Spoiler alert: this recap is published after episode six of Industry season two airs on BBC One in the UK. Do not read on if you haven’t watched it.
Well, after a blissful nearly two-year run, my ignorance of the “GameStop short squeeze” ends here. After last week’s gripping hour of out-of-the-office action saw Harper, Yas and Robert forced to confront brutal truths about their pasts, this episode keeps us rooted to the trading floor as Harper’s bullish play on behalf of Jesse Bloom comes to a head – and then to nothing.
Having already drawn liberally from the post-pandemic reality this season (Bloom echoes Bill Ackman, the hedge-fund investor who made billions betting on Covid), it was perhaps inevitable that Industry would take inspiration from the GameStop saga of January 2021, where investors rallied on Reddit to drive a 1,500% increase in the retailer’s share price.
That story is applied more or less directly to FastAide, the high-street pharmacy chain that Harper – seeking to secure Bloom’s loyalty, separate to Pierpoint – led an attempted short-sell of. (Am I doing this right?)
Now Redditors are rallying against Wall Street and driving FastAide’s prices up – leaving Bloom at risk of being squeezed out. Bloom has always been a maverick, but this episode we get to see him bare his teeth at Harper, for not being as available to him as he expects.
It is an electrifying scene, as Harper tries to urge Bloom to stay the course with the short-sell – while attempting to conceal her stake from DVD. “I’m a fucking third-year analyst! … I’m young, and a woman, and I nod at him,” she tells him, using the labels that have routinely been used to dismiss her in her own defence.
“You really expect me to believe that shit?” responds DVD, fairly. Their relationship may be off but he is still looking out for her – if only for his own sake. He tells her that the London office has lost out to New York and he has secured her a spot on “the mothership” – if they work together.
But, reconnecting with Eric on a smoke break (how nice it is to see these two laugh with each other again!), Harper learns that DVD brokered Eric’s exit – accelerating her own turn against Pierpoint to throw her lot in with Bloom. Rishi is collateral damage, with Harper leading him astray into a $75m hole – and not even stopping the squeeze from Reddit. Worse: DVD was listening in on the call.
Harper walks out of Pierpoint planning, as usual, to put out the fire with gasoline. But, backstage at a Bloomberg conference, she finds Jesse Bloom deflated less by the loss than his distance from his teenage son. Harper tries to persuade him to talk the FastAide shares around on stage, appealing to his bloodlust with hers: “You chose a career in the ultimate game … I remind you that it can still have meaning if we win.”
But Jesse does not take the bait: he is a father, and his son needs him. At least for today, that is the bottom line that matters.
Closing up
Since his exile to a client-facing baby-kissing role, Eric has been learning to “talk about his feelings” and recognise his worth beyond being “Mr Pierpoint”. But if the viewer dares to hope that this reflection might lead Eric back to his young family, or a hobby or something, he quickly dissuades them: “I could be Mr Morgan Stanley!” When Harper finds that the limit to Bloom’s “threshold for pain” is lower than hers, she returns to Eric, a sucker for punishment.
And although Bloom takes the L on FastAide, he ends the episode with the hint of a rapprochement with his son, Leo, who has been rejected from Oxford despite Gus’s expert tutoring. What Harper doesn’t understand is that that could be worth more than money.
Closing down
Having found his calling in helping constituents for a pittance, Gus is visited by his sister, a doctor so burnt out post-pandemic that she has been advised to get PTSD therapy. Her visit starts off convivial enough, but on a trip to Eton for a relative’s confirmation, her tone turns from friendly sibling sparring to laying down the family law: Gus must take the promotion to Westminster.
His parents know that he is no longer at Pierpoint, and want him on an upwards career path. “They give you latitude in other parts of your life,” she says pointedly. “… They just want you to live up to their expectations. Otherwise, what else was all this for?” David Jonsson’s despondent performance makes clear: he has been wondering the same thing.
Most impenetrable City speak
Honestly, even Rishi struggles this week: “That’s bearish FastAide, bullish Rican,” he says, before being corrected by Rob. I’m not sure if there is any script that could have made this short-sell totally comprehensible to the layperson while also retaining veracity, but I’m increasingly content to let it wash over me.
Best burn
“Why are you dressed like pound-shop GQ?” says Master Covid to his father before his “evening engagement”. “I don’t know what that is,” says Mr Covid Sr tartly. Yet, thanks to Gus’s brokering behind the scenes, they are circling a connection.
Boldest power play
Yas begins this episode like the cat that got the cream, having finally secured her ascension from FX and the interest of her married boss. (This season has been notable for racing past the will-they won’t-they to land us right in the middle of story developments – effectively, I think.)
When Celeste invites herself over to Yas’s home “for lunch”, Yas is smug about being “l’autre femme” (not to mention her running water – check your privilege, Yas!). She is visibly rattled to learn that Celeste has an open marriage, with accepted rules – and that she has perhaps been naive about the nature of their attraction.
Lowest ebb
Even Kenny’s tearful apology to Yas for his historical mismanagement of her does not humble him as much as her nonplussed reaction to his parting gift: an excruciating, though certainly faithful, reenactment of David Brent’s iconic The Office dance. “Is that, like, a sober thing?” says Venetia. “You girls should really watch more telly,” Kenny says, deflated. Is there anything more demoralising than working with gen Z?
Industry season two is on BBC One in the UK, HBO Max in the US and Binge in Australia
