Last week’s episode of Industry on HBO was a turning point, at least when it came to the main plot of the thing, aka SternTao trying to find out what, exactly, is up with the banking app Tender. And on this week’s sixth episode, “Dear Henry,” it all comes crashing down.
Spoilers past this point, but to recap what led us to this point, in the Season 4 premiere, it sure seemed like Tender had put its past as the “PayPal of Bukkake” behind it, divesting relationships with porn companies like the OnlyFans stand-in Siren and even changing CEOs from Kal Penn’s toxic Jonah Atterbury to the more public-facing Henry Muck (Kit Harington). And along for the ride in a do-or-die trio with Henry and Tender CFO Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella) is newly appointed head of Communications Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela). Also there? The potentially unhinged former assistant, now second-in-command to Yasmin, Hayley Clay (Kiernan Shipka) who loves to show her butt and call Yasmin “mommy.”
Not so, as the new firm of SternTao, founded by Harper Stern (Myha’la) and Eric Tao (Ken Leung) have discovered. First they found a random house in Sunderland with a dude who was lumping all of Tender’s minor transactions in one, general bucket; essentially hiding people using Tender to pay for, say, an apple at the supermarket with transactions paying webcam models for private videos.
But the bigger discovery was made by SternTao’s Kwabena Bannerman (Toheeb Jimoh) and Sweetpea Golightly (Miriam Petch), who traveled to Accra in Ghana, met Tony Day (Stephen Campbell Moore) – the CFO of Tender in the region who clearly knows the company is not on the level – and discovered Tender is a house of cards… The short (no pun intended with SternTao’s plan to short the company) version is there’s no there, there. Tender keeps shuffling non-existent money around so they don’t get audited. It’s fraud, and now that SternTao knows it, they can take action.
And oh boy, do they take action this week. With that in mind, let’s break down the biggest, wildest, most unhinged moments from Industry Season 4, Episode 6, “Dear Henry.” And a little content note: usually we stay safe for work on this site, but you just can’t do that with Industry. So be warned: salty language ahoy.
1. Yasmin V Harper: Dawn Of Justice
After a mostly Harper-free episode two weeks ago, and a completely Yasmin-free episode one week ago, this week’s episode gives the fans what they want right off as Harper gets off the elevator at Tender, is greeted by Yasmin, and they immediately face off.
The thing that’s wildest about this scene is the gulf between the two… They’ve always been on different, interweaving paths, but it feels like they’ve never been farther apart than right now. Harper wants to warn Yas; Yas takes it personally, throwing out, “why do you always find a way to pick apart at my stability? My husband’s?”
The thing that’s most fascinating about this scene in the context of the series is that it seems possibly Harper has actually grown and changed, while Yas has not. The latter is looking at this with the same petty eyes they’ve had since they met on the Pierpoint sales floor in Season 1. Harper, meanwhile, truly wants to warn Yas about Whitney, who is “a fucking criminal.”
Backing up the idea that Harper is on the level, there’s no real gain for Harper warning Yas about this and giving Tender time to react. She’s truly reaching out to a friend, and her last ditch effort is to lay it out plainly. “You have been duped by a man who saw you and your husband as fools,” Harper says.
Yasmin doesn’t buy it, and thinks Harper wants Henry to resign so the stock price falls, but that’s not it at all. “There’s, like, no empathy left in you, is there?” Harper says sadly – and ironically, given Harper has been all business, all the time pretty much since we met her, and only recently (i.e., last episode) found her humanity. Harper in fact switches into business mode and tells Yas she’ll present her findings at the ALPHA conference, aka the women in business conference she’s about to co-opt to blow up Tender.
“‘Til the end,” Yas says.
“Until the end,” Harper answers.
For my money, this underlines everything, this simple exchange, and the clear difference in wording. Yas is seeing this as a game, still. Who will win? Meanwhile, Harper knows that this means the end of her friendship with Yas, and the end of Yas perhaps entirely. That’s what she’s lamenting.
“Maybe I should call security,” Yas says, mockingly. “Get you escorted out the building.”
