Industry Season 4 Episode 4 Plunges Into Death, Darkness & Chaos and Sticks the Landing

Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

4.5

Given the circumstances, the title of this review certainly feels in poor taste, or at least on the nose.

But this is Industry, and a little gallows humor is how I can fully process everything that transpired on Industry Season 4 Episode 4.

What just happened? The short answer is ALL the things.

The Tender gang loved to pretend there was no fallout from FinDigest’s article about the company and its actions.

Whitney had been dismissive of the “noise” James was making, but they were also devising strategies to shut down any further prodding into their affairs.

James’ boss was right in saying that once they brought out the lawyers, they exposed themselves a bit by proving that where there’s some smoke, there’s some fire.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t enough for Harper, who wanted to use James and FinDigest as her own personal tool to not only bring ruin to Tender, but also prove to her new investors the legitimacy of what she was doing and nestle them in a sweet spot as a new startup.

All she needed was for James to release the information about Sunderland, which she knew would do more damage and make more waves than his initial post.

Except that James was a legitimate journalist with his own interests, he was serving.

He wasn’t doing anything in just her time to suit her specific agenda, and he certainly wasn’t doing it at the expense of his own.

James and Rishi running rather parallel to one another was something I didn’t anticipate, which is why their universes colliding in such a jolting way was an incredibly delicious albeit bleak payoff.

For all his relentless reporter vibes, James was a man who made one big mistake and has been paying for it ever since, his life dissolving into a hot mess.

In fact, James and Rishi suffering as they do while Henry continues to fall upward because of his aristocratic privileges is in itself fascinating.

It’s not even that Henry is devoid of suffering, as Industry Season 4 Episode 2 illustrated. Henry just manages to be around the vultures with more power. His rock bottoms come with castles to retreat to and plush pillows.

James and Rishi get dank apartments, kids they don’t manage, and an allure to the darkness that’s intent on swallowing them up whole and spitting out their bones.

You don’t get to fly too close to the sun if you’re devoid of real power and pedigree. There will always be a plateau, some invisible wall that you’ll crash into.

James was so bold and high on himself, confronting Henry during the press exchange. Henry wasn’t wrong when he noted that James appeared to have a “hard-on” after the ordeal.

A curious choice of words for the man who is ready to indulge in a new vice … Whitney, without even realizing it.

Such a beautiful fly being spun into a web, isn’t he? Bless his heart.

But then, just when it seemed James was on the cusp of redeeming himself and blowing up Tender with his news, Whitney scored damaging information, in part by using Yasmin as his own tool.

James’ past with shorting was fair game.

He could anticipate it, but having his dalliance with Hayley come to light, painting a picture of him assaulting a woman, the drugs, and other untoward things was enough to bury him.

His photo with Harper, a known shorter and that connection to Eric as well… he was a goner.

Suddenly, his boss and the FinDigest weren’t ready to go up against Tender like David versus Goliath. And then he’s the man whose entire career gets stripped from him when it’s clear that’s all he lived for.

Because it certainly wasn’t fatherhood fueling him or anything else, even when he loved to convince himself there was some form of morality and justice he was exacting through this story.

James is the man who ultimately dies because of his own hubris, patheticness, and “L’s.”

The hour spends its time outlining how much of a “loser” he is because of where he ends up and his inability to look beyond his own singular motivations.

In hindsight, he truly did have a sad existence. He became a father, something he had no interest in because of a one-night stand with a woman he didn’t even want.

And his career shatters in large part because he went home with Hayley and performed a sex act on her that he didn’t even want to do.

Bumping into Rishi at a gay bar and all, I’m not even sure James even liked or desire women, even aside from the fact that he equates them with causing him ruin.

His coked-up ranting was fascinating and revealing because he spoke like a man self-aware enough and conditioned to see the system for exactly what it is, but he was too much of a hot mess to really do anything about it and played into the same system he critiqued.

He was too defeatist and bleak.

