The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘Industry’ Season 2, Episodes 5 and 6 Recap

Episode Date: September 7, 2022

Wosny Lambre and Jodi Walker recap episodes 5 and 6 of HBO’s ‘Industry,’ a pair of episodes that both subvert and reinforce what viewers have come to expect from the show. Hosts: Wosny Lambre and Jodi Walker Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Missa Onga. And I'm Ryan Hunt. And we co-host, Stadio, a football podcast, on the Ring of Podcast Network. If you like soccer or football, make sure you search for Stadio, a football podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Morning Decisions. How about a creamy mocha frappuccino drink? Or sweet vanilla? Smooth caramel, maybe.

Or a white chocolate mocha. Whichever you choose, delicious coffee awaits. Find Starbucks Frappuccino drinks wherever you buy your groceries. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. to the latest edition of the Prestige TV podcast. I'm your co-host, Big Wasa. Waz, A.k.a. Wazni Lambray. And I'm joined, as always, by the lovely and talented.

Jody Walker was going on, love. Waz, how are you? I'm very excited to talk about industry today. A lot going on. As usual, I'm incredibly stressed about it. Yeah, man, I'm really happy because I get to talk about how I learn that you can, basically get away with your bedroom noises by calling it

techno music, which I enjoyed. Okay, I'm glad you mentioned that right up the bat because I was like obsessed with the music in episode five and episode six. Like in episode five, the, you know, hour we spend finding out that everyone has like a hundred siblings. They are literally playing sugar plum fairy, like little twinkling orchestral music. And then as soon as we go back to episode six, it is right back to the

techno beats, right back to the sex, right back to everything we know and love on industry. Yeah. And episode five was like so emotionally heart wrenching, gut-wrenching stuff. The dude

who plays Harper's brother for the episode just comes in and is just like on a heater from the start. I don't know this homie's name, I should probably look it up. But like, what he does with the drug usage, the

vulnerability, the anger, the indignation, like he plays so many different beats in his appearance throughout this episode that, hats off to that brother, hope he books more jobs in the future. And like, yeah, it's basically they

use the trip to Germany for Harper and Yasme to work out a couple of their familial issues. You're using workout very generously. But yes, they do go to Berlin in order to somewhat unbeknownst to each of them work through a couple of family things. You are right. The guy who played her brother was so incredible.

No, riddle me this was, did you think when you first saw him that he looked a little bit like DVD? Did you feel like there was something Freudian going on there? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I could see the DVD angle, but again, DVD, I think is biracial on the show, too. So I could see, but I don't think Harper's biracial on the show. I think she's biracial in real life, but isn't playing that on the show. But whatever, I could see exactly what you were going with. I just thought they looked a little bit alike and that maybe there was a little something there that was luring Harper towards TV.

but the young man who played JD was, is named a Dane Bradley. And yeah, I thought he was incredible. I really loved, I loved the clubbing scene, first of all, you know, always like when we're dabbling in hardcore drugs and techno beats. And I really thought it was interesting how like a lot of the first dialogue you hear between Harper and her brother, JD, well, you don't actually hear it at all.

You're just reading it in captions because it's so, loud. That was dope. Yeah. Yeah. I just thought there was a really cool scene. And it's also interesting to think about with like twins and the way that they relate to each other.

And a lot of times you hear that twins, you know, communicating telepathically. Yeah. Yeah. Like who knows what little weird twin language is going on in their head. Although, of course, it must be said that these two twins are not doing so great and are having a really hard time communicating with one another. So yeah, we can get into Harper.

Rob goes back. to Oxford. His dad happens to still work and live over there. He goes there for a work recruiting trip where, you know, it's, it, what I thought was dope about the Rob storyline here too was them highlighting like what Rob is good at when it comes to job function and how and why and, you know, the toxicity of it, how draining it is. And I'm just like, it's crazy how effective Rob could be at his job while being personally, completely destructive. It's kind of crazy how they put those two like side by side.

Being a well-adjusted, well-rounded, having a nice work-life balance, will not, does not preclude that you will be good at what you're being paid to do. And the Rob example in this episode is just incredible. Rob is my soft spot. I'm always very worried about him. And in this, I really loved his storyline in episode five. I found it so unpredictable. And the sort of ultimate reveal that he like, you know, he relapses. He apparently chugs an entire bottle of champagne at his dad's like, you know, pub where the champagne is not readily flowing. I, well, first of all, I love that it takes him about three seconds of seeing his dad's face. before he relapses. Like, that is just this, this episode five could have been renamed inner child. Like, it was just all about these poor young people's inner children. But with, with Rob, it was like, well, is this going to be his destruction? How is this going to go?

And then he gets in front of that young woman. And obviously he's luring her towards her doom at Pierpoint. But he's good at it. Like you said, like, and I was like, oh, he's better at his job when he's using. And I thought Perry Lottley's ability to go like right back to season one, Rob, was so impressive. Like when you watch him enter that restaurant and start talking to that young woman, it was like, oh, I haven't seen him act like this in an entire season. He just went right back to it. It was incredible.

