Warning: spoilers ahead
HBO’s Industry has established itself as a first-rate television show, receiving a multitude of BAFTA nominations, alongside leading actress Marisa Abela’s BAFTA win in 2025. It depicts a group of young bankers who are trying to survive the high pressures of corporate finance in London. Creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay blend the cutthroat, relentless financial sphere with wit and chaos in their representations of adolescence.
Its main premise is the stress and tediousness of finance, and yet you are implored to focus on the emotionally complex relationships inside and outside of this sphere. Leading characters Harper Stern (played by Myha’la) and Yasmin Kara-Hanani (played by Marisa Abela) gradually build an intricately convoluted friendship, resulting in mass debate over the nature of their relationship. They begin in Season 1 with disparate backgrounds, with Yasmin as a wealthy young girl having a luxurious house paid for her. A grossly paid occupation seems predestined for her. Harper, however, immediately states that ‘mediocrity is too well-hidden by parents who hire private tutors’. She must pave her own way into the financial hierarchy, whilst also relying on a forged manuscript proving her attendance at a university that she dropped out of. Nonetheless, they are both equally clueless and untainted by others working in the same industry. This article will analyse how they interact with each other, alongside others.
It is hard to describe Yasmin and Harper as friends, as they seem so riddled with toxicity, causing eruptive arguments. They both hit each other in Season 3, Episode 6 because of a conversation they both have divulging their deepest insecurities. Nonetheless, it could be argued that this altercation does not come from a loathing they have for one another, nor a lack of compatibility. Yasmin says that the ‘most appalling things’ Harper thinks about herself are not how she sees her. Whereas Harper asserts that Yasmin is reinforcing what men want her to be; a ‘sex object and a victim’. It is only when they both bring up how others see them that they explode. But ultimately, when everything starts to blow up with their disparate corporations they find one another and confide. In Season 4, Episode 7 they meet in a bar, where Harper says that she loathed Yasmin for being a ‘breathing example of how (she) was less’. It seems to be an epiphany for both, and the audience, that any hostility between them originated in how others treated them. They both kiss and it is ambiguous as to whether it is romantic or platonic, yet they love each other, nonetheless.
The real mistreatment Yasmin experiences is from men, her father specifically. In Season 3, Episode 6 she describes him as an ‘animal’. He insinuates that her appearance is all she has, as she is ‘spectacularly talentless’. She rebuttals with the fact that she speaks seven languages, and yet he simply laughs. Despite her clear talent, men fail to see her for it, and it destroys her romantic relationships. Her slow-burn romance with Robert Spearing, played by Harry Lawtey represents a way out for Yasmin. Spearing is depicted as a working-class man, who made his way into Pierpoint purely on merit, upholding a moral compass throughout his three seasons. He is one of the few characters you see Yasmin completely happy with, and yet she makes the controversial decision to announce her engagement to Henry Muck, played by Kit Harington. Muck is an extremely wealthy English baronet, making Robert and Yasmin’s departure increasingly devastating. She takes a pragmatic approach, choosing financial security. Robert then leaves Industry, and we see the prospects of her being seen for her talent ebbing away, as she indulges in the lifestyle she is used to.
Harper’s insecurities seem to be stemmed from her self-made status. There is minimal allusion to her family, apart from her addict-brother. We learn about their abusive, perfectionist mother, from whom they both ran away. She does not have any strong connections which would aid her in her successes, resulting in her feeling inadequate and potentially having imposter-syndrome. She seeks a paternal figure in Eric Tao, played by Ken Leung, who begins as her superior at Pierpoint. Their bond begins in a rocky place when Eric locks her in a room and closes the blinds to scold her for a loss of a client. It catalyses the firing of Tao and a temporary distancing between the two, until she unexpectedly sees him in a supermarket with his two daughters. The previously cold and stern Eric is humanised and both Harper and the audience are implored to sympathise. He has a redeeming character arc as the show commences with his unagreeable demeanour, which gradually evolves into his paternal instincts for Harper. There is a poignant moment in Season 4, when Eric expresses that he did not believe he could feel pride for anyone other than himself, and yet Harper proved him wrong. Nonetheless, he dissolves the partnership they had formed together and abandons her following an exposure of his illicit behaviour. She then seeks solace in Yasmin.
Yasmin and Harper are reunited after the fall of Yasmin’s marriage and the dissolution of SternTao. That is until Yasmin willingly involves herself with a Reform MP and criminal networks he commands. Harper figures out the immoral and illegal activities and holds out her hand to Yasmin, asking her to break the cycle and come with her. She does take Harper’s hand to signify that she has cared for her, but she stays regardless. Harper would be the way out, but like with Rob, she chooses the lucrative option. Ultimately, they both needed each other, yet the influences of others in the financial sphere corrupted Yasmin.
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