The Dropout (2022) s01e05 Episode Script

1 Hello, Walgreens! Welcome to Theranos.
Theranos is gonna be in stores! Retail is in freefall.
So you're going to have to find a new source of revenue.
For example, a wellness center.
You can't put this in stores! - You're fired.
- If you fire Ian, you'll have to fire me.
You wanna fire me? This is your new desk.
But, but my lab's downstairs.
Project Beta! We are looking to make a strategic connection in government.
Having George Schultz would be a game-changer.
It's wonderful.
We start construction at the Arizona store soon, so trying to get everything ready.
So, um I just wanted to get a sense of how much longer you guys are going to need before we can launch the wellness centers.
Obviously, we had agreed on February.
That passed last month.
What is this? That's where the device will go.
But we don't have dimensions or any details yet, so I mean, obviously, we would like to get them as soon as possible.
I hate to be the bad guy here, but I'm going to need a firm date.
I, I thought you understood that this process was going to be long.
Absolutely.
But it has been three years.
And we have put in about $140 million.
So I think that Wade is getting a little bit frustrated.
Wade? If you're not the one calling the shots, then maybe I should just give Wade a call.
We can skip the call.
Because I'm here.
Okay.
Well, I said I could handle it.
Can you guys give us a moment? Isn't that comfy? It's fine.
So Elizabeth.
We're building these wellness centers in our stores.
Two in Arizona, one in Palo Alto Well, I, I explained that, - that this device is - Yeah, you've explained.
Except there's nothing to explain because we don't have this.
So here's my question.
When do we get it? Wade, we care deeply about our partnership.
And we're anxious to put our best foot forward.
And what's the timeline for, "We are anxious to put our best foot forward"? Because I've got one.
You want to hear it? Hmm? September.
September.
Six months from now.
No more breaks, no more extensions.
We'll be ready in September.
Sunny is spearheading operations.
Ooh! Fuck! Okay.
Oh, also, Wade asked me about the lawsuit.
He just found out that I guess you're suing your old next-door neighbor from when you were growing up? Richard Fu-eez? Fuisz.
Yeah, he, uh, applied for competing patents to try to get us to pay him off.
What? Does this door not work? - And he thought you'd settle.
- Where's the door? Right, right.
Well, just putting this out there.
But is this the best time to be in the middle of a lawsuit? Wade would prefer if it was all cleared up by the launch.
It will be.
We just hired David Boies to represent us.
David Boies.
- Wow.
The big guns.
- We're declaring war.
Richard, it's that man again.
The car is still there.
Richard! I see you.
I see you.
I see you.
Yes, you.
- Get out of here.
- I'm taking your picture.
Get out of here, you assholes.
- I got it.
- Assholes! Beth.
Judy.
They're going to chew on this for a month.
I can't do this anymore.
Just end it.
End the lawsuit.
That car's been out there all morning.
They're watching us.
Well, of course, they are.
Of course, they are.
They think they can intimidate us because they're rich, entitled pricks.
- But we're not intimidated.
- We're not? Because I am.
Settle it.
Who cares? It's one patent.
You want to give her more money.
I just want it to be over.
If I settle now, I'm the schmuck.
I'm giving them what they want.
And then, what did I spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees for.
I can't even talk about the amount of money you spent.
I had to defend myself and my family.
She's coming after us.
Why are you doing this? Look okay, wait, I I want to show you something.
Sit down.
I, I had a-a-a breakthrough.
- Look at these.
- What are these? Theranos patents.
And there, right there.
There's a man whose name is on every patent with Elizabeth.
Who is Ian Gibbons? - Ian Gibbons.
- Yes? - You've been subpoenaed.
- What? What am I supposed to say about the company under oath? I don't want to play these games.
I'm not a lawyer.
Dr.
Gibbons, let's calm down.
I'm a chemist.
It's what I am.
It's all I ever wanted to be.
Until she stopped me from doing it.
Stopped me from working in my own lab.
Who stopped you? Elizabeth Holmes stopped you? I don't know who you are.
- They told me to come here.
- I'm Linda Tanner.
I'm part of Theranos' in-house legal team.
Oh, Theranos' in-house legal team.
How exciting.
Which means that you represent the company, not me.
Okay, that's not how I would characterize it.
You're going to want me to say and do whatever benefits the company.
I do represent Theranos and your interests align with Theranos' interests.
And I'm left to defend myself and my reputation and my work.
Would you like a caramel? What? I'm just going to look this over, okay? And anyway, I don't even get what I can testify about.
She banned me from, from my own lab.
