Spoiler alert: this recap is published after episode four of Industry season two airs on BBC One in the UK. Do not read on if you haven’t watched it.
Strip away the wheeler-dealing and this season of Industry has been concerned with its young characters’ motivations: what drives them to succeed at Pierpoint, at no small personal cost. This week, Eric finds out what little might come of a lifetime of company loyalty.
Two weeks after the disastrous hunting retreat that cost him his principal client, we find Eric at home, almost unrecognisable from the maverick we’re used to seeing prowl Pierpoint’s floor.
Distracted at the barbecue, dressed for dinner in a company hoodie, he is adrift. His family, meanwhile, has grown accustomed to his absence. Asked if they like having him around, his children can only summon a shrug.
As a Pierpoint lifer, Eric only knows one way to be of value. Now, no one seems to need him.
His insistence that he pay his team their bonuses, not golden boy Daniel Van Deventer, seems self-aggrandising – and not a little jealous. He bristles at his wife’s suggestion that he is worth more at home and tells her that he is “as fresh” as ever.
But the adolescent boosts Eric reaches for, to persuade his boss, Bill, of the same – the secret stash of cigs, the affections of an old flame, flip-flopping over his tie – makes it clear: he’s not convinced himself.
After Eric attempts to intimidate DVD, his one-time mentee goes to Bill and secures Eric’s transfer to a client-facing position. To Eric, it’s a fate worse than death: “a retirement home”. But to Bill, it’s just business: “If you stop producing, you’re simply a cost.”
It emphasises the spiralling toll of this toxic work culture – at least to the viewer. DVD has always insisted to Harper that Eric covets and fears their youth; by sidelining Eric, DVD has proved him right and stoked the vampiric cycle.
Eric himself was faltering in the footsteps of his late mentor, Newman, who abused his protegees even as he brought out the best in them, and was pitied by Bill for having “worked right up to the end”.
At least now Eric has a shot at securing a different eulogy – though seeking solace in the arms of his ex (and Newman’s widow) suggests his family may not get the best of him yet.
Meanwhile, back in London, DVD and Harper celebrate her six-figure bonus (cruelly capped at £225,000) at Sushisamba and – finally! – sex.
As ever in Industry, it’s unclear whether their interest in each other is romantic, strategic or both. Certainly DVD seeks access to Jesse Bloom, smooth-talking Harper into securing him an audience – to impress his group chat, he says – then showing her up with his sales patter.
Then again, Harper is just as ruthless, extracting herself from their postcoital embrace to call Jesse and smack-talk DVD, even as she wipes traces of him off her body.
It would be Shakespearean-level subterfuge if, having neutralised Eric, DVD were to now be undone by Eric’s younger protegee. This is a mentee-eat-mentor world; you help someone sharpen their sword at the risk of them using it against you.
Closing up
Gus has talked his way into an internship with Aurore, “the Tory with a conscience” (can we have one of those, please?) – and, in doing so, disturbed his own.
After his proposed talking points are smacked down, Gus finds himself face to face with a disgruntled constituent bearing a box of what he claims to be dog excrement.
But where Aurore only likes people to think that “they have the ear of their MP”, Gus finds himself listening – even potentially, in an Industry first, “helping people”.
As the first of Industry’s central four to be disillusioned by Pierpoint (his parents believe he still works there), it’s only right that Gus should be the first to find peace. “And with God, I go,” he says.
Closing down
Yasmin begins this episode assuring Maxim “with respect” that she knows what is best for her family’s money – and concludes it petulantly seeking assurance that there is any of it left.
Maxim’s evasiveness, which Yas chalked up to his bruised male ego, turns out to have been an attempt to shield her from her father’s costly affairs.
Her father has always been thoroughly loathsome but Yasmin, too, is hard to love this episode, being noticeably less rattled by the payouts (and the women they have silenced) than their impact on her.
“Do we have money, are you wealthy?” she snaps at her dad. He is surprised that she could even think otherwise: “Well, of course … many lifetimes over.” Some comfort.
Most impenetrable City speak
There’s a lot of chat about a pharmacy called FastAid this episode, but what it boils down to is that Harper is now advising Jesse independently of Pierpoint’s interests – even sending his business to another bank. Where will this lead?
Best burn
DVD and Harper bond over his sarcastic suggestion they go to All Bar One: “It really pops off in there.” I hope we see a set piece at Tapas Tuesday before this season is out.
Boldest power play
Nicole has been playing it coy with Sweet Bobby, telling him she does not usually let young analysts into her “private space”. But when Harper lets slip about her own (nonconsensual) “moment” with Nicole, Robert realises that Mummy’s been manipulating him – and, like he told her, there are no “other girls”.
Lowest ebb
Having disrespected Maxim and been ditched by Celeste (who has a wife – and a curfew), Yas once again invites herself over to Robert’s place.
He, understandably, flees for bed – leaving Harper to suffer through Yas’s coke-fuelled monologue about her Covid spent seshing, and stress-shopping for the perfect white pyjamas. “The worst part, I think it was the best fucking summer of my life,” Yas says, self-pityingly. Harper’s look of disgust is warranted.
Industry season two is on BBC One in the UK, HBO Max in the US and Binge in Australia
