Critic’s Rating: 4.8 / 5.0
4.8
So, was it, Industry Fanatics?
Was it a “spectacular journey,” as Robert so aptly described in Industry Season 3 Episode 8?
We’re of the mind that it was a resounding yes as Industry delivered a pulse-pounding season that resulted in the series disrupting everything that we’ve known in the finale.
After the Season Finale, Where Can the Series Even Go Next?
One of the biggest takeaways from this supersized hour of prestige television is, “Where does Industry go from here?”
The season had a sense of finality as Industry Season 3 Episode 8 essentially separated all of our favorite characters, sending them down compelling, shocking, or exciting paths.
Pierpoint, as we know it, is no longer, which means this hub that housed all of these characters no longer exists the same way, leaving them out in the world in pursuit of other things.
But how will that factor into play during the fourth season?
Of them all, there was such a bookend to so much of Robert’s chapter that there were multiple moments throughout the season when it felt like he was signing off the series for good.
Not helping matters is the fact that the talented Harry Lawtey has become such a rising star that surely the thought of him no longer being available niggles at the back of minds frequently.
And Yasmin essentially leans heavily into her aristocratic capabilities, taking her out of the game in many ways.
It mostly leaves a “dinosaur” like Eric skulking around in the ashes, potentially waiting to get into the game again in a new way, and resident strategic survivor Harper Stern continuing to ascend to the type of the financial game.
The Bandits Back Harper, Just As We Suspected
Petra’s attempt to undercut Harper was downright laughable because the woman clearly never read the room when Otto and Harper shared the same space.
They’re cut from the same cloth, and if there was anyone Otto respected in Leviathan Alpha, it was Harper.
He sees himself in her, so it wasn’t surprising that his summoning consisted of him telling her about Petra “tattling” on her and giving Harper an out to screw Petra over and come work with him.
It’s not Harper who isn’t cut out for this business; it’s Petra. Yet Harper was willing to go along to get along with Petra for a bit, but you can tell her heart wasn’t in it.
She was mostly in it for power and flexing her ability to destroy Pierpoint and her revenge tactic on Rishi.
It’s incredible how she took a moment that made her feel weak and intimidated (Eric locking her in the room during Industry Season 1 Episode 6) and made it her new power tactic with the automatic door.
Sweetpea and Anraj finding a company that deserved them was a great end, and it even shows that Harper isn’t some cold, heartless psychopath as everyone alludes to often.
Industry’s Future is Bright with Morally Gray Harper
Of all the endings from Industry Season 3 Episode 8, Harper’s, naturally, is the most intriguing.
She landed a place in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and felt powerful, accomplished, and fearless enough to return to NYC after making something of herself.
Harper is standing on top of the world right now, a phoenix who rose from the ashes after setting everything that held her back ablaze.
As a Harper Stern apologist, it’s a thrilling place for the season to end, with so much potential ahead of her.
Her willingness to push boundaries further and operate in the shadows, essentially making her entire shtick shorting the shady companies that screw people over like some financial industry Robin Hood (although she’s certainly taking her cut in all of this), is appealing.
She’s not above using the worst tactics to get what she needs, whether corporate espionage or anything else.
For a character who others always wonder whether or not she’s morally bankrupt, she has a code of her own that dances happily on morally gray grounds without apology — unethical, sure, but based on whose rules?
It’s Only Criminal if You Get Caught
We’ve seen who makes the rules, sets the standards, and determines the ethics.
Are they all not morally bankrupt and self-serving, too?
The audacity to pretend it’s only a problem when someone like Harper opts to play the monopoly board in front of her as the Devil intended.
She’s made the perfect bedfellow in someone like Otto, who sees her for who she is and appreciates its value.
After all, like they said:
It’s only criminal if we’re caught.
— Harper Stern
Another aspect of Harper on top was the fact that Eric even gave a quote for her Forbes debut, and that phone call between the two was everything ripe and delicious about their dynamic.
Harper and Eric Can’t Quit Each Other, To Our Utter Delight
Like Otto, game recognizes game, and with the distance (and likely the realization that Harper is merely a product of what he fostered in her), he spoke to her with that fatherly fondness we love.
For goodness sake, he called her “Harps,” their parting phone conversation had him jokingly (but not really) inquiring about a job and telling her to take care.
When it’s all said and done, their mutual respect for one another will always prevail, and that’s promising.
And so is the mere mention of Jesse Bloom.
He’s out of prison, and one of the first things he did was ask Otto about Harper.
If there is room and space for Jesse Bloom to return to the series in the fourth season, I welcome it.
Can you imagine Otto, Harper, and Jesse working together? Hell, and throw Eric into the mix, too?
It’s like the Avengers of diabolical antiheroes — I would like, no LOVE, to see it.
The mere prospect that the series could potentially spend next season recentering Harper again is enough to make things exciting.
That’s not to say that Marisa Abela hasn’t been absolutely fantastic this season, as we dove into Yasmin in ways we never did before.
Yasmin Makes the Sensible Choice (It’s also a Selfless One)
Yasmin is one of the most complex women you’ll see on television, somehow upholding so many tropes in a compelling rather than grating way.
