Mona became the latest candidate to get fired as Empire failed in their bid to rebrand Margate for the gay community.
Mona never really warmed to the idea and, in particular, found it difficult to work under project manager Debra in unchanged teams.
Debra had somewhat forced her way into the position in the first place, denying Howard the chance to lead for the first time since week one.
But Howard retained an important role and rejected Mona's original suggestion of aiming for children and families in the brainstorming session.
Instead, he strongly encouraged James's idea of targeting the gay market.
Ignite, led by Yasmina in her first project manager role since week two, came up with the more standard concept of attracting families to the faded seaside town in Kent.
The task set by Sir Alan required the teams to pitch their ideas to a set of brand experts and then to the people of Margate themselves.
They also needed to produce a poster campaign with a slogan and a leaflet for their pitches.
For Empire, Mona and James headed to the coast and spoke to residents over the likelihood of success in rebranding Margate as a gay hotspot.
But asking the public about their campaign was something with which Mona was clearly ill at ease, especially when she talked with a pre-op transsexual.
Meanwhile Howard and Debra held auditions to find two male models for their posters.
Over at Ignite, Yasmina and Kate were also casting for two people to appear as 'mum' and 'dad' in their posters as Lorraine and Ben developed photo ideas by walking around the town.
Ben came up with a cringeworthy catchphrase - 'shellebrate family fun' - before Lorraine restored some sense with her 'See Margate through children's eyes' tagline.
But Empire struggled to come up with a memorable catchphrase and it would be a lack of clarity which would cause their ultimate downfall.
Howard warned Debra that they had too much text on their poster but she ignored him, and their whole campaign proved far too subtle.
Meanwhile, Mona and James took photographs intending to show the gay scene which for the main were rather vague, except for a decent shot of two men holding hands on the beach.
Ignite's plan of a large beach shot was originally scuppered by thick fog.
But once the fret cleared, Ben made sure they got the shots he wanted by framing everything between his fingers.
Not that team leader Yasmina was pleased.
When the photographs came through, she worried that Ben's framing had left minimal blank space for their text to be put over the photograph.
And once Lorraine returned with Ben, she argued petulantly with Yasmina over the quality of their final posters and leaflet.
But at least Ignite only suffered from some minor tiffs.
Empire had left the leaflet until the last minute and, short of time, their rudimentary effort ended up being a mish-mash of blank space and random photographs.
So it was not a surprise when neither the branding experts nor the Margate residents were impressed and they both marked Empire just four out of 10.
Ignite's campaign was far less revolutionary and their poster and leaflet front cover were devoid of any pictures of children to fit with their slogan.
But, on the whole, it was executed better and received seven out of 10 from both pitches.
And so, Yasmina and her Ignite team were duly rewarded with a day out driving round the Lotus racetrack.
But for Debra, Mona, Howard and James, only the boardroom awaited.
Sir Alan accepted Empire had been brave in targeting the gay scene but accused them of "whispering the message".
He blasted Debra and Howard for producing confusing and wordy posters and leaflets, which he thought looked like something from "a bunch of loonies".
Sir Alan said: "I looked at those posters and they tell me nothing!"
Then he turned his attention Mona, who lives in Kent, accusing her of a lack of creativity.
And James, not for the first time, was labelled as being on the periphery.
It also became apparent that Debra had lied during the pitches about the embarrassing blank space on their leaflets by suggesting it would be used by local advertisers.
Sir Alan advised her that it would have been better if she had told the truth and, after her clash with Nick Hewer last week, it looked as if she might get fired.
But at least Debra recognised Howard's efforts during the task and brought back her Margate-based sub-team of James and Mona instead.
It turned out to be a wise choice.
Mona's lack of creativity and support in the task were highlighted once again by Sir Alan and this overshadowed James' lack of input and Debra's tendency not to listen.
Sir Alan said: "Mona, I do not see any creativity and I have to start thinking about where you would slot into my organisation.
"You spoke about the pier in Margate and it looks to me that you might be right at the end of the pier in this process.
"Mona - with regret, you're fired."
In the cab, Mona disagreed with Sir Alan's decision and said she believes she is a better candidate than both Debra and James.
She added: "I have always been a fighter so this is not the end of me. I'm not going to cry over it.
"I did my best and I'm proud of what I have done."
Mona became the first candidate in the series to be fired "with regret" and certainly had her highlights.
Most notably, she demonstrated textbook negotiation skills as recently as the previous week when selling expensive sleeping bags in Manchester.
But, unfortunately for her, Sir Alan later revealed he believed she was too much of a one-trick pony, leaving just seven candidates remaining.
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