Review: Industry, “Points of Emphasis” | Season 4, Episode 7
"if you need a friend, don't look to a stranger"
I never expected Daft Punk. The French electric musical duo of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo aren’t strangers to pop culture; the pair—more on that later—famously scored Tron: Legacy, while a song from “Random Access Memories” featured during a pivotal season three moment of Mr. Robot. Critically, however, from my research, very few songs from “Discovery” have leapt from the sonic stage to screen in any capacity, let alone alone in television. Needless to say, when “Points of Emphasis,” written and directed once more by Down and Kay, dropped the beginning arpeggio of “Veridis Quo,” they had my full attention. Not that Industry doesn’t already demand that, but in a season full of sonic flexes, this one felt particularly notable.
See, there are all kinds of meanings tied up in the use of this song. Like any other millennial, I love Daft Punk. Discovery is frequently the soundtrack to push me through a mindless day at my 9-5. If it’s particularly dull, Alive 2007 is what pushes me over the edge. For my 35th birthday, I convinced my friends to see the 4K remaster of Interstella 5555. Hell, it’s my second favorite track on the album behind “Digital Love.” Loosely translated, “Veridis Quo” means very disco. Flip it around, and disco very is, well, you get the picture.
But more than all these fleeting personal anecdotes is the song’s colossal impact on the episode and how it bookends “Points” to drive home the dualities at the core of this penultimate installment. The entire episode is a conversation between two entities on both micro and macro scales, between Yasmin and Henry, Harper and Henry, Henry and Whitney, Yasmin and Lord Norton, Yasmin and Jeni, Yasmin and the upper class, Pierpoint and Tender, Russian state interest and Tender, the British government and Tender, hell, even between Mickey and Konrad. It’s a series of Davids and Goliaths, each one desperately searching for escape.
