[Editor’s note: This piece contains spoilers for Industry.]
The title of Industry‘s fourth-season finale, “Both, And,” comes from Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela) lecturing Harper Stern (Myha’la) about how exploitation and opportunity aren’t mutually exclusive. In many ways, it speaks to the broader themes explored in Mickey Down and Konrad Kay‘s series as well. Industry‘s protagonists began as employees of a London investment bank before adapting to the enterprising but merciless world around them. By changing the agenda each season, the characters—and the show itself—continue to evolve in extreme ways. Season four, perhaps the grimmest, capped off with an appropriately devastating hour.
In “Both, And,” Yas and Harper, who just shared a kiss while dancing in a club in the previous episode, have a confrontation that once again alters the state of their toxic dynamic. They’re on opposite sides, with Harper trying her damnedest to save her friend from falling into a dark hole. “Come on, take my hand, let’s go,” she pleads, after witnessing the career pivot Yas has taken. Yas refuses, seemingly okay facilitating young women sleeping with older powerful men and associating with Nazis. The A.V. Club spoke to Myha’la and Abela about figuring out how to perform this pivotal scene and returning to a TV show that loves to challenge them.
The A.V. Club: Four seasons in, what is it that makes you want to keep coming back to this world?
Myha’la: The thing that makes me want to keep coming back is always the writing. Nothing yet has beaten Mickey and Konrad’s point of view with these characters. They challenge me and they challenge themselves with the writing. Their commitment to topping themselves every season is amazing. I love that and appreciate someone who sees in me the ability to go to places that maybe no one else thinks are possible. I love it when they write themselves in a corner each year, and then we all have to try to get out of it. That’s what makes [Industry] fun.
Marisa Abela: For me, it’s rare to have scripts that are this rich for everyone involved. There’s a level of trust you have as an actor on this show that you’re going to be served well. Mickey and Konrad have a passion for writing us great material. It’s not just for themselves; it’s for us. They see our strengths and really play to them, which is a privilege.
AVC: Speaking of that, what do you find most compelling about playing the consistently oscillating dynamics between your characters at this point in the show?
MA: It’s just how real it is. It’s incredibly intimate, so a lot of people might disagree with me when I say that it’s so real, and I understand that. But a lot of people wouldn’t allow someone to get so deep with them, both in a positive and negative way, if they weren’t absolutely sure that was their ride-or-die person. But I think that’s what Harper and Yasmin are for each other, but instead of ride or die, they are ride and die [laughs].
M: Riding to their deaths.
MA: It’s a really intense relationship. They mean a lot to one another. That’s what makes it compelling to me, too, because it’s something all of us crave, which is the ability to be genuinely honest with the people that we love.
AVC: We have to talk about the final confrontation at the party between Harper and Yasmin in the finale and what it means for them moving forward.
MA: We both went into that scene not knowing what it was going to be. The great thing about all this is Mickey and Konrad know us now. We’re figuring it out in rehearsal, certainly, but then they’ll just let us go and let us get it on camera immediately so that that rawness is captured, as opposed to maybe in earlier seasons or on other projects, where a director feels like they need to see exactly what it is before we start rolling. Mickey and Konrad trust us to get it where it needs to be. And it’s hard to anticipate what it’s going to be until we’re looking into each other’s eyes and saying those words with meaning because it’s so emotional. I’m being Yasmin in this new place, and Harper is seeing Yas and trying to get her out of it. What you see in that scene is the two of us discovering for the first time what it looks like when Yas is drowning and unable to save herself or accept help. What does it feel like for Yas and Harper? At what point do they look at each other and need to say, “We need to walk away from this?”
M: We were also really lucky because we filmed that club scene and the bar scene in the finale before in chronological order because, to me, that was the most vulnerable, real, and intimate they’ve ever been, with no ulterior motives or agenda. So this feels, at least for Harper, like a huge betrayal, where she’s thinking, “I just thought we got to a place where we were honest and we could help each other.” Unfortunately, that’s just not true.
AVC: These two characters are separated from each other a lot this season. And in this finale, when they are together, their interaction is brutal and should wreck fans who like them as a pair.
M: Just as much as the audience craves Harper and Yasmin together, I always crave acting with Marisa. I’m always so excited to see how these two people are going to come back together because they need to. They inevitably will, regardless of how badly they traumatize each other. It’s a relationship built on so much history and truth, whether it’s good, bad, or ugly. They have been through so much together and know so intimately what the other person is at their core and what they really want. We spend a lot of time apart in season four, which is personally devastating for me because of how much I love Marisa. She’s so smart and she challenges me all the time, and I love working with her for those reasons. I think all of that comes through in the show as well. They really do crave each other, and I hope that’s what comes across when our characters are finally together towards the end.
Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.
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