Industry Recap: Slaughter

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Industry Recap: Slaughter

Season 2 Episode 7 Editor’s Rating5 stars *****

Photo: Simon Ridgway/HBO Max

Let me remind you of all the threads this episode of Industry has to bring together before its season finale next week: Harper and Jesse dancing around each other; Gus figuring out what he wants to do with his life; Robert’s dalliance with Nicole; Yasmin finding out about her father’s sexual past; Harper and Eric’s possible mid-career shift; not to mention a host of other plot points. Each storyline has to hurtle toward some resolution while not slowing down or unnecessarily speeding up the “rate of revelation,” or the pace at which new information is delivered to us, the audience. We expect shows to dazzle us in the first and last episode, but the penultimate one is the trickiest to get right.

This episode brings everyone’s stories together, which makes breaking the plotlines out by character awkward, but I’m going to start with Gus. Gus has stopped dancing and taken Aurore’s promotion. But before he can start the job, he has to go to Jesse Bloom’s house to get paid for tutoring Leo. Before he can get his cash, though, he is intercepted by Harper, who calls him begging for information on where the British government stands concerning the investigation into Amazon buying FastAide. He tells her that what she’s asking for is illegal, hangs up, and walks into a cavernous ballroom that doubles as Jesse’s office. The two have a conversation that begins with tension — Jesse is still feeling weird about Gus sleeping with Leo — but ends with a softening. Although Gus couldn’t get Leo into Oxford, he did get him to open up to his dad. In Jesse’s world, this merits €30,000 in cash — way more than Gus expected to be paid.

Afterward, Gus and Leo take a cozy walk along the river and Leo thanks Gus for helping him sit down and apply himself for once. He didn’t get into the school he wanted to go to, but like Jesse, he appreciates Gus’s influence. Gus seems genuinely moved by this (Are we seeing real love on Industry?) and tells Leo that all will be well. This isn’t just a platitude, because Gus takes the train to Oxford and convinces a professor there to admit Leo in exchange for a prestigious internship with Aurore’s office.

Rob has dinner with Nicole, and things are frosty. Their conversation feels like a married couple’s talk pre-porce — with Nicole asking if something is wrong and Robert fronting that there isn’t. He tries to ask what it was like working with Harper, but Nicole deflects. Suddenly, who should appear but new grad Venetia. She knows it’s not professional to crash a client dinner, but Rob owes her a favor (callback to disastrous dinner in Oxford) and she needs face time pre-RIF. Although Nicole is initially stony, Venetia’s charm offensive wins her over — or does it? If the dynamic is familiar, it’s because this is exactly how Nicole’s relationship went down with Harper, then Rob. First, play hard to get. Then give in. Finally, try to tick your hand between their legs on the car ride home. It’s such a clear MO that Rob is put out; he wasn’t a special favorite so much as he was Nicole’s latest prey. He tries to pay for dinner, but Venetia insists on staying at the table with Nicole, so he gives her his corporate card and heads to his motorcycle. As he prepares to leave, he’s struck by second thoughts and rushes back in, ostensibly to warn Venetia away from Nicole, but he’s too late. In the minutes between getting to his bike and back, Venetia and Nicole have left the restaurant. Rob frantically calls Venetia, or Ven (as he calls her), but she doesn’t pick up.

The next day, Kenny approaches DVD and asks for a private chat. He asks Rob to join them as well, saying it involves him. As expected, Nicole tried something with Venetia. But unlike Harper or Rob, Venetia reported what happened to her boss, Kenny. DVD and Kenny grill Rob on what happened the other night. He tries to obfuscate, saying he went back to check on them because he’d left his wallet, but the two aren’t buying it. This is a bigger issue than internal sexual harassment; a client is involved. Later, Rob and Venetia have a conversation outside and Venetia accuses him of knowing about Nicole’s tendencies, of leaving her high and dry. Even though Rob blusters, denying it, Venetia’s accusation causes him to go back to DVD and admit that he’d lied. He has been having a sexual relationship with Nicole the whole time. But even more damning, this is a behavioral pattern. Robert tells DVD about Harper’s incident with Nicole. For a split second, it feels like DVD is more preoccupied with Harper opening up to Robert than he is about the big sexual-predator reveal. But he snaps back into manager mode and takes it to Bill Adler, who promptly tells him to bury it. Bill doesn’t want “any more HR noise” on the floor.