I'm barred from, from meetings and emails.
I come in, I sit at my desk all day long, but I haven't done any real chemistry for, for three years, Linda.
I would leave, but I need the health insurance.
Okay, so this lawsuit is about patents, and your name is on multiple patents that belong to Theranos.
- Patents? - Mm-hmm.
I strongly suggest you don't do anything or tell anyone until legal has a plan to get you out of testifying, okay? But if I did testify? We'll make sure you don't.
September? Baby, why would you tell them September? - We're not going to be able - How did the demo go? I'm telling you how the demo went.
It fucking overheated.
Well, you, you need to do something different then.
Different? Different like what? Different like what? - When are you coming back? - I'm on my way to LA.
I have that marketing meeting with ChiatDay.
We don't need to focus on marketing right now.
I had an idea for a new logo.
- A logo? - The Flower of Life.
It's an ancient symbol from alchemy.
Intersecting circles that form a sacred geometry connecting all of life.
The, the shape is found in blood cells and the Mona Lisa We're in trouble.
I need you back.
Oh, I, I have to go.
I'm getting another call.
No.
No! What's going on? Whoa.
Is that how you answer your phone? Christian, what? Uncle Ron's gettin' worse.
Mom says that they caught it too late.
It's like brain cancer? - I don't know, Mom says that I - I can't talk about that now because I'm about to go into a meeting, so Oh, I thought you were on, like, a plane right now or something.
No, I'm-I'm-I'm walking into a meeting, so I'll talk to you later.
Just got the news we're launching in September.
What? Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
September? Yeah.
Why is he here? Hi, Brendan.
We've met many times.
I'm Elizabeth's brother, Christian.
Oh.
Yeah, I may not understand all the, you know, science or whatever.
Yeah, the science stuff But I did graduate from Duke.
Plus I'm the Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives.
So Hooo! Why the fuck is he here? He's the guy who comes to these fucking meetings.
Okay? Okay, September.
Before we start, I-I-I want to say I know that Chiat/Day was working very closely with Apple and Steve Jobs.
And I can't believe that it's been two years since, since we lost him.
Did you know him? Not personally, but I've always felt connected to him.
Anyway, thanks for coming down to LA.
We're excited to keep cooking on the Walgreens launch.
September now.
And we got your ideas about the logo.
But the reason we brought you down here is to talk about you.
Rich? This really is the way to sell this company.
Your face, your dream, your story.
People will trust this technology because they'll trust you Elizabeth.
Theranos is you.
No, no, it's not.
It it's not.
The focus should be on, on the technology.
Yeah.
No! They've got me.
I'm-I'm-I'm trapped.
It's a subpoena.
There are ways around it.
Not around it, just delay and delay Ian, you've had enough.
And eventually, I'll have to speak.
Well, I don't understand.
What's wrong with that? Just tell the truth! The truth.
If I tell the truth, I-I violate my nondisclosure agreement, and Theranos sues me.
And if I lie I'll be committing perjury.
What do you know that could be so bad for her? Well patents.
What about them? Her name is on them, but she didn't do any of the scientific work.
She lied on the patent applications.
And if you say that in a deposition, it could void all of Theranos' patents.
You could stop her.
No.
Because they'll come after us.
They'll sue us and destroy us, and-and they have the money and-and the time and Whatever you want to do, I'm with you.
Sunny, hi, I'm actually about to go to a meeting.
I know you're on the plane.
I know your schedule.
Uh, no, not yet.
I'm still in meetings.
I'll call you back.
Stop running away.
You're acting like a little girl.
George, hi.
I'm actually, I'm about to go into a meeting right now.
Just wanted to touch base about the lawsuit.
I know.
I, I wish I could.
It's just the meeting's about to start.
We'd like to talk to you first thing.
Richard Fuisz has subpoenaed Ian Gibbons.
Charlotte, thanks.
You know David Boies, right? Yes, of course.
Hi, David.
Charlotte.
George, let these people go home, enjoy their weekend.
We'll be done soon.
Elizabeth, you can trust David.
He's the best lawyer in the country.
Oh, I don't know about that.
He and I have different politics, of course.
He wanted Al Gore to be president so badly, he took it all the way to the Supreme Court.
But fortunately, he lost that one.
Yeah, I, I lost that one.
Something you should know about David.
He's dyslexic.
He had to get good at reading people.
You don't want to play cards with him.
Frankly I'm concerned that Richard hasn't settled yet.
Just asking.
Why don't you give up the lawsuit? Just one man, one patent, you're about to launch into Walgreens I don't want him to win.
