Dark Matters: Twisted But True (2011) s02e08 Episode Script

Noble: This is your one and only warning.
Your screen will soon be filled with dramatized stories of scientific research that some people may find controversial or disturbing.
Viewer discretion is advised.
Ask yourself, does progress always come at a price? Are some experiments too risky or just wrong? A little curiosity can't hurt anyone Can it? I'll introduce a flamboyant showman who battles Ben Franklin to prove his medicine is still medicine even if it defies reason.
And you'll see a new way to remove unwanted hairs or unsightly blemishes.
Just pray that it doesn't remove your fingers and nose, as well.
[ Electricity crackles .]
Aah! But first, during the Vietnam War, America brought its entire industrial might to bear -- jet fighters, helicopter gunships, cluster bombs, Napalm and something else.
When one man discovered that his agricultural research was being used to kill, he fought back against his own country.
Not all victories are won on the battlefield.
Arthur Galston has just taken a job at a Caltech, where he meets Professor Lee Alvin Dubridge.
It's great to have you hear.
Thanks.
So, I've been reading about this amazing boost in soybean production.
That's your TIBA work, right? It is.
Great to see a lab rat's work having such a positive impact.
My friend, if you're a lab rat, we wouldn't have poached you from Yale.
Caltech wants Galston because of his revolutionary work on soybean production, which involves a chemical called auxin.
Auxin is a plant hormone that prevents the excessive flowering of a plant so that it does not grow too quickly at any one time.
Noble: He figured out that triiodobenzoic acid, or "TIBA," had a truly remarkable effect.
TIBA is a chemical compound that Arthur Galston discovered which would prevent auxin from spreading in the plant.
Noble: This speeds the growth of soybeans, increasing the yield by 30%.
But there's a downside to TIBA.
Stop, stop.
That's way too much.
It's kind of counterintuitive, but too much is bad news.
An overdose of TIBA kills the plants.
This aspect of Galston's research proves extremely interesting to another institution.
The military.
Zierler: What Galston had discovered, in effect, was one of the world's first defoliants.
U.
S.
military officials instantly saw that this could have been extremely useful on the battlefield.
And finally, by the 1960s, in Vietnam, this was a perfect opportunity for defoliant operations.
Noble: The conflict in Vietnam presented the U.
S.
Army with a unique set of challenges.
[ Engines humming .]
Dr.
Silbey: The landscape of South Vietnam was very heavily covered by jungle, a lot of leaves, a lot of trees, and very hard to see.
Visibility was in the 10- to 20-yard range, very easy to fall prey to ambushes.
And, so, the U.
S.
Army began looking for a way to defoliate that jungle, to get rid of the leaves that were blocking their view.
Noble: Galston's peaceful research has become a weapon of war.
Run! [ Airplane flies overhead .]
[ Radio chatter .]
Galston's star is still rising.
Yale lures him back to Connecticut as a tenured Professor.
Ever heard of Agent Orange? Agent who? It's a defoliant.
They're using it in Vietnam.
"Operation Ranch Hand.
" Sounds an awful lot like your Ph.
D.
research, doesn't it? No.
This can't be based on my TIBA research.
That's never what I intended.
It gets worse.
Read this bit.
"Spraying the crops"? No.
No, they can't be using it on people's food.
Well, that'smadness.
Dr.
Silbey: The U.
S.
Army very quickly began to use Agent Orange against the food supplies both of the Vietcong and of the neutral South Vietnamese tribes as a way of forcing them into the big cities, where they can be controlled by the Americans and the South Vietnamese.
Noble: Galston knows that at the concentrations needed for defoliation, these chemicals could be lethally toxic.
Long-term effects are completely unknown.
Dr.
Silbey: The problem with the toxins is not just their short-term effects but how long they last in the environment and, most importantly, where they end up in the human body.
If they're in the bloodstream, then they get excreted out by the kidneys fairly quickly.
But if they end up in the body fat, then they could last in humans for years, if not decades.
It's unbelievable, crazy.
It's supposed to feed people, not kill them.
Without meaning to, Galston has helped create a new type of chemical warfare.
He has two options -- go with it or fight his own government.
He decides to use his position at one of America's most prestigious universities to organize the academic community against defoliants in Vietnam.
Lisa? Arthur.
I'm calling about the petition.
Well, they've at least got to test it.
Yeah, I'm sending it this week.
Look, the thing is, we're clueless as to how damaging it'll be if this stuff works its way up the food chain.
Noble: The new defoliant becomes infamous as Agent Orange.
Dr.
Turnbull: Agent Orange is called Agent Orange because it was stored in large 55-gallon drums with an orange label on them.
