Accidental Innuendo: While pitching in the TV shopping task, she quipped while selling the paddling pool that the customers could have "adult fun" in it.invoked
Achilles' Heel: Though she hardly set a foot wrong in most of the tasks, she was a surprisingly mediocre project manager, making questionable decisions on both occasions, with her second occasion ending in the team earning zero orders. Even some viewers who felt that she was an overall deserving winner considered Phil to have done a better job of running his team in the final task.
Only Sane Woman: While the other women were celebrating winning the first task during the reward, she pointed out that they didn't really have much to celebrate considering they had barely broken even, and essentially won by default due to the men failing so spectacularly. This would essentially prove her Establishing Character Moment, showing her as someone relatively astute who didn't get carried away when the team won.
Phil
The Alleged Expert: His background in food sees him put on the creative team whenever a food-related task comes up. However, he's stingy with flavourings on the cereal task, going against the advice of experts and creating a bland product. He does this again in the Vegan Cheese episode, reacting with visible displeasure when additional truffle powder is added to the mixture. note While it does make a certain amount of sense to maintain high profit margins by using as little flavouring as possible, the fact remains that both tasks were based on units sold rather than profit earned. It's also worth pointing out that with the cereal task, flavour would be an important factor for the target audience, while with the vegan cheese task truffle was marketed as the key flavour, and even with the additional flavouring added despite his wishes the experts complained that they couldn't taste it. Had it not been for the other team's even worse performance, he would have lost the challenge and been eliminated. note Lord Sugar appointed him Project Manager in this task due to his poor track record, and warned him that should he lose the task he would be eliminated.
Butt-Monkey: Lost 9 tasks in a row, surpassing Harry M.’s record of 7 weeks of going through the process without winning a single task. Lord Sugar warned him after the ninth task that if he lost the last task, he would be thrown out of the process — having declared him the Project Manager on the said task. Fortunately for him, he actually won the task, meaning that Harry M. and Virdi still hold the record for losing the most tasks without ever recording a single win.
Cordon Bleugh Chef: Insisted on a small amount of flavouring in his team’s cereal against the advice of experts who suggested a larger amount, resulting in a bland cereal.
Honor Before Reason: Following the final task, he remained dedicated to his idea of focusing on online deliveries for his pie business, and then said that he didn't think making a large profit was the most important thing for a business. After hearing that, Lord Sugar almost looked ready to declare Rachel the winner there and then.
Throw the Dog a Bone: He ended up winning the last regular task as Project Manager having gone through the aforementioned nine losses.
Paul M.
Honor Before Reason: Zig-zagged; during the actual interviews he remained dedicated to his business plan of launching a business that sold surgical scrubs, but by the time he got to the actual boardroom he recognised that this didn't play to his strengths, and offered Lord Sugar the chance to invest in a new dentistry practice. However, Sugar was only willing to invest if Paul also offered him a 50% share in his existing practice as well; Paul refused, which resulted in his failing to make the final.
Only Sane Man: Was declared by Lord Sugar to be far and away the best out of his team in the shopping channel task, so much so, he was immediately sent back to the house without Raj getting the option to bring two people back.
Flo
Aside Glance: Gave one of these to the camera in the third episode.
Crippling Overspecialization / Distaff Counterpart: Much like Jim from Series 7 and Neil from Series 9, she only really excelled at tasks that involved either selling or negotiating and, like the latter, wasn't always consistently great at those. Like Jim and Neil, she also submitted a heavily flawed business plan which resulted in her finishing fourth overall in the competition.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Reacted this way after chiming in Steve's negotiation to a lower price which went completely unnoticed by her team, and was further exacerbated after she was criticised by Lord Sugar and Tim for her seemingly poor negotiation on the surfboard, despite managing to get it for £50 cheaper than the other team did.
History Repeats: She was fired essentially for the same reasons as Roisin from Season 10, namely that she would have burned through the whole £250,000 investment in just a few months, and that her proposed plan to get more funding from banks was unrealistic and defeated the whole purpose of getting the investment from Lord Sugar.
In the second week, although Foluso was Project Manager, it was Flo's effective negotiations and sales pitches that steered the team to victory.
Happened again in the seventh week where although Maura was Project Manager, it was her research before the tour and memorable wine-tasting event that steered the team victory.
