‘Industry’ Stars Ken Leung and Myha’la Break Down Eric’s Exit and an Unexpected Cut
In the latest seismic turn of the financial drama, two long-running collaborators confront the end of a partnership and a storyline that lands with brutal force. Ken Leung’s Eric Tao appears to walk away from the trading floor for good in episode six, a sequence that dissolves SternTao and severs the creative bond between Eric and Myha’la’s Harper Stern. The actors spoke candidly about the fallout, their surprise at the twist, and a politically charged detail that was filmed but ultimately removed from the episode.
How the fall happens — and why it hits so hard
The collapse is built on a classic incendiary device: a private transgression weaponized to end a public career. A blackmail video reveals that a recent sexual liaison involved someone far younger than Eric realized; the revelation detonates in a courtroom-style walk-back on cable television and in a wrenching scene where Eric dissolves the partnership counsel. The fund they worked to build evaporates almost instantly.
Myha’la said she was stunned when she read the script for episode six. "When I read episode six, I was like ‘damn, they killed my bro, '" she said, adding that the professional and personal loss felt devastating: "And it’s so sad. We worked so hard to build this thing and now you’re just going to leave me. " The grief in Harper’s voice is rendered on-screen in a moment both intimate and procedural — a breakup that reads like a corporate dissolution and a betrayal of trust.
Leung framed the arc as a deliberate escalation. He had pushed for a fourth season only if it offered something materially new for Eric; creators and actor settled on a trajectory that demanded a greater fall. He shared a private touchstone used in conceptualizing the character: a quote about losing humanity to darker impulses, which shaped how he approached Eric’s attempts at self-repair and the eventual freefall.
Staging, performance and the final beat
The episode’s last scenes—Eric’s televised admission, the legal dissolution of SternTao, and his solitary exit as music plays over the credits—were designed to feel irrevocable. Leung said he wanted the audience to feel the internal collapse as much as the external consequences; his performance treats the revelation not as a mere scandal but as the climax of a man trying and failing to reclaim what humanity he’d compromised.
Myha’la emphasized the mutual dependency that made the breakup so powerful. Harper and Eric, she noted, filled holes in one another; their rapport often looked parental in the best way and perilous in the worst. When those roles collapse, the emotional damage becomes a business problem and a personal wound simultaneously.
The Trump detail that didn’t make the cut
Beyond the plot mechanics, the actors confirmed there was a filmed element that was later edited out: a political reference tied to a former president. The detail was shot and briefly part of the episode’s construction, but it was removed before final release. Leung and Myha’la said the decision to excise that moment did not lessen the episode’s impact; if anything, it sharpened focus on the human and professional consequences at the story’s core.
Both performers stressed that surprises are common on set—scripts often arrive to actors only when production begins, and this story’s shock value landed on them in real time. For viewers, that behind-the-scenes unpredictability translates into an episode that feels both raw and inevitable: a careful build to a fall that leaves few loose ends and raises questions about where, if anywhere, Eric will go next.
Whatever comes after this rupture, the episode stakes a claim as a turning point for the series’ moral geography. It collapses a partnership, exacts a public punishment, and leaves the characters—and viewers—facing the consequences of choices made in the pursuit of power and redemption.