It's important to remember, it's just business, right? Can't take it too personally.
- We're about to depose Richard, so - Do you have a strategy? Because you need a strategy with him.
I think I can handle it.
If you want him on record sounding crazy, get him to talk about me.
Why do you think he, uh, subpoenaed Ian Gibbons? Why Ian? Because my understanding is that Ian's name is on the patents with yours, so he can testify as to your contributions.
Does Ian know something that we should know? Am I being deposed right now? No, of course not.
I need to know if there's anything about the company you're not telling me.
No, uh, there's not.
But, David, you accepted shares of Theranos instead of payment, so you must believe me.
On a different note, my grandson Tyler.
Tyler.
We don't have to do this now, Grandpa.
He's graduating from Stanford in a couple months.
Hi, I'm Tyler.
- Hello, Tyler.
- Hi.
And he would love to have the chance to work with you.
Just like an internship or anything.
I'm, I'm a biology major, and I, I just think that you're awesome.
Um Of course.
Yeah.
Fine.
Go ahead and fire me.
But we can't do September.
We can't.
You designed the Edison.
Yeah.
So I know what it can't do.
And I know that it's not ready to replace the Siemens machine.
People have been using the Siemens machine for years.
They trust it, it's reliable, and it can run multiple samples at the same time.
How? - How? How what? - How does it work? Someone tell me how this one works! What does it do that ours doesn't? Well, it, it uses larger, uh, blood samples.
It's a completely different machine.
So barring me breaking it open and looking at all the parts, I can't tell you in any detail how it works.
Why haven't we done that yet? Why haven't we broken into the Siemens machine? Well, because it's It's another company's tech.
Under no circumstances are we opening it up.
It's not our IP.
Okay? The branding for Theranos is a small, portable device.
The Siemens machine is a dinosaur.
We know what the branding is.
But this one works, ours doesn't.
Right now.
Well, then we need it to work right now! You told a week ago in September! - So right now is when we need this - Hey, hey, hey, hey! Don't talk to my sister that way.
Hey, don't tell Sunny what to do.
We're going to launch in September with the Edison.
- How? How are we - Because I put you in charge of operations, and you're going to figure it out.
What are you doing? Who are you calling? Who are you calling? I'm texting Teri to bring me my food.
When is the last time you ate? Daniel, get her some juice.
Cut the music up A little louder Yeah You had a lot of crooks try to steal your heart Never really had luck, couldn’t never figure out How to love How to love You had a lot of moments that didn’t last forever Now you in a corner, tryna put it together How to love How to love For a second you were here, now you over there It's hard not to stare The way you're moving your body like you never had a love Never had a love When you was just a youngin, your looks were so precious But now you're grown up, so fly it's like a blessing But you can’t have a man No, baby.
No.
I made you mad.
I'm sorry.
You keep running away.
You're distracted.
You're lazy.
What? I, I'm doing my job.
What? I'm doing my job.
I my job is to, to have a vision and to bring in investors and make those investors happy.
We're going to lose $92 million this year.
We lost 57 million last year.
What if we What if we just stopped? What? Like, like you quit? The company.
Us.
I don't understand.
I Are you breaking up with me? I don't know.
Do you even love me? But we're meant to be together.
I-I you're my everything.
Sunny.
I What I what's not working? I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm What, Sunny? What? What, what am I doing wrong? Sorry about that.
Hope I'm not interrupting.
Daniel Young just gave me this juice, so, uh Oh, you already have one.
So I just want to let you know that, um, Ian Gibbons didn't show up for work today, and I'm having a really hard time getting in touch with him.
Now we can stall this deposition for a while, but I don't think having him testify would really be in our best interest.
Elizabeth, um Oh hey.
Um, Uncle Ron died.
Mom just told me.
Who is Uncle Ron? Our uncle? Mom says that you could just, like, call or send flowers or No.
I'll go.
Where are you going? - Uh, I'll go to the funeral.
- Yeah.
- Now? - Yes, I'm going to Uncle Ron's funeral.
We are back on the record in the matter of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos Inc.
Versus Fuisz Pharmaceuticals and Richard Fuisz.
Do you recognize exhibit 86 as being your Wikipedia entry? Uh-huh.
Look at that first paragraph, the one that starts off, "Richard Carl Fuisz was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to Slovenian immigrants.
" - Is that accurate? - I would say yes.
You, um, you grew up on a farm.
Yes.
After I sold my company, I went back to Pennsylvania and built a small office.
If I stepped out my front door, I was in a cornfield.
I didn't have a staff.
I did it myself.
