Industry's Sagar Radia on Rishi's fall

In the pulsating closing sequence of the episode, Rishi and Jim get high in an apartment building alongside a guy they met outside the pub earlier that night. While Jim monologues at him, with Ultravox’s “Vienna” blasting on the speakers, Rishi stares ahead with a look that makes it seem like his soul has been sucked out of him. There might be a lot of noise in the background, but for Rishi, there’s only eerie silence (at least for a little bit). Radia’s performance is great here, and the actor tells The A.V. Club that living in Rishi’s stillness in this particular moment was a challenge. “It felt like peeling back a character who has been hiding in plain sight for so many years,” he says. “You think you know Rishi until you see what it looks like when the noise stops for him. Season four, for me, was about figuring out how to get him to that place.” 

Radia, who has been with Industry since the start, says that he’s learned to expect the unexpected with how Down and Kay flesh out his character. “The boys are always pushing the boundary with him, and as an actor, how do you say no to that?” Rishi’s alpha-male personality is no secret; he’s always trying to one-up everyone else to be the top dog in the room. But it isn’t until an Uncut Gems-esque standalone episode in season three that the audience learns about his chaotic personal life, including the fact that he owes money to loan sharks and risks a major chunk of Pierpoint’s money to pay off his debts, decisions that lead to his spouse’s murder. “I wasn’t sure what his story in that episode would look like or if we could actually pull it off,” Radia reflects. “Mickey and Konrad are like managers of a sports team. They rile you up to get you to a position of doing your best, so that you’re excited about the challenge instead of being scared by it. That’s their skill as our leaders.” 

Season four brings out more of Rishi’s dark side. At one point in “1000 Yoots, 1 Marilyn,” he realizes that he doesn’t even know if his own kid recognizes him. The only companion he makes is Jim, the guy he’s been lightly stalking as a favor to Harper (who keeps him around to dig up dirt and scoops). So it’s safe to say that when Rishi tells Jim about his suicidal ideations, he isn’t kidding. “I didn’t expect how still this episode would be for Rishi, considering everything that happens to him,” Radia says. “Letting moments breathe was harder than doing the long, dialogue-heavy trading scenes that I got used to doing in the early seasons.” 

The payoff of this duo’s bonding in episode four ends in wreckage, with Rishi finding an overdosed Jim just as cops are banging on the door because of a noise complaint. Rishi then heads to the balcony and, after a brief contemplation, jumps. “My heart dropped while reading this part of the script,” Radia says. The fall doesn’t kill him, but breaks his ankles and spine to a degree that he can’t even stand as the police put handcuffs on him. It’s a messy end (for now) for a messy character. Radia can’t reveal if and when Rishi will pop in again this season, but adds that he’s just glad that death isn’t the fate of this Industry staple just yet. 

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.