Industry – Quiet and Nice

By: Jennifer Vintzileos

Since the last episode of “Industry” we see how the death of Hari (Nabhaan Rizwan) has affected everyone around him at Pierpoint & Co. As Hari was Harper’s (Myhal’la Herrold) roommate, she is now in a bind to find a new place to live as she now needs to secure permanent housing. With one failed attempt after another, Harper and her co-workers also now face an inquiry into Hari’s death while the company tries to make sure this will not happen again.

Eric (Ken Leung) addresses the team on the floor after returning from a vacation to Disneyland with his family. He is concerned about Fenmarsh Solutions, which is one of their biggest accounts headed by British Fund Manager Felim Bichan (Andrew Buchan). To get to the bottom of the issue and speak to Felim, Eric recruits Harper to contact him and keep him on board. Even with Daria’s (Freya Mavor) help in how to break through the proverbial contact wall, Harper then receives an email from Eric to stealthily get the information on Felim’s next meeting through Yasmin.

Harper succeeds in finding out that Felim is meeting with Hilary Wyndham (Mark Dexter) who works at Pierpoint in another department. Both Eric and Harper arrive before Felim’s meeting with Wyndham to find out that the issue between him and Eric is of a personal nature, as he did something that Felim’s wife found inappropriate. Nevertheless, Eric manages to schmooze his way through and plant some seeds of doubt in Felim’s head just before Wyndham walks through the door. In the elevator Eric questions Harper as to why she didn’t speak up at the meeting, but asks her to never mention this again and says he will see her at the company’s grad dinner.

Yasmin (Marisa Abela) has been walking a fine line between the life she has built with her boyfriend Sebastian (Jonathon Barnwell) and a rising flirtation between her and her co-worker Robert (Harry Lawtey). Although things with Sebastian haven’t been great, as he doesn’t want to initiate any intimacy with Yasmin without it being on his terms. But home life is even more tough since Yasmin and Sebastian both live with Yasmin’s mother, Azar (Helene Maksoud). For a little dinner birthday party that Yasmin throws for Sebastian and his friends, Azar interrupts the fun by presenting Sebastian with a naked painting of Yasmin and taking the opportunity to not-so-subtly put down her new job every chance she gets.

At work Yasmin’s superior Kenny (Conor MacNeill) asks her to join him for drinks and then makes life quite uncomfortable for her when she lets him know about her boyfriend. That one comment then spurs Kenny to humiliate Yasmin every chance he gets. We watch him call Yasmin out for not getting croutons on his salad and then later at a dinner hosted by Pierpoint he berates her for interrupting a conversation where he was clearly talking about her. Harper immediately intervenes, but Kenny continues to get belligerent until Eric steps in and asks him to go home. Later Harper and Yasmin spend time talking and bonding over drinks with the rest of their co-workers. To solve Harper’s current living issue Yasmin offers her a place to stay for a little while.

Gus (David Jonsson) resumes his on-again/off-again tryst with fellow co-worker Theo (Will Tudor) yet Theo downplays the hook-up because he has a girlfriend. But Gus also must face a new problem: the re-structuring of his department since Hari’s death. As Hari was more inclined to pop pills and chug Red Bull to keep up with the demands of Pierpoint, his death changed the way the company now handles work. As Gus’s boss Lucinda (Ruby Bentall) tries to encourage less hours and stress in the office, Gus can tell that something is amiss. Later at the company dinner Gus learns from Sara Dhadwal (Priyanga Burford) that his team is going to be disbanded and incorporated into different departments.

Robert continues his infatuation with Yasmin as he sees her in the gym in the morning. When he is caught looking at her profile by Gus, Robert tries to blow off his attempts to ask Yasmin out to dinner. At the company dinner Robert, Harper and another one of the grads go into the bathroom to do drugs. When Robert and Harper talk there’s a hint of sexual tension between them that is dispelled when someone from outside the bathroom stall interrupts them. After the dinner the group goes to the bar to let off steam while Robert and Yasmin share some rather sexually-charged glances at each other.

Later that night when Robert gets home from the bar he is kind to Gus and listens to him as he shares the bad news about his department getting broken up. To cheer him up Robert jokingly offers a sexual favor and it makes Gus laugh. When his phone alerts him to a new message, Robert opens it to find Yasmin has sent him a scandalous photo of Sebastian going down on her. The flirtation between Robert and Yasmin is taken to a whole new level.