Yeah. And what I liked was he was being very alluring to the young lady that they're recruiting to come work at Pierpoint. And, you know, the new young woman from the office, she is mortified. Like, the person he's luring in is like, yeah, this is captivating facts. Like, yeah, I'm definitely a killer, a tiger, I'm a hunter. Yeah, I definitely belong in Pierpoint. And then his colleague is looking at him in just pure amazement and disgust by just the it of it all. And I love that they pair those two things side by side with each other as well.

Yeah, that character of Venetia is interesting because in some ways it's like, well, what do you think you're doing here? Like, do you think that you're doing some good? Like, at least Rob is being honest about what's going on at this company. And like you're there to serve the industry. You're there to serve yourself. And you're there to serve absolutely nothing else. But then I also like how Venetia kind of presents this foil to Yasmin as sort of what Yasmin thought that she was. maybe when she came into the role

and then like just at every turn Venetia is undercutting her and being like well I would never let that happen to me but she is so she is so young and naive but I think but I think what Venetia

does in this season is show you how you do this job when you have a better grounding in terms of your understanding of who you are as a person. I think she looks at Pierpoint as a job as a means to an end as something she's going to do

in her career. But this ain't the be all end all. It doesn't define her as a person. She understands what, you know, how success is measured, all of that. But like she doesn't have this like burning need to equate self-value with how she's performing at this job the way some of our other characters do, right? whether it be Eric, whether it be Eric, whether it be Harper, whether it be Yaz, or Rob, right? And because Rob, when he's talking to his dad, like, they mentioned his mom who was deceased

and just like how much she pushed him and how much she just wanted him to achieve these things so that he could be somebody of a certain standing within the society. And I think he took that to heart. So he's like, if I'm fucking up at this job, I'm really not. I'm nobody without being good at this job. And I think a lot of people feel that way. And even the people who don't, I think Eric is defined by like winning, right?

Like playing this game and winning. And so is Harper. And I think Venetia is supposed to represent like, guys, we're fucking pushing papers around. We are not doing anything of any consequence here. We make good money. Let's be happy about that. Venetia is true Gen Z.

You know, like these other kids, our original grads were like on the line of Gen Zian millennial. And then three years later, Venetia comes in and she's like, jobs aren't everything. We're, you know, here to serve a greater good. But then I find that making me be very millennial about her, which is like, okay, well, let's not get too big for your britches because like you're still, you're still work here. You still work in the same place. But the way that they create those generational changes and divides is really, is really. interesting within Pierpont, and then they're also in episode five doing it within these family structures and how parents can ultimately push their kids to live a different but just as rough life.

So let's talk about the family dynamics. The episode opens with another awkward ass scene between Yaz and Papa. And they're talking, like, this guy's, completely delusional. And you start to understand why Yaz is who she is. She talks about her memories in Germany. The weird, like, does he want her to use the house or not? I thought that was weird. And she talked about the memories of just like, yeah, I just remember hearing a bunch of freaking thumping noises through the walls, right? And the dad says, yeah, Berlin is a city of techno music. You know what I thought was weird was? While I was watching that scene, all I could think is, is he about to kiss her?

Like, it is out, I mean, you know, you brought up his boner last episode, and we had to talk that through. But it was like, it really didn't hit me until this episode. I mean, obviously, that must be the direction that the actor is receiving. But it's like, yeah, act like you want to fuck your daughter. I mean, that is what is going on. And to me, then, like, that makes a lot of sense for how Yasmin has ultimately, like, sort of calibrated her worth and her ability to exert power is like often wrapped up in her sexuality

and in the way that she looks. Like that's certainly not all that she is, but sometimes it seems like what she sees herself as. And it's because she's got this weirdo dad who is leering at her all the time. He gives me the ultimate ick. I can't stand him. And again, they show you how delusional the guy is. Like he, when she's talking about, um, that she was being like fussy and mean and annoyed by him at certain points, like, this dude didn't even realize that Yaz was not feeling him.

Like, he was like, really? You were, you were mad at me? He was confused by that. That just shows you how not locked in of a parent and dad he is. And again, we were constantly seeing the consequences of that. that. It's kind of like, how did this girl get raised? Because now, like, her mom is not talking to her as an adult. And her dad was totally absent her life. I mean, you know, come to find out, she had a, like a rotating door of nannies. But her dad was also trying to ruin that for her. So I do think this

episode went, you know, I was feeling pretty frustrated with Yaz the last time we spoke. And I still, I remain frustrated with her. She makes terrible decisions. But I, I, I, I think this episode went a long way towards sort of giving me some understanding of like where that foundation comes from. Yeah. And she, you know, she visits her after her drug come down from that club scene we mentioned. She visits her old nanny who she clearly has fond memories of. And nanny's like, look, your father made me sign an NDA. You have a half sibling.

Yeah, dude was fucking me the whole time. Blah, blah. And it's just like, who, what an upbringing, huh? that reveal where she says, how old is your daughter? Like, when did you have her? Was really chilling. Because, like, what will that dad not cast his dark spell over?

It was in, and I wish I had kept a running ticker in, like, the spirit of finance and numbers of how many siblings we found out about in these two episodes. Just, Rob, Rob had half siblings. He seemed to at least know about those. We found out about Gus's siblings later. Harper's siblings.

