Spoilers follow for the Industry season-four finale, “Both, And,” which premiered on HBO on Sunday, March 1.
At the start of Industry’s fourth season, Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington) is at a low point. The baronet wanders around his castle numb on heroin, reeling from his spectacular flameout as CEO of Lumi and the recent loss of his seat in Parliament. He’s haunted by the memory of discovering his father had killed himself on his 40th birthday, which intensifies as his own 40th birthday looms. He also tries and fails to bat away his shame about not being a present partner to his wife, Yasmin (Marisa Abela). It all culminates in a drug-fueled suicide attempt in episode two, “The Commander and the Grey Lady,” which he abandons at the very last gasp after hallucinating the sound of Yasmin’s voice calling his name. It ends up being the push he needs to get sober and take charge of his life again. At Yasmin’s urging, he meets with Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella), founder of the democratized banking (or so it’s marketed) app Tender, takes a new job as its CEO, and dedicates himself to being its public face.
But Henry’s would-be rock bottom appears to have been outfitted with a trapdoor. Tender’s finances, he learns only after investing his family fortune into its stock, are fraudulent, and he’s been positioned to take the fall both publicly and legally for its financial crimes. The company, Whitney tells him, was operating in the interests of Russian state actors who could kill him at any moment to protect their secret. And even his supposed guardian angel, Yasmin, confirms that she conspired with his beloved uncle Alexander to engineer his public downfall in the press — and that she wants a divorce.
In the midst of all of this, Henry somehow finds a moment of defiance. When Whitney invites him to flee the country together, he hands Henry a passport with a new identity, and the sight of it sends Henry into a rage. “Eat my shit, you peasant,” he sneers at Whitney. “I’d rather die as me than run as you.” It might seem like a shallow lease on life to seize in that moment, but for a certain type of aristocrat, Harington explains, status is everything. “He could have no money left, he could have sold the house, but he’s still got his title,” he explains. “He’s still Sir Henry Muck. It’s that weird thing in the British class system where it’s not about money, it’s about class.”
It doesn’t exactly set up a blissful ending for his character, but Harington says he’ll be happy to return to watching Industry “purely as a fan” if it ends up being the last time we see him. Significantly more happy, he believes, than his character, who we last see taking mood stabilizers while fishing on a small boat with his uncle and godfather. “There’ll always be that fish, and he’ll always go for it,” Harington says. “That’s in his DNA.”
The finale kicks off with a really intense scene in which Yasmin breaks up with Henry. What do you remember about filming that with Marisa?
It was quite emotional. Obviously, we started this relationship in season three, and — I hope Marisa feels the same — I really enjoyed that working relationship. We spoke the same kind of language. I don’t think it was written this way, but that scene, because he’s just been thrown under the bus by her, could have been another toxic, raging scene. But that was never the plan. The key to them was always, Where can we show their love for each other? Amazingly, even when she tenderly leans in and says, “I don’t love you anymore,” it doesn’t quite make sense, but there’s still love there in a strange way.
Henry really clings to Yasmin in that moment, despite her throwing him under the bus, and the fact that he wouldn’t even be in this situation if she hadn’t introduced him to Whitney. After all that, does he still see her as his salvation?
I think he deeply loves her. I think he’s infatuated with her, and he’s blinded by it. It’s interesting you say that he wouldn’t have been in the situation in the first place if not for her. I’d never considered that, but of course. And I think it’s the same in Henry’s head. He wouldn’t consider that. He just loves this woman. But he never listens to her. He doesn’t see her for who she is. It’s some image he’s projected on to her. A clue in that final scene is when he says, “We were gonna have kids.” And she’s like, “No, we weren’t!” I use this word all the time with him, but he is so blinkered to things. I think, when he’s on that boat at the very end, he’s thinking about her. I think he misses her.
The idea of Henry not being able to fully see Yasmin for who she is begs the question: Would Henry think she’s capable of the evil turn she takes next, when she essentially turns herself into a pseudo–Ghislaine Maxwell?
As far as I know, he’s not aware that that’s the route she’s taking. But I know that, from earlier in the season, when he’s surrounded by a different level of poison with the Nazi sympathizers, there’s a moral code that Henry does live by. He finds certain things beyond the pale. And I can only assume he would with that.
Henry has this come-to-Jesus moment on the jet with Whitney when he sees the counterfeit passport Whitney has gotten made for him so they can flee the country together. It’s like he finally remembers he’s an aristocrat and that he never needed any of this to live a life of dignity. What is it about this moment that finally gives him that clarity?
Like you said, it’s a moment of enlightenment for him. He even says it: “I’d rather die as me than run as you.” That’s kind of what I mean about how, in some ways, there’s a moral code to him that goes beyond all of this. It’s a weird, twisted, strange moral code where you call someone a “peasant,” but there’s a line there. And this passport where he’s got to change his name sets him off: No, I’m Henry Muck! That’s everything to me. How dare you? And it’s that that pulls him out of this strange stupor he’s been in.