It's quite as simple as that.
Noble: The U.
S.
military has expanded on Galston's research.
Dr.
Silbey: Galston discovered that TIBA, when sprayed in excess, would cause the plant to secrete another chemical called ethylene.
Ethylene causes cell breakdown between the leaf and the plant, which is called abscission.
When the leaf on the plant falls off, no photosynthesis can take place, and, therefore, of course, the plant dies.
Noble: But Galston's work on ethylene could be taken to a whole different level.
Dr.
Turnbull: The U.
S.
military -- they found that two completely different chemicals were much more effective, and these were called "2, 4-d," which is 2, 4 dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, and a second one called "2, 4, 5-t," which is 2, 4, 5 trichlorophenoxyacetic acid -- that are both synthetic auxins, were much, much more effective at causing defoliation.
Noble: Eventually, Galston's campaigning gains some traction.
His petition forces the army to test Agent Orange.
What they discover will confirm his worst fears.
Noble: 1969 Thank you.
Noble: Arthur Galston's campaign against Agent Orange goes up a notch when he manages to arrange a secret meeting with his old Professor from Caltech.
When I found out, I couldn't believe it.
I figured someone would have done something.
Lee Alvin Dubridge now moves in higher circles -- science advisor to the new President, Richard Nixon.
I just don't think Agent Orange is the way to do it.
Listen, Art, the military view is, you take away Agent Orange, they're gonna hit the enemy with more bombs instead.
Well, that plan sure didn't come from a scientist.
[ Scoffs .]
Look, when I came up with TIBA, they made sure it was safe.
It was analyzed.
It went through lab tests and formal protocols.
Art, I know this.
This is how we do science.
This is how we do science.
We test -- we test again.
How many tests do you think they did on Agent Orange before deployment that aren't to do with how well it kills plants? [ Sighs .]
How many? None.
Zip.
Zero.
And we know that a lot of chemicals turn out to be nastier than we expected.
Look at the thalidomide disaster.
Art, this is a herbicide.
It is not a drug.
Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
Maybe it'll turn out to be both.
Until we test it, we're in the dark, and that's a bad place for science to be.
Art, Orange is not TIBA.
Why does this matter to you so much? My TIBA research was the inspiration behind Agent Orange, and that's as sorry a use of the word "inspiration" as I've ever heard.
Without me, maybe no one would ever have got started on this kind of defoliation.
It's a crime against science, Professor.
It's a crime against nature.
Hell, it's just a crime.
Okay, okay, okay.
I hear you.
I'll see what I can do.
[ Sighs .]
In April 1970, under advice from Lee Dubridge, President Nixon orders a temporary halt on the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam.
Galston travels to Vietnam to see the effects of Agent Orange firsthand.
Dr.
Silbey: Between 1965 and 1970, the U.
S.
used about 11 million gallons of the agent Hello? enough to defoliate half the state of Maine.
Noble: This had profound consequences.
My name is Arthur Galston.
I-I'm with the university.
I need to know what happened.
And the people? Galston: Without me, maybe no one would ever have got started on this kind of defoliation.
Dr.
Cohen: One of the compounds in Agent Orange was a chemical called "2, 4, 5-t," which turned out to be teratogenic.
A teratogen is a compound that causes developmental abnormalities in fetuses.
So it can cause all sorts of physical malformations, such as cleft palate, limb deformations, and very often can result in stillbirth.
Noble: In some areas of Vietnam, stillbirths increased by almost 50%.
Birth defects by 300%.
It was kind of odd for an academic biologist to press U.
S.
policy, but he did 'cause he was insistent that what the government was doing was wrong and that science should always be put for good purposes.
This culminated in Senate hearings, where he lobbied Congress to end defoliant operations in Vietnam, which he was successful doing Thereby making him and his colleagues one of the few political activists ever to change government policy in a time of war.
Noble: In 1971, confronted with overwhelming evidence, the military finally agreed to a permanent ban on the use of Agent Orange [ Helicopter blades whirring .]
but children damaged by its effects are still being born today.
Take a royal court full of rich hypochondriacs, add a healer with a magnetic personality, and you have all the ingredients for a medical miracle.
Look into my eyes.
The cure works Yes.
but it's up to Ben Franklin to figure out why.
Maybe it's not a real cure at all.
How do you separate real medicine from the work of a quack? Suppose a man spouting mumbo jumbo can cure you but can't explain how he did it.
It sounds like a quack, looks like a quack, but is it still quack medicine if it works? Benjamin Franklin -- one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence.
He's been made ambassador to America's greatest ally, France.