I mean, we're basically watching parenthood at this point. Like, it is all family all the time. Yeah. And again, I like this contained episode to just sort of unpeeled this kind of stuff because the show does a good enough

job of moving the plot along. And, you know, we're going to talk about episode six with the meme stocks and what it means for Harper's career and all of that kind of stuff. But they took this opportunity. to really delve into who these characters are and why. And, you know, which brings us to, I think the main thrust of the episode is definitely Harper

and her brother. Like, all the things we learn, everybody really does think they're the hero in their own story, right? And, like, Harper is convinced herself, like, my brother, who I've always loved, and he ran away from me and ran out on me, and it's just been this fucked up thing. failed a test because of it.

And, oh, my life has been made so bad by my brother leaving. Like, one... Listener, I wish that you could see Wozni's Harper impression. It involves a lot of hands, a lot of handwork. Well, it's just, you know, just the level of, like, victimhood in it, that she attaches to her brother getting away and it dawned on me, like, you can tell it. She had never even considered the idea that he might not want to be found, that he would want to be left alone.

She never even considered that. Oh, I think it crosses her mind, and she just puts it right back out. My favorite thing that Harper says in this episode, and I'll talk about it probably some more in episode six, because it had me deep in some psychological stuff with these characters. But she says that she tries not to dwell in the past. And that that's what she likes about this job is that it's perpetual present tense. And for me, that just tied up a lot of things about that character and a lot of things about

the way that she operates. She's in the now. She's, she's, and I think because, you know, if I could pull a DVD here and say, may I get vulnerable with you, I tend to live what I explain dangerously in the present. Like, I'm not a forward thinker. I'm not a past thinker. I'm just thinking about what's happening right now. And often that serves me really well as like a journalist who has to juggle a lot of deadlines, et cetera.

But it can also be really harmful to not be thinking about the past and to not be thinking about the future. And it made me think of something. No, this is about to get real pop psychology because I heard this from a friend who heard it from her therapist. But her therapist told her that the past, like that depression is past facing. anxiety is future facing and stress is right now. And it just made me think about like in this show, it's so stressful because it's what's happening right now.

But that's what made episode five so different and so interesting and so depressing is that it takes you, it forces these characters to go back in the past. So like all of that to say, as much Harper wants to say that she doesn't like to dwell on the past, she's checking that brother's Instagram every day. She's sending those messages, but she's also kind of refusing to do the work that he's asking her to do,

which is to actually think about what happened in the past. And he seems to clock that about her real quick in a way that she's not able to clock it about herself. And in a way that's like not even close to being able to mend the relationship. Yeah. And I think there have been people throughout the two seasons or season and a half that have dressed down Harper and basically, told her about herself, right? We've seen it happen a few times throughout the seasons. Nobody's done it more effectively and in a more cutting way than her twin brother,

because obviously he knows her the best and explains that, like, look, like, I essentially turn into a whole crackhead because of the way that we were raised. And Harper's like, well, no, I was trying to push you to be great and be better. And blah, blah, blah, he's like, be better at what? Tennis? What the fuck are we talking? What are we doing here? You know, like, to what end? Like, the stress and the anxiety that this guy talked about feeling and he's just like, to what end to just be, you know, number 17 tennis player in my class or something? Like, how is that, how could that be worth it when you consider how it makes me feel and what it's now driven me to do? And I think it's finally where he's just like, look, like, Harper like,

and Chris and Andy mentioned this on, well, Chris, actually. He was the only one that talked to the showrunners while he was in England. But he was like, yo, he had to make Harper literally do the drugs to understand how he feels. That's how narcissistic this woman is. It's just like, no, okay, all right, I guess you have to fucking do crystal meth To understand what my life is like and what it's been like because of this stuff.

Yeah. And then you see her in that meeting the next morning or the afternoon just looking like absolute shit and possibly experiencing what, you know, her brother may have experienced. But that's a good point.

I didn't think about that of like, I've literally got to make you do this drug to make you understand. But my feeling is that she still doesn't. Yeah, who knows? Who knows? You never fucking understand.

You never know what Harper's learning or not learning in a given moment, right? That is so true. So, was, her brother says, you know, you're a narcissist. Do you think that she is a narcissist? No, I think that's something you say in the heat of a fucked up argument, right? Like, when you are just, when you are basically letting go of 23, 24, 25 years of angst, of just depression, of trauma, quite frankly, for this dude, it's not going to always come out as eloquently as you would like it to.

So I don't know that he means like that she's a textbook definition of a narcissist, but it's just like, all right, can you just get your head out of your own ass for once, Harper, and understand where I come from? That's what I got from that. I think that she's probably a narcissist. I think that him saying that really made me start. thinking it. And because obviously, you know, we're on Twitter. We see things, like, I obviously see people say that, like, she's a sociopath, but I have long said that Harper is my baby and I'm

going to stand beside her. And I stand by that. That remains. Her being a narcissist does not, like, maybe not root for her. But it, it, it defines, she is the only thing that defines herself. Nothing but her striving for power and success and just, like, she's a shark. If she sleeps, she dies. Like, she's just going to keep going. And it really did sort of recolor how I saw episode six, which was sort of certainly like the darkest variant of Harper. But I was just curious where you stood on that.

