It's the next-to-final task, with only two weeks left to go and six candidates to be cut down to five. Lord Sugar appears in the living room of the House --- not quite literally; he records a message which is then transmitted through their TV set via no doubt the wonderful world of wireless technology and Smart TVs, and firstly congratulates the remaining applicants for their achievements in remaining in the process. Then he tells them he won't be around as he's had to go on a business trip, but this week's task is the old "smell what sells" thing taken to a slightly higher level. He's done this before of course, where the candidates have sold items through a market stall. They'll be doing that again, but only on the first day. On the second they'll be running a pop-up shop and will have to make a decision based on what sold, or didn't sell, at the market. The teams are reorganised back to how they were at the beginning, with the three boys back together and the three girl reunited. Probably the first time (though don't quote me) this has been possible, as there are equal numbers of both sexes left in the process. The girls elect Luisa as PM, not surprisingly as she owns several stores, while the boys go for Myles, despite (or perhaps because of) his failure in last week's task. However, whereas Luisa knows exactly what she's going for --- fashion, hats, scarves and so forth --- the boys have no clue at all. While the girls are out buying their stock Myles has yet to make a decision, so much so that Karren, with a look at her watch, has to ask are they ready yet? Very much later than the girls, the boys are on the road and head to a homewares store, having decided to go for the likes of ceramics. Luisa and Leah go for the "buy it cheap, stack it high, sell it and restock" option, whereas Myles wants more high-end homewares, with the result that his team ends up leaving with a total of sixteen items. Yeah, in total. To stock a market stall. Sixteen. We're talking things like ceramic gloves, notepads and butter dishes. Jordan is concerned and decides to buy in some cards that they can buy cheap and hopefully sell in volume. The girls breeze along, buying hats and scarves and leggings, filling up their stall and more to the point they can wear these things which makes the ladies living shop displays, whereas the boys' stall looks, well, pathetic. Making decent profits, Luisa decides, correctly, to reinvest their takings in more stock that has proven to sell, impressing Nick who sees she and her team have certainly understood the idea, which we know previous candidates have not. The boys are not too impressed with how long it seems to be taking Jordan on his next restock of the cards, meaning that he can't go back to the ceramic designer and buy more of the items that have sold. But this is only the first part of the task anyway, and tomorrow the teams will go to their shops and have to stock them and sell from there. The boys decide to add candles to their lineup, while Luisa thinks more expensive items such as dresses might be a good idea. Karren looks bemused at the efforts of Neil and Myles to make their shop look more interesting, when the real problem is they don't have enough stock, while again Jordan seems to be taking his own sweet time buying candles: he's been gone four hours now! The dresses don't seem to be selling at all, perhaps priced too high, so Luisa decides a price drop is in order. Neil thinks it's time for Jordan to go for one high-priced item and pin all their hopes on that. Luisa has certainly impressed Nick, both with her grasp of the task and her leadership, while Karren looks thoroughly miserable as she follows Jordan to his purchase. Turns out that he goes for a strange sort of ceramic vase which looks like a kind of bunch of pasta stuck together which costs --- wait for it --- £190. Surely they don't expect anyone is going to pay that? Neil and Myles are totally unimpressed by what Jordan has brought back, and Jordan is similarly unimpressed that the two push the responsibility of selling the vase on to him. And so to the Boardoom, where Lord Sugar wonders if Myles lost the plot, as he puts it himself: he doesn't seem to have understood the very simple premise of the task, whereas Luisa has had a handle on it right from the start. However when Nick praises Luisa for her selling prowess Karren snaps rather testily that Neil did just as well: it's almost as if there's a sort of rivalry developing between Lord Sugar's two aides. Ain't seen that before, and I think it's more a case of Karren trying to make the best of what was basically a very mediocre performance by the boys. She continues to try to big up her team, as it were, but she must know it's a futile effort. And indeed it is. Luisa's team wins easily, giving the girls their first victory of the series. With only three men left there's no need to ask Myles who he's bringing back into the Boardroom, as nobody will escape. In Losers' Cafe, Jordan accuses Myles of having no strategy, while Myles lays the blame for the loss squarely at the feet of Jordan, saying he chose items that were hard to sell. Back in the Boardroom, Lord Sugar is for once speechless when Karren produces the vase for his examination and tells him the price. He sneers that the task was all about smelling what sells, but that all their noses seemed to have been blocked. He quips that perhaps they all need Vicks inhalers, something that will almost seem prophetic in a few minutes!
Lord Sugar now begins to pick apart the business ideas of the three guys. He seems not too happy with Myles' "luxury brand" placement, moreso with Neil's online estate agency, though he sneers at his "innovation, creation and operational" mantra; Neil is doing what Neil does, talking himself up. It's when he asks Jordan about his business plan though that things look ready to fall apart for the third man at the table. When Jordan reveals that it's a tech startup company he proposes a share in Lord Sugar groans, saying that he has been doing that for decades. But what really irks the Big S is when Jordan tells him that there are others involved in the business, and suggests they "have conversations" about the percentages. Lord Sugar is not having that. He is investing with one partner, and one only. "The only other person in this business", he tells Jordan clearly, "is an employee." He also remarks that a tech startup is about the riskiest venture he can think of. Things are not looking good for Jordan, and whether the pressure is telling on him or whether it's just bad timing but he seems to have a minor asthma fit which does not help his position. It seems clear he's going; Lord Sugar has no interest in his venture and is annoyed by the revelations about the hitherto undisclosed additional partners, but rather surprisingly really it's Myles to whom the Finger points. Lord Sugar decides that investing in a luxury brands company in the middle of a global recession is not a good move, and also going on his performance as PM it's time for Myles to head back to Monaco. And so next week we hit the interview stage, and the bodycount is sure to rise once they're completed. This will, presumably, leave us with only two people standing, taking us to the final task and the crowning of the Apprentice 2013. Two more weeks to go. As Tharg used to say in 2000 AD: prepare for thrill-power overload!