Franklin has been asked by King Louis XVI of France to use science to test a doctor's apparently miraculous new treatment.
Benjamin Franklin is perfectly suited to the task.
Benjamin Franklin was a real renaissance man.
He was an author, a publisher, musician, and politician, one of the writers of the Declaration of Independence.
Even more than that, he was a brilliant scientist who carried out fundamental research.
Noble: But instead of confronting the doctor directly, Franklin takes a more circumspect route and interrogates one of his disciples instead, Charles Deslon.
Deslon has set up his own practice, using the techniques he learned at the Salon of the Maestro.
I can assure you that I have observed firsthand his miraculous success using animal magnetism.
Uh-huh, animal magnetism -- the heart of the matter.
Let us test its existence, then Using evidence and reason -- ideas not as familiar to some "doctors" as they should be.
Hmm.
Begin at the beginning.
Tell me how this "miracle" developed.
He began as a virtuous doctor in Vienna some 10 years previous to this day.
Franz Anton Mesmer -- an ordinary Austrian physician, a generous man who treats the poor for free.
But whether rich or poor, finding a cure is never easy.
Goldacre: Medicine, at that time in history, was a big mess.
You were brave to go to the doctor.
You'd be desperate.
People were doing things like bloodletting, and, in a lot of cases, people were doing more harm than good.
Noble: But Mesmer has come up with a new technique.
Iron filings -- mix them to solution.
Dr.
Britt: Well, Mesmer's idea is that within all of us is this vital fluid, which he referred to as animal magnetism.
And he believed that he could interact with this magnetic fluid using actual magnets.
The iron solution is drawn to these magnets, Miss Austelé.
You will feel energy pulsing through your body like waves rolling over a beach.
Look into my eyes.
Let the magnetic energy heal you.
You are feeling it, are you not? This is animal magnetism.
A woman cured of convulsions -- great success, indeed.
Yet, let us apply a little common sense.
Where is your evidence to prove that the magnets effected this cure? The patient, herself, remains convinced that it was Mesmer's treatment.
Oh.
I'm very happy for her.
It was miraculous.
A lot of medical problems have a kind of natural cycle.
So, your back pain is bad for a couple of days, and then it gets better for a couple of days.
Or your cold is bad for a couple of days, and then it gets better soon after.
Now, when you go to the doctor, it's usually when your symptoms are at their worst.
And so it's very tempting to imagine that whatever the doctor did, that must have been the reason that you got better.
And then, of course, there was the astonishing case of Maria Theresia von Paradis.
Noble: Maria Theresia von Paradis was the daughter of the emperor's secretary.
She was completely blind.
My sight has been absent since the age of 3, sir.
You bear it well, if I may say.
What else may I do but bear it, sir? [ Chuckles .]
He believed he could cure blindness with magnets? Ah, but you see, by this point, he had realized that, in fact, the magnets were not essential.
Perhaps you can assist me then.
I believed that magnets were the foundation on which his theory was built.
Now they have evaporated? Not so.
He had come to understand by his experiments that the power to heal, the power of animal magnetism lies within the physician, not the magnets.
Hmm.
You can see my hands today.
Yes, Doctor.
I can.
He had extraordinary success with Miss von Paradis.
Uh, now, that is not the story as I heard it.
No.
That wasan unfortunate misunderstanding.
Yes.
Yes.
My God, Mesmer! Take your hands off my daughter! Noble: Mesmer has made a powerful enemy in the emperor's secretary.
He's chased out of Austria, but this is not the end for Mesmer.
He plans to cast his magnetic spell over Europe's most flamboyant royal family.
So, Mesmer Noble: Benjamin Franklin is interviewing Charles Deslon about Franz Anton Mesmer's unusual healing methods.
First there was the magnets, then the physician's own power, and then, in Paris, this, uh Wand? A magician's tool, surely? Not a doctor's.
Yet, I-I'm sure you can explain how this is supposed to work.
He arrived in Paris a quite different man [ Metal clinks .]
Doctor, the look is magnificent.
It is essential that my power is visible in everything about me.
It must work.
Because Mesmer's next patient is from the French nobility.
Dr.
Shapiro: Mesmer is a perfect fit for the age.
You have a lot of patients with serious illnesses on one hand and some who are just maybe hypochondriacs on the other who have plenty of means, and yet, modern medicine, at the time, doesn't have a whole lot to offer them.
And here he appears on the stage with this grand theory and this grand theatrics, ready to take on all of them and offers real hope.
Well, it's the perfect fit.
Countess.
Dr.
Mesmer -- No words, madame.
No words.
You suffer with headaches nerves hysteria.
I shall heal you.