“Go on, I fucking dare you,” Harper says and storms out.
2. Both Sides Now
Immediately following this, Whitney tries to calm Tony Day and tells him to “keep strong, stay focused” and that he’ll be in Accra shortly. That’s not the wild part. The wild part is he’s calling from Henry and Yas’s apartment, where Henry is taking a shower – nude, of course, he’s not a never-nude – while listening to “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell and singing “He Is An Englishman” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore. So a lot going on there!
Whitney silently creeps into the bathroom behind Henry, coming close enough to touch him. And that’s when the show layers on another element: Whitney’s narration, something that we get throughout the episode, and it isn’t clear why until the very end.
“Dear Henry,” Whitney says. “There’s a hole in my bucket.”
Is this real? Are we inside a dream Whitney is having? What is happening here?
And another wild layer, Whitney turns around and leaves the oblivious Henry, and we see he’s holding a bouquet of flowers. It’s been clear since they first met that there was a heat between the two of them, but is there something more? Love?
Whitney looks back at Henry’s nude body, and Henry turns fully around to face him, seeing the flowers and smiling. “Give me a minute old boy,” Henry says.
Yas, who discovers the scene, is less pleased. “What the fuck are you doing in here? In my bedroom while my husband showers?” Yas yells, and probably of note at least in terms of scenes, Harper just told Yas that Whitney is a dangerous criminal, so whether she believes him or not that’s pretty alarming.
Whitney explains he made a wrong turn and brought flowers as a housewarming present. Henry is downright rude to Yas, saying, “Yasmin, why don’t you calm down and stop jumping down people’s throats at the smallest things? … Being such an exacting cunt is usually a tell you don’t have that much to complain about, darling.”
Yas takes the flowers, throws them on the floor, and we get a pretty important plot note: Whitney is renting the house for Henry and Yas… Whether they realize it or not, the CFO owns every aspect of their lives.
3. Maximum Security Boarding School
I’m just going to separate this out even though it’s part of the previous scene because technically this is supposed to be a rundown of the most unhinged moments on the show, and not a transcript of the episode – though those often amount to the same thing.
But Yas, livid, asks Henry, “Do you enjoy the fact he wants to fuck you?”
Henry basically rolls his eyes, but Yas persists, adding, “You told me that you sucked that guy’s dick at Winchester!”
“Darling, that was school, okay?” Henry patiently explains. “It’s basically prison. Everyone gets a pass for that. You can be a homo at school.”
Henry said “gay rights?” Maybe?
4. Dump On Trump
While Industry is very hooked into the world of finance, it doesn’t usually tackle real-world politics – at least not directly. Except for this 31 seconds where it absolutely obliterates President Trump, never saying him by name.
Inside the Tender boardroom, Labour Party Minister of State for Industry Jennifer Bevan (Amy James-Kelly) holds court alongside Lisa Dearn (Chloe Pirrie), the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, and old sparring partner of Henry Muck, now forced to deal with his company.
“We all know that the President is a dealmaker,” Bevan tells the Americans across the table. “There’s nothing stopping us being dealmarkers, so long as said deal is good for all parties.”
“The President’s misunderstood by people in Europe,” says a representative for the American government. “He wants less regulation and freer movement. A clean break with post-war terms.”
“Not sure anyone knows what the strategy is,” interrupts Dearn. “Some here think Americans got bored of having the best lives, so they elected a narcissistic dementiac to detonate it all so that their kids might earn factory workers’ wages building widgets pathetically stamped, ‘Made in America.’”
As an American, may I say: ouch.
5. If Henry Loves Alcohol So Much, Why Doesn’t He Marry It?
Henry, if you’ll recall, is an addict. And after the meeting with the Americans, Yas tentatively confronts Henry about smelling booze on his breath the previous evening. “Yeah, well, I’ve repaired my relationship with alcohol,” Henry says, as if that explains it or makes it okay.