That “peasant” line, specifically, is so contemptuous. Do you think, deep down, Henry has disdain for the idea of living without status?
I don’t think he’s ever considered it. He’s not commonfolk, and he never will be. He could have no money left, he could have sold the house, but he’s still got his title. You can’t get rid of that. He’s still Sir Henry Muck. It’s that weird thing in the British class system where it’s not about money, it’s about class. And his class is more important than anything to him at the end of the day. Privately, on a jet plane, he will yell that to some guy when push comes to shove.
In Henry’s final scene, we see that he’s started to take lithium again after balking against it earlier in the season. Why does he come around on this?
I think he’s left with no choice. Yasmin has told his uncle how addicted to stuff he is. So when he comes into the door and falls into the arms of his uncle, and he’s a wreck of a human being again, I think the conversation after that is, “Right, you’re going on lithium. You’re going to stop the drugs. We’re going to hole you up and keep a bodyguard looking over you.” He’s in a padded cell. Also, I think he’s done. I think he’s ready to throw in the towel. I think the important bit in that scene, for me — I don’t know what happens after, but it was written in a certain way where that is the end — was that it should end with him catching a fish.
My editor pointed out something interesting about the symbolism of that scene: When he’s catching that fish, he needs his godfather, Otto, to hold on to him so he doesn’t fall out of the boat. It’s as if to say that no matter what he does, he needs the privilege of his support system to stabilize him. Is that how you read it?
No, to be honest. For me, it was to tell the story that there’ll always be that fish, and he’ll always go for it. That’s in his DNA.
My interpretation was a bit different. In an interview that came out earlier in the season, you were talking about Henry’s addictions, and you made the point that he’s not only addicted to drugs, he’s also addicted to a need to prove himself. I was wondering if failing so spectacularly had freed him from that, because no matter what he does now, the public is not going to give him that validation?
That’s a question about his future, and I don’t know where he goes from here. But in a way, he’s on that boat in the middle of the lake with the lithium, so he can do no more damage. Put him loose into the world, and he’ll try and do good — and by trying to do good, he’ll cause huge amounts of damage. He’s a chaotic person who actually probably has some of the best outward morals of all these people, but inwardly, he’s a nightmare.
But addicts can be like that, and I think what I meant by he’s “addicted to proving himself” is that there’s substance or alcohol addictions, but there’s also behavioral ones like work that go alongside these things. I don’t think he’s a workaholic, necessarily, but he’s a kind of status-aholic. He’s got to make his name.
The song that plays during that scene is “For He Is an Englishman,” which is a callback to a couple of episodes earlier when Henry sings it incorrectly in the shower. What does this song signify to a character like Henry?
When they said, “Could you sing this in the shower?” they did give it to me relatively late on, so I didn’t have a lot of time to learn it, but I also felt he shouldn’t know it. He should be humming it and singing the wrong words. It’s a funny song to him that he grew up with that was sung around the house. But I think the lyrics speak for themselves, and it has a long history in different TV shows. I think it’s a really useful one to pin on him, and a beautiful one for him to go out to.
The song’s lyrics are intended as satire. Does Henry appreciate it on that level?
I think he absolutely would. But there’s another element of it which he does take seriously. He can do both, if that makes sense.
Industry is never shy to close the door on major characters for good. Is it fair to say this is the last we’ll see of Henry?
I honestly don’t know, because I said to them last season, “I really don’t know where you take him from here.” I’d be very happy if this was the end and I could go back to watching it purely as a fan, but I don’t know what their plans are. I know they’ve got a fifth season, and I’m really thrilled about that. If they have something to pitch to me and it’s the right thing, of course I’ll consider it, but I’m sure they haven’t thought about that yet.
If this is the ending, what are you going to miss most about playing Henry?
I never realized that tragicomedy was so fun. I think he is a tragic-comedic figure, and it’s been hugely enjoyable to do that. But more than anything, I think it’s the working relationships. You do certain jobs that are just a bit special, and my only regret with all of this is that I never got to work with Myha’la. And not with Ken either — I got one scene with Ken. But I did get Marisa and I did get Max, and those relationships were so fun and enjoyable and satisfying in an acting capacity. I’ll miss those a lot.
I hadn’t actually registered that Henry and Harper were never in a scene together.
There was one scene this season where they pass each other and they throw an insult at each other, and me and Myha’la were like, “Yes!” And then it got cut.
I imagine, if there’s one silver lining for you about saying good-bye to Henry, it’s that, after acting out piss play in season three and using a gloryhole in season four, you won’t have to film any more scenes of Henry’s specific fetishes.
[Laughs.] I don’t want to know what that fetish scene would be. Whatever it is, I don’t want to go there now. That’s it. Done.