Everyone on ‘Industry’ Is Losing It, But Who Was the Most Unhinged…

HBO’s Industry is back, and if Season 4 has already made one thing clear, it’s that everyone on this show is fully unwell—just in increasingly expensive, international, and HR-nightmare-adjacent ways. The suits are sharper, the power plays are messier, and the moral compasses have been tossed directly into the flames.

But rather than giving you a beat-by-beat recap that reads like a Pierpoint compliance report, we’re doing something more honest and, hopefully, more fun. Each week, we’re asking only one question: Who was the most unhinged character this episode? Not “Who advanced the plot?” or “Who closed the deal?” but who crossed the line, nuked a relationship, said something jaw-droppingly inappropriate, or behaved with the kind of reckless confidence that can only exist in a world fueled by money, ego, and bad decisions?

This recap isn’t about retelling what happened but keeping score as Industry somehow gets louder, nastier, sexier, and more deranged than ever. What counts as unhinged, you ask? Let’s get into it.

Runner-Up: “Siren Is Feminist”

Few lines this week landed more like a perfectly timed HR violation than this one.

The boardroom monologue defending Siren, an OnlyFans-adjacent platform Tender is scrambling to abandon, was truly elite nonsense. Delivered with a deadpan seriousness usually reserved for earnings calls and war crimes, an executive earnestly explains that if a woman wants to “record her flatulence into a microphone and monetize it, it's her agency.”

“Siren is feminist," the exec says.

In Industry, where exploitation just needs the right buzzwords to pass legal, the argument almost clears. Almost.

Harper Stern (Myha'la) on Industry — Photo courtesy of HBO

Runner-Up: Harper’s Dildo Moment

Harper Stern has never been a stranger to the chaos of the Industry world, but the Season 4 premiere finds her reaching a new level of derangement. Following a postcoital moment, new arrival Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella) floats a request. What follows is a pause, a beat, and then Harper locking eyes with her reflection as she calmly takes in the long black dildo sitting in Whitney’s closet. The theater at the premiere lost its mind, and for good reason. The power of the scene is the way Harper processes it all with eerie composure, as if she’s not surprised so much as intrigued.

Otto Mostyn (Roger Barclay) in Industry — Photo courtesy of HBO

Runner-Up: Otto Mostyn’s Entire Vibe This Episode

It takes real commitment to be this committed to being the worst person in the room, and Otto Mostyn (Roger Barclay) continues to treat that assignment like a calling. From sneering at Harper by dismissing her as nothing more than a diversity checkbox to declaring that “woke” anything is officially dead, Otto spends the hour testing how many red lines a single man can sprint past without tripping. The moment that truly made everyone’s skin crawl is when he brags about using an ableist slur at work.

“I accidentally called a subordinate a retard yesterday, nobody flinched,” he claims. "You know what, Harper? Tomorrow I might do it again.”

Otto’s convinced the world has finally caught up to his worst instincts. And that’s what makes the whole deal so unhinged, like the guy is mistaking regression for confidence.

Jay Jonah Atterbury (Kal Penn) in Industry — Photo courtesy of HBO

Winner: Jay Jonah Atterbury

New character Jay Jonah Atterbury (Kal Penn) showed tf up this episode. Every line out of his mouth felt like it was daring legal, PR, and basic human decency to tackle him at once. In a single breath, he reduces porn economics to recession-proof math, turns racial “observations” into punchlines no one asked for, and treats the most grotesque corners of the internet like a casual TED Talk topic.

What makes Jay Jonah the clear winner that he says all of this with the ease of a man who truly believes he’s the smartest person in the room.

“Jerking off is recession-proof.”
“Lot of Asians in that. It's not a negative, just an observation."
“Hey, does it make me racist or antiracist that I can only get hard for Black-on-Black action?"
“I put this one chick away recently. Tight fucking body. When I got full nude, I could see her doing the mental calculus for if fucking me was worth the dinner at some overpriced Gordon Ramsay shit.”
"Africans are as horny as anyone in the West, potentially hornier. I thought this was a porn play.”

Need more evidence? Crown secured.

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