HBO’s Industry Season 1, Episode 3 recap: Tensions flare between Daria & Eric

Industry Episode 3 focuses on the complicated relationship between new friends and roommates Harper and Yasmin.

HBO’s Industry Episode 3, dubbed “Notting Hill,” has little in common with the Julia Roberts-led romantic comedy. However, Notting Hill is also the name of an affluent district in London, England, which is fitting since that is where Yasmin, and now Harper, live. Much of this episode’s drama centers around their relationship and the complications that come with living and working together, especially in a place as cutthroat as Pierpoint.

The Wall Street Journal notes another interesting comparison between the 1999 film and the series; both give us an American’s perspective of London. In Industry, we’re given that via Harper, the show’s “resident American,” although “her experience of London—soulless corporate accommodation, transactional romantic encounters and days spent surrounded by entitled, former public school boys—isn’t exactly the image projected by Mr. Curtis in his films.”

Still, Harper isn’t the bright-eyed rom-com lead we’re accustomed to. Industry Episode 3, in particular, shows just how far she’s willing to go to get ahead in the business, even if that means stepping on people to move up the proverbial ladder. We already had a hint of this earlier in the season when Harper used fake transcripts, but it goes even further in this hour.

Industry Episode 3 recap: Harper struggles to deal with the tension between Eric and Daria.

Early in the episode, Harper is torn between loyalties to Eric and Daria. Daria would like her to compile a basic deck pack of intro for an upcoming meeting with one of her main clients. In return, Daria will take Harper into the meeting. However, Eric also wants Harper to put together a pitch. Both want Harper’s work ASAP. (Also, at one point, Daria tells Harper not to “kill herself” regarding the amount of work she has from both her and Eric, seemed like a pointed jab toward Hari, harsh).

In last week’s episode, we saw Eric panic when it became obvious that one of Eric’s biggest clients, Felim Bicham, had stopped trading with Pierpoint. In this episode, Bicham’s decision is finalized. Bicham says it was Eric’s behavior at an unseen dinner that caused him to leave the company. Well, you saw his reaction to that news last week. He claimed that it was taken out of context, denied it, etc. His new goal this week is to push Harper into doing his work for him by trying to hijack Daria’s client.

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What Eric wants now is for his team to ensure they’re still making a profit. To do that, he tells his team that they can get a double commission if they sell profitable ideas to clients. As we all know, “mo’ money mo’ problems.” Anytime increased wealth is used as bait to further people along, there will always be people who take advantage or push themselves to the brink: see Hari.

We know Harper is tenacious, and Eric notices, too. It’s why he lets her pitch at the team’s morning meeting. She takes advantage of it to propose a “put option on the home builders index and a call option on gold.”

Listen, I struggle to understand what any of this terminology means, which is why I chose to consult the WSJ.  Harper’s idea breaks down to the following, according to the publication:

“In other words, she thinks that the home builders’ index, which tracks the stocks of companies that construct homes, is overvalued and ready to fall. She therefore wants clients to buy a ‘put’—an options contract which gives the owner the right to sell a certain amount of the asset at a set price within a specific time frame.”

However, Harper’s idea is still a substantial risk as it does rely on understanding what people will do to invest during trying times. You can’t predict the future, but Eric thinks she’s on the right path.

Yasmin is shocked that Eric has enough faith in Harper to let her pitch. During a dinner Yasmin organizes (to try and facilitate a relationship between Greg and Harper), she mentions as much to Seb. Yasmin also thinks Harper’s housing idea is a dig at her parents, somehow. Seb immediately calls her out for starting to nitpick at Harper despite inviting her to live with them.

At work, Yasmin gets herself invited into the meeting with Daria, Harper, and Daria’s client. She uses Harper’s idea to goad Kenny, who throws a fit that a meeting with a joint CPS/FX client is being held without him knowing. Thus, Daria is invited as an “observer,” except she stops Harper from pitching and makes things awkward. Eric isn’t pleased to learn that Harper didn’t sell her pitch, so he later distracts Daria to give her a chance to do it over the phone.

Harper fudges some numbers on the deal and lies to Eric and Daria about managing to sell an offer that doesn’t translate to what we hear on the phone. More on this will likely be divulged in a future episode.

Industry Episode 3 recap: Gus and Robert try to impress a client.

Gus, who has since been relegated to CPS after his sector was subsumed, must work with Robert to impress a client for his new boss Clement. For most of the episode, it looks like Gus knows exactly what he’s doing to get on Clement’s good side. He makes several pointed remarks toward Robert and his lazy work ethic.

Then,  when they show up at the dinner to get to know a man named Usam that they need to impress, Gus discovers that all of his schooling is essentially worthless when it comes to ruthless sales tactics. The man, Usam, pretends to be modest and conservative when Clement is around, but in reality, he’s a hard partier who likes to be shown a good time —  something Robert excels at.

So, Robert takes Usam to a local gay nightclub to celebrate “Sweat  Prom” with plenty of booze and drugs. Gus gets drunk, but it seems more like a way to cope with what he views as a downward spin on his career trajectory than anything else. His impeccable educational training doesn’t compare to Robert simply knowing the best places to get drunk and high.

He takes a cab to Theo’s and crashes in the middle of the night. Despite Theo’s wife Alice being asleep upstairs, the two have sex. Elsewhere, Harper hooks up with a guy she met on a dating app and then shares a joint with Yasmin outside. After the ups and downs they’ve faced over the episode, Yasmin agrees that maybe it is best if Harper pays rent so that they can create some boundaries between their personal and professional lives.

What did you think of Industry Episode 3? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!

Industry airs Monday nights on HBO, or you can stream the remaining five episodes of Season 1 this Friday on HBO Max.