The HBO drama Industry ended its fourth season on Sunday, March 1, and left viewers with a lot to process. The finale, titled “Both, And,” showed Yasmin Kara-Hanani (played by Marisa Abela) transforming into someone who enables powerful men by recruiting young women—a move that immediately made people think of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Social media wasted no time making the connection. On the official Industry Instagram page, fans flooded the comments with reactions. One user wrote, “Yasmin Kara Hanani Maxwell,” while another simply said, “yasmin to ghislaine” . The comparison was everywhere, and it forced the show’s creators to finally address what everyone was asking.
The Ghislaine Maxwell Influence Was Always There
Mickey Down, who co-created the series with Konrad Kay, spoke to Variety about the Maxwell comparisons. He confirmed that the real-life figure was discussed in the writers’ room, but the connection goes back further than this season.
“We talked about Ghislaine Maxwell in the Season 3 writers’ room, and it was more the biographical elements,” Down explained . He pointed to Yasmin’s father, Charles Hanani, and his clear resemblance to Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine’s father. Both were publishing tycoons. Both died by falling off their yachts. And both named those yachts after their daughters—the Lady Ghislaine and the Lady Yasmin.
Down also mentioned the “slightly inappropriate relationship” between Robert Maxwell and his daughter as something the writers found interesting. But he was careful to separate Yasmin from a direct one-to-one comparison.
“I feel like the one-to-one comp between Ghislaine Maxwell and Yasmin is to do a disservice to Yasmin as a character,” Down said. “Yasmin has been a victim of trauma, a victim of abuse. She can’t really formulate what that abuse was, but there’s definitely a sort of inappropriate relationship with sex and her parentage, which has been there basically since Season 2” .
What Actually Happened in the Finale
The Season 4 finale showed Yasmin hosting a high-end event in Paris for wealthy and powerful men—some of whom openly expressed far-right, racist views. The dinner guests talked about “repatriation” and protecting “genetic inheritance” . After the meal, Yasmin brought in young women with “no education, no real prospects” to keep the men company .
When her longtime friend Harper Stern (Myha’la) showed up and saw what was happening, she was horrified. Harper tried to pull Yasmin out. She begged her to leave. But Yasmin refused.
“The world is not exploitation or opportunity. It’s both, and. That’s the world, Harper,” Yasmin told her .
To prove her point, Yasmin showed Harper a video of their former colleague Eric Tao (Ken Leung) having sex with an underage girl—a recording Yasmin now has in her possession as leverage. When Harper kept pushing, Yasmin doubled down.
“I feel important here. Do you see that? I’m necessary. I feel new. I feel less pain. That’s it,” Yasmin said .
The scene made it impossible to ignore the Maxwell comparisons. Yasmin wasn’t just attending these events. She was organizing them. She was recruiting. She was building a system.
Marisa Abela on Playing the Parallels Carefully
Marisa Abela, who has played Yasmin since the show began, told Deadline she was aware of the real-life connections but chose not to lean into them too heavily during filming.
“Things were unfolding with the files even as we were filming, but especially now, the whole topic is horrifying and disgusting and very real that I’m very glad I didn’t draw too close a parallel,” Abela said .
She explained that Yasmin’s choices come from a place of deep trauma. Her father sexually abused her. She grew up with no safety, no stability, and no real power. Now, she has found a way to get close to powerful men by doing what she knows they want.
“She sees herself as kind of a guardian for these younger women who are not as privileged as she is, but have experienced the world in the same way that she has,” Abela explained. “She has found a way to find some power in that space. The way that she would justify it is that: ‘This is the way the world works. It’s going to happen anyway. These women are safer if I’m the one looking after them than if I’m not’” .
Why the Writers Didn’t Want a Direct Comparison
Mickey Down made it clear that while the Maxwell biography provided inspiration, the show was never trying to do a character study of her.
“That story was interesting. We always talked about Robert Maxwell—his fraud, the fact that he named this boat after his daughter. They had a slightly inappropriate relationship,” Down told Variety. “I can’t speak for Ghislaine Maxwell, or understand her motivations whatsoever. But we found certain biographical elements of her story interesting, quite frankly” .
He stressed that Yasmin’s story has always been about the cycle of trauma. From the very first scene with her father in Season 2, Charles commented on her body and how she looked. That foundation was always there.
“It was never supposed to be a character study about how trauma begets trauma,” Down said .
What This Means for Season 5
HBO has already confirmed that Season 5 will be the final season of Industry . Where Yasmin goes from here is anyone’s guess, but the finale set her on a dark path.
She is now working with Haley (Kiernan Shipka), Whitney’s former assistant, who has experience running this kind of operation. Shipka described her character as someone who “doesn’t have allegiances to anyone” and will do whatever it takes to gain power and influence . That alliance does not bode well for Yasmin’s future.
In the real world, Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and other crimes. Whether Yasmin will face a similar end remains to be seen. But the show has never shied away from consequences.
Myha’la, who plays Harper, pointed out that the friendship between the two women is now more complicated than ever. Harper tried to save Yasmin in Paris. Yasmin refused.
“She does, at some point, try to save Yasmin, or at least warn her, and say, like, ‘I’m giving you an out here.’ But at that point, Yasmin’s like, ‘How can you tell me this isn’t personal? You knew what you were doing,’” Myha’la said .
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The Bigger Picture
The Industry Season 4 finale used the Ghislaine Maxwell parallels to ask uncomfortable questions. Can someone who was abused become an abuser themselves? Does trauma justify harmful choices? Where is the line between surviving and becoming the predator?
The show’s creators are not offering easy answers. They are showing a character who believes she is helping young women by giving them access to wealth and power—while simultaneously exploiting them in the worst possible way.
Mickey Down put it simply: “All of this was in her from the very first moment” .
For viewers, that makes Yasmin’s transformation even harder to watch. She was never a simple character. She was always broken. Now, we are seeing exactly what that brokenness looks like when it is given power and purpose.
The fifth and final season of Industry will likely determine whether Yasmin can be saved—or whether she is already too far gone.
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