Between all of this, Yasmin continues to have her bourgeois crisis of self. She has a party in her apartment (reminding me of the sushi party last season, which remains one of my favorite television episodes ever written) with a bunch of randos. Clearly dissatisfied with all of them, she asks Maxim to come over. Together, the two do coke on her bed and talk about Maxim’s cousin, a.k.a. the nanny Yasmin’s dad impregnated. Their conversation is meandering and saccharine, skirting the unease of Yasmin’s father’s sexual exploits. Maxim tries it on with Yasmin, who says no. He tries it again, this time visibly upsetting Yasmin. Tearful and upset, she calls the party off and tells everyone to get out of her apartment as Maxim apologizes profusely.

The next day, Yasmin is about to tag-team a client meeting with Celeste until she’s interrupted by Venetia. Venetia tells her what happened with Nicole and asks Yasmin what she should do. Yasmin gaslights her, asking if what happened was truly assault. She tells Venetia that if she called every unasked-for sexual advance an assault, she was assaulted yesterday. Her attempt at flippancy doesn’t land, as Venetia earnestly asks if Yasmin is okay. Yasmin brushes it off and tells Venetia not to report the incident. This causes Kenny to barge upstairs, confronting Yasmin about her disappointing behavior. Yasmin takes this opportunity to blow up at Kenny, telling him he lost the right to chastise her about inappropriate behavior after he harassed her (last season). It’s a scene that underscores Yasmin’s lack of depth and maturity; sure, Kenny shouldn’t be scolding her, but that doesn’t change the fact that she gave terrible advice to a junior colleague looking for support.

Finally, the tension that ties together the whole episode: Harper and Eric’s bid away from Pierpoint. The two meet after hours to take photos of documents they’ll need when they hopefully work for a different bank. Rishi, cosplaying as Kendall Roy, joins. He initially balks at Harper’s presence, but Eric quickly shuts him up and says it was Harper’s idea to bring Rishi in. I have deeply enjoyed watching Rishi and Harper’s competitive friendship blossom; this felt like a natural coda to their back and forth. Partners in crime!

Eric is dad friends with someone who runs an American bank, which they code name “the Yankees,” and is dead set on getting an offer. Harper and Rishi put out feelers with a German bank as a backup in case Eric’s plan doesn’t pan out. But Eric torpedoes the backup plan in an interview with the Germans the day before the interview with the Yankees. Eric behaves abysmally during the meeting, insulting the Germans and making it clear that he doesn’t want a place with them.

In an interview with the Americans, the team is on their best behavior, sparkling for their would-be employers. Until who should walk in but Daria! For those who may have forgotten, Daria was second-in-command to Eric last season until Harper and Eric maneuvered to get her off the desk. Basically, Eric and Harper really burned this bridge, and it turns out the Americans weren’t serious about them to begin with. They’ve been courting a CPS desk trying to leave a Japanese bank and are using this meeting with the ex-Pierpoint team as leverage. Daria has been working with Jesse, so she knows that Harper isn’t Jesse’s only point of contact. She mentions that she has been working on getting Jesse to stop out of a short on FastAide where he’s bleeding money. The meeting is a disaster, but this catches Harper’s attention. Although Harper, Rishi, and Eric have been saying they represent Jesse, Jesse has been ignoring all of Harper’s calls. But the fact that he hasn’t stopped out of his FastAide short proves that he’s still, on some level, hoping to follow through on Harper’s advice.

Eric, Harper, and Rishi nurse their defeat with drinks at a pub. DVD calls Harper after his meeting with Adler and starts talking about how he understands why Harper is the way she is. He thinks Harper’s trust issues and solipsism are due to her run-in with Nicole. We know there’s way more to Harper than that, but the point is that DVD is smitten with Harper, and Harper senses an upside to his vulnerability. She asks him to meet her at the bar, and when he walks in, she tells him that she, Rishi, and Eric have been taking meetings away from Pierpoint all day. This could be a thorn in his side — or it could be a boon. Remember that CPS desk the Yankees are courting away from code name Shogun, a Japanese bank? DVD is friends with the people at Shogun. He’s perfectly positioned to get Harper, Eric, Rishi, and himself into the Japanese bank to replace the CPS desk they’ve just lost. For a moment, DVD wavers, but we can see everything building up in his face: the disappointing conversation with Adler about Nicole’s sexual harassment, the continual lack of a promotion, not to mention his desire to impress Harper. Of course he’s in, which leaves us with just one episode to see where everyone lands.

Loose Change

• Last week, I highlighted the costume designers; this week, I want to say “Bravo” to the set designers for Jesse’s unhinged office. A giant ballroom with a basketball hoop, a desk, and 15 screens is Jesse Bloom’s energy exactly.

• Okay, let’s see if I have this straight. The Yankees is Goldman, Reischtag is Deutsche Bank, and Shogun is Nomura, right?

• Did Daria say she took 18 months of maternity leave? Eighteen months?! Should we all work in the British financial sector?

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