This story contains spoilers for Industry through Season 3, Episode 6.
Industry has gotten darker. After two seasons of dramatic trades and backstabbing office antics, Season 3 is more than just a vibe shift—it’s a whole new genre. The new season centers on the mystery of what happened to Yasmin’s publishing magnate father. And in Episode 6, audiences finally found out the truth. In an interview with TIME, Industry stars Marisa Abela and Myha’la broke down the episode and what this major reveal means for the future of the show.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]This season started with Yasmin (Abela) and Harper (Myha’la) partying on Yasmin’s father’s yacht off the coast of Mallorca. Throughout the season, the press speculates that Yasmin’s father, who stole money from the British elite, snuck off on this boat to either go into hiding or take his own life.
Flashbacks peppered throughout the first several episodes reveal that Yasmin caught her father fooling around with a pregnant woman on the boat. In a subsequent confrontation over his toxic treatment of women, Yasmin’s father brutally pins Yasmin down, chokes her, and throws wine in her face. It is implied in their exchange that he may have sexually abused Yasmin as a child or at the very least has objectified her for her entire life.
Read More: The Stars of Industry on How It Became the Must-Watch Show of the Summer
Finally, in Episode 6, we see the entirety of their exchange. Yasmin and her father continue arguing on the deck of the boat. Yasmin yells at him: “I wish you would die.”
“Maybe I will,” he responds and climbs to the edge of the boat.
“Do it then,” she says, at which point he jumps. He then asks her to alert someone to turn the boat around, but she just stands there. By the time she snaps out of her daze, it’s too late. She belatedly tries to free the life preserver from its ropes on the boat only to look up and realize he’s disappeared under the waves.
“I don’t think that she chooses to let him die,” Abela tells TIME. “But I think that she doesn’t want to choose to save him in that moment.”
When Harper finds Yasmin in shock in her room, Yasmin tells her what happened. Harper immediately jumps into action, conjuring up an alibi and returning the life preserver to its proper place on the boat. Myha’la said that interaction informed the characters’ relationships for the rest of the season. “They’ve gone to this like catastrophic event that is now bonded and irrevocably,” she says. “So whatever bullsh-t resentment, none of that matters anymore because now we’ve gotten to this thing together.”
Abela and Myha’la discussed what their characters are feeling in that moment and the dark new direction for the show.
TIME: How did you feel when you read what happened on the boat in Episode 6?
Abela: We didn’t get Episode 6 for a very long time.
Myha’la: We didn’t know what happened.
Abela: I remember saying to [the showrunners] Mickey and Konrad, you need to tell me where her dad is because it makes a difference how I’m playing everything. Obviously, the audience doesn’t know so I can’t start mouthing, ‘He’s dead’ to everyone around me because I have to keep it low key. But obviously I need to know everything that Yasmin knows because otherwise it’s going to be a bad performance.
So when they told me that, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ It felt like a very different world to the world we had been in before in this show.
What is Yasmin thinking in that moment?
Abela: There is so much adrenaline running through her veins in that moment, I don’t think she’s thinking at all. I don’t think that she chooses to let him die. But I think that she doesn’t want to choose to save him in that moment.
The pull of that decision is making her completely incapable of movement. By the time she realizes what it is she needs to do, it’s kind of too late, and then guilt seeps in really fast.
Obviously at no point does she turn around and say, ‘Guys, my dad went overboard.’ Within even half an hour or something, he could have probably been treading water for awhile. But she was essentially abused for a long time by her father, and I just don’t think she can bring herself to save him.
How did that revelation affect the way you played the character on the show?
Abela: Yasmin has a very real practical problem in terms of how she’s able to function through life with no money and limited safety because of the press attention. She feels very vulnerable and very unsafe physically as well as emotionally and mentally because of what’s happened on the boat. She’s functioning in a state of fight or flight, and she’s in a state of flight and panic this whole season.
Why do you think she confides in Harper?
Abela: There’s no way she’s keeping that to herself. The anxiety of that would have been too much for her. And she maybe naively wants to share that burden with someone, and I think she knows deep down that Harper is not going to turn around and be like, ‘I’m telling the police.’ She might be like, ‘This is f-cked and you’re kind of f-cked, and I’m not helping you.; But she’s not going to screw her over.
And I think that Harper responds to it in the best way Yasmin could have possibly hope for, and for Yasmin that’s when their relationship takes a turn. She thinks, ‘Wow this girl is an amazing friend and the only person I can really trust in the world, actually.’
Is it a genuine moment of empathy or is Harper storing this information away to use as leverage later?
Myha’la: There’s compassion there because Harper’s aware of how abusive [Yasmin’s] father has been. So Harper in that moment was just like, ;Damn, I’m so sorry. I am going to help you because it looks like you need help right now because I care about you and you’re my friend and also f-ck that guy.;
I think Harper thought justice is being served so she’s going to help this girl. It’s not that she killed him, she just didn’t send the boat around. There was real love and care being given there because she saw Yasmin was not alright. If Yasmin was like, ‘Phew, got rid of that guy,’ then she might be like, ‘You’re insane.’
That to me was a genuine moment for both of them.
How does it affect Harper and Yasmin’s relationship?
Mhay’la: I feel like their relationship was lacking a thing to really ground them. They’re friends for sure. They’re like, we love each other. But now, when we meet them [in Season 3], they’ve gone to this catastrophic event that is now bonded and irrevocably. So whatever bullsh-t resentment, none of that matters anymore because now we’ve gotten to this thing together.
So we’re tight like we never have been before. But is that enough?