It's All About Me: Several of her teammates (namely Paul M. and Noor) criticised her leadership as being this, feeling that she wasn’t taking on board anyone’s ideas except for her own for the escape room. This did end up working out for them however, as it did lead to a game that was at least coherent, if somewhat poorly executed.
Tre
Dull Surprise / Informed Attribute: Despite his claim that he had experience performing on live TV (As a member of the Garage Dance act Architechs), it really didn’t show while he was pitching in the shopping channel task.
Gargle Blaster: His business plan revolved around producing one of these as a "testosterone booster" — albeit in the sense that it was extremely spicy, rather than highly alcoholic.
He Also Did: Tre was previously a member of the Garage Dance act Architechs, who had a hit in 2000 with "Body Groove". This was even invoked when the rival team used the song in one of their adverts.
Ink-Suit Actor: A lot of the aspects of the character in the intro video for his team’s escape room game were based on him, right down to him providing motion capture and voice for the character.
The Scapegoat: While she never got the chance to bring him back into the boardroom, it was clear from Noor's comments in the Loser's Café and the boardroom that she was intending to bring Tre back for being "disruptive" during her attempts to direct the advert. Note that all of Tre's "disruptions" were trying to make up for Noor's shortcomings as a director for their team's advert: not focusing on important shots until it was too late to film anything meaningful, and changing then outright ditching the storyboard.
Steve
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Issued a rather desperate plea to Lord Sugar to keep him in the process after his second time in the final boardroom. Unlike the first time however, it didn’t work out for him.
Cordon Bleugh Chef: He played a role in Rachel's decision to make a curried cheese alternative. Karren didn't seem to have heard of curried cheese and said people hadn't heard of it either because no-one would buy it. Sure enough, not a single retailer made an order for the team's cheese alternative.
The Scapegoat: Virdi tried to make him into this after it was highlighted his team’s lack of timekeeping and poor negotiations were the main reasons for the loss. Fortunately for him, Lord Sugar saw straight through this and stated very early on he would not be facing dismissal.
Foluso
Crazy Enough to Work: She secured a large order for her team’s cereal in exchange for exclusivity, which Tim Campbell dubbed a risk. While it surely left other retailers out, it was still enough to beat the other team.
Four Is Death: The fourth consecutive woman to be fired in this series
I Ate WHAT?!: She ate some truffle powder during the cheesecake task, thinking it was powdered chocolate. When she found out what it was, her reaction was hysterical.
The Scapegoat: Discussed during the cheese alternative task, where Lord Sugar questioned Rachel as to whether her tactical decision to make Foluso a One-Woman Army for the branding (considered the harder part of the task) was to make her into this, which the former denied. Subverted in that even if that were the case, Lord Sugar felt she still didn’t do a good job with what she had and fired her before the final boardroom.
What Were They Selling Again?: While making the social media teaser for her team's cheese alternative, she seemed to forget what they were supposed to be selling, as she made a teaser without a trace of cheese alternative. And that's without the fact that she used a voiceover instead of actually speaking in the teaser.
Maura
Crazy Enough to Work: Her decision to rearrange her team at the last minute before the Budapest tour so that she would be part of the tour. Despite her failing at one of the facts, their tour group still got a memorable tour that helped them to win, helped by the fact that the tickets for the said tour had been sold at higher prices than the other team (as well as selling all their slots).
Didn't Think This Through: Her idea of an Arctic themed cereal with a polar bear mascot, which was dubbed too childish by some.
Once again, her team came up with an Arctic theme for something and lost. At least this time they got a spelling right.
Once again, her team came up with something that came across as childish.
Medal of Dishonor: It takes an absolutely horrid presentation for a shopping channel to get the amount of complaints she got them, which Lord Sugar called a record.
No Indoor Voice: Was criticised for her loud and overly frantic sales pitches while selling on the shopping channel, which played a large role in her firing.
Break the Haughty: Like Samuel from Series 12, a downplayed example. Despite being on the winning team from every task up until her final week, Lord Sugar felt that her overall performance hadn’t been that impressive, and that she had merely been lucky to have gotten as far as she did.
Her "luck" may also be supported by her being one of the last candidates drafted in the final despite her record, suggesting the finalists did not have the best opinion of her.
While selling the cheesecakes in the second task, she repeatedly asked customers for tips. Her team ended up winning.
