Kate and Yasmine were in the final, tasked to create and market a new box of chocolates, then present their new confectionary to 100 business people and chocolate experts. As is tradition for Week Twelve, each team consisted of previously fired contestants; Yasmina chose Howard, Philip, James and Lorraine, while Kate chose Debra, Rocky (you remember...), Kimberly (you know, the American one...) and Ben. If you weren't one of the returning candidates, considering this the end of your TV career.
Of course, one thing that goes unmentioned about the final task is how ultimately pointless it is -- well, unless one candidate fails spectacularly in an embarrassing cock-up of enormous proportions. But that's never very likely, and Sir Alan doesn't choose his apprentice based solely on the result of the final task. So, everything's more like a last hurrah for the wannabe-apprentices, who never have a bad word to say about their project manager here. Of course. It would be terrible if anyone bitched about Kate or Yasmina in the boardroom. "Good team leader?" asks Sir Alan. "No, she was bloody terrible. Totally unemployable, if you ask me..." Imagine...
Kate's team had the best creative idea: a His & Her chocolate box that gave couples their own individual drawer of chocs and an additional compartment to share. Their brand name was Intimate, until Debra wisely suggested it sounded like a brand of tampax. A last-minute brainstorm came up with "Choc D'Amour" (a bit cheesy if you ask me, but certainly better.) The only worry was a rather dear RRP of £16.
Yasmina's team struggled for ideas (although Ben once again came up with a sexually-themed idea of a "69" design), but eventually went with the left-field notion of chocolates that women would buy for their men. This role-reversal idea didn't find favour with either of their focus groups, however, so Yasmina was forced to rethink the idea from scratch. They came up with Cocoa Electric; a snazzy black box containing 18 chocolates with unusual, "shocking" tastes. The packaging design (an extendable black case with a hot-pink lightning bolt) and the £6 price-tag was definitely a winning combination.
The TV adverts segment went well for both teams, although Kate's was by far the best. A funny ad where a loving couple eat chocolates together on a sofa, ending with the man trussed up as his partner scoffs the remainder while sat on his back. Yasmina's ad was much weaker, with a group of friends sharing chocolates and each jumping with surprise at the tastes -- which instead looked like they were receiving electric shocks.
The pitches cranked up the tension, as public-speaking tasks always do. Kate was expected to breeze through, and she did. Cool, calm, collected, polite, confident and professional. My only complaint is that questions the audience ask on these challenges were batted aside very unconvincingly. One man essentially asked her "aren't you worried about the rather expensive cost?" and Kate's response was a flowery version of "no, there'll be enough profit for everyone." The questioner sat down, probably thinking "well, yeah, duhh. Any financial data to back up your claims?!" Hm.
Yasmina's pitch wasn't as good. It started very embarrassingly, with awkward silences as she tried to pull the crowd into her revolutionary new Cocoa Electric premise. Or was that just unfair editing again? The BBC apologized last week for editing the semi-final so that it looked like Yasmina had a terrible job interview but claimed otherwise to her competitors.
Anyway, considering Yasmina was never going to be as slick as Kate, she did well enough. She even fielded questions that were moderately tougher, too. The only thing that confused me was how, during the TV advert's filming, it appeared that their chocolates tasted god-awful... but none of the experts were seen turning their nose up. Were they all vomiting under their table?
In the boardroom, both teams talked up their team leaders. But did you notice Philip staying conspicuously quiet about Yasmina? As revealed on You're Fired afterwards, his girlfriend Kate intentionally didn't pick Philip to be on her team in the final (for fear of being distraction again) and Philip certainly wasn't going to HELP Yasmina in the boardroom. Actually, was Philip's choreography of Yasmina's dancers for the pitch's opening intentionally awful to try and scupper her task? Just kidding...
Not that it really mattered, but the feedback from the experts suggested Kate had a more imaginative premise, a slicker advert and presented better... but Yasmina's competitive pricing and stylish packaging was more marketable. The main thing is that neither finalist flopped and put an unfortunate dampener on their twelve-week experience.
Sir Alan said that both were the strongest candidates he'd had in the final (something I agree with), but ultimately he felt that Yasmina had more fire in her belly and promptly hired her. Kate became the unfortunate runner-up, but can hold her head up high. I had Kate pegged as the winner from very early on, but Yasmina just sneaked ahead around mid-series. I think Sir Alan was primarily concerned that Yasmina already had a successful restaurant employing 20 people, but once she put his mind at rest that her restaurant would survive with her brother in charge, that seemed to swing it. Don't you think?
Still, this was one of those finals where either candidate would have made a worthy winner. There wasn't much between them, but Yasmina was slightly more credible as a shrew businesswoman, and Kate was just a little bit too... well, generic in her competence. Nice but bland, really? Sir Alan likes to see some spark and a bit of raw talent he can help shape. To be a tad cynical, in the You're Hired episode that immediately followed, Sir Alan revealed that Yasmina would be helping with his digital notice boards in NHS waiting rooms. Which, well, doesn't sound very interesting or exciting. That's what he got series 4 winner Lee McQueen to do, too!
Overall, this was a good final to another very entertaining series, and I was pleased to see another laudable winner. I still shudder that Michelle Dewberry beat Ruth "The Badger" Badger in series 2, or that Simon Ambrose won series 3. But I can live with Yasmina winning this year.
Finally, my weekend Apprentice poll had Yasmina as the predicted winner for three days, but in the final day the tide turned and Kate easily won the vote with 65% to Yasmina's 35%. So, I guess that means most people found Yasmina's win a disappointment? Did Sir Alan choose the wrong apprentice? And how will the series survive without Roger Ebert look-alike Margaret Mountford next year?
7 June 2009
BBC1, 9pm