Yas, who has been clearly shaken by Harper’s speech about Whitney, wants to know if he gave Henry the alcohol, but like with how Yas wasn’t listening to Henry, he’s not listening to his wife. She tries to tell him the truth, or at least ask whether there’s something worrisome there, but the hyper-confident Henry isn’t having any of it.
And things get worse with the whole “alcohol thing” as he and Whitney go to dinner with their auditor. It’s clear the auditor is in Whitney’s thrall – and in fact, Whitney gets a bottle of wine the auditor was planning on getting for his fortieth, but “the price was just impossible to justify.”
Henry, at first, seems have had the same arc as Yas. In her case, she pushed back on Harper, but was shaken by Harper’s warnings. Now Henry has shut down Yas, but is shaken by her warnings, and interrogates the auditor about his processes. The auditor, who Whitney is pretty handsy with, is dismissive of concerns, and Henry sips the wine. “Now that is good,” Henry says, and smiles… He’s given up to the demon alcohol.
6. If You See Us In The Club, We’ll Be Acting Real Nice
“Dear Henry,” Whitney says. “You have to be the person who makes the other feel safe in the fullest expression of who they really are.”
And this is over Henry dancing in a club with Whitney, having completely given up all his worries and just deciding to let himself go. This, of course, is what Yas was worried about… Whether diagnosed or not, Henry is manic depressive, and he’s currently heading to the cliff of his high.
As they dance, Henry and Whitney embrace each other, and it’s clear this isn’t any old club… It’s a gay sex club. Or perhaps an English boarding school, where everyone is a “homo,” because Whitney brings Henry over to a glory hole as a red light bathes his face and body.
Henry looks over at the man getting pleasured next to him and pulls his own dick out, placing it in the hole. As he gets sucked off. Whitney gently brushes the back of his neck. “Everybody wants you,” Whitney says as Henry moans with pleasure. “You’re worth everything. Everybody wants you.”
Henry cums as Whitney gently pulls his hair, and perhaps the most nuts part of this scene is that 15 minutes in, we get the title “Industry” over this.
7. The Talented Mr. Whitney
As dawn breaks over London, Whitney and Henry sit on the Thames and talk. Henry laments that the only thing good about his sobriety was his productivity, and if he was a Muslim he’d be “a fucking billionaire” by now. He also confesses that his father died by suicide, but Whitney “never believed in suicide.” He tells Henry that his mother attempted suicide, and his father “wailed” on her.
But Henry doesn’t believe him. “Why does everything from your life sound like a bad novel?” And it’s clear this is the first time someone has actually called Whitney on this… Though it’s not clear how Whitney feels. Henry is downright dismissive, joking that he has plenty of “middle class friends” and “You know, a little character fraud is fine as long as your heart is pure.”
Up until now, it’s certainly seemed like Whitney is in love with Henry, and now with this revelation it seems possible we have a bit of a Talented Mr. Ripley thing going on. Is Whitney a poor man masquerading as someone else? Has he fallen in love with Henry Muck, though he can never have him. Particularly given the way this episode goes, that seems right on the money if I do say so myself. But other than his “Dear Henry” letter (oops, spoiled it, sorry) his real motivations remain unclear.
“Dear Henry. What if I don’t contain multitudes?” the letter asks, as Whitney places his hand on Henry’s leg. There’s an intimacy from Whitney that is not reciprocated by Henry, as the latter gives him a friendly tap on the hand. And Whitney, who says he’s “very glad to know you,” knows that it’s goodbye.
8. Con-ference
And now it’s time to pull the cards on the bottom, as we go over to the ALPHA conference. Eric’s job is to let anyone in who wants to come in to watch Harper’s speech. And setting up the stakes here, he reminds her of “that speech you flubbed when you were a grad,” though she’s grown immeasurably.
Harper frames things as offering something other than “mealy-mouthed bullshit about how to get ahead.” Instead, she’s going to show them “a woman doing her job to the best of her abilities.” With representatives from Tender, the press, and even Yasmin in the audience, Harper methodically dismantles Tender’s entire business plan. A key word to mention here when it comes to Whitney’s plot is that she frames Tender as an “illusionist” and that’s really what he is… A magician who is saying to look over “here” so you don’t notice what’s really going on.