Zig-zagged and subverted in Week 4 where Lord Sugar criticised her strategy for trying to aim for a 50% discount for negotiations. She managed to win because the opposing Project Manager Jack's strategy was even more ludicrous.
Immediate Self-Contradiction: During the initial team meeting in the TV shopping task, she told the team to buy items that were "commonplace, but unique", leaving even Karren confused by what exactly she was asking them to do. Paul M. and Phil tried to interpret this as best they could, and focused on buying unusual variations of everyday household items.
Tempting Fate: After winning her eighth consecutive task, she proudly declared herself the team's "lucky charm". She promptly lost the next task as project manager, resulting in her being fired.
To Kurran from Series 14. Both were responsible for directing advertisements for their respective services - an airline and an electric van - that failed to demonstrate the product in any effective manner. Both adverts were instrumental in their firings.
Also to Alex from Series 6. Like Alex, she directed an advert that was clearly worse than the other team's (itself mediocre at best) advert, and then sealed her fate in the boardroom by continuing to insist that it was actually the better of the two.
Epic Fail: She made such a mess of the advertising task that Lord Sugar decided it wasn't even worth bothering with the final boardroom, and fired her there and then. The only other time that he had skipped the final boardroom was back in the very first series, when Adele quit during the initial boardroom, and that was as much to do with the show's rules at the time not permitting Sugar to fire anyone else if a candidate quit of their own accord.
Failed a Spot Check: She and just about the whole kitchen team mistook the crumble for their rhubarb dessert for breadcrumbs and used it on their fishcakes. Even when they couldn’t find the crumble for the rhubarb, it never dawned on them what happened until the rest of the girls reported that the clients had spotted the issue and Karren brought it up.
Never My Fault: Instead of admitting that she was at least partially to blame for her loss as Project Manager in the advertising challenge, she insisted that Tre carried the blame for the loss, while also claiming her advert was better than the other team’s, clearly trying to cover her tracks. Lord Sugar saw through this and dismissed her.
Not Helping Your Case: Her insisting in the boardroom that she still believed her advert was good caused Lord Sugar to deem her a lost cause, and fire her.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Not from a task or the show, but just as the Budapest task was starting, she jumped ship from Nexus to Supream because the idea of a winery tour went against her religious beliefs.
Sore Loser: After being fired, she refused to take part in You're Fired, partly in support of Asif (who was edited out of the programme due to his aforementioned controversial social media posts) and partly also because she was reportedly unhappy with her portrayal on the show and the negative attention she received from it.
Despite making it relatively far, Noor notably did not return to help in the finale.
What Were They Selling Again?: She committed the classic Apprentice mistake of focusing on making an advert that was artistic rather than actually showing off the product that they were trying to sell — and she didn't even manage the former successfully, as the first half of the advert was spent showing two women sat on a sofa using their phones.
You Have Failed Me: Was appointed by Lord Sugar to be the project manager as a means to prove what she could do, and was fired for failing to deliver.
Virdi
Butt-Monkey: Lost the first task as project manager and lost seven consecutive tasks after that, a track record rivalled only by Harry M. from Young Apprentice.
Was drafted fairly early in the final by Phil, and even made sub team leader. Phil lost again.
Epic Fail: Became the first Project Manager since Danny in Series 13 to make a loss and the second largest just behind Invicta's £800 loss in Series 2. Lord Sugar was so outraged at this that he told the men that if any of them won the season, he would be deducting the £506 they lost from the £250,000 investment on offer.
Medal of Dishonour: Made it through seven consecutive weeks without winning a single task.
Skewed Priorities: Instead of waiting until they got to the highland-dancing-themed teambuilding, he and his subteam engaged in dancing during their tour. A double example as it caused them to forget about timekeeping, leading to the clients arriving late for their meal and missing their dessert.
Sam
Hypercompetent Sidekick: Was praised by Lord Sugar and Karen as being this as sub-team leader and (reluctantly) taking over from Onyeka to oversee the clients in the gorge-walking.
The Scapegoat: Asif tried to claim that she had done little during the third task, which she argued against. Both Onyeka and Lord Sugar agreed with her and she was quickly told she was safe.
What Were They Selling Again?: Her team’s cereal box had no cereal bowl and no actual part of the cereal in it, and the inclusion of passion fruit and banana on it made it look like a fruit box.
Onyeka
Buffy Speak: When giving a presentation during the fifth task, she said "Global warming is one of the biggest... massive things happening right now".
