Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Industry Season 3 Episode 6.
Industry‘s latest episode, “Nikki Beach, or: So Many Ways to Lose,” saw Harper (Myha’la) and Yasmin’s (Marisa Abela) friendship explode into a million pieces. Harper and Yasmin come from very different worlds, and their frenemy dynamic has been one of the most compelling to follow throughout the series, but their differences came to a head during a tense confrontation in the final moments of Episode 6. We finally get the full picture of what happened to Yasmin’s father on the yacht and how Harper helped Yasmin pull herself together so as to not arouse suspicion, but, evidently, her loyalty to Yasmin has its limits. Their relationship has always hinged on their ability to recognize each other’s flaws and toxic traits and choosing to remain friends in spite of them, but Harper using Yasmin in her quest to take down Pierpoint during Yasmin’s hour of need was simply a bridge too far. They’ve fought before, but never like this.
Harper and Yasmin’s Relationship Has Always Been Messy on ‘Industry’
One of the pillars of Harper and Yasmin’s friendship is the way they defend each other, dating back to Season 1 when they were still grads. In the pilot episode, when another Pierpoint employee essentially calls Harper a DEI hire, Yasmin pushes back and defends her, calling the other woman vile. In the following episode, when Kenny (Conor MacNeill) berates Yasmin at a Pierpoint dinner, only Harper has the nerve to stand up to him and tell him not to speak to her that way. Though they instinctively defend one another, their inherent differences can be difficult for them to look past, especially Harper, who will always see Yasmin as a nepo baby who’s never had to truly earn anything, and isn’t actually that good at her job. It’s true that Yasmin had basically failed upwards thanks to her dad’s money and connections, and before he squandered their family fortune, didn’t really need her job at Pierpoint in the first place. Nothing epitomizes their relationship more than their conversation at Rishi’s (Sagar Radia) wedding in the Season 2 finale, during which they repair their friendship by reminiscing about the worst things they’ve ever said to each other.
This season, Harper has been on the warpath against Eric (Ken Leung), while Yasmin can’t seem to catch a break. Processing her dad’s death, getting harassed by paparazzi, and trying desperately to hold on to her job at Pierpoint while being objectified at every turn, Yasmin needs emotional support that no one in her life is able to give her. Robert (Harry Lawtey) is dealing with his own trauma and Harper is too preoccupied with getting revenge than actually being someone she can lean on, but uses that moment on the yacht to remind Yasmin that she has her back, which makes her betrayal sting even more.
Harper Puts Business Over Friendship in ‘Industry’ Season 3 Episode 6
After teasing it throughout the third season, Episode 6 finally reveals what exactly went down on the yacht. Following an explosive argument with her father that ended with Yasmin telling him she wishes he would die, Charles (Adam Levy) jumps off the boat, knowing his daughter wouldn’t actually let him drown. But Yasmin freezes, watching him struggle among the waves, and by the time she grabs a life preserver, the boat has sped too far away, and she can’t see his head bobbing in the water anymore. Instead of alerting the captain, Yasmin heads back to her cabin, where Harper walks in to find her visibly shaken. When Yasmin tells her what happened, Harper’s reaction is proof of her loyalty to Yasmin, telling her they’re going to take care of it. She immediately comforts her, provides her with an alibi, and re-secures the life preserver so that everything on deck appears normal. In one of the earlier flashbacks to the yacht, Harper telling Yasmin to stop crying seemed a bit harsh, but now that we have the full picture of the situation, it was her way of trying to keep Yasmin from looking suspicious.
Though Harper had always been ambitious and cutthroat, her time at Pierpoint has taught her that business always trumps friendship, which she thought Yasmin would understand. It may seem callous, but this is also something she picked up from her mentors, Eric and Petra (Sarah Goldberg). As she tells Eric, who storms into the LeviathanAlpha office to scream at her, it was he who taught her to see personal relationships as a means to an end. Earlier in the season, Petra severs her longtime friendship with Anna Gearing (Elena Saurel) with little sentimentality in order to start her own hedge fund. In Episode 6, despite Harper’s pushback, Petra insists that they take advantage of Yasmin’s useful idiocy to short Pierpoint, and Harper eventually acquiesces.
Harper and Yasmin’s Fight Could Be the End of Their Friendship on ‘Industry’
Harper and Yasmin grew up very differently, and Yasmin’s privilege is something Harper has thrown back in her face several times, but never more so than during their confrontation at the end of Episode 6. Harper has had to work and fight for everything she has, while Yasmin has tried desperately to carve out her own identity separate from her father’s, and envies how Harper is taken seriously in a way she never has. The insults Harper and Yasmin hurl at each other are nothing they haven’t heard before, bringing up some hard truths going all the way back to their love triangle with Robert in Season 1. Neither Harper nor Yasmin appear to have many friends left, which is part of the reason they cling to each other despite their irreconcilable differences. They’ve lived, worked, and partied together, and now share a major secret that could upend both their lives if exposed, but this fight looks to be their breaking point.
Not even Myha’la believes Harper and Yasmin’s relationship can recover from this moment, telling Mashable, “I just genuinely thought, ‘This is the end for them.’ They can’t possibly come back from this.” This is totally plausible; it’s a brutal fight that culminates with them both slapping each other across the face. Their friendship has always been dysfunctional and often toxic, but their ability to recognize and look past each other’s flaws was one of their greatest strengths. They both know they’re not great people and have embraced the ugliness of their friendship, but seem to have finally reached an impasse. It would take a lot for most people to forgive someone for calling them a narcissist with an inferiority complex who revels in people’s pain, as Yasmin calls Harper, or a talentless, useless whore, as Harper calls Yasmin. Ouch. In Yasmin’s words, “I used to think that the worst thing that you could think about me and the worst thing that I could think about you might still be true, and we might be able to love each other in spite of it, but I am certain that that is not the case.”
In Season 3, Harper has been out for revenge, not only against Eric but Pierpoint at large. Now that their friendship appears to be irrevocably broken, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Yasmin’s name could be added to that list. The question remains whether Harper would actually stoop so low as to use the truth about Yasmin’s father’s death against her, but the information may be too incriminating for her as well, and Yasmin could very well drag Harper down with her. Harper and Yasmin’s friendship may be past the point of no return, but it would be a shame if they cut ties completely, as Myha’la and Abela’s onscreen chemistry is a major part of what makes their toxic relationship so compelling.
Industry is available to stream on Max in the U.S., with new Season 3 episodes airing on Sundays.
WATCH ON MAX
Source link
