Aahana Swrup
The HBO drama show ‘Industry’ has a penchant for introducing new faces with every season as the narrative continues to evolve and expand. Yet, a few key players, Harper Stern, Yasmin Kara-Hanani, Eric Tao, and Rishi Ramdani, remain at the heart of the series ever since its earliest Pierpoint days. Robert Spearing is another such character, who came up alongside Harper and Yasmin, and weathered many professional and personal storms with them. As a working-class individual, lacking Yasmin’s family name and connections as well as Harper’s potential for cutthroat ambition, Harry Lawtey’s character brings his unique eccentricities and charm to the world of finance. However, while both women find their own new arcs in season 4, their fellow banker remains missing in action. Consequently, fans are bound to take notice of Robert’s glaring absence. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Robert Spearing Left London For Silicon Valley
After a three-season-long arc, Robert Spearing’s narrative comes to a conclusion at the end of season 3. Throughout the show, Robert struggles with finding his footing in the banking world, a place he’s already insecure in being around due to his class anxiety. Time and again, he finds himself on the receiving end of bad luck and similarly ends up being the scapegoat in Pierpoint and Henry Muck’s failed venture. Furthermore, his longstanding will-they-won’t-they romance with Yasmin also seemingly comes to an end with an amorous weekend, followed by her jarring engagement to her ex, Henry. As such, it’s no surprise that Robert has had his full of the grating well of opportunities in London, and the overarching finance world.
Therefore, when he gets the chance to start anew in California, with the startup company Little Labs, he’s eager to take on the new gamble. In the end, once Robert secures the seed money for Little Labs, the medicinal psychedelic startup, he decides to hang up his professional pursuits as a banker. Instead, he chases after new aspirations, ones that allow him to dream of success without compromising on his morals or individuality. In a way, his detachment from Pierpoint and the banking world has been a long time coming, perhaps in the work from the very beginning. Either way, the new start he finds in California’s Silicon Valley as an executive of a startup company provides a rebirth for the character. As such, it’s no surprise that the story chooses to entertain a clean cut from the character, refraining from bringing him back as a protagonist in season 4.
Harry Lawtey’s Exit From Industry Served His Character’s Narrative
Unfortunately for fans of ‘Industry,’ and particularly Robert Spearing, the character’s conclusive and satisfactory ending in season 3 equates to an exit for actor Harry Lawtey from the series. The decision to step away from the character was a mutual agreement reached by the actor and the show’s creators, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay. The show largely explores the narratives of the central characters through the lens of their relationship with their traumas. Therefore, as Robert’s evolution arrives at a natural conclusion, it only felt right to embrace the end for the character’s narrative in the show as well.
For the same reason, it seems Robert’s journey with ‘Industry’ has come to an end, at least for now. Still, fans can always hold onto the hope that the character may make a brief appearance in the show in potential future seasons. In a conversation with TV Insider, Down spoke about Robert’s fate and said, “Characters do change in this show. Robert evolved out of the show because he had somewhat of a redemptive last episode of Season 3. The show operates in a world where people haven’t quite come to terms with their trauma yet or haven’t been healed of it. And when they do, or they are healed of it, they kind of leave the show. I’m not going to say that’s going to be the same for every single season, but it is currently the sort of operating system of the show.”
Likewise, Lawtey expressed a similar sense of fulfillment and satisfying finality to his character’s storyline. He discussed his exit from the series in an interview with Deadline and said, “Ultimately, I feel like I’m in a place where I’ve said everything I had to say with a character, and I think both me and the writers felt mutually happy with where we left him.” He further added, “There was actually a stage direction after my final line, in my final scene of the show, which literally read: On Robert – transformation complete. And that sat really well with me. Now I feel unmoored, but in a really good way. And ready for the next chapter.” The next chapter, so far, for the actor includes films like ‘Mr Burton’ and ‘Words of War.’ Fans can also find Lawtey in future projects, including ‘Brides,’ ‘Longbourn,’ ‘The Billion Dollar Spy,’ and ‘Under Salt Marsh.’
Read More: What Happened to Jesse Bloom? Did Jay Duplass Leave Industry?
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