Sir Henry Muck’s 40th birthday was anything but a celebration. The second episode of Industry Season 4, titled “The Commander and the Grey Lady,” moves the action from the trading floor to a crumbling country estate. The episode focuses on Henry’s severe depression and a lavish, chaotic party thrown by his wife, Yasmin. It reveals a shocking family trauma that has haunted Henry his entire life, pushing him toward a dangerous edge.
For viewers, the episode marks a bold shift in style for the series, drawing comparisons to gothic horror stories and psychological thrillers. The story explores the heavy cost of inherited trauma and the complex, transactional nature of Henry and Yasmin’s marriage as they both struggle to find purpose.
The Setup to a Downward Spiral
The episode begins with a flashback to Henry Muck losing his bid to remain a Conservative Member of Parliament. This public failure is another crushing blow after the collapse of his green-energy company, Lumi, last season. The defeat sends him into a deep depressive state, amplified as he approaches his 40th birthday.
By the time his birthday arrives in December, Henry is isolated in his ancestral home. He sleeps late, mopes in a silk dressing gown, and is plagued by a loss of ambition and libido. His wife, Yasmin Kara-Hanani, now Lady Muck, is struggling in her new role. She finds herself acting more as a “spectator and a caregiver” than a partner in a loving marriage.
“You cannot be too afraid of what you’ll lose,” Yasmin’s aunt, Cordelia Hanani-Spyrka, tells her. “You’ll become too pliant, and then you will lose it. It doesn’t matter how much a man tells you he loves you. You never give them unconditional love because they will weaponize it.”
In a desperate attempt to shake Henry from his funk and secure their future, Yasmin organizes two key meetings on the day of the party. She invites Whitney Halberstram, the acting CEO of the fintech startup Tender, to offer Henry a job. She also invites Jennifer “Jenny” Bevan, the Labour MP who defeated Henry, hoping to broker a political connection for her husband.
A Party Spirals into Confrontation and Hallucination
The birthday party is a lavish, Marie Antoinette-themed costume event, but it serves as a backdrop for unraveling tensions. Before joining the guests, Henry and Yasmin have a blistering argument in their bedroom. Yasmin finds him using drugs and confronts him about his romanticizing of his depression and suicidal thoughts.
“I think we see Yasmin at her best really, and her kindest and her softest in that episode,” actress Marisa Abela told TVLine. “She is a wife that really wants her husband to, at the very minimum, survive, but also to get back to himself and become happy again and create a life again.”
Henry stumbles into the dinner party visibly impaired, having taken LSD. He publicly embarrasses himself by accusing Jenny Bevan of having an affair with his uncle and forcing a kiss on her. At this moment of peak chaos, a mysterious latecomer called the Commander whisks Henry away to a local pub.
At the pub, the Commander acts as a devilish enabler, encouraging Henry’s worst impulses. The night turns violent when a local man makes crude, classist remarks about Yasmin. Henry attacks him, leaving his own hands bloodied. It’s during this eerie night that the truth about the Commander is slowly revealed: he is a hallucination, a ghostly apparition of Henry’s dead father.
The Ghost of Trauma Past and a Narrow Escape
The episode’s central twist recontextualizes Henry’s entire character. The Commander is not an old friend but a phantom manifestation of Henry’s deepest trauma. Henry’s father died by suicide on his own 40th birthday, and as a child, Henry witnessed the event from a window in the estate. This “unimaginable horror” has defined Henry’s life and fueled his own suicidal ideation.
“He’s never gotten past it,” Kit Harington said of his character. “There’s something about being the same age as your parent when something happened, or being the same age as your parent when they died, which is a huge thing for anyone, but especially if that parent [died by] suicide. And I think it goes a long way to explaining who he is to us.”
Convinced he is fated to follow his father’s path, Henry attempts to take his own life in the garage using carbon monoxide from a vintage car. At the last moment, he hears Yasmin’s voice in his head and stops. This moment breaks the cycle. He flees the garage, finds Yasmin, and the two have passionate sex on the hood of his car.
Seemingly renewed, Henry decides to take Whitney’s job offer at Tender, declaring, “A man needs work”. As they drive away from the estate, however, he suggests to Yasmin that they try for a child. Her silent, sunglasses-hidden reaction speaks volumes, hinting that their problems are far from over.
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