They say that you should never meet your heroes.
But the Hulu miniseries “The Dropout,” which chronicles the rise and fall of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, makes a pretty good argument that maybe the whole idea of heroes is a bit overrated, if not toxic.
Over an opening montage soundtracked by David Bowie’s immortal “Heroes,” we see the public continuing to laud Holmes, with archive footage of her being interviewed by Presidents Bill Clinton and Joe Biden with actress Amanda Seyfried digitally inserted, all while she drinks glass after glass of green juice.
Seyfried is really going for it here, licking the last of the juice out of her glass.
In the archival clip, Biden asks, “How in God’s name at 19 was she able to convince some of the leading professors in America, uh let alone her parents, to give her all her tuition money to go and say ‘I got an idea, I’m going to start a company.’”
Good question, Joe.
The narrative that this brilliant young college dropout is changing the world and saving lives is too powerful for many people to resist, or question. This episode is all about asking, "Why?"
After Holmes and her partner Sunny Balwani (Naveen Andrews) get wind that Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is investigating claims that their whole thing is bogus, giving people false and dangerous test results, they begin circling the wagon.
They bring on attorney David Boies, who claims he “respects journalists,” to start scaring sources away with threats of lawsuits and smearing their reputation.
People Don’t Want To Hear The Truth
George Shultz has summoned his grandson Tyler (Dylan Minnette) and demands to know if he’s spoken to the press. Tyler lies and says he hasn’t.
Tyler keeps trying to get his grandfather to see that Holmes has hoodwinked the world, and that her revolutionary blood-testing technology doesn’t work and never has.
“Why can’t you admit you were wrong about her, because you’re this great man and you never make mistakes,” he says, and “You’re never wrong.”
Sam Watterson’s pouty grin as he listens and slowly begins to let himself believe he’s been hoodwinked is a masterclass in wounded pride, which is what most of it comes down to ultimately.
He thinks he’s a member of the elite, and the elite don’t get fooled.
But he starts to come around when the aggressive corporate attack dog Linda (played with prickly charm by Michaela Watkins, she’s literally just standing in the bathroom like a weirdo until it’s time to bring the NDA forms) keeps threatening his grandson.
If they didn’t have anything to hide, then why are they so aggressive? At some point, you have to see what’s in front of you.
Hulu
The Theranos Investigation Seems Lost, At First
Much of the episode follows Carreyrou’s determined (and yes, heroic) attempts to get to the truth, even as Theranos keeps scaring away sources.
At one point the story seems lost, especially after he learns that Wall Street Journal owner Rupert Murdoch has invested $125 million into Theranos, and Holmes gets to publish an op-ed touting her company’s greatness.
Fielding an angry reaction from Richard Fuisz (William H. Macy), Carreyrou explains that “opinion and news are totally separate, they don’t know what we’re working on.”
He’s not the first WSJ reporter to make this distinction.
He pushes to get the story even when it’s not all there, but his editor Judith (LisaGay Hamilton) tells him to be patient, citing the example of Sicilian fisherman who wade into the water and lie still the fish let down their, only to “bam!” stab them one after another.
So when Boies, Linda and the rest of Theranos’ enforcers meet with the WSJ, they threaten and intimidate and do what they can to make the story go away.
But after four hours, Linda admits that they do sometimes use third-party blood-testing technology “for comparison purposes” and that claims that all the machines need only a few drops of blood are inaccurate.
This contradicts the company’s previous claims. Bam, they have ‘em!
Holmes is at a Harvard Medical School event, and right after she’s told off by Laurie Metcalf’s stone-cold Dr. Phyllis Gardner (“I’m not phyllis to you, I’m Dr. Gardner”) for making things harder for other women and to look forward to the coming scandal, the WSJ story drops.
The next day, Holmes is in full crisis-control mode, and determined to once again bluff her way through it, leading her team through a chant of “F—- you, Carreyrou.”
But the other shoe has finally dropped, and it won’t be long before it’s all out in the open.