Yeah. So just a couple of things before we wrap up. I want to ask you if any other things from the episodes stuck out to you. I mean, for me, I really enjoyed Rob and Venetia's conversation. where they like really getting to know each other before Rob goes to see his dad and ends up, you know, relapsing or whatever. But I just loved, again, it's more of the show's class commentary

but she's talking about it coming from an immigrant background and he's talking about it being like a working class northerner type of person. And what it means for these two people who come from outside of this world to be trying to do it, I thought that was just a beautifully staged and acted and written conversation. That was dope. That's like one of the things

that the show was just so good at doing. And they don't even have to harp on it. It can just be their quick conversation sort of getting to know each other, but it's like this other commentary going on. I enjoyed that. And the other thing about this episode is I don't know how old you are, Jody,

but I grew up with the Dare program. Oh, sure, of course. where, you know, these people come to your school or after school program, the DARE program. They basically try to explain to you. Drugs will fucking ruin your life. Don't even think about snorting or smoking anything once because you'll die or become an addict if you do.

So get that out of your mind. And sometimes this show can feel like a DARE commercial. It's like, don't do none of this shit, kids. Like, this is the consequences. They never let you get comfortable because sometimes it feels like a dare commercial, but sometimes it feels like a cool, fun smoking commercial, you know, like sometimes what they're doing seems really like sort of glamorous and aspirational, especially when Yaz is doing it.

But sometimes it's Harper smoking crystal meth. And yes, I do feel that all of my dare training kicked in in that moment. Like you can't do that just once. But seemingly so far she has. But yeah, I totally agree with you about that Rob and Benicia scene. I really, we don't get a lot of moments like that in this show. But when we do, they're always really special and listening to them relate to each other. And it's just so British, like the way that they talk and the way that these sort of class lines and immigrant lines and things overlap.

Obviously, there are parallels in America and in most countries. But I really like learning about that. Like, I like the really British things about the show. You know, and I think to myself, I'm like, how come British people are more class conscious than us and that? And ultimately, my hypothesis was that they literally have a monarchy still. Well, he's older. They just have had a lot of time to establish those lines.

Yeah. So it's like, they're reminded of like, all right, there's these people, then these people, than these people. And I'm just like, yo, they are just so much more conscious of these dividing lines then Americans are where, you know, everybody thinks they're the next fucking Bill Gates. But that's neither here nor there. Anything else from the episode before we go to six?

Well, just in talking about Rob, I really, well, it was so upsetting to watch him wake up, just covered in his own vomit outside of his dad's house. A really tough episode for Rob. And then that I guess they just allowed him right back in the Christchurch Choir. Why not? Oxford. He just kind of wiped the blood off of his face,

scratch the vomit off of his blazer, and got right back in there. But I, and, you know, I, please, please envision me pushing my glasses up and, and being like an annoying college kid, but I did study abroad at Christchurch at Oxford.

And so just seeing like all of those buildings and stuff was very fun for me. I did not go to Oxford. I am not a classy British person. But I loved, I loved the Americanness of DVD being, like trying to relate to Rob about Oxford and just only having Harry Potter references in his bucket. I got nothing else.

I got nothing else. I got nothing else. I got nothing else. But go. I wish I can't relate, but I unfortunately can. Go get him, kid. I got nothing else for you. You got Harry Potter.

That's it. Go get the job done. Okay. Oh, yeah. And then there was a girl boss joke in there at some point that had me in tears, absolutely crying. I don't remember the first. freaking actual context, but anytime somebody can invoke girl boss, like, and it's just like,

you know, that makes me think of one last thing that I really loved Jackie's role while they were in Berlin and that she, you know, everyone was kind of like making fun of her, like, how are they possibly still putting Jackie in front of clients? And there were kind of a couple of interesting things about like the age difference between Jackie and then Yaz and Harper as like a different generation of women. She's smart enough to not be an idiot the night before a freaking client meeting. But she also gets in there and she's totally charming. I mean, she is herself.

But then Anna says, I love this bitch. Like some people are going to love this bitch. And I like her getting that moment. She said the girl boss thing. There's no, like she said, there's not a single penis in the room. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was just a great moment about culture and commentary. I just love that.

All right. So episode six opens up with, you know, basically we remember her big coup with a Harper that is her big coo with with Bloom was basically like she's now going into business for herself. The fucking desk could be damned. She's locking in Bloom as a client because if she has him, she has the golden ticket. Remember I told you you can't. can't really be trusting this Bloom guy. The way she's hitching her wagons and like, this dude could just flick her away with the, with just the drop of a pen.

And she's just like all in on the guy, but whatever. We're seeing how this plays out. And yeah, I like that they brought in the game stock, Robin Hood sort of element of real life into the show. And it was a cool device for the episode because this is another, was another banger. Yeah. Yeah, this was like a banger in the classic industry style where it's, you know, heart pounding intensity where I quite literally have no idea what's going on in any, like, technical way. I, when they just kept talking about shorting the market, I was like, I need Margot Roby to come in here and explain this to me, a big short style. I, you know, I get it on a technical sense, but like, or on a non-technical sense, but what they're so great at doing is, like,

like keeping that intensity exactly where it needs to be to understand what's going on. And then also the visual device of just watching that needle go up and down. And like what that needle means to Harper's life, like what it means to her emotional well-being is crazy and wildly unhealthy. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet. and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity,

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Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-9-9 or visit zepbounce.lily.com. This episode is brought to you by Redfin. You're listening to a podcast, which means you're probably multitasking. Maybe even scrolling home listings on Redfin, saving homes without expecting to get them. But Redfin isn't just built for endless browsing. It's built to help you find and own a home.

