HBO’s Industry isn’t exactly ripped-from-the-headlines, but the soon-to-be ex Lady Yasmin Muck (Marisa Abela) sure seems to be embodying a prominent figure from Jeffrey Epstein’s inner circle.
At this point, it is impossible not to draw a direct line between Yasmin’s dead father and British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who met his end in murky circumstances when he fell off his yacht, Lady Ghislaine. Yep, that Ghislaine.
The must-see HBO financial drama, created by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, has been airing as more and more Epstein files are released. The timing is coincidental—Season 4 was shot last year—but spotting a connection speaks to the current landscape and to Yasmin’s journey as she seeks to feel necessary.
Everything comes full circle in a season finale Sunday night that will leave many jaws on the floor when Yasmin refuses to see anything wrong with her extremely sketchy new venture.
Yasmin’s decision to embrace a newfound political influencer identity gains momentum when she hosts an exclusive fundraising event for a right-wing politician at a glitzy Paris hotel. The young women dressed to the nines are not potential donors. No, they are there so Yas can offer a “gender balance” at this little soirée. If they want to sit on a lap or two—or anything else—that’s fine, too.
Or rather, it is encouraged, and Yasmin heads down a recruiting-and-grooming path not too far from the one that landed Maxwell in federal prison.
Yasmin has taken on many guises during her Industry ascent, navigating innumerable bumps along the way. Last season, her choice to cosplay a 1997-era Princess Diana for a charity dress-up day at the Pierpoint office nodded to the scrutiny she found herself under as a scandal regarding her father played out in the press.
This year, Yas has kept her face off the front pages even while her aristocrat husband, Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington), is torn to shreds by the tabloids. In fact, she helps orchestrate the Fleet Street takedown.
By the finale, she has extricated herself from both a doomed marriage and tainted company Tender, finding herself on top amid a sea of influential men. Or at the bottom, depending on how you view her lucrative new venture.
Still, Yasmin’s choices in the finale, titled “Both, And,” dress up exploitation in designer threads and call it having autonomy and access. In public, she abhors Tender CFO Whitney Halberstram’s (Max Minghella) playbook. In private, Yas picks up where Whitney left off.
In an interview with Vulture following last week’s penultimate episode, Abela acknowledged the similarities between Yasmin’s father, Charles Hanani, and Robert Maxwell. While Yasmin’s direction in this finale has a Ghislaine Maxwell influence, Abela didn’t lean into the real-life comparisons: “Things were unfolding with the files even as we were filming, but especially now, the whole topic is horrifying and disgusting and very real that I’m very glad I didn’t draw too close a parallel.”
All roads lead back to Yasmin’s tumultuous relationship with her abusive father, whose death made the heiress a target for the British press, and the only other person who knows what actually happened aboard the Lady Yasmin is on-again-off-again BFF Harper Stern (Myha’la).
Much like Harper, I can’t quite believe what I see and hear in this Parisian suite, or that Yas truly believes that what she is doing is helping anyone.
“That is not your voice coming out of your mouth, and I know your voice,” Harper says.
Last week’s episode delivered an all-time Harper and Yas night out, beginning with full transparency in a bar, followed by dance floor euphoria. The declaration that they will be in this moment forever, “even if we can’t be,” is short-lived. Cut to Paris, where honest conversation about insecurities and fears of being at the mercy of someone has morphed into excuses for sex trafficking. “This world will own you if you don’t harden up,” Yas says.
Giving women with “no education, no real prospects” access to wealthy men and a chance to see the French capital is part of Yasmin’s altruistic message to Harper. However, it is impossible to miss the insidious manipulation.
Take Molly, the maid Yas yelled at for opening curtains in Henry’s bedroom at Norton Hall earlier this season, who is now on Yasmin’s payroll. Molly thanks Yas for the opportunity in Paris, but her expression changes when Yas asks if it is better than her previous job. Rather than interrogate the hesitation, Yas recites the Parisian motto and then translates: “She is tossed by the waves, but she does not sink.”
But Harper does ask follow-ups rather than accept that the additional bevvy of women is party-planning 101 (“C--k-heavy parties are always dead”). When Harper sees through the BS, Yas pulls out the ultimate smoking gun: the video of Eric (Ken Leung) receiving oral sex from an underage girl.
Even that bombshell doesn’t unfold as Yas expects, and she becomes tangled in her own argument. Yas veers from saying Eric knew Dolly was underage (he didn’t) to claiming that Dolly lied about her age because Eric wanted to sleep with someone younger (also not true).
Yas then refuses to say how old Dolly is (she is underage as per the photo of her passport from a previous episode) before shifting to justifying sex before the age of consent (Yas lost her virginity at 14).
“I became a woman as soon as I wanted someone,” says Yas. “Because the world is not exploitation or opportunity. It’s both, and. That’s the world, Harper.”
It is one red flag after another, and Harper’s dismay at what her friend has become is palpable. Myha’la and Abela are electrifying throughout the finale, but particularly in this two-hander that draws on years of history.
“The world’s showing you what it is.’ You said that to me,” Yas says, using Harper’s previous argument to justify her path. (Harper’s full observation from their brutal fight last season: “Sorry, the world is showing you what it is without any of the protections that you are so clearly used to. And I am genuinely sorry that you think I am so sick that I could somehow get off on your unhappiness.”)
Given how chilling Yas is during this interaction with Harper, there is a moment where her mask (and voice) cracks: “I feel important here. Do you see that? I’m necessary. I feel new. I feel less pain. That’s it.” The ends don’t justify the means, and this is still sexual exploitation under the umbrella of “girl power” and a Parisian fairy tale.
A great romance is not how the finale plays out. Instead, it is more like a queasy horror with the return of Charles Hanani via a saved voicemail.
“Come, come. Love you, my little cherub. Light of my life. Mina,” he says to his daughter, not knowing this yacht excursion will be his last.
“See Paris and die. Isn’t that it?” says Yas. It is meant to sound like an achievement; instead, it resembles a curse. Painful ghosts linger, and Yasmin needs an exorcism before it is too late and she finds herself behind bars.
