The fifth episode of Industry’s stellar third season is titled “Company Man.” But it could just as easily been titled “2+2=fucked.” The line comes from Eric (Ken Leung) upon hearing—from Sweetpea (Miriam Petche), of all people—the storm Pierpoint is heading toward which may well spell financial disaster for all involved. And in a way, it’s just as fitting a line to keep in mind as we unpack this whopper of an episode. For if “Company Man” suggests anything it’s that impunity is the name of the game and while pieces and pawns may be expendable (including that titular figure), the system and the very match this very game is being played at will always find a way to remain intact. “2+2,” if you’re not the one controlling the game, will always lead you to get (or at the very least make you feel) fucked.
But before we talk about the chaos that’s about to hit Pierpoint, let us turn to the episode’s central figure: Rob (Harry Lawtey), who’s about to enter a minefield of a hearing where Lumi’s government bailout (to the tune of £2 billion!) has rattled oversight committees who are seeing in this would-be scandal a chance to target a craven, vain start-up who left taxpayers with the bill for their foibles as well as the financial institution who both backed and overvalued them. And at the center of it all is Rob, who is counseled by Pierpoint’s lawyers to throw Henry (Kit Harington) and Lumi under the bus as much as he can all while clearly being placed in a position where he can be the perfect fall guy for Pierpoint should things not go their way. “Robert’s expendable” is how Eric puts it.
At the office, where everyone is dressed up for Children’s Investment Charity’s Day, Sweetpea takes Eric aside and lays out a Cassandra-like warning about Pierpoint: Some outsized prop bet is about to reach maturity, and it looks like that may wipe Pierpoint’s assets (or something—please do not make me explain the intricacies of financespeak, as I can barely keep up as it is). If what Sweepea has gathered from talking to various folks is correct, 2+2=fucked. Eric, a true company man, waves her away and scolds her a bit. She should stick to her desk. But he’s rattled enough to contact Bill Adler (Trevor White) to see what the folks upstairs know about this. “How bad is our balance sheet?” Eric asks and to hear Bill tell it…well, some change is afoot. But that’s best discussed later and not at the office.
Poor Rob. He does take quite a beating during the hearing: “Are you Sir Henry’s whipping boy or are you Pierpoint’s whipping boy?” is never a line you want lobbed your way. But he is stuck not knowing who to trust or who to rely on. Pierpoint insists he stick to his statement but it’s clear he was also in a rather incestuous relationship between banking institution and start-up. And yet, when he’s hammered with arguments like “human cost will always be something of an abstraction in your people’s line of work,” you do realize Rob is not quite the poster boy for Pierpoint’s business dealings or for Sir Henry’s moneyed privilege. And yet he’s the one then also called to answer for the allegations of sexual misconduct at Lumi, courtesy of Henry’s dalliances.
The one moment Rob and Henry (Kit Harington) get to share together, you realize how little this means to the vain Lumi founder: “This isn’t anything.” It’s a sentiment only someone who’s never had to answer for his actions could utter with such sincerity. By the time Henry talks with the committee he’s not so much humble as gently combative: “The only thing I’m guilty of is my optimism,” he crows, while throwing Pierpoint under the bus. “If there is a predatory side, they are on it. We are not.” It’s not good news for Rob (or for Yas, who’s watching the entire thing in the bathroom).
Speaking of bathrooms…from the beginning, Industry has made great use of them as spaces for killer moments. So of course that’s where Harper (Myha’la) ends up overhearing (by basically hiding in the stall ahead of her meeting with Yas and Petra) the bombshell warning Sweetpea shares with Yas in hopes of getting some guidance. Harper: always at the right place at the right time! Poor Sweetpea: She keeps being told to not worry her pretty little head about it.
Back at the hearing, things take a turn fast when a government official (a familiar face, Faith Alabi’s Aurore Adekunle) first takes responsibility for the bailout (it was necessary to help its customers) while also noting that there may be criminal investigation to be followed for what’s happened. It’s a bit of a perfect performance which ends with her admitting she’s tended her resignation since she believes in accountability in politics.
Which is kind of amazing until you see that maybe it was all a ploy (a play, really) by those in power. Rob gets escorted by Henry to one of those rooms where decisions are made and people’s lives are changed. Gathered are Sir Henry’s uncles (including Otto Mostyn) and later still Aurore herself who, it seems, is parlaying her past at Pierpoint and her time in government into higher political aspirations bolstered by these connections. It’s all quite sickening and bleak and par for the course for Industry. You understand why Rob then turns to blow and drinks to wash away the day. This is just another day for these folks, men (mostly) who have never have to face anything remotely resembling consequences for the craven, brazen actions.
And so even when Yas shows up (and gets horrible news about her father, that a body has been found), it’s not enough to rankle Henry out of his celebratory stupor—or convince Rob to solve all their problems by falling for her. “Why don’t you just fall in love with me? It would make things so much easier,” she tells him. (Might Industry be finally shipping these two for good?)
What does Henry do, then? He drags Rob to an Ayahuasca ceremony where Rob has a terrifying and hopefully eye-opening trip where his unconscious (which looks uncannily like the Pierpoint trading floor, of course) is a mess. He’s still clearly wrestling with the loss of Nicole (whom he sees pissing a rainfall under her skirt) and the mommy issues that belies. Meanwhile, all Henry can do is cackle and remind himself he needs to find a way to monetize this entire experience. Oh, he does find the time to text Yas, “You’re deeply connected to my purpose.” For her sake, you wish she’d ignore it and do away with him altogether, but he’s precisely her type. She’s destined to keep dating her dad.
That’s what she tells Rob, at least, when she arrives at his room later that night (or early that morning, as time is immaterial for these Pierpoint kids) and cuddles up to him. They’re clearly a portrait of domesticity, of kindled intimacy that goes beyond friendship. You do root for them to leave the world they’ve enmeshed themselves in and fall into one another’s arms, like they do at the end of the episode.
But of course that would be expecting too much for and of them, especially since what leads to their cuddling is an admission that feels a bit also like a guilt trip: “I killed him,” Yas says, in regards to her dad. She’s being both facetious and serious, testing out the line to see whether there’s truth in it. Marisa Abela’s expressions, going from shock and delight to just outright shock and despair as she cuddles Rob and toys with her words and the feelings they bring up should be enough to have us campaigning for her Emmy next year.
Stray observations
- • I need all professional GIF-makers to make that opening sequence of Rob sweatily working out flood all of our social-media feeds ASAP.
- • “I’m not a pervert; it’s an intimacy thing” is the kind of line that on the surface sounds like a line (one, perhaps, gently satirized here) but it’s actually quite an honest reappraisal of how to think about kinks—yes, even piss play which is surprisingly getting quite the focus this season.
- • Who had the better costume: Anraj as Mario, Sweetpea as Ginger Spice, Rishi as Ali G, or Yas as Princess Di?
- • Speaking of costumes, putting Eric in a Henry VIII outfit (with matching beheaded Anne Boleyn head) is so hilarious if a bit on the nose, given what that other Henry gets up to this episode.
- • And speaking of Eric, he learns that Bill is dying and that Pierpoint is getting a new CEO, someone who’s no doubt going to come in and try to play cleanup.
- • What a bombshell it is to learn that Rob was able to buy the home he owns because Clement (Robert’s manager from season one) died and left him money in his will.
- • What do we think Harper will do with her info on Pierpoint?
- • Rob really knows (and perhaps even loves) Yas. When Henry admits he loves Yas, he rightly counsels the Lumi boss to not disclose that.
