We would not be surprised if tonight's episode of The Apprentice was set at that famous London department store simply so Lord Sugar could make some sort of "what a bloody Liberty" pun – but it turns out it doesn't matter, because tonight's episode was another entertaining reminder that we definitely made the right decision when we chose not to be a budding entrepreneur on a reality show.
Luckily, we came to this realisation before actually applying to a reality show and making it on to a reality show and getting to the fourth week of a reality show. That wasn't quite the case for Aleksandra King, who announced to her slightly surprised teammates that she'd decided to ditch the whole thing just after they'd picked Grainne as their project manager.
If she was looking for sympathy and cuddles, she didn't get them; after realising that she was not, in fact, joking, Team Nebula made it quite clear that she should bugger off immediately so they could bloody well get on with things. Meanwhile, Lord Sugar – in a departure from his normal grumpy demeanour – at least saw the positive side: "I've saved myself a cab fare." Given that he also revealed his resentment about paying 5p for a plastic bag in Tesco in tonight's show, we're starting to understand a little more about how he amassed his fortune.
Fortunately for Liberty, not everyone with money thinks like Lord Sugar; in fact, some of them are apparently quite happy to splash out £1,200 on a scarf (we genuinely refused to buy one the other day because we thought £18 was a bit steep, so make of that what you will). Mind you, if we did have a bit of a fortune in our back pocket, we're not sure we'd trust the Apprentice candidates to help us spend it wisely.
Because if nothing else, this episode was a lesson in how pride comes before a fall; for all his bluster about being a great salesman, project manager Sofiane was unable to shift practically any scarves, while over on the other team, Mukai's supposed omniscience about handbags and leather goods – which convinced his fellow candidates to try and sell them – completely failed to materialise into anything that could actually be considered productive.
Of course, we can't be too harsh on Mukai – he did design the concept for his team's window display. Unfortunately, he came up with something so artistic and abstract that no-one knew what the hell it was supposed to be about. Claude Littner was so incensed that he stood raving outside the shop window, shouting furiously about how it was all lost on him. Lord Sugar, whose love of metaphor and abstraction has never exactly been abundant, smirked: "You might not win the task. You might win the Turner Prize." Wouldn't hold your breath, Mukai.
In fact, tonight's episode was actually about the benefits of being humble – something we never really expected to see on The Apprentice. While the cocky over-confidence of Sofiane and Mukai ended up backfiring, Jessica settled down and ended up becoming one of her team's biggest sellers, proving she does have some actual competence behind the gurning.
The real revelation, though, was Karthik. Don't misunderstand us – Karthik is still an absolutely baffling creature, almost too good to be true, the sort of candidate we'd expect to see rolling off an Apprentice-star conveyor belt. But we certainly saw a different side to him in tonight's episode as he acknowledged his complete lack of fashion knowledge ("What are loafers? What is suede?") while still trying his best. "I believe the ability of a fish should not be judged on how well it can climb a tree," he announced. Well, if nothing else, it's hard to disagree with that, if only because we're not quite sure what he's on about.
While we've indulgently rolled our eyes at Karthik on repeated occasions this series, we sort of accidentally fell in love with him tonight. Even Claude wasn't immune, marvelling at how Karthik had suddenly transformed into a "fashion guru". That's why we were so disappointed when Grainne eventually chose to bring him back into the Boardroom. (We use the word "eventually" advisedly, as she changed her mind about seven times.)
We were even indignant about the way Lord Sugar treated Karthik, shouting at our televisions that we believed he had done quite a good job actually and that he definitely didn't deserve to go home if you don't mind. We needn't have worried; Mukai was always going to be a goner.
Actually, though, this week's task was quite a close one – there was only essentially a handbag in it, even if it did happen to be an obscenely over-priced handbag. Indeed, aside from the odd slip-up here and there – Alana making more terrified faces; one team refusing to put someone in their window display – everyone acquitted themselves rather well. That made a refreshing change… especially after the jeans task a fortnight ago when we genuinely wondered whether Lord Sugar would fire the lot of them.
The Apprentice is at its best when the facial expressions, gaffes and awkwardnesses speak for themselves instead of being thrust down our throats, and that's what happened tonight in an episode which still kept things on a knife edge. Oh, and if nothing else, we can always be reassured that JD has the tea under control.
LORD SUGAR'S BEST BIT: The moment he tried to engage Mukai in a bit of handbag banter: "You know your Helmut Langs from your Vera Wangs, so to speak."
BIZARRE BULLSHIT OF THE WEEK: "I'm like water. You put water in a cup, it becomes a cup. You put water in a bottle, it becomes a bottle. I am flexible. I am lean." Karthik, mate, we genuinely don't know what to do with that.
The Apprentice airs on Thursdays at 9pm on BBC One.