Industry – Nutcracker

By: Jennifer Vintzileos

After the last episode where Harper (Myha’la Herrold) survived quite the tongue-lashing from Eric (Ken Leung), she is now in a meeting with Sara (Priyanga Burford) and Daria (Freya Mavor) discussing Eric’s behavior towards her. As Harper contemplates how to answer the women, the audience is taken back to seventy-two hours prior. Harper is at her desk looking over a script that Greg (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) had written before she is called behind closed doors for another meeting with Eric. After his not-so-pleasant behavior from the prior meeting, she is surprised that in this meeting Eric is giving her an early Christmas bonus of $50,000, more than what the other Pierpoint interns will be receiving. During their meeting Greg strolls in super late and Eric ends the conversation to go out and investigate.

As Greg sits down at his desk Eric spares no expense taking the script Greg had given to Harper and reading it in front of all the employees. Harper watches on, sorry that Eric embarrassed Greg like that. After returning to his desk Eric then asks Harper if she will accompany him to the company Christmas party, to which Daria interrupts that she needs Harper at the desk during the party. Later on Harper goes to apologize to Greg for what had happened and learns that the reason Greg was late was because he spent the night in jail. Rather than listening to Harper any longer, Greg spots Robert (Harry Lawtey) and sees him as a way of getting out of further conversation. Worried for his well-being, Harper asks Robert to be responsible for once and watch out for Greg at the company party to which he agrees.

At the party in full-swing everyone is engaged in conversation, especially Theo (Will Tudor) and Gus (David Jonsson). While Theo tries to keep the conversation light as they are in public it is anything but as Theo’s girlfriend Alice (Karen Fishwick) is in attendance. Gus is then pulled from the conversation by Sara to meet another Pierpoint associate Lord Oaki (Colin McFarlane). It is obvious that Sara is trying to paint a more positive picture of Pierpoint amongst anyone who was from Hari’s team.

When Robert tries to be more mature and watch after Greg, this is quickly interrupted by Usman (Amir El-Masry) attending the party. Instead of keeping up with Harper’s request, Usman invites some chaos into the whole situation by bringing drugs to the party. Robert tries to dissuade Greg from participating, but it is clear that his attempt is useless.

In another area of the party Yasmin is sitting with Kenny (Conor MacNeill) and their other colleague Jackie (Caoilfhionn Dunne). As Jackie tries to lighten the conversation and get Yasmin to let loose, Kenny quickly comes to Yasmin’s defense and advises Jackie to back off. Once Jackie leaves the table Yasmin tells Kenny that she’s not sure whether or not Maxim (Nicholas Bishop) will be attending the party as she has not heard from him since that disastrous meeting. Kenny brushes it off and tells Yasmin to have fun. Luckily, Maxim does attend the party but not for business. Instead he shares his concerns to Yasmin about her boss and what had happened at the meeting before leaving the party.

With Harper stuck at the desk, she becomes curious as to what she had witnessed earlier: Robert handing Yasmin a gift. Their flirtation game is still going strong. Glancing down at the framed picture of Robert with Yasmin’s panties on his face, Harper is reminded by Eric to come to the party for at least one drink. Ultimately, she decides to go to the party for a bit and runs into Daria and Nicole (Sarah Parish) who tries to convince her to stay. When she grabs her drink and heads back to her desk she also gets a chance to meet Eric’s wife Candice (Alexandra Moen), to which she has a front seat of their strange verbal relationship.

Once back at her desk Harper is then joined by Daria who has brought some champagne for them to share. Daria takes the opportunity to get Harper alone to talk and share stories about their life. After the champagne is done Daria explains her real motivation by not having Harper attend the party: she sees how Eric has been treating her. Without a second thought Harper starts to tell Daria about her verbal interaction with Eric where he yelled at her.

Unbeknownst to Harper, Daria is taking mental notes about this interaction before deciding that they need to go join the party. Before they can go Harper and Daria run into Greg, Robert, and Usman. Seeing that Robert didn’t keep up his end of the bargain, Harper gives Robert a look of disappointment before going to join the festivities. When Harper encounters a drunk and belligerent Nicole at the party, Daria takes the opportunity to tell Sara about what had transpired with Eric.

Alone at the sales desk, the guys throw their own little party as they feel the effects of the drugs. But Usman is not done as he now introduces Robert to a new method of drug-taking and confides that Kasper (Kare Conradi) is retiring to spend time with his family. This means Clement’s (Derek Riddell) only client will soon be gone. The information deeply unsettles Robert, which could spell the end of his job. Greg’s partying finally catches up with him during the company gathering as he tries to run into a glass window and ends up collapsing. When Robert and Yasmin walk into this scene Harper is not above giving Robert some rather strong words about his poor behavior before storming off.

With Theo out on the dance floor, Alice and Gus talk nearby. Alice does notice that there is a closeness between him and Theo, which Gus tries to play off as just a well-established friendship since school. During the night Theo and Gus manage to sneak away for sexy times in the bathroom, but are not so lucky once they see Alice has caught them in a rather intimate position.

After giving Kenny a verbal lashing for his behavior towards her during their meeting with Maxim, Yasmin finds Robert and drags him off for some sexy times of their own. There is no kissing or overly affectionate intimacy as these two have one of the most awkward hook-ups so far. Yasmin seems to find that she likes to dominate Robert and after their encounter quickly fixes herself, not quite sure what to make of it.

And now back at the original scene of the beginning Harper is discussing the incident with Eric to Sara and Daria. Harper continues to try and avoid saying Eric has done anything wrong, but the evidence is quite clear that a line was crossed. Eventually, Harper comes clean and signs a Non-Disclosure Agreement, effectively ending Eric’s employment with Pierpoint. As she signs both Daria and Sara share a look.

Currently on bedrest at home, Harper goes to see Greg at home. Their friendship now seemingly mended, Harper reminds Greg that he has a good life. As the scene ends, Harper asks Greg whether or not he believes Eric is a good person. Greg tells her he doesn’t know, all he does is work with him.