Not like Elizabeth Holmes.
And Christian works there, too.
It's a family affair.
You won't believe the people on her board.
George Shultz, Sam Nunn.
Henry Kissinger just joined.
You didn't tell us that.
Henry Kissinger! You're going to be able to go into Walgreens pretty soon and use the machine.
It's going to be in stores in, what, September now? Hey, do you remember that one summer we were here in Florida and we were, like, playing Monopoly and you freaked out because you lost and, like, ran through the screen door? - No.
- You wanted to win so bad.
I got kind of scared.
Did you really come on a private plane? It's a company plane.
Everything I own is through the company.
Well, they're all so intimidated by you.
And jealous.
Mom, did I ever have any hobbies? What do you mean? Did I ever do anything for fun? You ran track.
You were on the dance team.
Uh, you climbed a mountain that one summer.
Weren't you having fun? What's going on? What would happen if I stopped? Working at your own company? But then what would happen to the company? What would you do? Oh, it's just a company.
It's not who I am.
Of course, it's who you are.
What do you mean? You can't stop? Why would you stop? Elizabeth.
I am so proud of who you've become.
Wow.
You are the CEO of Theranos.
Yeah.
That's what I am.
You are going to help so many people.
I just think if Elizabeth Holmes had stayed at Stanford, God bless her, and so many people had not let her down and, in my view, used that poor girl.
In my view, that is not an acceptable thing.
And I think the parents are responsible for that.
And I think these fancy VCs are I'm 73 years old.
I've seen what these VCs can They'll chew her up and throw her out in two minutes.
And Larry Ellison, something goes the other direction, he'll give you a good kick in the ass and you'll be out the door.
And then what will you have? Nothing.
You have a lot to say about Elizabeth.
Everyone's seeing dollar signs instead of a human being.
She's a human being.
Okay, we are done for today.
No, wait.
I just want to say Oh yeah.
Anything, please.
If that girl had come to me and she had said, "Dr.
Fuisz, look, I'm sorry we haven't spoken for years.
"We need this patent.
"And you know what? Everyone thinks we have a lot of money "because of Larry Ellison, "but we actually don't have that much and I can't afford to pay you much," she would have gotten it for a dollar.
But you don't have a process server knock on my door.
My god, none of this would have happened.
Well thank you for your testimony.
Where is Ian Gibbons? Why aren't you letting me speak with him? I believe Dr.
Gibbons hasn't been well.
Bullshit.
If he's not well, have a doctor say he's not well.
She just doesn't want me to talk to him.
Do you know why? Because he knows she's lying.
I'm going to talk to him.
I'm not giving up.
Ian, are you coming to bed? Hmm Don't you have work tomorrow? Ladies and gentlemen, we will be landing in San Francisco in about 30 minutes.
You weren't in your office.
I was looking for you.
How was the funeral? - Elizabeth? - We're not going to stop.
We're going to launch in September, but we're going to launch in phases.
Phase one, we're going to use the Siemens machines to run the tests.
But we're just going to have to reconfigure them to run with less blood.
So we'd have to open them up.
Yeah.
Come.
I've already done it.
I had them open up the Siemens machine.
I had two engineers film the inside, so we have a video.
I think I can program new software for it that says Theranos.
I love you.
Walgreens doesn't need to know exactly what we're running the tests on.
Yeah.
This is just phase one.
Right.
Phase one.
I can't sleep.
I can't think.
I need to know what to do.
I'm going to have to testify at some point.
And then when I do, if I violate the nondisclosure agreement, then Theranos will sue me.
That's not necessarily true.
Oh, you will.
You'll sue me and you'll win.
Okay.
This is how we think we're going to get you out of this.
So we've drafted up a letter that you're going to get a doctor to sign.
It says that you are unwell and that you can't be deposed.
- Unwell? - Mm-hmm.
I'm unwell? Would you say that's not accurate? Because looking at my notes well, you've missed multiple days of work this year.
And, um, even more recently, just I mean, when you say that, that you have some problems Yeah.
I'm talking specifically about the drinking.
At work.
Have you been drinking today? Your health is very important to us, and we'd hate for you to have to do anything as stressful as testifying.
So all you got to do, get the note signed and then just like that, you're off the hook.
But if I sign this, I may never work again.
Because who would hire me? I think you're taking this a little too personally.
Yes, I am.
Because if I can't work, if I ca If I, if I'm not a chemist Like I said, this is your way out.
We go to the doctor tomorrow to get this signed.
Feeling better? Ian? Ian.
Ian.
