Night-clubbing scenes that match the sweaty intimacy of the real thing have long been an Industry staple. In season four, the dance floor became a predatory space where Jim Dyker (Charlie Heaton) crossed an ethical line in the premiere; last week, Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella) led the soon-to-be Tender pasty Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington) down a path of infidelity in a gay club. This penultimate episode isn’t without its victims. Yet, there are zero ulterior motives—beyond living out the fantasy of two young women without a care in the world—when Harper (Myha’la) and Yasmin (Marisa Abela) get lost in Daft Punk’s transcendent “Veridis Quo.” Sure, they both had a hand in setting the financial and political landscape on fire, yet for now, Yasmin wants to do all the things that Lorde sings about. She wants to be 17 again.
Professionally, Harper and Yas are unrecognizable from the young graduates that met at Pierpoint in the first season. Still, insecurities remain about feeling less than. Yas is jealous of Harper’s intelligence that she wears fiercely; Harper wishes she could live a day in Yasmin’s body, experiencing a world that opens up around her. It is this ongoing push-pull, combined with their ability to find solace in the other, that makes them one of the most arresting duos on TV. Yes, they are highly toxic and competitive, but they stand out from other dysfunctional Industry relationships because they are honest with each other. When Yasmin tearily says she grew up “at someone’s mercy,” Harper doesn’t need to ask any follow-ups, as she helped cover up how Yasmin’s father died.
Creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay (who wrote and directed this episode) treat the central friendship like a will-they/won’t-they. The question is whether they will be friends again, not lovers. Yes, they kiss on the dance floor, but this is tender, not full of desire. Loneliness is what unites them, and without Eric (Ken Leung), Harper is adrift once more. However, it is Yas who takes the nuclear option in “Points Of Emphasis,” choosing to blow up Tender and her marriage. That Yas uses the powerful Norton media group, run by Henry’s uncle, Viscount Alexander (Andrew Havill), to push the knife deeper into Henry’s back adds to the central betrayal.
The episode opens with the first few bars of “Veridis Quo,” offering a musical bookend of two contrasting scenes. There is a duality to this title that is very apt for Industry. Saying it outloud sounds like “very disco,” which is what the two women experience at the end. In Latin, this phrase means “Where are you going?” or “To what purpose?” It is telling that we hear so little of the song before another Yas and Henry meltdown. If she thought things were bad at Henry’s birthday party when she first invited Whitney to pitch a business opportunity, then this is nothing compared to their current predicament. “You still have a fucking nose on your face, so where’s the rest of the money?” Yas yells in disbelief. He hasn’t spent it on drugs but Tender stock. At this point, he might as well have snorted it.
Rather than a husband-wife team up, their polarizing priorities put them on a collision path. Henry’s is driven by reputation and unmotivated by practical concerns, such as losing financial security. It speaks to their backgrounds that the only thing he thinks worth saving is that he is “a good person, and the world shall tell that back to me.” Keeping the focus on Yas as her eyes dart around the room looking for an escape speaks volumes. The abrupt cut to the next morning emphasizes how content the sleeping Henry is to lay this blame at others’ feet, while Yas has been awake all night, contemplating a solution to this nightmare.
That Henry is preoccupied by his standing in the public eye speaks to the shame emanating from his father’s death. Later, Yas mentions that Henry has lived a life free from consequences, which isn’t an entirely fair read considering the formative event we saw play out during Henry’s birthday acid trip. Given Yasmin’s experience with her father, self-protection prevails; and if there were ever a couple not destined to be together, it is this one. Harington and Abela continue to electrify during heated, emotional moments that combine screaming matches and a desperate need. Yas might be the architect of his downfall by making that introduction, but she will not be left holding the bag. Neither will Whitney.
While Henry and Yas run the spectrum of emotions, Minghella continues to hit all the calm, controlling notes that make Whitney so slippery. However, the mask slips, giving the Emmy-nominated actor more shades to play. Henry compares Whitney to a reptile; still, his silver tongue has its limits. An overnight trip to the Pierpoint Al-Miraj AGM in New York unravels the Michael Clayton-like plotting, giving this season its spine. Whitney’s plan to do a runner is undone when Ferdinand (Nico Rogner) intercepts his burner phone and a familiar face shows up. After all that, it turns out Jim was murdered. I had laughed off the conspiracy theories and had even chalked up Dez (Martin Hancock) going back to Rishi’s (Sagar Radia) as a red herring. I was very wrong. Whitney has legitimate reasons to be scared. Fear is a new flavor for the Tender boss, who tries to brush off his late-night venture to Henry as paying for sex. Henry doesn’t look entirely convinced, but at this point, he would rather believe this cover story than know how deep it goes.