And now, he’s dead, an overdose, leaving in his wake chaos, destruction, and the loss of a battle in the season’s ongoing war.

Meanwhile, Rishi remains the show’s biggest cautionary tale. Apparently, not even death can take him because the devil doesn’t want to be bothered, only laughs at his suffering.

The hour fills in more of the gaps of what has transpired since his wife’s death, and it has not been a pretty picture.

And to that I say, the irony of this takedown of a company that hides behind enabling vices isn’t lost. Rishi is a sad drug dealer, scoring money from selling to the same people he used to be in rooms with and working alongside.

Burying himself in sex with a screwed-up young woman who calls him “daddy” (is he pimping, too?) While simultaneously unable to be an actual one to Hugo.

I laughed bitterly at the fact that he finally fell low enough where the reality of him being this Brown man who married a white woman of esteem caught up to him.

Even James pointed out how he got a raw deal and painting precisely because of the race and class levels on display during his smearing and public humiliation.

And the cherry on top of that is Hugo doesn’t even know him, and he just signed papers agreeing to a name change, whitewashing the last bit of Rishi that Hugo even had. It’s the erasure that’s the carefully calculated blow.

Industry really upped the ante with its scathing dissection of race, culture, class, and power this season, and that was another prime example.

Proximity to whiteness and higher social standing can be stripped from someone like Rishi at any moment. Or Jonah, Harper, Eric, or Yasmin.

Rishi on the ledge feels like an inevitability — it was clear that he was genuine about jumping during the coke-fueled haze with James.

Yet it was still such a shock when he did jump.

After his previous legal issues, there was no way he wanted the police to take him because he was in an apartment building with a dead white journalist he was looking into.

Still, nothing prepared me for actually seeing Rishi after he hit the ground — not dead, body broken up and contorted, attempting to crawl away, but not getting anywhere when cops forcibly arrested him as if he could get anywhere with broken legs.

Gosh damn, that man hit rock bottom and keeps finding trap doors to descend further.

Meanwhile, Henry can continue to ascend higher with caveats. But at least he’s self-aware enough to call it what it is. And he did as much in his speech hyping Tender and the new banking app.

And that’s all at the urging of Whitney.

It’s funny how well Henry can see through Yasmin and her manipulations now, but he can fall so easily victim to Whitney’s.

It’s like the fog of an attraction to this man, and Whitney stroking Henry’s ego, making him feel powerful instead of pathetic, has blinded him.

Henry recognizes Yasmin for the enabler that she is. She’ll cater to his baser instincts if it gets her what she wants and where she needs to be.

It’s become so transparent now that they’re working so closely together. And it’s fascinating to see this threesome action happening with Whitney, Henry, and Yasmin.

Yas and Whitney are both power-hungry and manipulative, and it’s like they’re in an unspoken battle over who can control Henry most; at the moment, Whitney is winning.

They both use the same tactics, too. It’s almost as if Whitney toys with Henry in a deliberate way to “show up” Yasmin, so she knows he’s doing it.

Meanwhile, Henry is so put off by actually seeing what Yasmin is doing and understanding her real motivations that he doesn’t notice Whitney is the same, if not more dangerous.

Poor Henry is mistaking a power bottom for being powerless, because just because Whitney is vocal and seemingly willing to submit to Henry in a way that seems to embrace his role as somehow inferior does not mean he isn’t the one holding all the power.

Whitney isn’t afraid to let Henry think he somehow doesn’t measure up for the sake of hyping him up because he always gets the last laugh. It’s what he does. We saw it in small ways with Harper, and it’s exactly what he did with Jonah.

Whitney is a pure snake, but so damn great to watch. The homoerotic tension between him and Henry is just too good, especially factoring in the Yasmin aspect of it all.

Like, I chuckled at Whitney’s face when Henry got too close to him, and he was practically staring directly at his crotch. But it’s the way he confuses Henry that’s entertaining, too.

Henry is so desperate to feel like the pinnacle of manhood, honorable, desirable … as someone worthy.

