With Succession and Crazy Energy coming to an end, House of the Dragon wrapping up its run this year, and Euphoria's return on the horizon, TV audiences are eager for new programming from HBO, and Season 3 of Industry is poised to fill that need. Having built a cult following and passionate fanbase over the past few years, Industry arrived in primetime on Sunday nights with high expectations, and with its season premiere over the weekend, the show is beginning to live up to them.
But beyond the drugs, sex, financial jargon, and electronica that the Industry collective cherishes, season 3 finds many of the cast in various states of turmoil, even as things seem to be going well at Pierpoint. Industry loves to make people suffer, even when things are seemingly going well, but just like the stock market, characters here rise and fall, or fall and rise again. And just like the markets, the reasons for the rise or fall often feel completely arbitrary. So let's take a closer look at who's rising and who's falling as Industry season 3 begins.
Eric Tao: Going Up. Everyone's favorite angry Asian male. A walking avatar (like another character we'll get to later) of Wall Street's toxic masculinity and the terrible ambition that's destroying him from the inside out. Season 3, episode 1 ended with Eric betraying his young protégé and rising rival, Harper, and getting her fired by revealing to his boss that she didn't finish college. In the first episode of season 3, Eric was made partner, which only made his neuroses worse. He's worried about being a diversity pick, stressed about having to become the ultimate ruthless person and cut his team even more, and as is made clear throughout the episode, he's splitting with his wife, breaking his sobriety after months of being sober, and sleeping on Kenny's couch. Despite being in a great place career-wise, Eric is in the worst place of his life, churning with inner turmoil and conflict and trauma. But this isn't about life, it's about success, and Eric is going from strength to strength toward the sure-to-come collapse.
Yasmin Yazdani: Going Down. This show loves putting our favorite rich girls through stuff. Just when you think they can’t get any lower, they find another basement. Yasmin ended last season facing off against the world’s worst father – a walking #MeToo accuser who embezzled funds and stole money from everyone in the UK. Season 3 begins with our girl having the worst luxury yacht birthday party ever, with her father having sex with young women she doesn’t know and the staff. Someone on board takes secret photos of her, and for the next six weeks she appears on every gossip site as the “embezzling heiress” who is allegedly spending her brat summers on her father’s embezzled funds. If that wasn’t enough, she feels under the guillotine as Eric’s most obviously disposable employee. She’s struggling at a real job and spending what little money she has left on lawyers. And not to mention that her father has just disappeared and the people who stole him expect her to take responsibility for his crimes. Things couldn't get any worse for our girl (again), but on the plus side, when things are at their lowest, there's only one way to go – up. Pierpoint's client, Henry Mack, owner of a promising tech giant, is clearly interested in her, and after a cocaine-fueled night with Eric and her lawyer, she keeps her job at the expense of her biggest supporter. This is the world of wolves, after all, and success doesn't come without blood.
Robert Spearing: Going Down. Robert ended last season struggling with addiction and his conscience and starts this season in pretty much the same place. All this despite a new relationship and working with Mac, who doesn't seem to think much of him. Robert can't stop self-sabotaging and secretly sleeping with a sexually assaultive client, Nicole Craig. At least, that's until he wakes up to find her collapsed and dead. When he gets to work, he's reduced to a human puddle. In a world like this, you'd think he'd be easy to write off. But vulnerability can be useful to Eric because it allows him to stay in control. I can't see this guy's situation improving anytime soon.
Henry Mack: On the Rise (?). New character Mack is clearly a stand-in for a certain overgrown tech billionaire of a similar name. Mack's renewable energy startup, Lumi, is preparing for a big IPO. The finances are full of big words and little words that I don't understand, but the gist seems to be that Lumi's stock price has been overinflated by Pierpoint, and a quick look at their books, as one of the investors did at the beginning of the episode, shows how shaky this company is at the price point it's aiming for. Mack isn't particularly interested in the fine print or proper accounting. Like most egotistical startup CEOs, Mack thinks he's creating a future that's much bigger than stock price and bureaucratic politeness. He's in love with himself, and he's already interested in Yasmin, mostly because she's doing evangelism for his company (and also because, as a fellow wealthy newbie, he can sympathize with her). Still, his company is growing thanks to Pierpoint's dodginess, but as the final scene shows, this could be the start of a major decline.
Harper Stern: In Stagnation. Oh, Harper. Our patron saint of female error came so close to touching God last season that she had her wings violently ripped off as a result. She lost her job, manipulated by her own ambition and the whims of the ultimate rich white whale, and now she's in financial purgatory. She works as a titular assistant at a small company, writing the diary segments for girlboss Anna. Her new workplace is much more polite than Pierpoint's, but it lacks the action — the vibrancy — of her previous job. Harper is stuck, the gears in her head spinning like the click wheel on a frozen Mac screen. She's like a caged lion, waiting for the moment to come out with a renewed thirst for blood. Meanwhile, she's watching Decision To Leave on Mubi. To make matters worse, she's apparently living in an apartment with Pierpoint's former colleagues, Yasmin and Rob, which feels like an invitation for further disaster. I feel sorry for Harper, whose every bad decision up to this point has been justified. Eric brings up Harper in a conversation with Yasmin at the after-hours, berating her for helping her get another job in finance, calling her a bad person. It's true, but it sounds awful to him, and ultimately it's a projection. Much of Industry has explored the parallels between Eric and Harper: two non-white people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds who embody ambition without conscience, driven by trauma and having to work harder than the white people around them. But it's also because their similarities are implicitly threatening that Eric had to get rid of Harper. Part of his resentment at the fact that Harper is still in the industry is because he knew she'd come back for blood. My girl's gonna get promoted soon, I have no doubt about it.
Rishi Ramdhani: On the rise. Rishi is forever on the rise. He is the best.