Whitney’s lackluster performance pitching a hostile takeover at the AGM suggests he is going through the motions because he never planned to be there. He manages to show some enthusiasm by the end, but it is telling that support comes from a guy Hayley (Kiernan Shipka) was previously sent to seduce. Everything is smoke and mirrors, and while the takeover seems like a sure thing, it turns out that Pierpoint’s Wilhilmina (Georgina Rich) had Whitney’s number pegged after she did a little digging. (“Snake oil and sermons sound similar, don’t they?”) If only Henry were this astute, because he doesn’t see Whitney’s next move coming, or that his wife and uncle collude to make matters worse. It is the latter that offers the biggest surprise of the penultimate episode. Yasmin’s tears suggest these choices pain her. Still, the way she uses Henry’s drug-taking history to get Alexander on side is not your typical intervention.
Some of the big moves this week get a little stuck in the weeds as the overlapping conspiracies near their crescendos. Industry is never not thrilling, but as the storyline moves further from its original setting, I can’t help but be drawn to the more intimate moments, like Henry’s toddler-like meltdown on the plane when he can’t get the phone to work or his sheer shock at Whitney deserting him. It is also why the Harper and Yasmin bar scene is so effective. “How the fuck did we get here?” is quite the accurate question.
But while the shadowy figures pulling the strings remain offscreen, the depiction of desperate politicians is oddly prescient. Leaders of U.K. and U.S. politics are never referred to by name, but everything about the Labour Party in power makes it clear that Kier Starmer is the Prime Minister. Earlier this month, Starmer’s actual chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned in light of an Epstein-related scandal. In this fictional setting, Secretary oO State Lisa Dearn (Chloe Pirrie) gets pushed out, and her righteous fury and perfectly deployed Anne Boleyn quotes (“Acquit yourself of your charge for I have long been prepared”) are a highlight. Pirrie, who was fantastic in Dept. Q, emphasizes Lisa’s unwillingness to bend to any of the Tender BS, which makes her the rare Industry character with any integrity. No wonder she was sacrificed.
That Yasmin turns to the notorious red-top tabloids (in this case, The Patriot stands in for the Rupert Murdoch-owned The Sun) to do her bidding shows her willingness to bend a story to survive. Industry adds yet another formidable name to the guest-star list: Pip Torrens as Patriot editor Kevin, who has the authority to showcase the terrifying ease with which the British media help mold political narratives. Far from a moral quandary, Yas has previously shown she has zero qualms about ruining someone’s career with a perfectly deployed story (real or fake). Whereas MP Jennifer Bevan (Amy James-Kelly) balks at this move, self-preservation at any cost is a Yas specialty. It is notable that Kevin refers to Yas as a “hard fucking bird” and that she later describes herself as being “so fucking soft” to Harper in the bar. Perception is everything, and going into the season finale, Yasmin has the upper hand and her best friend back at her side.
Stray observations
- • Everyone plays their role: Harper gets Burgess (David Wilmot) to use FinDigest to kick-start Yasmin’s media narrative. But he draws a line when Harper plays the Jim Dyker card: “That there is fucking grotesque.”
- • “It’s been beautiful to watch you flourish, you Tory.” Lisa tells Jennifer Bevan exactly how she feels on the card with a gorgeous bouquet of roses. Jenny is down two friends this week because she rejects Yasmin for getting herself into this position and spinning the lie that destroys Lisa’s career.
- • Eric is gone, but a framed photo of his daughters, Lily and Lara, remains on his hotel-room nightstand. He will definitely get his $10 million stake back, seeing as Tender stock is down 77 percent.
- • I have to hand it to the Sun-like pun-filled Patriot headline mock-up: “Minister resigns in APP-solute disgrace.”
- • The repetition of Nathan Micay’s drum beat score from Henry’s birthday to soundtrack the aristocrat waking up on the private jet adds a foreboding quality. Henry mentions he dreams of everyone leaving him, and little does he know that a nightmare is occurring in real time.
- • Another song repeat is When In Rome’s “The Promise,” which plays over Henry and Yasmin contemplating their lack of options in the opening scene and again when Team SternTao breaks down their success, providing the transition into the Harper-and-Yas bar scene. Industry continues to have one of the best soundtracks on TV thanks to music supervisor Ollie White.
Emma Fraser is a contributor to The A.V. Club.
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