I have magnetized this wand, and with it, I control the animal magnetism in your body.
[ Moans .]
Close your eyes.
Let your body relax.
The best explanation for why Mesmer's patients got better is that their beliefs and expectations were being manipulated by all of this kind of splendid theater and actually, possibly, more than that -- that they were being, if you like, hypnotized.
I mean, these were very dramatic displays.
[ Moans .]
You'd almost be embarrassed not to get better if you were the center of this spectacle.
[ Moaning .]
You are cured.
[ Breathing heavily .]
[ Chuckles .]
Noble: Hundreds of patients are apparently cured using Mesmeric techniques.
Despite this all, the medical establishment refuses him recognition as the doctor and genius that he is.
And, so, his supporters in the Queen's entourage demanded an investigation to overrule them.
That is when the King intervened and asked me to investigate.
Dr.
Silbey: Mesmer got in trouble because King Louis XVI wasn't as entranced with him as his wife was.
Louis set up a commission from the French Academy of Sciences to investigate Mesmer's claim.
You have given a fair account.
We will now proceed to the trial.
Trial? I think it's really easy to separate science from pseudo-science.
You just do simple tests.
And in medicine, you want to test two different questions.
Firstly, does it work? And then secondly, does it work the way you say it works? Noble: Franklin has devised a test, which requires Deslon to magnetize one tree.
The others remain untouched.
[ Clears throat .]
A boy chosen by Deslon must identify the correct tree solely by feeling the force, but Deslon has misunderstood his mentor's technique.
Dr.
Shapiro: Well, Mesmer's using a person's belief and their susceptibility to suggestion to get better.
Noble: Franklin's test will expose this [ Coughs .]
because Deslon has tried to magnetize a tree, and trees cannot be influenced by suggestion.
[ Chuckles .]
There is a certain poetry in the extravagancies of your master.
The only force at work here is the power of imagination.
But, sir, if treatment by the use of imagination is the best treatment, why do we not make use of it? Ah.
If I could imagine my cures, why, then, in mind, I should make fine wines the universal treatment.
[ Chuckles .]
Imagination rarely tallies with reality.
You may tell Dr.
Mesmer to expect my report presently.
Deslons: "Precedents of bad science exist, "where the practical result "is anomalous to the theoretical result.
"In conclusion, there is no evidence to prove the existence of animal magnetism.
" What? What?! In that case, Mr.
Benjamin Franklin, how did I cure so many people? Noble: Mesmer's question is a valid one because Franklin's test has not accounted for the power of the mind to heal.
Mesmer was treating some patients who had illnesses that no one else seemed to be able to help, and they got better.
Why is that? Noble: Franklin's test proved that animal magnetism only worked through the power of suggestion.
That doesn't mean Mesmer couldn't help those who believed in him.
Mesmer's explanation might have been nonsense, but he was probably depending on a combination of hypnotism and the placebo effect, both of which are medically recognized.
Years later, you had Freud, for example, who took up this question of, "Well, wait a minute.
Why did these patients get better?" And that's when we start seeing theories of the mind and an understanding that the mind and body are much more intimately connected than had been previously known.
So, to discount him entirely is unfortunate.
Maria Theresia von Paradis has arrived from Vienna Completely blind.
Everyone is gossiping.
[ Sighs .]
[ Breathes deeply .]
I am finished.
Noble: Mesmer abandons Paris.
He dies penniless in obscurity In 1920s America, science was the new religion.
When two men invented a scientific beauty treatment, tens of thousands of women beat down their door to get it.
It's our system! I like this.
Be careful what you wish for because science can create monsters Thomas: Look what you have done to me! as well as miracles.
Find a new way to make people beautiful, and they'll beat a path to your door.
An electronically-induced six pack, a surgically sculpted nose, or an injection that erases wrinkles.
How much would you pay to look good? Your money or your life? New York, 1905.
In the heart of this fashionable city, scientist and inventor Dr.
Albert Geyser has a device that might satisfy America's thirst for beauty.
The pressure on women to look perfect has never been more intense, the cash to make it happen never more available.
Albert wants to offer them a painless scientific route to beauty.
Herzig: This is the period when you see the growth of mass media, really.
Movies were taking off, you also got cheap print-color magazines.
So people saw images of beauty that they had never really seen circulated before.
These beautiful creatures were appearing on celluloid, and everyone aspired to look like them and be like them.
Noble: Geyser's new invention uses roentgen rays, what we now call X-rays.
[ Electricity crackles .]
Aah! My God! Must you do everything Sorry, Dad.
So What's so exciting? So, exactly that.
That spark you saw -- it is made by the roentgen rays hitting the air.