Never My Fault: She insisted that her lacklustre presentation was due to Paul M.'s lack of cohesion regarding the vision of the campaign. Lord Sugar, despite being sympathetic towards her prior to firing her, didn't buy this excuse for a moment.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Not from a task or the show, but she pulled out of her team’s tour because it involved jumping into deep water, and she didn’t want to do that because she wasn’t good at swimming. Sam had to switch places with her as a result.
Jack
Epic Fail: Fired for leading a team that incurred around £200 in penalties on a discount buying task.
Four Is Death: Fired after his fourth time on a losing team.
One-Hit Wonder: He did admittedly do a decent job negotiating for the apple cider but it was not enough to save him from being fired.
Medal of Dishonour: Lord Sugar branded his team the worst ever in a negotiation task, which considering the amount of fiascos committed by Renasciance in the fourth series's equivalent task, is really saying something.
What Were You Thinking?: Before firing him, Lord Sugar heavily questioned him as to what made him think that his strategy of negotiating a 75% discount was actually going to work, which Jack admitted that it never did.
Amina
History Repeats: Repeated one of Mark's mistakes from the previous season (namely passing by items that her team needed without noticing them) during the Jersey task. This time, the mistake was one of the things that cost her her place in the competition.
Asif
Bystander Syndrome: Got brought into the boardroom on the second task because he was perceived as having done too little.
The Ditherer: Initially decided to bring Onyeka and Sam back into the boardroom, then when Lord Sugar and Sam challenged him on this, immediately changed to Amina for the flimsy excuse of “Sam rebutted”. This lead Sugar to bring all four of them back into the boardroom.
Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Mixed this with Tempting Fate after celebrating the boys' supposed victory in the first task, when Tim said that the client had asked for a 52% refund, thinking this still left them with a profit of about £300. The other men quickly pointed out that the refund was 52% of their turnover, not their profit, and it turned out that the team made a gigantic loss of £506.
I Meant to Do That: Averted. When asked by the investors if his virtual escape room was intended to be surreal, Asif declined and stated the game was meant to be taken completely seriously. He was heavily criticised for this as it was hinted that the investors may had been willing to invest a lot more money on the game (and might’ve won them the task) if he owned up to the game’s Narm Charm aspects rather than play it completely straight.
Un-person: In an unprecedented move, all mention of him was completely erased from You're Fired in the week when he was fired, due to a series of anti-Semitic posts and other controversial remarks he had made on social media. While other past contestants had either refused or been unable to take part in You're Fired, this was the first-ever instance of a candidate's participation in the show being deleted in such a fashion.note There were even complaints in the press that the BBC should have gone a step further and junked all of the episodes of the main show that he appeared in, while re-editing the season to begin a shortened run with the fourth episode. However, the BBC defended their decision to still air the episodes featuring him on the grounds that not doing so would have also meant un-personing Paul B. and Oliver, who had done nothing to deserve such treatment.
He also was not brought back for the finale.
What Were They Selling Again?: Several people on his team commented his branding for the escape room resembled more of a petrol station or recycling plant.
You Have Failed Me: Along with Series 14’s Kurran, Series 17’s Denisha and many others before him, was fired for failing to show Lord Sugar he could lead a team effectively.
Paul B.
Didn't Think This Through: Kept repeatedly pushing for a chocolate-based cheesecake despite the client making it clear that they were a fruit-based company, part of which played a large role in his firing.
Graceful Loser: After being fired, Paul's response was merely a chipper "fair enough, mate" towards Lord Sugar.
Never My Fault: Inverted. Just like Shazia in the previous season, he owned up to a lot of his mistakes, but like Shazia, Lord Sugar felt he made too many to be forgiven.
Wink "Ding!": Received one of these in the first episode.
Oliver
Bystander Syndrome: Fired from the first task after being accused by several of his teammates of doing nothing.
Lethal Chef: Downplayed. He forgot to put the flour in the chocolate brownies, but apparently it wouldn't have mattered too much if the other subteam had arrived on time.
Red Shirt: Much like Series 11's Dan and Series 15's Shahin, he looked hopelessly out of his depth from the very beginning.
One-Hit Wonder: He did admittedly do a decent job negotiating for the apple cider but it was not enough to save him from being fired.
Narm Charm aspects rather than play it completely straight.
