Spoiler alert: This story contains plot details from HBO’s “Industry” season 4, episode 4, “1000 Yoots, 1 Marilyn,” now streaming on HBO Max.
Of all the character arcs in “Industry” Season 3, Rishi’s arc was by far the most shocking. No less than a high-octane “Uncut Gems”-inspired standalone episode in which Pierpoint’s badass head trader desperately tries and fails to recoup his gambling debts, the season finale sees his wife get shot in the head.
Few would have been surprised if Rishi, played by Sagar Radia, had not returned for season 4. After all, the audience, and he, needed a breather.
But no, “Industry” creators Mickey Down and Conrad Kaye not only brought him back, they dragged their foul-mouthed punching bag even further through the wringer. Although still a coke-sipping, almost mean-spirited person, Rishi has now lost much of his bravado, and the sure sparkle in his eyes has gone as he is forced to deal with the consequences of his actions. These include a deal in which he would hand over his young son to his murdered wife’s parents in the hope that he would have a better chance in life than what he could offer.
But it’s not rock bottom yet, and Rishi reaches that point in Episode 4’s shocking conclusion. After a drugged-up relationship with investigative reporter Jim Dicker, played by Charlie Heaton, Rishi wakes up to find his new acquaintance dead of an overdose in his living room. As the police bang on the door, Rishi decides he has no choice but to jump from the balcony. However, this still does not yield the desired result, and in a final act of desperation, he attempts to drag his broken and bloody body across the cobbles below before he is finally arrested.
But Sagar points out that this may have been the ending Rishi deserved after all, and that “death might have been the easy way out.”
Rishi obviously had a very climactic ending in season three. What was your first thought when you first got the script for season 4 and saw what Rishi was going to do to him?
I sat down with the boys, had drinks and dinner, and they explained to me what they thought of Rishi. This year’s show goes in a completely different direction. They say themselves that they were cornered along with Rishi. And they said: “Okay, how do we figure this out?” Because where do I go when my wife gets shot in the head! In Season 3, Rishi embodied the Survivor energy. He was fast-talking, cocky, and outwardly the perfect guy. And in season 4, the survival mode is different. They survive financially, emotionally, and psychologically. Many things are running through his mind. He oscillates between callous indifference and outbursts of self-destructive behavior, including drinking and moral deviance. At the end of the day, I think he’s just punishing himself more than anything.
There’s a flash of the old Rishi, but this time he has something in his eyes, almost like a castrated dog. From the way he looks, it seems like he is keenly aware of his position.
Yeah. I have always felt that the core of Rishi’s horror is his irrelevance. In the early years, he is loud and loud. But now that success and arrogance has been stripped away. I think he is seriously facing the question, “Who am I now? Who am I when I’m not performing? Who am I when I’m not working?” Because so much of his personality was defined by his success at work and what that was like. The background of his wife’s death clearly haunts him, but who is he as a person anymore? he doesn’t know And it’s an interesting place to just sit in your head.
Provided by Simon Ridgway/HBO
I don’t mind saying it, but Rishi is probably my least favorite character in a show full of hateable characters. But you almost feel sorry for him this season, right?
Yes, I think so. I dare say he’s trying to reinvent himself. He’s trying to start again, but I don’t think he knows what that looks like. That scene, especially the scene with his stepmother, is the moment where he has to accept the fact that he’s not in a position to be a father. Rishi is a mess. I can’t do that to my own child.
He finally took a high stand and said, “OK, if I sign him, at least this kid has a chance.” Yes, I agree too. I think it shows a little bit of his human side. And I hope that people will accept it even a little warmly. I’ll always defend him and I feel like he never came from a bad place. Especially in the scene with his stepmother, that’s how I wanted to play him.
So, please tell us what you thought after reading episode 4 and Rishi’s fate.
shock. In fact, I say shocked, but nothing shocks me anymore. I was excited just to play it. It tested me as an actor and tested Rishi as a character to see how far he would go with this self-destruction. I talked to the boys about what we were looking for in that scene and what we were trying to convey, and it gave me a certain sense of security. He gets to the end of the scene and is pinned to the floor by the cops, and there’s just a little smile on his face, and it’s like, “You know, this is what I needed, and I feel a sense of relief that it’s all over here.”
And I think that was the keyword that was at the front of my mind throughout that whole thing. He wants that peace. He goes through all kinds of self-destruction, and at that point he doesn’t know what he wants or what he needs. He is numbing himself. And it’s only when that moment comes and he’s arrested that there’s a sigh of relief: “Oh, this was supposed to happen.”
Provided by Simon Ridgway/HBO
But there is a feeling that he is not really successful, even though he is lying on the floor with his legs limp. He tried to jump to his death, but he was still alive.
I think the question is whether that jump was an attempt to commit suicide or an attempt to escape. And I think it might be a little bit of both. It looks like this: If it’s my time, it’s my time, and if this is how I go out, I deserve every moment of it. But if I survive, I will go into survival mode like Rishi and try to keep moving forward. And that’s essentially what he does when he’s crawling on the floor just trying to escape. So I wonder what being arrested will do to him. This comes naturally to me. Maybe death was the easiest way out. He needs to suffer more.
The scene where you crawl on the floor was really brutal to watch…
It was difficult to shoot! It was a cold night.
I think this is the end of Rishi, right? Do you think you’ll see him again?
who knows? Maybe so. That can’t be true. If so, it’s probably the best way to go out. If not, there’s a good chance Harper will meet him in prison or something. There are a lot of different options that I think might be helpful here. So, yeah, who knows?
This interview has been edited and condensed.