How much is Tender worth in the estimation of SternTao? Nothing. Zero. “SternTao assigns a price target of zero pounds, zero pence to Tender,” Harper says, the equivalent of taking the company out back and shooting it in the head.
9. Fallout 4
It’s a masterful performance by Harper, and has repercussions including Yas storming out of the conference, Tony Day fleeing Accra for London before Whitney can get there, and Henry waking up naked except for a button-down shirt, two completely nude women in his bed.
“Henry, where the fuck are you, have you seen what Harper’s done to the fucking price?” A panicked Yas says to Henry over the phone. But he’s started to hit the downward slope of his spiral. He wants her to chill, but her real panic is about how Henry might have killed himself. “How can you do this to someone that you love?” screams Yas, as the two nude women Henry fucked last night clothe themselves in the background.
Whitney, on the plane back to London, looks at the Tender share price, which has fallen off a cliff. Also concerned? Ferdinand Schwarzwald (Nico Rogner), the CFO of IBN Bauer and member of the Tender board, who has been lurking in the background all season long. As he – and the board – call Whitney on his plane, Whitney, who just said he doesn’t believe in suicide, eyes the exit to the plane. Instead, he picks up the phone. And while the board is in emergency mode, Whitney continues to be as cool as a cucumber. Will Tender be able to turn this around?
Not according to SternTao, who are positively giddy. Eric is jumping for joy, calls Harper “Harpoon” and tells her “you just gave me my favorite ever day in finance!” Everyone else is down, Eric is up, and nothing bad ever happens again! Just kidding, we’re not even halfway through the episode at this point.
10. Hello, Dolly
When Whitney finally comes back to the office, Hayley tells him that Yas has been “sniffing around” and asking to take a look at their email correspondence. “Does she know what you do for me?” Whitney asks.
“No,” says a pissed off Hayley. “No, I neglected to tell her the difficult positions I’ve put myself in explicitly for you. I felt unsafe since Abu Dhabi. And what Dolly, my little cousin, did for you with that hedge fund guy.”
…Say, wasn’t there a prostitute named Dolly (Skye Degruttola) who Eric got a blowie from last episode? Surely that can’t be the same, Dolly, right? Right?
There’s a kicker to come, though. Hayley “spent this afternoon calling a few girls at my agency” to find out what really happened to Whitney’s old assistant, the one who he said left because of Crohn’s Disease. “Apparently, she was one of ours, and they haven’t heard shit from her since she worked for you.”
Some follow-up questions: did Whitney kill his previous assistant? And are we talking “staffing agency” or some other type of agency that provides other types of services? Certainly seems like the latter since Whitney dismissively says of Dolly “we both know what she is,” though Hayley fires back “she’s a fucking girl.”
Hayley blackmails Whitney, asking for 500k, to which he laughs and she asks for 750k. “That’s the limit of your ambitions?” Whitney says laughing, but Hayley isn’t having it since she knows there’s nothing to Tender… She wants the money and to get out of there. Whitney won’t relent, and then Hayley calls him a “fucking try-hard loser” – maybe the worst thing you can say to a person like Whitney, who is, indeed, a fucking try-hard loser.
11. Try-Hard With A Vengeance
What does Whitney do? He calls Harper, who he hooked up with back in the premiere. Perhaps it’s to have one over on the woman who beat him, and perhaps it’s to talk about someone he looks at as an equal.
But it’s clear that whatever he thinks about Harper, he’s easily slipping back into liar mode. As he blathers about Tender 2.0 being a legitimate enterprise, he pulls stacks of cash and identification out from a secret compartment in his desk.
“You’re a conman, boxed in a historic crime,” Harper says.
“You are starving for intimacy,” Whitney answers, looking to hurt her.
“You called me, Whitney.”
