Industry Knows How To Let Characters Go

[The following contains spoilers for Industry Season 4 Episode 6, "Dear Henry."]

Another week, another character bites the dust on Industry. Just two weeks after Rishi Ramdani (Sagar Radia) jumped off a balcony and got arrested for manslaughter, effectively writing Radia off the show, we're saying goodbye to another day-one character: Eric Tao (Ken Leung), who dissolves his partnership with Harper Stern (Myha'la) after receiving a horrifying blackmail video and marches off into an uncertain future. As the credits roll at the end of "Dear Henry" and Leung's figure recedes in the distance, it feels like this could be the last time we'll ever see him on the show.

Leung considers this "an end" for the character, though he can't say for sure if it's the end. (For one, a fifth season hasn't been officially announced.) Radia's postmortem interviews, too, imply that Rishi is probably done on the show. Those are two massive hits, and that's not even mentioning the loss of Robert Spearing (Harry Lawtey), whose arc ended last season due to Lawtey's scheduling conflicts. Robert was once almost as integral to the show as Harper and Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela) — and with the three men gone, the two women are the only remaining full-time characters from the original cast.

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That's a striking paring-down, especially for a series whose scope keeps widening. The majority of the first three seasons took place on the Pierpoint trading floor, but the London office's closure heralded a new era for the show. And Season 4 has expanded beyond finance to delve deeper into U.K. politics and illustrate the way deep-seated corruption touches every part of the system. That also means introducing several new characters in the political realm: newly promoted Labour Minister for Industry Jennifer Bevan (Amy James-Kelly) and Reform MP Sebastian Stefanowicz (Edward Holcroft), not to mention an Austrian bank heir with historical ties to Nazi Germany.

As much as fans may hate to see Eric or Rishi or Robert go, their absence leaves room for showrunners Mickey Down and Konrad Kay to invest more in new milieux and newly critical characters — from villain Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella) to antihero Henry Muck (Kit Harington) to hero Sweetpea Golightly (Miriam Petche), who proved herself admirably last season but really comes into her own with a solo-ish episode this year.

More importantly, each departing character has gotten an organic conclusion. Robert is a fascinating person, and like the others, his class upbringing informs every part of his story — but there's only so much we can take of watching him get exploited and fall back into old patterns. The final, short glimpse of him pitching a psilocybin startup in California felt fitting — a little cynical, but also hopeful, like Don Draper turning his trauma into a catchy commercial. Rishi, too, had drifted outside the show's orbit by the time of his exit, stuck on a dark path after a gambling addiction led to the murder of his wife. His arrest at the end of "1000 Yoots, 1 Marilyn" comes as a bit of a relief: This is the rock bottom he deserves, and there's nowhere to go from here but up.

Eric's exit comes as the biggest surprise. There's so much history and complexity baked into his mentor-mentee bond with Harper, with each of them screwing over the other at various points in the series while also filling important roles in each other's lives. In Season 4, both have made tentative steps toward being there for each other as more than just coworkers, and it has been fascinating (even adorable) to watch. For possibly the first time, Eric has actually begun reckoning with his responsibilities to his daughters, or at least openly acknowledging the internal force that prevents him from engaging with them. "What I feel for my kids should be celestial, but they don't make me feel substantial," he says.

But Eric's relationship with Harper does bring him fulfillment in that way. He feels real joy after her speech tanks Tender's stock; in their final scene together, he tells her, "I thought I was incapable of feeling pride for anyone but myself. I'm really glad you proved me wrong." And Harper gets something out of this, too: After years of refusing to connect with people in any real way, she's actually opening up about the emotionally abusive mother she lost. Whitney claims that she's "starving for intimacy," but she's beginning to let Eric in.

It'd be a stretch to claim that these two encourage each other's best tendencies. But their camaraderie has been a bright light in a very, very dark stretch of the show — which makes the tragic twist in this episode (that Eric has been unknowingly carrying on a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl) all the more painful. Eric can't stomach what he knows about himself, so he leaves the company to Harper and disappears from the story entirely. It's a selfless choice, in many ways: Eric doesn't want his "reputational risks" to hurt Harper and the company. He also doesn't want her to remember him as a predator. But to Harper, being abandoned again hurts worst of all. In her eyes, it's a possibly unforgivable act of cowardice, no matter what awful thing he did. "I will always remember you like this," she says tearfully. It's hard to imagine a more heartbreaking ending for one of TV's most complex pairings.

It's important to note that this season isn't the first to mercilessly phase out characters. Glancing at the Industry cast list reveals just how many have come and gone over the years. You can trace Down and Kay's willingness to cut major characters loose back to the very first episode, when Hari (Nabhaan Rizwan) dies of a heart attack in the Pierpoint loo. Greg (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) disappears after running through a glass door. Robert loses his mentor, Clement (Derek Riddell), to a likely heroin overdose — and wakes up next to his dead abuser, Nicole (Sarah Parish), the next season. Jesse Bloom (Jay Duplass), DVD (Alex Alomar Akpobome), Yasmin's father (Adam Levy), Petra Koenig (Sarah Goldberg) … all exited the show when it made sense.

Characters drift in and out of the narrative as their journeys naturally ebb and flow. Some, like Daria (Freya Mavor) and Kenny (Conor MacNeill), reappear when you least expect it and the circumstances make sense. Would Down and Kay ever bring back Gus (David Jonsson)? His arc arguably reached a reasonable end when Pierpoint didn't hire him full time, and his Season 2 subplot was enjoyable but slight, anchored to Jesse but none of the other characters. Like some of the others who have departed, Gus may be too good a person to have a natural place on this show.

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If the show is renewed, I'll be delighted if Eric shows up in Season 5, whether in a main role or for a cameo. Ditto any of the others, really, including Gus. If Rishi comes out of prison religious, with a cheery new outlook on life, I'll watch his comeback attempt with great interest. And I'd especially love to see Robert, whose exit had more to do with scheduling than anything else. What would it look like for him and Yasmin to reunite after the collapse of her marriage?

But if none of those people return, I can't be mad about it, especially if Industry Season 5 turns out to be as strong as Season 4. Perhaps what makes this series so great is the showrunners' flexibility — their readiness to pivot settings and arcs, listening to the story's needs instead of what makes most traditional sense. What comes next is anyone's guess, and I like it that way.

New episodes of Industry Season 4 premiere Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.