Henry is the perfect prey because everyone in his life looks at him a certain way. It frustrates him that he never overcame the stigma of making one mistake.

Whitney is pouring back into him (it’s totally calculated and for his own gain), and Henry just loves that it feels good — that he finally feels worthy and respected by someone.

Even when most people in the boardroom, especially Robin, look down on him.

But will Henry keep overlooking what is going on with Whitney? Henry isn’t an idiot, and he knows his dealings in Africa are off, just as he knew that if they didn’t kill the FinDigest story, things could go badly.

Henry’s motivations are surprisingly genuine in his desire for things to pan out.

I love how his speech boiled down to everyone knowing that his liberalistic thoughts are BS and the antithesis of what they’re doing half the time anyway, but as long as he buys into his own thoughts, others will too.

He’s just a sad and pretty mouthpiece and face.

Meanwhile, Yasmin can overlook anything as long as she gets what she wants out of it. She can sink to new lows, too.

Her ruthless approach to Robin was set up nicely, so much so that it was satisfying to see Whitney promote her to Head of Comms right in front of Robin, and then fire him in one fell swoop.

Robin spent the whole time rudely and outrightly stating that Yasmin doesn’t deserve to be in the room, undermining any information or expertise she might offer.

But there was a valid point about his “trad” approach to things and how ineffective that can be. He felt too dated for everything Tender is doing.

Yasmin executed her takeover incredibly well. But she also doesn’t see that Whitney is placating her a bit, because it lets him control Henry more easily if she feels busy and like she has a real purpose.

What a fascinating Power Trio we have!

Yasmin even orchestrated some power moves with Hayley. In fact, Yas parroting the exact same things that sexual predators, usually men, recite to Hayley had my skin crawling.

In a single conversation, she insisted Hayley instigated their sexual dynamic, repeatedly saying that Hayley “wanted it,” emphasized that they were consenting adults, and then redirected Hayley’s attention to James, whom she weaponized, and pointed out was the “real predator” who assaulted Hayley.

But you can always count on Industry to not play something so straightforward. Hayley’s bratty exchange with Yasmin later revealed that she’s no victim in this.

She recognized Yasmin’s game: it was her driving her in that bedroom, her insatiable desire for power and control.

Hayley saw right through who that threesome was really about. Now she’s offering herself to Yasmin. And she sure as hell holds all the cards here, baby. Oh, Industry!

Having a minion like Hayley is nice and all, but we know Yasmin is more focused on having Henry under her thumb. And Whitney is most likely behind Hayley’s maneuvers anyway. Whitney and Haley are doing a number on this couple.

Industry Quips and Quotables:

• “If you’re going to play me like this, do me the courtesy of burying him deep enough that his kind don’t respawn.” I love that Sweetpea is like a dog with a bone and that Jonah is ready to take Whitney down. Let’s go!
• “Sincerity is now the world’s rarest commodity.” Henry telling all facts. But it’s cute that he thinks he somehow has control over anything at Tender.
• “Meteoric over promotion even for a white guy.” Harper making me snort over the mysterious Tony Day and his shady dealings in Africa. It’s fascinating that Whitney falls victim to a prejudicial system yet still weaponizes and enables it.
• “Henry, I hired you because I look at people like you and I inherently believe in them more than I believe in myself. Fuck knows what that says about the fascism of our neurology. But everything in me screams you are more, I am less, you’re a man I’m incapable of lying to…” Whitney is DIABOLICAL. So, how long before he sweet-talks Henry into screwing him?
• “You, me, Henry. We ride together. We die together.” Whitney, honey, you guys aren’t Bad Boys. The way Whitney smoothly worked himself into a marriage should be studied.
• “I wonder, why did it feel like it was your cock in my mouth? I like that….Thank you, Mommy.“

Let’s keep the conversation going — Did you see that Rishi plunge coming? Who’s winning in the Power Trio? Did you expect James to die this soon?
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