In the third episode of Industry Season 4, alliances shift and secrets are weaponized as Harper Stern targets the fintech giant Tender, while CEO Henry Muck fights to secure a massive bank merger.
The high-stakes world of Industry expands globally in its latest episode, titled “Habseligkeiten.” Harper and her partner Eric Tao scramble to prove their risky financial theory about Tender, operating their new fund, SternTao, from a hotel room. Meanwhile, Tender’s new CEO, Henry Muck, and his wife, Yasmin, travel to Austria to secure a crucial banking license, forming a tactical alliance with Tender’s ambitious co-founder, Whitney Halberstram. The episode weaves a complex web of financial investigation, corporate politics, and personal betrayal.
Harper’s Investigation Uncovers Tender’s Hidden Scheme
Harper Stern’s mission to take down Tender moves from a hunch to a tangible investigation. At a tense breakfast with potential investors for SternTao, Harper pitches her idea to “short” Tender, labeling the popular fintech company a “dead man walking”. She is acting on a tip from journalist Jim Dyker, who suspects Tender is still secretly processing illicit payments from p*rnography and gambling through African subsidiaries, despite publicly claiming to have cleaned up its business.
The investor meeting is a disaster, with one attendee bluntly stating, “You’ve essentially given up before you’ve even started!”. However, Harper’s former colleague, Sweetpea Golightly, arrives with crucial research. Sweetpea has found discrepancies in Tender’s financial reports, suggesting the company’s shift away from adult content isn’t reflected in its actual numbers. Harper and Sweetpea then take a field trip to Sunderland, where they discover a man named Jeffrey working from his mother’s home. His job is to manually re-code transactions from Tender’s African acquisitions, stripping away the original source of the payments and making them appear clean.
Eric warns Harper about the difficulty of their plan, saying, “Short-only work is ugly, hard, investigative. It’s anti–status quo, antiestablishment, anti-power”.
Backed by this evidence, Harper convinces Sweetpea to join SternTao. She also calls Jim Dyker to confirm his theory is correct, giving the journalist the proof he needs for his story. Meanwhile, Eric makes a monumental personal gamble to fund their operation, risking his entire life savings and his daughters’ inheritance to back Harper’s play against Tender.
Henry and Whitney Team Up to Secure Tender’s Future
While Harper works to expose Tender, its new leadership is fighting for its expansion. Henry Muck, now installed as CEO, and Whitney Halberstram, the company’s driven co-founder, focus on winning government approval for Tender’s merger with the old Austrian bank, IBN Bauer. This deal is essential for Tender to obtain a full UK banking license.
Their strategy involves charming Jennifer “Jenni” Bevan, a Minister in the new Labour government. Henry, with coaching from Yasmin, uses his personal narrative of recovery and a pitch about innovation to gain her support. However, a significant obstacle emerges from the Austrian Bauer family itself. The heir, Moritz Bauer, expresses last-minute reservations about the merger, criticizing modern liberalism and making thinly veiled antisemitic comments directed at Whitney.
The Tender team—Henry, Yasmin, Whitney, and assistant Hayley Clay—travel to the Bauer family castle in Austria for direct negotiations. Yasmin suggests an “ego massage” for Moritz, proposing to use her media connections to publish his controversial political essays, thereby appeasing him. During the tense visit, Yasmin notices a painting by Adolf Hitler in the castle, underscoring the Bauer family’s deeply troubling history and values.
Yasmin’s Calculated Moves and a Shocking Threesome
Yasmin Kara-Hanani continues to navigate her role as Henry’s wife and an unofficial consultant at Tender, a position with no clear authority. She proves her value by leveraging her social skills and understanding of powerful egos, first with Jenni Bevan and then with the Bauer family.
In a highly charged and graphic sequence, Yasmin orchestrates a sexual encounter between herself, Henry, and Hayley Clay in their Austrian castle bedroom. The scene, set to music by Tei Shi, depicts Yasmin directing the action, asserting a new form of control within her marriage and her surroundings. This moment follows Hayley confessing to Yasmin that she slept with the journalist Jim Dyker, to which Yasmin coolly replied, “I hate when men try to take something that isn’t theirs”.
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The High-Stakes Meetings Come to a Head
The episode culminates in two parallel high-stakes meetings. In London, Henry and Whitney finally meet with the UK’s business minister, Lisa Dearn, and other regulators to get the final sign-off on the banking license and merger. The meeting turns negative when Minister Dearn focuses on Henry’s failed business legacy from the previous season.
Simultaneously, Moritz Bauer’s op-ed, “The case for a benevolent dictatorship,” which Yasmin helped place, is published. Ricky Martyn, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, arrives at the regulatory meeting with a newspaper featuring the article alongside a story about Jenni Bevan’s rising political power. This media play appears to tip the scales, and the banking license is approved. Henry wins, but he is visibly displeased that his company’s success was secured by leveraging the repugnant views of a fascist sympathizer.
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This recap is based on the events depicted in Industry Season 4, Episode 3, “Habseligkeiten,” which aired on HBO. For more entertainment news and in-depth series recaps, stay tuned to VvipTimes.