…and look, not to keep harping – Harpering? – on this, but Harper is at the height of her powers now. As she said to Eric last week, she wanted to be seen as “undeniable” and that is what she’s become. A master of the universe planner like Whitney is nothing to her… And she’s become that thanks to the death of her mother. She’s experienced grief, and it’s changed her.
“My parents are still alive,” Whitney offers. And then he begins to sing Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” while looking at a Lithuanian passport with what looks like a younger version of himself on it. Is this the real Whitney Halberstram? Or another identity? And does it really matter which it is, because versus Harper, who is becoming her best self, Whitney seems to have lost his own real self somewhere along the way.
12. To Russia With Love
As Whitney’s goodbye tour continues, he calls – of all people – Jonah Atterbury.
“Get a lawyer or kill yourself,” Jonah says. “Whatever’s cheaper.”
…and in case you weren’t clear on this, Whitney is really considering killing himself, but that’s halted by, of all people, Ferdinand Schwarzwald. While Whitney is on a downward spiral, steps into the breach, explaining they need to track down Tony Day and stay on message… Specifically, Whitney needs to stay on message, though Schwarzwald doesn’t say that out loud.
He also ominously says that “they” have methods to take care of people who are “no longer on message,” and though he’s talking about Tony Day out loud, the way Schwarzwald is looking at Whitney, it’s clear he means, well, Whitney.
“No, I… I don’t think we need to escalate,” stammers Whitney. “We can handle the situation without violence.”
Seems pretty likely at this point that Whitney’s previous assistant may have gone off message, and they needed to escalate the situation, right? Right.
Amping up the danger considerably, Schwarzwald lauds Whitney for having red lines, though adding, “You know very well we are not dealing with people who care about red lines.” So… Who are those people? What is really going on here?
Perhaps the clue is the word Schwarzwald throws out next: Razoblachnie, which he says is Russian for “exposure.” And what he lays out is that in exchange for stealing the credentials of IBNs client base, he had a path cleared to him becoming CFO in a decade.
That’s when we find out who the “people” are: Cozy Bear, the tech arm of the SVR and the FSB. The SVR, in case you don’t know, is the foreign intelligence agency of Russia, which succeeded the KGB after it was dissolved. Also established after the fall of the KGB was the FSB, the Federal Security Service. So yeah: both IBN Bauer and Tender are essentially working for Russian intelligence.
“Narrative is all that matters now,” Schwarzwald finishes. “Nobody can be off story. Not me, not you, not Day.”
That changes things dramatically, doesn’t it? This story has gone from SternTao taking down a corrupt company with a bunch of our regular characters caught in the fallout, to an international thriller that involves a global banking app, multiple banks (IBN Bauer, Pierpoint) and the British government. Harper may have given Eric his best day in finance ever while also destabilizing the global economy and drawing the attention of Russian intelligence. Er, whoops.
13. Hello, Dolly Part 2
Eric has spent all season trying to reconnect with his daughter, and he finally does when the other shoe drops. He gets a text with footage of him and Dolly from the last episode, getting a blowjob, saying, “make me feel big,” and her saying “yes, daddy.” And along with the footage is a scan of Mary Dolly Bird’s passport, born March 25, 2011.
Uhoh, is Dolly 14 years old? Well, maybe, maybe not, this is where things get a little tricky when you’re talking about the Industry timeline. The show likely started in around 2019/2020, the latter of which is when Season 1 was released. Season 2 skipped some time because Harper was now a third year analyst, and it was after the COVID lockdown, so could be some time in 2021/2022, but unclear. Season 3 mostly takes place relatively soon after Season 2. But it seems like things have skipped forward a few years in Season 4, possibly even placing it in the future of 2028, as Harper mentions being 30, or almost 30.
…But even with all of that, to speculate, this scene realigns the timeline a little. The age of consent in the UK is 16 years old, so it’s clear that – given Eric’s reaction here – he fucked an underage girl. That means that Industry Season 4, Episode 6 at the absolute latest takes place by March 10, 2027, though likely sooner than that, making Dolly fifteen or younger.
