For one blissful episode of Industry, Harper Stern (Myha’la) and Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela) were at peace. In the aftermath of Tender’s collapse in Season 4, episode 7, they went clubbing, shared a kiss, and dreamed that they would be in this state of bliss “forever.”
Turns out their “forever” doesn’t even last until the end of Season 4.
‘Industry’s Myha’la and Marisa Abela break down Harper and Yasmin’s heart to heart (and that kiss)
That’s because Industry‘s Season 4 finale, titled “Both, And,” swings into Harper and Yasmin’s reinforced relationship like a wrecking ball, tearing the show’s central pair apart as definitively as it possibly can.
As the Tender fallout continues, Yasmin sets out on a new venture: supporting right-wing Reform candidate Sebastian Stefanowicz (Edward Holcroft). She hosts an elaborate dinner party for donors in Paris, and invites Harper.
Harper’s date Kwabena Bannerman (Toheeb Jimoh) sees the red flags immediately, noting that he heard stories from a friend about Yasmin being a “sadist” at school. Harper shrugs them away, emphasizing that Yasmin is a “survivor,” and all but confirming that the context of their relationship has made them inseparable.
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But even Harper and Yasmin’s long-fraught connection has limits, and Harper comes up against them during the dinner party itself. Yasmin seating Harper next to full-on Nazis is already enough to break apart the friendship, but then Harper realizes that Yasmin is plying her male guests with young women, many of whom are likely underage, and that she’ll be filming them as blackmail for down the line. It’s a page right out of the Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella) playbook, which in turn feels very tied to the real-world tactics of Jeffrey Epstein. (Yasmin’s character was also “loosely inspired” by Ghislaine Maxwell, furthering the sordid connection to current events.)
The party marks the sickening realization for Harper that her friend has gone beyond the pale, but she continues to offer her lifelines, telling her, “This is not who you are.”
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Her last one? Standing up, reaching out her hand, and relying on her and Yasmin’s shared history, saying, “If you have cared at all about me, ever, you will take my fucking hand.”
Yasmin does, but she chooses to stay anyway. It’s her acting out her own philosophy of “both, and”: She can care about Harper, but she can also care about herself. For Myha’la, that moment cements the “heartbreak” of the episode.
“She knows that Yasmin is going to take care of Yasmin by any means necessary, just like Harper’s going to take care of Harper by any means necessary,” Myha’la told Mashable in a joint video interview with Abela. “The heartbreak is that they won’t be doing it together. Like in the club scene in [episode] 7, they’re taking care of each other. Harper’s really hoping to extend that and say, ‘Let’s deal with whatever this is together.’ And it feels like Yasmin takes her hand and says, ‘I love you, but I’m going to take care of myself on my own this time.'”
For Abela, Yasmin’s act of inviting Harper was also a lifeline, albeit for herself.
“Yasmin has invited Harper into this space to confront herself with the reality of what she’s doing,” Abela said. “I think there is probably a part of her that hopes that Harper will be able to see it, call it for what it is, and break some kind of spell. And I think in that moment, Yasmin realizes that she is in too deep.”
With Yasmin fully morphing into her father, and Harper losing the people she was closest to, Industry has widened the gap between these two as far as it can possibly go. I won’t count out a reunion in a potential Season 5 out yet, as the pair have reunited after hardships before, including Season 3’s blowout “Nikki Beach” fight. But Yasmin’s actions here seem insurmountable.
At least they’ll always have that small slice of forever.
Industry Season 4 is now streaming on HBO Max.
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