Entertainment
Harper Stern’s ‘f**ked up’ relationship with Eric Tao in Industry season 2 explained by writers-Charlotte Manning-Entertainment – Metro
‘It’s almost like a father/daughter relationship.’
‘It’s almost like a father/daughter relationship’ (Picture: BBC)
Industry fans saw Harper Stern come to Eric Tao’s defence in a pretty twisted ending to season 1, which will only intensify in season 2.
One of the key dynamics explored in the first batch of episodes is between Harper (Myha’La Herrold) and Eric (Ken Leong), with the pair soon developing a close working relationship.
Viewers saw the duo often confide in each other at Pierpoint, with Harper opening up to Eric about her difficult past, different to the easy upbringing of many of her peers – which he was able to relate to.
The closer the duo became, the more fans started to question the nature of their friendship, especially after some pretty terrifying actions from Eric.
But after the finale of season one saw Harper betray desk manager Daria (Freya Mavor), leading to her exit from the company, as well as best friend Yasmin (Marisa Abela), it became clear she put a lot on the line to help Eric stay.
Now, writers Mickey Down, Konrad Kay and Jami O’Brien have given their own take on the pair’s relationship, which develops further in the upcoming episodes.
Prepare for more jaw-dropping moments in season two (Picture: BBC/Bad Wolf/HBO)
Jami reminds fans the pair have a ‘mentor/mentee relationship’ at its core, but it turns into something ‘much deeper than that’.
On what she sees it as, the executive producer told us: ‘I view their relationship as almost a familial kind of relationship. Harper talks in season one, and a little bit in season two kind of disparagingly about her family of origin, except we know that she has this love for her brother.’
Harper’s beloved brother will make an appearance in season two, and it becomes clear there’s a lot that still divides the pair then unites them after years spent apart.
Of Eric and Harper, Jami continued: ‘They are characters who don’t have very rich home lives, but they have a need for that. They kind of come together in that way. Sometimes, it’s almost like a father/daughter relationship. Sometimes I think Harper wants it to be more of a brother sister relationship, Eric kind of resists that.
‘They care about each other, but I think that they want one another’s approval desperately. Also, because of the way that they were raised and because of the institution that they work in where vulnerability equals weakness, equals death, they can never admit to one another that they long for that from each other.’
Weighing in on his thoughts, Konrad had a slightly darker take for fans: ‘What a lot of people are yearning for, from them, is an explanation as to what it is that pushes them together. Everything Jamie said is correct, but the thing that we found with Myha’La and Ken, is they’re such great actors and they’re both so charismatic on screen, that there is this kind of inner inexplicable magic in their scenes where it’s in the writing, but it’s not really in the writing.
‘It’s more about how they inhabit the character, and what their silences mean when they’re on screen together and like Jami says, there’s this kind of need from each other, which I find really compelling, because I don’t think you ever have to fully articulate it, but it’s sort of there in the scenes.
He went on to make clear it is ‘not a sexualised thing’ but they do still have a ‘yearning’ for each other’s approval.
‘It’s sort of like, I kind of love you, but I also know that one of us is going to end up killing the other,’ one of the writers said of the pair’s dynamic (Picture: BBC/Bad Wolf/HBO)
‘It’s something that they’ll probably never get from each other, given the circumstances of how they were raised, and the circumstances of where they work, but it sits underneath all their scenes.
‘I think it’s what makes those scenes so powerful, and why we wrote so many into season two,’ Konrad said.
Delving into the more mysterious side of their relationship, he concluded: ‘What’s really fun and f**ked up about it is, it’s very close to the same energy of wanting to kill each other… it’s the archetype like in a Western, where there’s the old cowboy, and the young cowboy and the young cowboy reveres the old cowboy, and the old cowboy feels like he needs the approval of the younger cowboy, because he’s ageing.
‘It’s sort of like, I kind of love you, but I also know that one of us is going to end up killing the other. I think that sort of sits underneath it.
‘We really wrote into that in season two, we tried to make it a relationship about two people who fundamentally care about each other, but also probably going to be the end of each other…’
Industry season 2 begins tonight at 10.40pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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