[Side note: RIP my Google search history after this week’s episode, looking for info on Russian intelligence and age of consent laws in the UK. Thanks, HBO!]
14. Seize The Day
While Sweetpea sets up a meeting with Day and Edward Burgess (David Wilmot), the vengeful editor of the deceased James Dycker (Charlie Heaton), in London, Halberstram also finds out about the meeting. The race is on, and Halberstram wins, making it to the restaurant and coercing the terrified Day. It seems on the surface that Halberstram’s gambit doesn’t work, as Sweetpea and Burgess get Day to give up the goods on Tender.
But it doesn’t work. Halberstram is too convincing, telling Day that they are “brothers” and he found him “Bankrupt. I made you a success.” There’s nothing Sweetpea and Burgess can do to match up to that, or that Halberstram threatens him, with the scariest idea of all: being middle class.
15. Cable Noose Network
Despite the blackmail, Eric shows up at CNN to debate Whitney live on the air. “Do not press a desperate foe too hard,” Eric says to the shocked Whitney. “When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. What if the outlet I use is through? Through you?”
…and that’s just what Eric does, hanging both Whitney and himself in the process. While it’s all touch and go for a while as Whitney and Eric trade barbs, and gets worse for SternTao when Tony Day shows up via satellite to explain that actually, everything is fine with Tender, no problems here. And to sweeten the pot, Day throws out words like “Western institutions” and “longstanding prejudices.” Day may be caucasian, but he’s 100% pulling the race card – or at least the anti-Africa card, playing on viewers’ sympathies and painting SternTao as, if not racist, then anti-continent.
Eric is ready. “Save your breath,” he says. “There is nothing you can say to me that I won’t willingly say to your viewers about myself,” and it’s clear Eric is telling Whitney to go ahead and release the footage of Dolly’s blowie if he really wants to, but furthermore explains that being a bad mad doesn’t mean you’re wrong, and ends with the killing blow: “new audit.”
With those two words, Eric sends Henry into a tailspin – he’s watching back at the home office – and forces him to dismiss the compromised auditor. Eric may have destroyed himself in the process, or set himself up to be destroyed; but he’s taking Tender down with him.
Or more specifically, Eric got through to Henry where Harper couldn’t get through to Yas – and Henry not only dismisses the auditor, but confronts Whitney, who can’t tell Henry what’s really going on. Henry is prepared to bring in new auditors, and Whitney accepts it – sort of – handing Henry a letter he has in his pocket. That letter? The “Dear Henry” letter we’ve been hearing all episode long. Henry reads: “Dear Henry, I drafted and redrafted an opening to this statement. I think maybe the time for poetry and ornament has passed. Practically, it’s very important that you understand everything… Now that you’re implicated.”
As Henry continues to read about how he is intrinsically tied to the fall of Tender, Whitney changes his phone, popping out the SIM card. He calls, giving an extraction code. And Henry realizes Whitney fucked him – financially, if not physically.
16. Feat Of Clay
There’s at least one more jaw-dropping revelation to come this episode, as Hayley comes to visit a distraught, robe-wearing Yas at home. While Hayley professes she didn’t know anything about what Whitney was doing at Tender, she does know “the way he operates.”
What does that mean? “He hired me from an escort agency,” explains Hayley.
…And there it is. Not only did Whitney hire all his assistants from the same agency, “he put us in front of guys he wanted to get close to.” And he told them “we’d be on camera sometimes.” Basically, creating blackmail material. Or given the ties to Russian intelligence we discovered earlier this episode, perhaps the better word is kompromat.
Hayley continues to explain she flew to Abu Dhabi, and an Emirati guy on the board of Al-Mi’raj, aka the company that bought Pierpoint, and had to get him into a specific room. Again, putting the pieces together, it seems likely it was to get him into a room with Hayley’s underage “cousin” Dolly, for the purposes of extortion. Which may explain how the whole “Tender Powered By Pierpoint” deal came about in the first place.
Oh, and then of course there’s that Nazi castle threesome between Hayley, Yas, and Henry a few episodes back… That’s on camera, too.
