‘Industry’ Season 3 Finale: Creators Explain When Exactly Yasmin Made Her Shocking Decision — Spoilers
[Editor’s note: This story contains spoilers for “Industry” Season 3, Episode 8, “Infinite Largesse”]
In the Season 3 finale, Lord Norton (Andrew Havill) subtly offers Yasmin (Marisa Abela) a lifeline, a way out from the nightmare her life has become in the wake of her infamous father’s scandalous downfall and death.
More from IndieWire
“I am fiercely protective of my family, and I always use my not insubstantial power to protect them,” Norton says. “But then again, life is about the family you choose.”
It’s a loaded line in an incredibly written, staged, and acted scene. The Rupert Murdoch-like figure, who wields immense power through his tabloid newspaper, is willing to end the public humiliation and shield Yasmin from substantial economic threats if she is willing to get back together with his wayward nephew Henry Muck (Kit Harrington) and help him get his life back on track.
But it’s that last part, about “the family you choose,” that appears to throw Yasmin for a loop. She sits, head in hands, on the castle’s massive staircase before running to get Robert (Harry Lawtey) for a walk into the garden, where they have passionate sex and profess their love for one another on a bench. In the two scenes that follow, Yasmin knocks on Henry’s door as the two discuss his troubled mental state, followed by Lord Norton’s birthday dinner party, where they announce their engagement, much to Robert and the audience’s utter shock.
A careful and considered use of writing, editing, and ellipsis make the moment a genuine surprise, but also leads to the question: When exactly did Yasmin make her choice? Did she, for a moment at least, choose or even consider Robert? Or was what happened on the bench Yasmin’s last fling before accepting her fate as the future Lady Muck?
IndieWire asked the creators Kondrad Kay and Mickey Down, who co-directed the episode, and actress Marisa Abela. Their answers are below, separately and in full, not because they necessarily contradict each other, but because they lay out different and interesting ways to think about the season finale.
The Creators’ Perspective
The following is an excerpt from Down and Kay’s appearance on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, which will be released September 30.
IndieWire: When did [Yasmin] make the decision?
Kay: We talk about that a lot.
Down: Yeah, it’s a really good question.
Was it after she went on the walk with Rob, or was it in the room with the uncle? Because clearly there’s so many different thoughts going on in that scene.
Down: It’s not a very good answer, but I think the audience has to make their mind up a little bit.
The reason I ask is you directed the episode, and you leave it out.
Down: We weren’t very clear. I think it’s fun for the audience to basically make their mind up about what’s going on.
Kay [to Down]: We also– correct me if I’m wrong, my memory is terrible, but it’s not like we came down that hard on that decision, is it? In terms of when we were directing the actor. Remind me.
Down: No, we didn’t, and she asked as well. [laughs] But there was another scene we got rid of, which I actually think made it a bit clearer, about when she made the decision, or at least when that decision was set, not set in stone, but punctuated. There was a punctuation point, which is, after they had sex on the bench, you realize that the bench they’re sitting on was– it’s a dedicated bench from Henry’s father, and she sort of looks at it and the dedication, and starts to think about everything.
Kay: Yeah, and in the cut everyone’s going to see, the look on Marisa’s face I think tells you that that decision is that — I mean, whatever happened before, in the interim and the walk and the sex, that decision is definitely made by the time they finished having sex, I think.
Down: Yeah.
Actress Marisa Abela’s Perspective
IndieWire interviewed Abela about her character’s arc in Season 3. A thoughtful and well-trained actress, Abela did a tremendous amount of character work in unlocking Yasmin’s psychology and filling in gaps in her backstory for this season. Here is an excerpt from that interview where she carefully laid out her character’s thinking leading up to the decision to marry Henry.
IndieWire: When she goes to Rob after the scene with Lord Norton, because he has that great line about “the family you choose,” it felt like she was choosing Rob at that moment. In her mind, was that a move toward Rob, or was that a kind of last fling before the ultimate decision?
Abela: I think that Yasmin makes the choice, to be honest– [pauses] Well, the question of it enters her mind when she is on the pier with Robert [in Episode 7] and she’s looking around, and he’s like, “Isn’t this perfect?” And she’s like, “No, this is hell. I hate this. This is not the kind of family holiday I ever envisioned for myself.” The question of “Is this the life that I want?” enters her mind then. And Yasmin is an incredibly practical person, so if the answer to that is “no,” she needs a solution. So when she’s in that gas station [at the beginning of Episode 8], and she calls Henry, that is a move toward Henry in that moment.
So, the wheels are already turning. And then, I think Yasmin steps into that house knowing that she has a decision to make. The conversation with seeing the house, the conversation with Lord Norton, I think that she knows what it is she’s going to do. I think that when she, after that, runs straight to Robert, it’s her wanting him to change her mind. I think that she has made up her mind in that moment for Henry, but she doesn’t like the decision that she’s come to, and she hopes that Robert will change her mind. That’s why she goes to the door. But he doesn’t. He can’t. No matter how beautiful and intimate that moment is.
He made a real effort. [laughs]
Abela: Yeah, exactly. [laughs] Solid effort. I mean, I think that it is a very important moment for them, and I do think that it feels great for her, but I don’t think that Yasmin feels that she needs anyone to sort of emotionally fulfill her in that way. I don’t think she thinks it’s going to bring her the ultimate happiness. I think she thinks that she’s OK on her own. I think her move toward Henry isn’t a choice between Henry and Robert, it’s she’s choosing herself.
A Key Script Change
One other relevant aspect was there were versions of Episode 8 that were shot and edited in which the stakes of the scene between Yasmin and Lord Norton were different and lend insight into Down and Kay’s thinking about the decision and Yasmin.
“There’s a few different permutations of that scene in that sequence, which were basically around what she was getting from them,” said Down. “And there was a version, that got cut, where actually the wolves of Hanani Publishing had already been pulled off. And she actually didn’t have that financial pressure, and she still made the decision to go with Henry and his family.”
In other words, Yasmin was no longer in immediate need of the protection of Norton’s tabloid and power, but his warm embrace and his pitch of the possibility of what he could do for Yasmin was still enough to motivate the same decision.
“And we made it slightly more ambiguous, I think by taking away that scene,” said Down.
Look for IndieWire’s Toolkit episode with Mickey Down and Konrad Kay on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other major podcast platforms on September 30.
Best of IndieWire
Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