She has always been accustomed to a certain lifestyle, so it makes sense that she would gravitate toward whatever could secure her future.
Ultimately, it’s impressive that Yasmin did a selfless thing with Robert by letting him go.
She just did it in the messiest way imaginable, but even then, he understood it and her.
Robert is so gracious and pure that way.
But Robert could never give Yasmin the life she desires and the stability she needs, and no matter how often he graciously loves her despite anything and everything she does, it would be tough for her to ever be with him for real.
Robert is too good for Yasmin, and she knows that. With Robert, she chronically desires to be a better person than she’s capable of or even wants to be, and she likely realizes that.
Yasmin and Robert Find Closure in Industry Season 3 Episode 8’s Steamiest Scene
But she gave him some parting gifts, reaching out to Henry for her own reasons regarding Hanani Publishing, but also Robert.
She set him up with the seed money for his mushroom startup venture via Henry, something that, frankly, Henry would’ve owed poor Robert anyway.
And then she repeatedly told him she loved him while they had the most sensual, romantic, and sweet tryst in the garden of Henry’s massive castle.
It felt like something out of a romantic drama, all warm light, passion, and Abela and Lawtey’s most crackling chemistry of the series yet.
While I’ve never been a fan of this duo in any romantic or sexual context, their lovemaking was a beautiful sight.
Yasmin told him she loved him repeatedly, reassured him of that constantly, and let him come in her, too, which was pretty significant and intimate for her and them.
In any other series or film, this would be the moment that solidified these two as romantic soulmates, but this is Industry.
Yasmin’s Fate Was Always Sealed, But She Still Had the Control
Industry has told us the entire time that Yasmin is a woman destined to marry a man like her father in some capacity.
For the most part, we get that, as her sexy romp with Robert eventually led her to Henry for an honest discussion that was so loaded with things unsaid that Abela and Kit Harington had the task of conveying so many layers between the lines, and they did it fantastically.
Henry had opened up about the fears he has of being like his father, the troubles with keeping the dark monster that is his depression and suicide ideation away, and that’s why Lumi was so important to him in the first place.
It served as a literal lifeline for a man who has been outrunning his own darkness and barely making it.
But Henry also acknowledged early on that Yasmin had become his reason for living and existing because of his profound love for her.
He was faking the funk, throwing himself into the latest new-age zen persona in hopes that it would be the next thing to keep his mental illness at bay, but Yasmin saw through him and called out his shit.
Love and Pragmatism Go Hand in Hand in the Season Finale
She’s always been able to do that; she’s been “seeing” this man since they laid eyes on one another, as they’re cut from a similar cloth and carry scars because of it.
For Yasmin, Henry is a sensible soulmate and a pragmatic choice.
If anything abounds with the higher echelon of wealthy, powerful, and prestigious people, it’s the concept of pragmatism ruling.
Their eventual marriage gives them both things they need and desire and is also convenient.
Henry gets the woman who he can be most vulnerable with, who genuinely sees and understands him, who he loves deeply, and the person who fends off his darkness or at least makes it manageable.
And Yasmin gets the financial security, protection, acceptance, reverence, power, and title.
She’s Lady Muck, for heaven’s sake.
Yasmin Finds Absolution, Power, Wealth, and Found Family
A tipping point for Yasmin’s decision was finally getting the healthiest version of paternal love and absolution from Henry’s uncle.
He told her she wasn’t her father, that nothing was her fault, and that she was exceptional.
He gave her physical affection that wasn’t rooted in some twisted sexual desire or an attempt to objectify her.
Henry’s uncle vowed to look after and help her as he does that for the people he loves and his family, and that’s all Yasmin ever wanted, especially after the woman trying to bury her told her that she didn’t have any family left.
Yasmin has enough power to get rid of her father’s mistress when the woman reminds Yasmin of surviving childhood sexual abuse, all because this woman dared to burst the carefully curated life Yasmin now has.
Yasmin has found a family now, and it provides all the things she needs and wants. She’s made for this — some beautiful face between the pages of Real Country magazine.
She’s not comically shit at this — she controls her own life as Henry’s partner AND trophy.
Harper and Yasmin Remain Industry’s Truest Soulmates
Even Robert understood that fully, and once the shock of their engagement was over, he drove away with that boyish smile and a recollection of how Yasmin confided in him that she never really loved anyone and was just great at letting people think she did.
But Yasmin does love Robert.
And even if that’s up for debate, she unequivocally loves Harper, who is the closest to Yasmin’s genuine soulmate in this series, with their love-hate dynamic and an endless cycle of spectacular theatrics.
It’s totally them to have their first conversation with one another however many months later as if they didn’t say such unspeakably nasty things to each other the last time they spoke and revel in their respective accomplishments.
They’re probably the only real friends each other has ever had.
The Industry sisters, because how else can we describe them at this point, took us on a fantastical ride this season, and their parting moments were enough to make you smile.
For Eric and Pierpoint, the Clock Runs Out on Industry Season 3 Episode 8
Of course, Ken Leung was a force of nature, as he always is (seriously, if he doesn’t get his Emmy nom after this, then what the entire hell are we doing anymore?).
