsoever and fell for her bs).

Sir Alan didn't read Katie at all, he told her she had made it to the final and she walked. Simple.

Sir Alan isn't the shrewdest judge of person based on his hiring of Michelle Dewbury last year.
And he fired Lohit because he was too nice and quiet!!! What has that got to do with getting the job done? Just because someone is calm, well spoken and not a bitchy gobsh*te, that's means that they're not able to do the job!!!!

I don't like Katie but she was clearly more talented and able than the rest of the contestants put together, and good on her for not lowering her standards to work for a man not commonly associated with quality.

None of it made any sense to me at all. The 'back story' programme last Sunday showed Katie at home with her children and her parents in Exeter talking about how driven and single minded she was. There is no way on earth that a woman who has convinced us from the start that she is a capable ruthless business person, who doesn't take prisoners, who will decide what she wants and go for it like a heat seeking missile and will invariably succeed is going to get to the final hurdle and then suddenly fall because she forgot to organise childcare arrangements. No, it just doesn't ring true from whichever direction you look at it.
I can't work out whether her plan from the start was to get the job and then say she didn't really want it and she was rumbled at the interview stage or if she really did think she wanted the job and realised at the last minute that perhaps it wasn't for her after all and used this as a way out without losing face or if it was all a long term gameplan to get a media career as some have suggested or if it was something else entirely.

Doesn't hang. Why not make the final? Why not win? The same way out is available then. She didn't raise any of the issues - SAS did.

If she wanted to be a media personality I doubt if she confused nasty with nice. She was either what she was or what she wanted to be.

No way was she acting on her conscience (that is if she actually possesses one!) She took on a battering in the interviews and simply realised she had been found out.

She was lucky to leave in the way she did to be honest.

Found out?

If SAS had apparently found her out, why the hell would he hire her?

There was a bit in the filming which I thought we ALL missed out on! it was the bit between Katie being 'given' the place in the final and SAS saying.. 'Katie your not celebrating too much!'
I wonder what did it?..

Was it just her nervous looks?

Or SAS saying 'cut' when she wanted to re-negotiate?

The second option would certainly explain the 'game-player' comment by Nick at the end.

...and the production team's goals of making the proprietor and contestant BOTH look good at the same time!

(I just Wouldn't let it Lie Vic! )

Sralan was testing her...and she crumbled....he could foresee it happening

I thought that the audience see her as a pantomime villain - like the original BB's ''Nasty Nick".

Well said! I can't say I condone the attitude Katie's displayed towards many people and things, but I am amazed by the way people seem to constantly overlook her intelligence, experience, and business skills and class her as a "silly tart". It strikes me as sheer blind misogyny. Why is there all this love for Tre, who has some great strengths but often comes across as being obnoxious and arrogant? He behaved appallingly at times, I don't see anyone spitting such venom in his direction..

He would be pretty silly to offer her the final and possibly the job or risk her walking out in the final - all on some completely unsubstantiated hunch she would back down . She has no incentive to back down as she could always invent a problem later. There's no reason to crack or indication she will. if she's doing it for publicity. later is better and as she doesn't like Simon or Kristina she may just stay to keep them out. If he knew she would make the moral decision and not betray him he might even consider employing her as she has been tested.

Its questionable how smart SAS is, I don't think he's clairvoyant too.

Maybe The production Co. rushes to SAS for the filming of BBC2's 'The Apprentice: Beyond the Boardroom' shown in prelude to last nights epsiode could have something to do with it....

Tre is seen beating the odds by recovering from an almost certainly fatal car crash and defeating almost (certain) paralysis by using his limbs (which have metal plates in them)
much sooner than he instructed to do so by Doctors!

who could fail to be impressed at that kind of hark!

She realised they were on to her, she could have gone to the final and have lost or step down and still 'beat' them because as a result of that she was letting one through. She's clever and I think she made the right decision in 'game play' terms.

Kristinas face was a picture at some points when Katie was talking, I'm a little disappointed we won't get Katie v Kristina in the final, that would be interesting.

I don't think she redeemed herself.. you have these discussions with your parents or whoever is going to be looking after your kids before you go on the show... when siralan made her make those promises i think katie realised that its not just about winning she will have to go through with it and it was probably a reality check for her.. that this was going to be about more then winning

She didn't redeem herself at all.

I don't believe she ever had any intention of taking the job if she won - she was there purely to create a persona for herself and for the media exposure.

We hear so much about her £90,000 per annum salary - not so much that it was from her (then) husband's company

Isn't she supposed to have been working at the Met Office at some stage, presumably since leaving The Apprentice - where she allegedly resumed her married man activities again?

She didn't redeem herself one bit. I don't think she stood down because she felt it was the right thing to do - more likely she realised she had been rumbled. She caught herself out in her own web of lies, because one minute she was saying that her parents were planning to move to Bournemouth, and the next minute she said she hadn't even discussed childcare with them.

She was a plant, a pantomime villain. Boo- hiss, evil Katie etc. Couldn't have the plant winning, so she goes just before the end.

Very good actress, I'll give her that

Are you married? Because if you are, you're probably her type of man.

I'm not sure "talented" is the word I would use for her penchant for insulting people. I think she's just a nasty piece of work. If she was actually witty and funny with her insults then yes, it would be a talent, but there's nothing quick-witted about saying someone should go home to their Northern chums. Or that she wouldn't have anything to do with people who bought from shopping channels. I think it sounds pretty dim-witted.

Whichever way you look at it, she's won. I'm no fan of hers, the constant flirty eyelash thing made me feel quite nauseous, but the jibes and pieces to camera were perfectly judged so she'd get maximum publicity throughout the series, regardless of what she actually did in the tasks. Falling on her sword (!) like that was clearly an attempt to make her seem magnanimous ( as if she wouldn't have discussed childcare etc before going into the house ), as well as having the added benefit of not having to go up against a finalist and prove herself or actually have to take the job in the first place. She can now stand back, reap the media benefits that I suspect was the goal all along and say ' Sir Alan never fired me, and I would've made a better Apprentice than x but chose not to go into the final'

Like I say, she's won.

The reaction on this board is strange, don't you get it? She wanted to prove to herself that she could make the final, and when she did, she copped out, all that stuff about her family, surely she knew that winning the apprentice would change her life and force her to move, it was hugely disappointing for the millions who were waiting for Sir Alan to deliver the famous line to her, we never got it, total cop-out...