The Dropout‘s best episode yet isn’t about Elizabeth Holmes at all

My biggest issue with the first three episodes of The Dropout is its desire to make sense of Elizabeth Holmes. The show wants to understand how Holmes went from an eccentric and potentially brilliant healthcare innovator to a cold, calculating huckster capable of sociopathic levels of deception. The problem is: Who the hell even knows? We know what she’s told the media. We know what she’s said in court. But we also know she’s a liar. That’s what she’s best known for, in fact. In the real world, Holmes remains an inscrutable figure.

So it’s hard not to raise an eyebrow when The Dropout draws such a stark line between old Elizabeth (wide-eyed and open-hearted) and new Elizabeth (severe and cold-blooded), stressing as it has the corrupting influences of both her mentor and lover, Sunny Balwai (Naveen Andrews), and the fake-it-till-you-make-it pressures of Silicon Valley. Even in this episode, Ian (Stephen Fry) says the “joy and camaraderie” of Theranos evaporated once Sunny arrived, adding that Elizabeth now only cares about “money and investors.” This approach feels pat and reductive, an obvious oversimplification. It might make for satisfying TV, but well-made character arcs tend not to hang well on actual humans, especially ones as opaque as Holmes.

“Old White Men” works better than the episodes that came before it because it isn’t trying to wrestle with Elizabeth’s blurry moral compass. By shifting the focus away from her and Sunny and onto two different sets of associates, the show allows us to see how the public-facing Elizabeth entranced and alienated those in her orbit. It’s also very funny, but we’ll get to that.

The last episode ended with Elizabeth and Sunny deciding to ditch their efforts courting pharmaceutical companies by pivoting to retail. That brings us to Dr. Jay (Alan Ruck), a Walgreens bigwig with a startup past, as he falls head over heels for Elizabeth’s pitch to open Theranos wellness centers in the company’s stores. The problem? Theranos’ tests haven’t been approved by the FDA. But, for Elizabeth, the FDA is just another can to kick down the road. She’s working on “strategic relationships” to help with that. Later, we find out that by saying their tests are “lab-developed,” they can bypass FDA approval—for now. As a consultant hired by Walgreens CFO Wade (Josh Pais) clarifies, that “legal gray area” only applies if blood samples are tested in a certified lab, not a portable one like the Edison. Dr. Jay is undeterred, speaking the magic words: “It’s just for now.” Besides, the consultant, Kevin (Rich Sommer), is there to assess the labs and technology.

But Elizabeth and Sunny don’t want them to see the labs. They want them to see the wall-sized Yoda quote, the open floor plan, and the dusty American flag (flown over from Afghanistan!) they framed as a gift. They want them to see the security cameras, the copious NDAs, the way they stagger their departure times to deter spies. Most importantly, they want them to see the Safeway executives with whom they’re also meeting. They want them to see that Theranos doesn’t need them as bad as they need it. They want them to see the myth of Theranos, not the reality.

When Wade sticks to his guns, Elizabeth nixes the deal, calling Walgreens “old-fashioned.” And that’s when the mystique begins to work its magic, turning all the red flags into generational markers. “It’s a new world,” says Dr. Jay. “These kids, they don’t overthink, they don’t get bogged down in the way things used to always be done. They don’t want review committees, bureaucracy. They want to get things done. We’re old, Wade, we’re dinosaurs.” All the while, Kevin, who represents science and logic in this scenario, is pounding on the car window, begging to be heard.

In the end, it’s not the tech or even the potential profits that convinces Wade to invest. It’s desperation and insecurity, a fear of slipping into irrelevancy. Things move fast in Palo Alto, for better or worse. It’s a darkly comic moment, then, when Elizabeth later tells potential investor George Schultz (Sam Waterston) that it was the “human element” that made the Walgreens deal happen.

The only person here truly considering the “human element” is Theranos’ head chemist, Ian, who’s punished for his concern. Fry gives an amiable performance as the elder Ian, who, unlike the rest of the Theranos staff, doesn’t know when to look the other way. First, he bristles at being excluded from Project Beta (code for the Walgreens presentation), then, after scamming his way into it, he’s horrified to see it’s riddled with promises that Theranos can’t currently keep. What’s even more horrifying? They hope to be in more than 90 stores in what seems like no time at all.

For Elizabeth and co., it’s a necessary fiction. They sell the promise of the tech so they can get more money to develop the tech. “What’s the problem?” asks board member Channing Robertson (Bill Irwin) when Ian brings the issue to him. One thinks of Dr. Jay’s emphatic rationalization: “It’s just for now.” But Ian won’t back down, emphasizing to both Channing and Elizabeth that “people will be at risk, actual people.” When Elizabeth says he doesn’t understand the business, he replies that she doesn’t understand the science. “You don’t understand the implications of what you’re doing,” he says. She fires him, making it perfectly clear where science stands in the Theranos hierarchy.

Fry’s performance is affecting because he plays Ian as so confused. If Wade and Dr. Jay are desperate to keep pace with today’s Silicon Valley, Ian is simply baffled by it. At home, he spirals into drunkenness. At work, his colleagues say they’ll quit if he isn’t rehired. So he is rehired, but banished to a desk smack-dab in the middle of Theranos’ open office. There, he’s far from the tech and close to their prying gaze. If the “old white men” won’t evolve, Elizabeth and Sunny will accelerate their extinction.

Stray Observations

• Like the dek lays out, “Old White Men” is about the absurdities of Elizabeth and Sunny’s operation as it impacts those on its periphery in ways both comic (Walgreens) and tragic (Ian).
• Ruck, Pais, Sommer, and Andrew Leeds (as yes man Roland) make an incredible comic quartet, from Wade’s casual irritability to Dr. Jay’s grating enthusiasm to Roland’s karaoke skills.
• Ruck being genuinely inspired by Katy Perry’s “Firework” is also a nice touch. Just the most surface-level dope. Very proud of his Webby.
• Andrews delivers some crushingly withering looks at Kevin whenever he enters a room, and the scene where he walks him to the bathroom pulses with muted intimidation. Great stuff.
• I forgot to mention that Elizabeth signed the framed flag. Real “Trump signing Bibles” energy.
• “CVS sucks. We hate CVS.”