With agents who close twice as many deals, when you find the one, you've got a real shot at getting it. Get started at Redfin.com. Own the dream. Also, I got to say, man, and I don't think we say it enough, but Mahala Harold's face acting, is next level. It is next level what she can do with her face to just communicate

pure dread and imminent death. Like, it's like, what she's doing with her face at that desk. I'm like, one, Harper has a horrible poker face at all times.

Like, she just, like, she wears her emotions on her sleeve. And this, this girl is putting on, an incredible acting performance. Because she's, it's, she's showing the stress of what's happening, but then I feel like she's also showing how, as a character of Harper, how she's like compartmentalizing that stress.

She's not just experiencing it. She's also tucking it away so that she can like just keep blazing forward. And you're so right. She does that alone with her face and then also with some incredible prop comedy acting with one piece of chewing. gum. I mean, she is just chewing the ever-loving shit out of that gum. I'm very concerned for her

jaw. I feel, I hope that that Sack is providing a physical therapist. But you're right. Like, we don't talk about it enough. How much she anchors this show with such a, like, subtle, quiet performance. Yeah.

It's like, everything she's doing at that desk, the conversation that she has with DVD after Bloom comes to the office where she's lying to her face and we know she's lying and DVD has a suspicion that something is up, but she is just so good at playing that. Like, I'm, you know, I'm blown away by what she does. And I'm, you know, I'm just interested in all of her relationships have these just different dynamics.

There's that painfully long and awkward conversation her and Yasmin have before Yasme goes upstairs it's just like, yo, yes, like, there's like a real crisis going on and you're doing this small talk, temperature check with this woman. Like, you could do this literally any other time. Okay, it's wild how my tables have turned, though,

because now I'm like, okay, Yaz is back to being nice. She's great again. I'm rooting for Yaz. And, like, Harper's back to, like, not giving a shit about Yas. Those tables have completely turned since the beginning of season,

the season where Harper was desperate for some affection from Yasme and she needed that friendship back in her life and Yaz wouldn't give it and you know Harper's incredibly short memory I think is like further proof of that like dangerously living in the

present thing that once things are good for her they're good and she's not thinking about like that this is still sort of a tenuous relationship that she needs to tend to I recognize that it was a stressful moment and that Yaz is not reading the room but it's like you but that's

But you're right, and that's the thing. Harper is like, you really, I can't be bothered with this. I don't spend time thinking about you like that, yes. Like, I'm slightly annoyed by you sometimes, but it's not the worst or most pressing thing in my life. Um, which just shows you like, it just shows you the dynamics that play that allow for different people to compartmentalize different things. Like, yes. She has one friend.

She has one friend. One friend and it's yes. Sometimes it's Rob. It's like you need to be prioritizing her at touch or you're going to have no friends. But that's, I mean, yeah, she can only be who she is and who she is is dangerously obsessed with this job. And yeah, whatever is going on with her and Jesse is like a psychological labyrinth of power and questing. and I swear they made the white streak in his hair whiter in this episode. And he was in a suit the whole time.

He looked more like a villain than he ever has. A really, really interesting. Jay Duplas's work has been quite something in this season. So, yeah, I want to get into him because he's perfect. But what I want to talk about with Yaz and Harper as well is, I think what I read is that because Yasmin, like, the job isn't life or death, she can care about these other things in ways that Harper, she just doesn't have, like, I just don't have it. Like, Yaz can care about the, you know, sort of how the relationship is progressing and want to tend to it, like a garden.

And because, like, if this job don't work out, it's fine. It's not a big deal So these other things she gets to care about Whereas Harper's just like No like if I don't Like I might be gone from Pierpoint If I don't get this This Jesse Bloom thing right

And I just love how You know how they played that out And to get back to Bloom Yeah The Duplas homie man He is like conniving He's scary

He's really He's tender with his son. It's like he is, he's killing it. Absolutely killing it. He's so unpredictable. I find that like I ride the line most with him of being like, do I want to get attached to this guy or do I not want to get attached to this guy? Kind of like the way that, you know,

we're pretty worried about the way that Harper has hitched or had hitched her wagon to him. it's like, but I also feel that draw. Like, I feel that compulsion to kind of be obsessed with him and like, what is this guy up to? And, like, is he actually good? Like, maybe he is one of the few characters in this show that there is some good there. But he's way too rich to be good.

So I guess that's like what I always come back around to. Like, bottom line, he's a billionaire and he can't be trusted. I mean, when she, when she rushes into his dressing room before his Bloomberg conference, And she says that. She's like, I'm appealing to the worst part of you. But that's the shit that we like. That's what gets us going.

