Industry season 2, episode 8 recap – the ending explained

By Jonathon Wilson
Published: September 20, 2022 (Last updated: last month)
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Industry season 2, episode 8 recap - the ending explained
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Summary

The chickens come home to roost in Industry‘s second season finale, and nobody emerges from the episode unscathed.

This recap of Industry season 2, episode 8, “Jerusalem”, contains spoilers, including an open discussion of Industry Season 2’s ending.


Y’all remember that bit in the Chernobyl finale when Jared Harris lectured the Soviet government on how lies incur a debt to the truth, and eventually, that debt must be paid? Well, Harper Stern should have been listening. After weeks of backstabbing her colleagues, risking her career, trying to stage what was essentially a coup, and suddenly in “Jerusalem” getting inadvertently involved in an insider trading scheme, the thing that eventually caught up to her was forging her college graduation. Pierpoint might be a bit wishy-washy on sexual assault, but being on the floor without a legitimate degree? That’s non-negotiable.  

As Eric mournfully tells Harper, “I’m going to have to let you go.” Is it about time?  

Industry season 2, episode 8 recap

You’ll recall that at the end of the penultimate episode, Harper, Eric, and Rishi has recruited DVD into their little scheme to be hired at another company on the strength of Jesse Bloom’s public persona and infinitely deep pockets. But this plan is thwarted by the fact that a) Harper doesn’t exactly have Jesse’s loyalty at the moment and b) the move would require everyone to relocate to New York, which they didn’t want to do when it was suggested by Pierpoint in the first place.  

Rapidly running out of options, Harper callously grills Gus for the word on what’s happening with FastAid, Rican, and the NHS, makes some assumptions based on his silence, and then takes the information to Jesse and advises him to tap out of his short before he hemorrhages any more money. But Jesse knows Harper lives with Gus, who works for Aurore Adekunle, so he goes on TV and makes several leading anti-cronyism statements to move the market around. By torpedoing the FastAid acquisition and positioning Rican as the likeliest home for the NHS contracts, Jesse is going to make money on both ends of the deal. “Almost like he planned it,” DVD astutely notes. 

And of course, he planned it, which is probably my favorite development of this finale. Until now Jesse has been consistently depicted as a guy with a ton of money that he might have acquired by chance during the pandemic. There have been glimmers throughout that he knows what’s doing; moments when he switches into a different mode and lets the laidback persona fall by the wayside, but nothing to really suggest he was capable of such a ruthless long con. It’s a brilliant maneuver, and when he jets off with Gus, of all people, it feels like a supervillain having recruited his new sidekick.  

The problem for Harper is that Jesse using the knowledge she gave him to manipulate the market constitutes insider trading. She’s been done. Her only option now is the MHFS – Macro Hedge Fund Sales – “super team” that Eric pitches to Adler. During the meeting, Harper and Eric sell out both Rishi and DVD, and Harper offers to testify that Nicole sexually assaulted her to leverage the scandal. Adler buys the idea. Rishi survives the cut, but Harper saunters past DVD realizing his access card won’t get him into the building anymore. (This, by the way, comes right after Harper has sex with Rishi on the night before his wedding, since why not?) 

Industry season 2 ending

It’s after that when Harper gets fired because of the whole forged degree thing. It seems like a bit of an anticlimax, really, but such is the way of things – if you tell enough lies, you’ll never be able to predict the one that’ll eventually ruin you.  

Elsewhere in “Jerusalem”, Yasmin has an absolutely terrible episode. After she learns from Celeste that her dad tried it on with her back in the day – along with the information that three of the department’s clients were named in Jeffrey Epstein’s black book, which is presented as a kind of perverted defense for managing the finances of some truly terrible men – Yas confronts him about that and potentially grooming the family nanny. And her dad goes absolutely ballistic, savages Yas’s entire existence, cuts her off from the family finances, and locks her out of the house. When she tells Celeste that they won’t be representing her father, Celeste reminds her that her father is the only value that she brings to the seat. Like Harper, Yas is essentially done.  

So, where does she go? Yes, to Robert. And while she apologizes for using him, she doesn’t suggest she’s going to break the habit, instead pushing him to acquire some coke for her which he’s caught with during a routine traffic stop. His job is also imperiled on the back of this, and he’s thrown in the drunk tank until Nicole bails him out. He’s still furious with her about being a predator, but she belittles the accusation, as well as everyone who has been a victim of her. Presumably seeing no better option at this point, Robert gives himself back over to her. Somehow, he had the happiest ending of just about anyone. 

You can stream Industry season 2, episode 8, “Jerusalem”, on HBO and HBO Max. What did you think of Industry Season 2’s ending? Let us know in the comments.

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