‘Industry’ Season 4’s Perfectly Flawed Personalities
As Season 4 rounds into its finale, 'Industry' revels in the untidier side of humanity.
Season 4 of HBO’s Industry, the raw, inimitable show set in the finance sector, puts the flaws in its characters front and center. A show in this setting could easily be dry, exclusionary, or obtuse, yet it’s riveting. This cutthroat world is messy and fascinating, and Industry revels in the untidier side of humanity.
Let’s touch on obtuseness for a moment. I’m not implying the financial jargon in the fourth season is any easier to understand. In fact, it sometimes strays even further from comprehension to anyone not steeped in the culture. But what Industry lacks in broader appeal, it makes up for in the accessibility of its complex characters. We see their ambitions, their public faces; but we also see shame, cowardice, vice, and vulnerability.
Harper (Myha’la) remains the central figure, in all her complicated glory. Her ambition and rashness have taken her from job to job, but in ever-increasing positions of responsibility and prominence. This season really sees Harper own her power. She enters the first episode like a boss: in an expensive, fashionable suit, worn with a matching overcoat, where she doesn’t use the sleeves. Wearing a coat over just your shoulders is the new visual shorthand for female power. Later in the episode, when Harper dons a rubber phallus for the first time, it’s a moment that could be cliché: a powerful woman with penis envy. Instead, it’s a natural progression on Harper’s journey.
After an unsanctioned move gets her kicked out of yet another firm, Harper approaches her former boss/father figure/rival, Eric (Ken Leung), to partner and start their own. But Harper’s ambitions and drive to be correct bite her. Anxious to hook investors on her venture, she makes an unsubstantiated claim about the financial health of payment processor Tender, an up-and-coming market darling, and then digs her heels in trying to find evidence to back her position. This time it’s not just her reputation she’s endangering, it’s Eric’s money and solvency – not to mention putting Sweetpea (Miriam Petche) and new teammate Kwabena (Toheeb Jimoh) out of jobs.
Harper to Eric: “Surely it’s not lost on you that you picked a hyper-transactional career where the transactions aggregate to zero.”
Being obviously, desperately lonely, Eric and Harper both agree that money is the only thing they can rely on. Eric is a fascinating and broken man, a self-described “animal who runs on attention.” He knows it’s a personal failure that he can’t ascribe value to being a father because they don’t make him feel “substantial.” Past betrayals forgiven, Eric instead extends his fatherly affection to Harper. Following weeks of pushing him away and insisting their relationship stay strictly business-only, she opens up to Eric after a personal loss, and they share a genuinely touching moment. Their ever-morphing relationship is a core component of the show’s success.
Speaking of loneliness, Yasmin (Marisa Abela) has traded a harassment-riddled life of public scandal for a caregiver role in her new marriage, as Henry (Kit Harington) melted into incapacitating depression and drug use following his company’s failure and losing an MP election. But Yasmin has also found her footing this season. She painstakingly arranges for Henry to take over as Tender’s CEO, and when he finally breaks out of suicidal ideation, she makes it clear she will not stand for any relapses.
To further her control over the situation, Yasmin orchestrates a threesome between them and Henry’s assistant Hayley (Kiernan Shipka), where Yasmin mostly watches dispassionately from across the room. She is clearly using sex for power, but the aim isn’t as obvious. Is Yasmin angling for personal security in a divorce battle with Henry? Does she simply enjoy exerting dominance over them both? On the other hand, some have postulated that Hayley was manipulating Yasmin from the beginning.
New face to the series, Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella) has a sexual interest in Henry. At their first meeting, Whitney inflates Henry’s ego, following Yasmin’s coaching, to inspire him to take the CEO position. Whitney believes in Henry’s former glory and wants Tender to benefit from Henry’s aristocratic connections. But it looks like it’s becoming more than that as their working relationship develops. There’s a near-kiss before an important presentation where Whitney is stroking Henry’s ego once again.
While the gentlemen of the show turn toward each other, the ladies seem to be turning against one another. Yasmin has a rocky history with Harper, having been betrayed by her in the past. Though they’ve mended their friendship since then, Yasmin isn’t surprised to learn Harper is actively directing bad press at Tender and trying to uncover dirt for personal profit. Harper’s been working with James Dycker (Charlie Heaton), an investigative journalist, to find a smoking gun in Tender’s financials so her short-only fund can deliver a huge payout for her investors.
We’ve seen Harper choose business over friendship time and again. This time, she’s convinced that unmasking Tender is a public service, that she’s somehow standing up for justice rather than just petulantly wanting to be right. At the core, she’s chasing a payday, plain and simple, yet something in us roots for Harper to succeed. Her tenacity and big d*ck energy make her compelling, even charming. Perhaps it’s also the way they’re framing Yasmin in comparison, with her growing coldness and manipulations stirring echoes of her abusive father.
What Industry sets out to tell us, ultimately, is that the pursuit of money changes you; it is hollow, yet essential; and to borrow a phrase from Harper, f**king undeniable. It’s a beautiful trainwreck, and I can’t look away.
Industry Season 4 airs on HBO and streams on HBO Max at 9 p.m. ET on Sundays through March 1, 2026. Season 5 has not yet been confirmed.
