The Apprentice - episode 7 review: Sussex contestant Melica 'side-lined' as Lord Sugar shocks with double firing

Melica, who is proud to be representing Worthing on the series, is the ambitious owner of a thriving AI tech recruitment business.

Looking to connect her passions for business and travel, Melica’s goal is global. This driven and skilled salesperson is set on her biggest challenge yet, to recruit business tycoon Lord Alan Sugar as her next business partner.

There are spoilers in this article.

You can see what her latest odds are of winning here and you can find out about all the contestants in this year’s series here.

These are our thoughts on episode 7 of The Apprentice 2025.

The task – Melica’s highlights

Day 1

Melica is still yet to answer the phone in the morning. The 12 remaining candidates had to meet at the London Stock Exchange and were greeted by an animated Lord Sugar talking about pocket money. The task is to create a banking app with an accompanying piggy bank aimed at 6 to 9 year olds. They will pitch to some major investors. Amber-Rose, Jordan and Max moved from Team Ascendancy to team Parallel, Frederick and Anisa went the other way. ‘A strong swap’, according to my son.

Dean and Frederick put themselves forward for PM of Ascendancy, and Frederick was voted it in.

Jordan was named PM of Parallel – they went for a mythical character..

Mia suggested a dog character for Ascendancy’s app. Melica was the voice of reason in the chat about the app and suggested it should have some information about finances and money. Frederick responded with ‘potentially’. Go Melica!

Dean was named sub team leader – which Anisa was not happy about – and they, including Melica, were in charge of app. Anisa and Dean clashed over having bankruptancy in the app. Dean was not having it. In the other team, Mia took the lead in the design.

Melica was pushing the education side of the app, but Dean just said no. “The reason I am pushing back is that I am not agreeing with something I don’t believe in. The game doesn’t convey education. It just looks fun and that’s it.”

There was confusion in the other team as the app team went down a Cyber Hero route, the design team were doing a mythical hero, as was discussed in the morning.

Back to Melica, and she did a brilliant ‘ker-ching’ sound for the app. Dean was happy with his app.

Day 2

The teams met up at 7am. Jordan wasn’t happy with his sub-team’s money box, which was a cauldron. He said the logo was a ‘let down’.

Melica’s team all enjoyed the dog money box – it was pretty cool to be fair. The main criticism about the app was the education side of things, big tick for Melica.

Mia, Dean and Anisa were picked to do the market research. The dog money box was criticized by the kids for looking to ‘baby-ish’. They said the app wasn’t educational enough.

In the pitching to TSB, Monzo and Go Henry, Liam fell apart. He stumbled over his words and then provided some terrible answers. Jordan salvaged the pitch. The clients said they had an ‘identity crisis’.

Keir wore a dog mask to pitch. Cringe. But Frederick gave a wonderful pitch – underscored beautifully by the producers! Their app was called ‘simplistic’ and the clients were concerned it would encourage too much screen time. The co-founder of Go Henry called them on the lack of real life money education. Keir gave a babbling answer.

The money box was raised as an issue.

Melica said Keir’s performance in the pitch could cost them the task. I reckon Team Parallel have got this. I hope Melica fights her corner in the education side of things.

The Boardroom

Lord Sugar went to Team Ascendancy first. After watching the app, Anisa raised that she and Melica had raised the fact their should have been more education in it. Melica said: “I did voice my concern about the lack of financial literacy.”

Lord Sugar said the money box looked like it had jaundice. When the pitch was raised, Anisa said someone from the app team should have been part of the pitch. But Keir defended his corner and said if there was a problem with app, it wasn’t his fault.

The result

Team Ascendancy (Melica): xOne of the investors felt very strongly about the mopney box and the age it was aimed about, but two others had strong concerns about the lack of financial literacy. All three decided against investings. Lord Sugar said: “Bloody hell.”

Team Parallel: The investors liked the educational side of the app, and all three said they would invest £465,000 for further development.

Result: A resounding win for Team Parallel. They got sent to an adult-only soft play.

The cafe

Dean said he put everything into the app and got no help. Melica and Anisa both said they were constantly shut down. Melica said the branding team should not be getting away with this and blamed Mia and said ‘she has a lot to answer for’.

Who got fired?

Lord Sugar started by saying ‘in this process, some of you are badly overdrawn’. And said it was a disaster.

The financial literacy wa sbroguht up early and Melica mentioned staright away that she was shut down by Dean whenever she mentioned it. Anisa backed her up. Dean said he did shut them down but said he didn’t get any help. Melica said: “You needed help, but didn’t want it.” Baroness Brady looked very proud of her.

Frederick, bizarrely, brought back Melica and Dean, but Lord Sugar, who looked shocked, then said it was very disjointed – and he fired Frederick straight away, saying he didn’t like wasting time. Lord Sugar, when discussing with Karen and Tim, said Melica had been side-lined.

In summarising, Lord Sugar said Melica might have good ideas but she gets pushed aside. He said the pitch was the reason the task failed and he fired Keir! He gave

Verdict on Melica

Spoke sense in the brainstorming session but seemed to be dismissed by PM Frederick. And then Dean dismissed her as well when she pushed the education side of things in the app development. Early on it was clear even if her team lost – which they did – Melica would be safe. Arguably her best episode yet and defended herself well in the boardroom and should never have been selected by Frederick.

Next week’s task

10 candidates remain – next time they have to create a hot sauce and an advert. Lord Sugar said in the promo: “I’m fuming and it’s the biggest bit of garbage I have seen.”

You can read our review of episode one here, episode two here, episode three here, episode four here, episode five here and episode six here.