And that's why we should continue to fuck with each other, right? Because we're sympathetic in that way. And I think when DVD says to Harper during their little confrontation, he's like, yo, he's probably got a Harper at every single firm. Like, you're not special. Like, you're just not. And it would make sense, right? Like, is he to go to any firm and get the run-of-the-mill client treatment from anybody, right? Like, they're going to kiss up to him.

They're going to do this. They're going to do that. He has a lot of money to spend, of course. He wants people that are going to be borderline psychotic about bringing him stuff. And that's what he's doing to Harper. He wants people that are just going above and beyond the call of duty to the point where, again, and not that I blame Harper for this because I think, you know, the worker. boss, like, company relationship is ridiculously imbalanced as far as the power and how it goes.

But, you know, he convinces her to go into business for herself to sabotage her own desk. She tries to sabotage Rishi. It doesn't work. Like, she literally sabotaged the company, gets fired behind it. But it feels like Bloom is like, no, those are the only kind of people I want working for me. Yeah, well, I didn't, I don't mind sometimes a show outright, explaining something to me. And you know, Jesse is the one who says,

um, who says you're appealing to the worst part of me because he sees what she's doing. And what she says to him is like, uh, you know, you can, you can never be new again. You can never be at the beginning point of your career again where you were chasing this high. Like you've already achieved that high and you can, and it's interesting that she has figured this out with Jesse when seemingly

it also very much applies to her relationship with Eric and how that went and how it went well and how it went poorly and how it continues to go. But, you know, she calls him out. Like, and that's the same language that Harper and Jesse speak is that like they say the quiet part out loud. And she says to him, you want, you want what I have. You want to be a part of this. That's why you chose me. She's not the best in the business. She's like, you know, gotten him into some trouble. She's going to get into some more trouble. But he likes that crazy in her. her. Yeah.

He's got it too. He loves it and he feels it. But, and again, the money that he might or might not win or lose is immaterial. He's so goddamn rich. I don't know what. Some of these numbers are starting to see kind of high. I'm getting a little nervous. But she's, but like, it's, it's really not about the actual dollar amount.

It really is about the winning and the losing of it all. Like this, you know, it's high stakes poker at this point for this dude. And I want to move on to Yaz in this episode and what's going on with her and Celeste because again, you see a lot of the parallels between what she was doing with Rob last year where she was topping him and being like the dominant one in that relationship.

And we see what it's like when she's being topped by somebody, right? Where Celeste is sort of grooming her in more ways than one, not just, professionally but personally, right? And my favorite, favorite moment of the episode is after they have sex and Yaz is like, I've never climaxed this many times in my life. So clearly the act itself was physically satisfying and enjoyable and pleasurable. The acts themselves were satisfying, yes.

Yes. And after she finds out that Celeste is in the. somewhat of an open marriage and there's nothing illicit or fucked up about what they're doing. She's disappointed by it. You know who else doesn't have a poker face? Yes.

I mean, the way... You said last week you were like, sometimes she looks like, you know, like this amazing, like 30-year-old boss in the office and sometimes she looks like she's 20. And, like, sometimes she acts like she's 20. And she's not that far from 20. She's probably like 25 at this point.

But like, this was just such a gorgeously naive moment for her. When she says when Celeste is explaining her sort of open relationship or what she prefers to call polyamory, Yaz says, well, surely people don't have rules like that. Have you ever met a person? Like, you ever heard of this? This is not like an incredible. Have you ever met a queer person? Like, this is not an uncommon practice.

It was so embarrassing. I mean, yeah, his ability to be embarrassing is like, is unmatched, I think. Yeah. And again, she's disappointed that she's not doing something wrong. Right. She wants to be doing, like, especially when it comes to sex, she wants to be doing something that's on the edges. I call it sexual hipsterdom.

Like, if it's not, if it's not subversive or on the edge. If you're not discovering it for. But it's like you think you're discovering polyamory. That is a true hysterist. Like you think you're the first person who's ever done this. Like if it's in any way could be perceived as square or normal, she seems to not want to have anything to do with it sexually, which is just kind of funny.

Like she wants to be fucking her boss. She wants her boss to be cheating on her wife in order for it to be wholly satisfying. It can't just be that they had a great time. They climaxed and some of the best. best sex of her life. It can't just be that. It has to have... It can't just be that she just had the most orgasm she's ever had. It has to be that she's sleeping with her boss on the first day of her job during the lunch break. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's the best.

Oh, no. She's the best. She's neither of those things. But what she is is really well drawn. Because that is a really great point. And just looking at like the relationship history that we followed. It's like starting with Rob. And then like let's not forget about Maxim who is like her older family best friend. And she was attempting something there and the sex wasn't great. It was like whatever.