It’s remarkable how Industry Season 3 humbled Eric so much.
Wilhelmina, forever the opportunist, jumped to what was best for her, and just as sure as it seemed like Eric was at the top of that ladder they spoke about in Industry Season 3 Episode 1, Eric was facing a hit again.
Al-Mi’raj Pierpoint was a sight to behold as this century-and-a-half company fell to pieces, and the Arabs had to buy them out, changing everything, firing everyone, and dismantling the company as if it was nothing and never existed.
All that was left was Eric on a floor looking like a ghost town or mass grave, sobbing at a desk he devoted his entire life and lost his whole life to, and swinging a baseball bat around as if he was the last man standing on the Titanic as it went down.
It was a sad sight to see: death to Industry as we know it via Pierpoint, capped off with the blink, and you may have missed confirmation that poor Bill Adler died.
Money Tames the Beast … the End of the Story is Money
The financial game chews people up and spits them out, and no matter how many years one devotes to a company, one’s legacy washes away with little effort, and one becomes nothing more than a footnote or maybe a dusty plaque on a wall if one is lucky.
In the end, whether you’re a green rookie on the floor like poor Hari or a decades-long veteran like Bill Adler, you are merely a cog in a machine that simply doesn’t slow down or give a solitary fuck.
Perhaps the real victors are people like Harper and Eric, whose notable Money speech summed up the series well.
Money tames the beast. Money is peace. Money … Money is civilization. The end of the story is money.
— Eric Tao
They understand this is how it works and are all the better for it.
For Rishi, Fate Came to Collect, Shockingly and Violently
Of course, in a series of shocking moments, nothing topped Rishi’s (or rather his wife’s) jaw-dropping fate towards the end of Industry Season 3 Episode 8.
Fate is a bitch who comes to collect, and you can’t ever cheat her, now can you?
So much for “Fate is shaving her cunt for me,” I guess. She came hard and fast and had the last laugh.
The anxiety-inducing Industry Season 3 Episode 4 had us gritting our teeth, covering our eyes, and holding our breaths as Rishi continuously took the biggest, most unconscionable risks, seeking all the rewards.
In a scene that felt like it was from an entirely different series, Vin came to collect and channeled Denzel Washington when he said, “I’m leaving here with something.”
Rishi has been playing fast and loose with Vin, operating under some misguided belief that their friendship would preclude Vin from doing what he does to collect; Rishi’s luck finally runs out.
His own behavior led to his tenuous partnership with Harper’s failure. She was out for revenge, particularly after realizing Rishi’s betrayal wasn’t a one-off.
He’d throw anyone under the bus for his own gain, and knowing that he didn’t hesitate to do the same with the delightful and formidable Sweetpea and sweet Anraj was more than enough for Harper to play Goddess of Retribution.
Rishi’s Luck Runs Out in Industry Season 3 Episode 8
Of course, no one truly understood how deep in debt he was, but something tells me it wouldn’t have mattered.
They probably wouldn’t have helped him in any capacity, and he would’ve continued to be reckless no matter what, landing in the same boat because he couldn’t help himself.
He and Diana had already separated, and he was living in a surprisingly decent-looking apartment rather than their countryside manor.
And Diana clearly still cared about him enough to bring the man a birthday cake despite their separation.
She’s right; you can’t fix broken men, but the tragedy is that she’s no longer around to raise a good one.
Her ranting and raving at Vin about how he exploits and takes advantage of Rishi, knowing he has a problem, inevitably leads to some reaction.
However, when her nagging and reprimands resulted in a bullet between the eyes — that was utterly shocking.
I shrieked loudly, and it visually looked well, with Rishi in a state of utter shock with blood cast off all over his face, sitting in front of a freaking birthday cake with his dead wife bleeding out on the kitchen table of a pristine-looking apartment.
At the same time, Vin rummaged through the house and took whatever could go against Rishi’s massive debt.
Rishi is a shit husband and father, and we’ve known this, but this takes the cake (pardon the pun).
I don’t actually foresee where else they can go with Rishi after something like that. It feels like a bloody, Shakespearean ending to the character.
Robert Finds Happiness (And the Close of His Chapter?)
We can say the same for Robert, who seems to be happily making his pitches in the U.S.
He serves as our narrator of sorts, opening and closing the episode and summating the season and the series as a whole.
Robert looked good, sounded confident, and was maybe in his element.
Robert Spearing: I’m just here to give you an opportunity to join us on the ground floor of what is going to be a spectacular journey. Mark my words.
Industry S03E08
He looks happy, too, which is something.
Maybe after being the Charlie Brown of the series for so long, Pierpoint’s (former) puppy with the basset hound eyes can find happiness without life yanking the rug from beneath him and him plummeting through a trap door.
This finale makes Industry’s renewal exciting and sparks genuine curiosity.
Where else can they go with the series after this?
They fearlessly blew up the show as we know it all season, so what’s next? I can’t wait to find out.
Over to you, Industry Fanatics.
How did you feel about this finale?
Which moment shocked you the most?
Did any of the storylines disappoint you? Let’s hear it below.
Watch Industry Season 3 Online
