Part of Industry‘s brilliance is its capacity for reinvention. In Seasons 3 and 4, HBO’s finance thriller shook up its own formula: Widening its scope, experimenting with form, and even getting rid of Pierpoint and Co. entirely. But even with these shakeups in mind, nothing could have prepared me for the haunting ghost story at the center of Season 4, episode 2, “The Commander and the Grey Lady.”
The episode centers on Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington), who was mostly absent from Season 4’s jam-packed premiere. Following a losing bid to become a member of parliament, Henry has fallen into a stew of depression, apathy, and misuse of drugs. His pain comes to a head during his 40th birthday party, a lavish costumed affair thrown by his wife, Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela).
‘Industry’ Season 4 review: HBO’s criminally underrated drama thrills in most ambitious season yet
This birthday comes with a heap of emotional baggage for Henry. As the episode unfolds, we learn that Henry’s father died by suicide on his 40th birthday, and that Henry watched it happen. Haunted by that memory and feeling himself creeping toward a similar end, Henry breaks down at his birthday dinner.
Only the arrival of a mysterious stranger (Jack Farthing) seems to bring Henry any peace. He swans in and whisks Henry away to a local pub. Soon, though, the pieces fall into place. The stranger is actually Henry’s father, appearing both as a ghostly vision and a reminder of Henry’s most formative trauma.
The episode marks Industry‘s foray into the supernatural, a surprise that Harington found affecting.
“There’s something really, deeply, emotionally moving about the idea of meeting your parent at the same age that you are,” Harington told Mashable in a Zoom interview.
He likened it to Andrew Haigh’s 2023 film, All of Us Strangers, in which Andrew Scott’s Adam encounters the spirits of his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), who passed away when he was a child. Now around their age, he’s able to share parts of his life he never got the chance to reveal to them, including coming out.
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“I was in floods,” Harington said of watching the film. “I don’t easily cry, and I was in floods all the way through that movie.”
“The Commander and the Grey Lady” occupies a similar space, where a child reconnects with their long-dead parent. Here, though, the effect is less melancholic in the vein of All of Us Strangers, and more foreboding. Henry’s father shows him the self-inflicted gunshot wound that killed him, then hints that Henry will be joining him “very soon.” It’s the purest version of the dread that has fueled Henry all episode: that he may end up just like his father.
He almost does. Following his encounter with his father, Henry prepares to die by carbon monoxide poisoning in his estate’s garage. However, at the last moment, he leaves the garage and returns to Yasmin, newly invigorated at having outlived his father and overcome this burden that’s been weighing on him.
“He’s had all this suicidal ideation, and then he makes it past it,” Harington said. “It’s this real moment in his life.”
In any other show, you could imagine an episode of this scale, with as a big a swing as a full-on ghost story, being a late-season installment. Maybe even a finale! But for Industry Season 4, it’s just part of the beginning.
“That episode, functionally, within Industry, is very important,” Harington said. “Because for us to make it through the season and to get on board with Henry, we need to understand him right from the get-go. We need to empathize with him. We need to feel for him, and that has a very important purpose for the season’s start, that we delve right into him in a very intense way so we can understand him.”
Ultimately, the entire episode closes one chapter of Henry’s life — one where he’s burdened by the memory of his father — and opens a new one. However, given that this chapter will involve working with company Tender, which is coming under scrutiny from Harper Stern (Myha’la) and journalist Jim Dycker (Charlie Heaton), it’s highly likely that Henry’s about to hit a new rough patch very, very soon.
New episodes of Industry Season 4 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.
If you’re feeling suicidal or experiencing a mental health crisis, please talk to somebody. You can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. You can reach the Trans Lifeline by calling 877-565-8860 or the Trevor Project at 866-488-7386. Text “START” to Crisis Text Line at 741-741. Contact the NAMI HelpLine at 1-800-950-NAMI, Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. ET, or email [email protected]. If you don’t like the phone, consider using the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Chat. Here is a list of international resources.