And apparently it doesn't matter if it's good or bad. It just like has to, but I'm so nervous and so interested to see where this thing with Celeste goes because you know, you really your boss shouldn't sleep with you on the first day and you really shouldn't sleep with your boss on the first day and that just seems

like a real a real for disaster. More great Yaz stuff. The dude who's playing Kenny, Connor McNeil, he is, like,

shouts to my man, Kyle Mann, who pointed this out on Twitter, was just like, this actor, the shit that he's doing on this show

is amazing. He's just, that whole... I assume you're referring to his dance number. The dance number, the fucking, the,

Jello stapler thing, which I just combat that reference went completely over my head. The way he handled his interaction with her at the bar where she completely just tells him off and tells him to go fuck himself basically. And then the apology where he's just basically like comes clean because he's on this like sobriety journey where he has to make amends with the people who he was addicted to. and he's like the honesty and the vulnerability. Yo, Connor McNeil, incredible. Hats off to this guy. That man grew a beard and started doing some wildly good work. Not that he wasn't great in season one,

but obviously season one is just a little bit less nuanced of a character. And he gets sober, grows a beard, and he has a lot of work to do. And like they must have known that he could do it as a performer. But that final Apollo, standing outside those doors just kind of broke my heart. I mean, the way that tears are welling up in his eyes and the way that he finally gets, you know, a truly sincere apology out.

And then he just like one 80s and walks through it because it's all in the take. It's a lot. But, you know, they never, the show creators, like, they never forgive him. They never ask us to forgive him. But they also, he's just such a, he's such a colored in character. in a show that has a lot of black and white characters. You know what I mean? Like it has a lot of this one's good, this one's bad, or mostly this one's bad.

And Kenny really like lives in a gray area that we don't always get. And so, yeah, I thought that was incredible in episode six. So good. We also get to meet Gus's sister. I think it was the previous episode where we learned that Gus and the politician he's attached himself with. She got a promotion, so he's moving on up, but he likes the work that he's doing with the pores and the, you know, the common folk on the ground level. He really feels like he can make a direct change in people's lives. He offers to fucking pay for a guy's therapy

out of his own pocket and all of that. And we meet his sister. And at first, she comes with the soft touch, the Chinese food, the shambles. pain, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, yeah, do the thing that you like, do the thing that you love. Then we see, and I think what we're meant to understand is that she got a talking to from the parents like, yo, set this fool straight because if we talk to him, it's going to be bad. So, you know, that's your brother. Set them straight because we get to talk to this fool about his fantasies about wanting to be a a damn camp counselor damn there

out there wasting his life wanting to be a social worker just the worst possible thing you can be. God forbid. But again, the show is doing this dual thing there where it's like, yes, Gus is basically our only he's one of our black characters but Gus is a black character who comes from means.

He comes from money. He comes from people that are higher up in society and their immigrants, right? And so, like, I can speak to it just being the child of two Haitian immigrants, like this idea that, like, you're wasting your life by becoming a teacher or a social worker and not a doctor, engineer, lawyer, whatever type of thing, investment banker, completely got that conversation. I just loved the way they work that in, right?

Like, they're at church, they're at confirmation, which is what I also found to be hilarious because they're wearing their traditional West African garb at this ridiculously Catholic ceremony. I could say that because I'm somebody who got a confirmation. They're just so good at doing that stuff. And it's like, yeah, Gus, like, we know you want to do this goody two-shoe shit. But these outside pressures or not outside, it's inside. It's this family.

It's basically like, yo, boy, shape up. Go follow the stupid things in politics. Yeah, because it's interesting that Gus is. like one of the few characters who doesn't seem to be influenced by these outside pressures. At first it seemed like he was, but he was kind of just riding the track

that had been set forward for him by his family and by his life. But he's the only character we have who we see that's like really just driven not by power. Like he does not decide. He wants to turn down a promotion in order to keep helping people.

And I have to say I wasn't really buying that turn for the character at first. And then in this episode, I think some of it just clicked together. And that conversation with his sister was so well written because, you know, it couldn't have been more than a minute or two. But everything you were just talking about was all laced through there. And I really liked, or in a way that I didn't like it, when she says, don't you want to give your kids the kind of life that you had?

And it's like, first of all, do you? How was your life? I don't know. Second of all, does Gus want to have kids? Like, was this not something we've ever, I mean, he's young, but it's not something we've ever heard and mentioned. It's just like these are these sort of like totems that, you know, that families reference as sort of like pressure points.

Yep. Yeah. And, and they, you know, they get at the idea that Gus's lifestyle is politely tolerated, essentially. Like, go off, king, but chill, right? type of situation with his family. And I thought the best part, my favorite part of that conversation

was when she mentions how her son, Gus's nephew, has been having some behavioral issues and that Gus needs to go talk to him. To just have a conversation with him, put him on the right track in the exact same way that his sister is having the stern conversation with him.

So I like the mirroring that they did there where it's just like, yo, man, you know, the shit rolls downhill. And I'm doing it to you. You're going to now do it to my kid. I just thought that was very effectively done. Yeah, because you want your family to be happy. And this is the way that happiness has always sort of been constituted to you growing up. It's like you're happy if you're making the family happy.

And so it's like probably that sister has had some things that she wanted to do. Yeah, I'm sure she wanted to do some things. But she had to be. You know, she had to, what does she, neuroscience? What did she say she was, she was into some big ass job. Yeah, I,

I think, I think a doctor, like some sort of, some sort of, you know, brain doctor, like casual thing. And then it,

well, to me, it's a little bit like, so were we happy with him being at peer point? Like, yeah, exactly.