“What did Whitney want you to do with us?” Yas asks, horrified.
“He said, ‘Be in their lives,’” Hayley explains. “He exploits fragile people. I’m sorry.”
There’s a kicker here, too, because after failing to extort Whitney, Hayley knows what she wants: access. “Access is what really makes you rich,” she explains. She wants to meet people, and “I want to have what you have.”
“I don’t trust you,” Yas says.
“No, but I think you understand me,” Hayley answers. And versus the uneven conversation with Harper at the top of the episode, it seems likely that Yas does… She too has sold everything she believes in for the sort of access Hayley wants.
“Do you understand me?” Yas says.
“In any way you ask,” answers Hayley, and it’s clear that she’s whoring herself out in a new way. The funny part is, this is the most honest someone can be on Industry because all conversations, all relationships are transactions. Every other character uses sex this way, but Hayley is built from those sexual transactions up. Her body, her mind, everything is geared towards the very thing Yas and others play around with. Hayley, it turns out, is the expert here.
17. Eric Through The Gift Shop
Did I say there was only one more jaw-dropper? Sorry about that. Back at the SternTao office/hotel suite, Eric calls Harper into the office, and on the brink of sobbing, he kicks things over to Marvin, his lawyer, giving the entirety of SternTao to Harper.
He doesn’t explain why – because he had sex with an underage girl and is a liability that could bring everything tumbling down – but that his initial investment of $10 million be placed into a trust for his daughters.
I’m going to jump ahead a bit because yes, Ken Leung and Eric Tao have left Industry at the end of the episode. But the theme I’d pull on here is the idea of death by suicide… While Eric doesn’t actually kill himself at the end of the episode, earlier he explained that his id and his drive for monetary gain are all he has, and interchangeable. In one fell swoop, he took all of that, giving the company to Harper and his money to his daughters. He in all but body fell on his own sword. Unlike Whitney, who repeatedly backs off from it, and Henry, who never considers it this episode because mostly he’s on a non-stop high, it’s Eric who makes the ultimate sacrifice… And for once, it’s not for his own gain.
“Watching you present, I thought I was incapable of feeling pride for anyone but myself,” Eric tells Harper. “I’m really… I’m really glad you proved me wrong.”
Harper doesn’t accept this, and demands to know what Eric is protecting them from, but he doesn’t want them to remember him that way. She signs the papers, sobbing herself. “I will always remember you like this,” she says to Eric’s face, and marches out of the room.
The camera holds on Eric in this scene, and if it wasn’t clear what’s going on, the end credits once again play “Both Sides Now” as Ken Leung walks down the road away from the camera.
Will Leung be back? Not this season, and likely not going forward unless there’s a solid story reason to have Eric Tao return. As is, his arc, to mentor and guide Harper (and often clash with her) just isn’t necessary anymore… That’s what Eric saw as he watched her present at the conference, and that’s what the show saw as well. He needed to “die” so that Harper could live.
RIP, Eric Tao. And RIP my search history, as well. We’ll miss you both.
Industry Season 4 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of Industry premiere Sundays on HBO and HBO Max at 9 p.m. ET. Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in Industry Season 4 with premiere dates.
- Sunday, January 11, 2026: Industry, Season 4, Episode 1 – “PayPal of Bukkake”
- Sunday, January 18, 2026: Industry, Season 4, Episode 2 – “The Commander and The Grey Lady”
- Sunday, January 25, 2026: Industry, Season 4, Episode 3 – “Habseligkeiten”
- Sunday, February 1, 2026: Industry, Season 4, Episode 4 – “1000 Yoots, 1 Marilyn”
- Sunday, February 8, 2026: Industry, Season 4, Episode 5 – “Eyes Without a Face”
- Sunday, February 15, 2026: Industry, Season 4, Episode 6 – “Dear Henry”
- Sunday, February 22, 2026: Industry, Season 4, Episode 7 – “Points of Emphasis”
- Sunday, March 1, 2026: Industry, Season 4, Episode 8 – “Both, And” *Season Finale*
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