Ian? So now that we're, we're getting closer to the September launch, we're going to need to change some of the language on the website based on some notes from legal.
Really? Uh, okay.
We, we might be cutting it a little close.
Uh, what are we talking about? Well, instead of "A tiny drop is all, is all you need," it would just be, "A few drops is all you need.
" So we think that we might need more than a drop.
I think the last thing - Yeah? - Elizabeth, I need you.
I'll be back.
I don't know.
Did you see these? I told them to make a prototype of some finger puppets so the kids can wear them after they get their fingers pricked.
Ian Ian Gibbons was found in his bathroom.
He'd taken an overdose of Tylenol mixed with alcohol.
He died in the hospital today.
He killed himself.
It's not because of the, my lawsuit? Right? He, he didn't do that because of my lawsuit? We're in very tricky waters with the new launch coming up.
This is just incredibly tragic.
But, uh, but But we do want to get his laptop back so we can we can control it.
Sit down.
I can't sit down.
I'm in the middle of a meeting.
I have people waiting for me.
Sorry about that.
Where were we? I'm sorry, what is that? Oh, it's a dragon puppet.
I got these made for kids who got a Theranos test.
Blood made me, made me faint as a kid.
What do you think I was so afraid of? Okay, we can take a break here and Did you know that Ian survived cancer? We can pick this meeting up later.
He has no wings.
So he has to walk.
It's not your fault.
- Take that thing off your finger.
- No.
Stop it.
I know how important he was to you.
He was there at the beginning and You can feel sad - Hmm.
- if you want to feel sad.
We won.
What? Ian can't testify now.
Richard has to settle.
We won.
Hey, uh, do you know what's going on? Sorry, it's just my first day, and I don't really know what I'm supposed to do.
Get out.
Woo! I wanted to start with a personal story.
I grew up spending summers with my uncle.
I remember his love of crossword puzzles and trying to teach us to play football.
I remember how much he loved the beach.
I remember how much I loved him.
He was diagnosed one day with skin cancer, which all of a sudden was brain cancer and in his bones.
And I never got to say goodbye.
Here at Theranos, we see a world in which every person has access to actionable health information at the time it matters.
A world in which no one ever has to say, "If only I'd known sooner.
" A world in which no one ever has to say goodbye too soon.
Our new logo is based on The Flower of Life.
Intersecting circles connecting us all.
Alchemy.
Dark becomes light.
Death becomes life.
We can take something terrible and pointless and make it into something perfect.
Yeah, that's right.
This isn't just my company.
This isn't just my job.
This is my religion.
This is who I am.
And anyone who doubts my company doubts me.
Does anyone here doubt me? Does anybody here doubt me? No.
If you do, you can get the fuck out.
We launch in Walgreens in 48 hours! That's right.
We did it.
Fuck yeah! You heard about the Halloween party coming up? It's supposed to be crazy.
There's gonna be a bounce house.
I'm Mark.
I'm the new lab director.
Hi, I'm Tyler.
It's all good.
We lost Ian.
And you kept his widow's testimony out.
So here we are.
Nice to see you again.
Can I get you something to drink? I'm just having some Cheez-Its.
God, you're good.
I read your memoir.
Courting Justice.
Great pun.
I thought it was fun.
Published by Miramax Books.
You represent Miramax and Harvey Weinstein.
Oh, and you started a film finance company.
They help you with that? That's a little messy, but you're pretty good at cleaning up messes.
What is it about Cheez-Its? Huh? I just can't get enough of 'em.
You think it's the aftertaste? You came from a small town, like me.
You want people to think you're a sweet old law professor, with your cheap suits and your Cheez-Its.
But you just want the money and you want to win.
And speaking of winning here's what we're offering.
You withdraw the patent, and we'll drop the lawsuit against you.
Oh, sure.
- Okay, fine.
- Good.
Good.
We're going to get the paperwork sorted out.
But, um, I'm not done with this.
I'm going to figure it out.
Everything you're not telling me? I'm going to figure it out.
Well goodbye, Dr.
Fuisz.
What? Richard Fuisz.
I haven't seen you since the investor's conference.
- What can I do for you? - Phyllis.
Hello.
I don't know if you've heard, but, uh, I was sued recently.
What? No.
I hadn't heard that.
You okay? Oh, I'm great.
Just great.
I heard you maybe knew Elizabeth Holmes.
She was a student when you were Elizabeth Holmes.
Of course, I do.
Well, what can you tell me about her? Come on, you guys! There's only one thing you need to know about Elizabeth Holmes.
She's a fraud, Richard.
She's always been a fraud.