Severed Alliances And Copyright Infractions: ‘Apprentice’ Episode 7 Recap

We’re now more than halfway through “The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition,” and only half of the original 16 global candidates remain.

On Episode 7 of the hardest-hitting version of “The Apprentice” yet, one more person was eliminated, alliances were cut, and most of the candidates experienced their first taste of martial arts action.

Here’s what went down on Episode 7 of “The Apprentice.”

Competing In The Cage

When the global candidates joined “The Apprentice,” in the back of their minds they knew that, eventually, they would have to participate in a martial arts challenge.

That challenge came in Episode 7 at Evolve MMA in Singapore.

ONE Women’s Strawweight World Champion “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan and Indian Wrestling Champion Ritu “The Indian Tigress” Phogat – this week’s guest athletes – told the candidates that they would be competing against each other in full-contact grappling, and whichever team won the “best of five” series would be declared the victors.

In the first match, Irina Chadsey beat Jessica Ramella to give one win to Team Valor. In the second bout, Nazee Sajedi defeated Paulina Purnomowati, giving Team Conquest its first win. Then Monica Millington handed Kexin Ye a loss, giving Team Valor its second win.

Since Team Valor had five members – one more than Team Conquest – someone had to sit out. The decision rest on last week’s winning Project Manager, former mixed martial arts champion Louie Sangalang, who opted to bow out and let his teammate, Eugene Chung, compete.

Ultimately, Eugene defeated Niraj Puran Rao to bring home the W for Team Valor. In the process, he redeemed himself for his mishaps in Episode 6.

Wildlife Campaigns

Leading into the business challenge, ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong – himself a lifelong martial artist – was impressed with both team’s grappling efforts and called them “true warriors.”

Then, Advisor Niharika Singh delivered the global candidates their next business task. This time, the two groups had to create a public relations campaign and podcast for the Wildlife Reserves Singapore’s (WRS) conservation initiative for endangered Pangolins.

Before that, however, Chatri sent Irina to Team Conquest, which meant her alliance that was formed with Monica last week had been severed.

For Team Conquest, Jessica acted as Project Manager while Eugene volunteered to be the Project Manager for Team Valor. Defeating Niraj in grappling wasn’t enough for Eugene, as he wanted to prove his worth in the boardroom, too.

However, shortly after Eugene took the helm for Team Valor, he felt Monica was undermining his role as leader and asked her to have a chat. Monica responded by calling Eugene paranoid.

Team Conquest was experiencing similar heat. Nazee thought Jessica was favoring her friends over her team, and they continued to bump heads from last week.

The group did have one thing going for them, though – they all agreed that Louie might be setting Eugene up for failure by letting him take the Project Manager’s role.

Clinical Vs. Emotional Pitches

Team Valor and Team Conquest were now ready to pitch their campaigns to Chatri, Niharika, and guest advisor Melissa Kwee, CEO of the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Center (NVPC).

Jessica pitched Team Conquest’s campaign first, dubbed “Wild Habits,” and focused on increasing this generation’s awareness of the environment.

Unfortunately, Chatri felt the team missed its mark for three major reasons: the lack of emotional storytelling, its overly-clinical approach, and most importantly, they failed to focus on Pangolins.

Melissa echoed the ONE Chairman and CEO’s sentiments, adding that the team should’ve made the campaign relatable to their target audience.

Team Conquest, however, got off to a great start. Its “Not As Tough As We Look” campaign included using an image of ONE Heavyweight World Champion Brandon “The Truth” Vera, which drew smiles from Chatri.

With that, he said Team Conquest did a great job of emotionally connecting the audience to their cause, but he criticized their action items.

Melissa loved the campaign, noting that every hero has a cause.

Surprise In The Boardroom

Once in the boardroom, Chatri reminded the remaining global candidates as to why they were here and what’s at stake.

But he did have concerns for Team Valor. He wanted to know why Louie didn’t compete in the grappling challenge against Niraj.

Irina jumped in to say it was strategic on Louie’s part to let Eugene compete because if he lost, it would’ve been easy to eliminate him. But Louie narrowed the decision down to one simple reason – he didn’t want to grapple a white belt. Still, Chatri thought that the Filipino put his team at risk.

Chatri addressed Team Conquest on the other side of the room, reminding them that although they did a phenomenal job overall in the business challenge, they missed the emotional mark.

Jessica blamed Nazee for her lack of contribution, but Nazee wasn’t surprised as the two have become growing enemies on the show.

It seemed that Team Conquest was on its way to the chopping block, and Jessica even said she wanted to take Nazee and Kexin with her.

However, in a sudden turn of events, Niraj revealed that Team Valor had broken copyright laws by using an already-existing “Lin the Pangolin” logo, and Chatri immediately deemed Team Conquest the winners.

Then the ONE Chairman and CEO took even more drastic measures and told Eugene he wasn’t the one, right on the spot.

“Leaders do what is right, not what is easy,” Chatri said.

Tune in to AXN next Thursday, 6 May, to catch all the drama on Episode 8 of “The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition.”