Summary
Industry Season 4 reaches a fever pitch of terrible decision-making in “1000 Yoots, 1 Marilyn”, as several interweaving subplots come together in dramatic circumstances.
Industry is about the worst people in the world, partaking in an endless stream of deplorable and immoral activities. This is as true now as it ever has been, helped along by the fact that Season 4 has graduated from the trading floors of Pierpoint & Co. and into the true corridors of power, whether they’re in British government buildings or palatial country piles. Given this setup, it’s an inevitability that things will eventually go badly wrong, and Episode 4, “1000 Yoots, 1 Marilyn”, is the point where that begins to happen in earnest.
Nobody is immune. Sure, there are short-term victories for people like Henry and Whitney, and even Yasmin, but they’re not going to last. Meanwhile, though, those on the lower rungs of society, the people struggling to pay their bills and retain custody of their children, pay a harsher price in the shorter term, with an unexpected focus on Jim Dycker and Rishi, of all people, giving this hour a slightly tragic contour.
Blood in the Water
As this episode begins, FinDigest seems to have Tender on the ropes. Sure, Jim’s editor, Ed, is reading between the lines a bit, but even a notoriously litigious company doesn’t get their knickers in a twist unless they have something to hide, and Jim’s reporting seems to have ruffled some feathers. This means that his attempts to smooth over custody of his son with his ex have to take place in a house that has just been broken into. Jim’s nursing a ritalin addiction, and there might be a spy lurking in a car outside. Things aren’t going well personally, but professionally, they’re looking up.
Are they, though? Pursuing the legal route against Tender means that Jim has to distance himself from Harper, since an independent journalist can’t be seen to be in bed — figuratively, obviously, though given how Harper is, you can never rule anything out — with a short-only hedge fund who have a vested interest in Tender’s stock price dropping. Harper and Eric aren’t thrilled about this, but what can you do?
Well, Yasmin has an answer to that question.
Yasmin Makes Herself Useful
Yas has a couple of things to be busying herself with in “1000 Yoots, 1 Marilyn”. One of them is “eventizing” the launch of Tender’s app, which is happening in collaboration with Pierpoint, much to Henry’s chagrin, since he still hasn’t gotten over Season 3’s whole Lumi debacle. Yas is trying to position Henry at the very forefront of the app launch and use whatever’s left of his charisma and ego to drive it, hoping that it’ll pull double-duty as a way to keep him on the straight and narrow drug-wise and get back to his old self.
However, she also has an idea for dealing with Jim’s scandalous — and accurate, obviously — reporting. This involves enlisting the services of Alexander Norton, last seen watching her and Henry copulate on the bonnet of the latter’s car, to eviscerate Jim with a smear campaign that plays up his connections to Harper and, naturally, implies he sexually assaulted Haley in the premiere. Yas even gaslights Haley into believing she was assaulted, for added realism. This gets Harper and Haley promoted, and even gets Tender’s current head of comms, Robin, sacked. It’s Whitney’s idea, but he lets Yas do the honours, and I don’t think she’ll be losing any sleep over it.
Despite almost having a breakdown over the idea of public speaking, Henry nails his grand unveiling of the Tender app, characterising it as a kind of sincere, egalitarian finance for the masses. It doesn’t go unnoticed that he ends up celebrating with Whitney instead of Yas, though, despite the latter having coached him through it. Afterwards, Jim hammers Whitney with a few very direct questions about the Sunderland link we learned about in the previous episode, but he also loses his job pretty much immediately afterwards, thanks to the coming scandal from Norton’s front page. Also, look out for Amelia Dimoldenberg, the host of Chicken Shop Date. From YouTube to a HBO hit — who would have thought it?
Yasmin Might Have Met Her Match
Kiernan Shipka in Industry Season 4 | Image via WarnerMedia
A quick one, but it’s worth noting that Industry Season 4, Episode 4 massively recontextualises the relationship between Yasmin and Haley. Initially, it seemed like Yas was manipulating someone who was in a position of much less power and influence than her. She basically forced her into that very weird encounter with her and Henry, and has lightly tormented her since. It was easy to assume that Yas getting Haley promoted to a new comms role working directly under her was just another way to dig her hooks in.
But as soon as Haley has that promotion, her entire demeanour changes. She gets very direct with Yas about her evening with Henry, mockingly refers to her as “mommy”, and just generally implies that everything that has happened thus far hasn’t so much happened to her but with her express complicity. Even Yasmin looks a bit rattled, and that’s not an easy thing to accomplish. Something to keep an eye on.
Rishi’s Downfall
Things haven’t been going well for Rishi for a while, though his circumstances reached their lowest ebb when his wife was murdered on account of his debts in the third season finale. We haven’t seen much of him in Season 4 thus far, but it was obvious from the glimpses we’ve been treated to that his life hasn’t exactly improved since then.
Like Jim, he’s struggling with custody of his son, Hugo, whose custody he’s forced to sign over to his late wife’s patronising mother. Like Jim, he’s struggling with a fondness for drugs and alcohol and general debauchery rather than dealing with his problems. And like Jim, he’s f*cked.
It was Rishi who broke into Jim’s house to learn more about him, and it’s Rishi who follows him to a pub and indulges in several pints and a few lines. It’s Rishi who accompanies Jim back to the apartment of a random Cockney herbert who keeps playing the music too loud while they dementedly rant about their respective circumstances. It’s Rishi who disassociates a little when his dead wife is brought up, and it’s Rishi who, after the DJ has left the building to fetch more beers, finds Jim unconscious, or perhaps dead, having overdosed. It’s Rishi in the apartment when the police arrive. And it’s Rishi who climbs onto a balcony and sends himself plummeting to the ground below rather than face the music.
This whole scene is masterfully done, a dizzying torrent of self-loathing and anger and delusion with a thick sense of impending doom for good measure. And doom does indeed arrive, in the form of Jim potentially being dead, and Rishi deciding to end it all. But he can’t even do that right. Rishi ends up breaking both of his ankles, but he’s still very much alive. As he attempts to slither off, the police arrest him. Just when you — and he, apparently — thought his life couldn’t get any worse.
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