Aahana Swrup
Eric Tao is one of the founding figures of ‘Industry’ who has helmed the narrative as a central character since the very beginning. Between being a mentor, a saboteur, and finally a professional partner for Harper Stern, the beast of the finance world has shaped the series’ world and storylines in dynamic ways. For the same reason, his fate in season 4 episode 6, titled ‘Dear Henry,’ arrives like a freight train, leaving a striking impact on the narrative as well as the audience.
Early into the season, Eric retires from his monotonous retirement and decides to jump back into the game this time on equal footing with his ex-protege, Harper. The duo open up a high-risk, high-reward short-only fund, christened SternTao, and set their sights on Tender, an emerging banking venture with shady bookkeeping. Although the duo manages to hit Tender’s Whitney Halberstram where it hurts in episode 6, Eric’s reckless chase after euphoria simultaneously catches up to him in the same breath. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Eric Tao Leaves SternTao to Save it From His Own Doomed Reputation
In season 4 of ‘Industry,’ Eric and Harper try out a dynamic they haven’t quite traversed before: an actual, equal partnership. The latter is sick of being a game piece in others’ schemes, and the former is already getting tired of retirement and the one-note contentment that it has to offer. Therefore, they decide to do what they do best and bet on themselves. The duo open up SternTao, a shorts-only fund, where the occupational hazards run deep but so do the intoxicating wins. However, while they venture into this business, Eric simultaneously juggles a personal storyline of his own, one that centers around his family. Despite having a family all this time, the financier has never quite been a family man. His relationship with his daughters is strained at best and entirely non-existent at worst.
Unfortunately for Eric, retirement doesn’t magically fix that, and in fact only makes the breadth of his disconnection from his daughters all the more evident. Nonetheless, back in the fray, he has no plans of actually working on himself to be a better father. Instead, any moment that he’s not working toward the success of his new fund, he’s seeking distractions and other pleasures. Thus, Dolly Bird enters the picture. The young woman is a sex worker whom Eric frequently hires. One notable interaction between them comes when he hooks up with her while his wife and daughter, Lily, are sleeping in a different suite of the same hotel. As it turns out, this moment is pertinent to Eric’s character not only because of its symbolic representation of ruinous personal life. He has been operating under the ignorant assumption that Dolly, a remarkably young woman in comparison to himself, was simply a sex worker in her 20s.
Nonetheless, she’s really a 15-year-old girl. Since the financier has never made himself concerned with the details of the lives of the women he pays to have sex with, this jarring information only becomes available to him several days after the fact. Worse yet, it’s Whitney Halberstram who sends him proof of Dolly’s identification, along with a secretly recorded video of their hookup. The implication is clear: if SternTao, and subsequently, Eric, continues to come after Tender, Whitney will air out the dirtiest of his laundry, driving him and his fund to the ground. For the same reason, in order to protect Harper and her promising future from his own downfall, Eric takes himself out of the equation. He leaves the fund to Harper alone and refuses to tell her the reason behind his abandonment, bringing a tragic end to their relationship.
Industry Season 4 is a Goodbye of Sorts For Ken Leung’s Eric Tao
‘Dear Henry’ ends on a unique note with the credits rolling on top of a scene showcasing Eric Tao walking away from the camera down an empty road. The visual is poignant and rich in metaphorical resonance for the character. As such, it’s no surprise that it performs as the perfect send-off for the beloved protagonist. In a conversation with TV Insider, Ken Leung, who has been playing Eric Tao for six years, confirmed that this is the last fans will see of his character for season 4 and potentially even beyond. Although the show’s future season 5 hasn’t been renewed or cancelled yet at the time of writing, the actor believes there are no plans for him to return to the series.
Leung’s final performance as Eric is executed in accordance with the same philosophy. Discussing his character’s fate beyond his appearance on the show, he told The Hollywood Reporter, “I think it (Eric’s narrative) ends in such a way that any interpretation is correct. All we know is that he’s on a vaguely reckless walk, being that it’s right down the middle of a street that cars drive down. So there is a defiance to it, an I dare you to knock me off this street, I dare you to honk at me type of thing. He’s also walking with purpose. But the show doesn’t tell us where he’s going or what he’s feeling.” Therefore, it does seem that Leung’s collaboration with ‘Industry’ has come to an end, at least for now. Yet, given the uncertain nature of the future, and particularly the show’s potential continuation, nothing is set in stone.
Read More: What Happened to Robert Spearing? Did Harry Lawtey Leave Industry?
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