Banking is not like, right? Right. But to them is like three years. She said you would give it three years because it's like a resume thing. It's like, if you do three years at Pimp,

peer point, you are on a certain kind of trajectory. And that's acceptable to these folks. Well, again, his dad is like a fucking whole diplomat out here. Like, literally, he's a diplomat. So, again, I found that to be very effective. And, you know, we can get to the end of the episode where previously we see Harper have a conversation with Eric where he says that, like, you know, he's been talking to recruiters

and all of that. Because he still wants to trade and he's been trying to get a job at some other trade floors and I guess it's been difficult or whatever. Talked about his failures. He throws DVD under the bus, whatever.

By the end of the episode, Harper runs back into his warm embrace because she's on the outs over there because of her conniving-ass ways not actually working. Will she ever learn that these phone calls are recorded and that people can

patch into your line at any point which I frankly feel is unethical and like surely not allowed but what do I know about stop trading? But how does she not know that she is on a company line and she is outright telling Jesse Bloom

okay we're about to cheat my company and that they might not catch on to that? Yeah. And you know DVD is a company man. He's listening to every call. Yeah, he is, he is Mr. Peerpoint. 100%.

Because Eric uses that term, but DVD embodies it. He knows all the freaking platy. He's always speaking in the platitudes, always making the dad jokes. He is just company man through and through. And he cut out for it, right? Yeah, yeah. He has it in him. He cut out to be a company man in a way that Eric and Harper really never were.

And so they're finding an alternate route. They're rogue agents. They're definitely independent type of thinking type of people. Harper is in Quiet quitting peer points since she started or whatever we're calling that these days. Shouts to quiet quitting. Yeah, I just thought it was fascinating that, you know, at the end of it, it's like, all right, me and Eric going to figure out a way to chart through this. because we both got kicked off of the floor. We're both on the outs.

And maybe collectively now, we can help each other get back in. I just thought that's a ill full circle way to bring Eric and his story back into the center of things and just progress this Harper thing. And I'm, you know, I'm really excited to see where they take it. Yeah, I was thrilled to have Eric back in a meaningful way.

And I can't imagine what these two are going to get up to. But, you know, it was really. fun to have him say, which must have been like a very direct reference to Madman when he says, he says shut the door, take a seat, which is, you know, a pretty famous Madman episode, Shut the Door, Have a Seat. And also there's some compilation video of, of in Madman, how they're always like, shut the door, take a seat, shut the door. But it's just like, you know, I know that the creators are like, are real pop culture buffs and have a lot of very like direct references to TV and movies.

So that was a fun little, like, final pinpoint on the end of episode six. And then it just, I think we can only assume seven and eight are going to be absolutely off the rails. Yeah. So any other thing from this episode that you wanted to mention? I have one, yeah, I have one thing that definitely made me L-O-L. But, uh, when Bloom goes to get his son from Gus's house and he says, hey, relax, I'm an ally.

And then he says, you know, like it's not financially viable to not be an ally in this day and age. A gorgeous representation of allyship. That man is morally corrupt. It is, it is the best. And yeah, definitely the sex toy that Yaz gets from, from, from, the coworkers. I just thought that was perfect. Mm-hmm.

Perfect for the show. Perfect for the characters. Like that, like, it's just funny because it's a lesbian woman handing her this sex toy. Like, if it was a dude, like, that would be kind of problematic. And it should be kind of problematic. I want to be extremely clear. That was very problematic. The way that it was done.

But on this, this company does not have an HR department. That has been made extremely clear to us. But see, that's the thing I'm watching. I'm like, this is slightly less problematic because the lesbians doing it.

You know, I did not get that feeling. I was like, is that a fucking dildo? Is she out of her mind? And the answer is yes. They're all out of their minds. But, you know,

what a gorgeous parting gift. Also, the Venetia Fet. the picture of Rob with panties on his head. I had completely forgotten about that, by the way. Until that moment. I think that's the second time it's come back this season. Like that, it's just like Chekhov's picture of Rob with panties on his head.

And it is always going back around. And Yaz just fucked her new mentor. And Venetia's like, this is Rob is mentoring me. And the little look in her eye that Yaz has, like, I can't tell him. She's like a little jealous or I don't know what that look was. And then she looks across the office at him, clungingly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I enjoyed that little back and forth because it felt like to me again,

it feels like Yaz was just looking at a better version of her herself, her younger self, which is why she was giving her so much shit in the beginning. It was like, fuck that. I had to deal with X, Y, Z. I'm going to be a dick to this person. And even if they're doing everything right. And then Venetia does the meanest thing she could possibly do back, which is not care at all.

At all. Yeah. What Yaz is doing to her. Yeah. Unaffected. So, yeah, just great stuff. Did you mention the music in this episode? The score of the show is just some of the best stuff that you find.

And really love this episode. But yeah, man, looking forward to the rest of the show. of it. Let the people know what else you got for them, Jody. Oh, y'all can look out for a bunch of stories and podcasts for me on the ringer.com this week. Got a double week of The Bachelor, so that's two recaps. Got a story coming out of New York here, probably at the end of the week, and podcasting over on Morally Corrupt. I'm going to be on The Ringerverse for my first ever time this week for She-Hulk. So, tune into that. Wonderful.

Yeah, we'll see you guys in two weeks to discuss the finale. I can't wait. See you guys soon. We're out of here. Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobil. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistance assistants to switch you to MintMobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash Switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. Seeful terms at mintmobile.com.