You have heard roentgen rays are dangerous, yeah? I believe this is why.
Back then, scientists knew that X-rays were dangerous because they pack a lot of energy -- enough energy to rip atoms apart, releasing electrons and ions.
These electrons, in turn, could create a spark.
And, so, Dr.
Geyser thought that by suppressing the spark, he could render X-rays harmless.
So, we cue the ionization [ Light buzzing .]
and it is safe.
It's too late for that hand, I guess.
Dr.
Geyser had a very unfortunate encounter with X-rays, and he wasn't the only one.
Back then, there were scores of radiologists.
Every morning, they would turn on their X-ray machine and focus the beam on their hand, and their hand got enormous quantities of X-rays every day for years at a time until their hand became cancerous.
With this new machine, not another person will suffer.
Well, that's great for medicine, Dad, and I'm real proud, but, uh Why did I ask you to come? Well, yeah.
You're the scientist.
Perhaps you have heard that X-rays have been shown to remove skin marks, acne, eczema, some growths, warts, yeah? Here, we have a machine, perfectly safe, which could be used to remove a lady'sunfortunate marks.
And I thought that there might be people who would pay very well for such a treatment.
[ Sniffs .]
You are the businessman.
[ Chuckles .]
Herzig: Geyser's invention was perfect for the age.
Science was king, and all you needed to do to sell anything, from breakfast cereal to cars, was saying that it was scientific in some way.
Noble: Albert severs his final connections with the old and dangerous X-rays with the removal of his cancerous fingers.
Albert's new invention means no one should ever suffer like him again.
He calls it the Cornell tube.
It encases the spark safely within glass insulators to prevent sparking on any part of the patient.
This should neutralize the X-ray's dangerous power.
What's the next one in for? Acne, I believe.
Ah, miss Smith.
Albert and Frank set up a business to remove skin blemishes.
Now, don't you worry, Miss, uh, Smith.
We will bring out your inner beauty with science.
Kaku: It was considered to be magical.
This invention became the rage of all beauty parlors.
Everyone wanted it because it worked.
The results were undeniable.
[ Squeaking .]
Noble: Even as their business takes off, Albert is looking for new ways to profit from his expertise.
Hey, Dad.
Ah.
Wow.
Our customers are getting really teeny-tiny, aren't they? You think this is a mouse? This is the golden goose.
Did you know that roentgen rays can remove hair as well as blemishes? Well, sure, but I thought that was the dangerous doses.
Ah.
But with the Cornell tube, there are no dangerous doses, my boy.
I can remove the hair from this mouse, and he is perfectly healthy.
You see? [ Chuckles softly .]
Hairy women? Mm.
[ Chuckles .]
Now, that's got to be a good market.
A number of things came together in the early 20th century to make hair seem especially bad.
First, the ideas of Darwin were finally seeping into the culture, and that made anything having to do with the animal -- hair being a big part of that -- something you didn't want on your body.
And we need a name.
For the mouse? [ Chuckling .]
No.
For the treatment.
How about, uh Tricho? Tricho -- Greek for "hair.
" Sounds like a company I would use.
I like this.
[ Chuckles softly .]
Noble: In 1924, Tricho begins selling hair removal commercially.
Advertisements for the Geysers' new electrical invention are everywhere.
Thousands of women flock to their door.
You see people only notice the hair.
They don't see me.
Frank: Ah, Miss Thomas, you are not alone.
We're here to help.
Albert: All right, Miss Thomas.
We are ready for you.
Herzig: There were no plastic safety razors.
There were no cheap waxes.
So, you have electric needles that you could put into your skin and cook the individual hair and the follicle.
You have chemical depilatories, which hurt so badly that people would have to bite down on sticks as they applied them so they didn't chew on their tongues.
Now place your chin in the center of the glass.
Compared to this, the X-ray seemed great.
You can't hear it, you can't smell it, you can't feel it -- easy.
Kaku: Here was a machine that painlessly hit you with radiation, and, sure enough, the hair came out just as advertised.
This was instant beauty -- beauty in a box.
[ Knock at door .]
Come in.
Ida.
How are you? Simply fantastic.
It's changed my life, you know.
And all for just $739.
Small price to pay for the help of science.
Noble: But when things seem too good to be true, they usually are.
There's a price to pay for beauty [ Clatter .]
by the Geysers and their patients.
Just a few minutes, and the radio vibration from the ray of light will work its magic.
Noble: Albert and Frank Geyser have come up with an X-ray-based hair-removal system We look forward to working with you.
Congratulations.
which they have turned into a franchise.
Beauticians pay the Tricho corporation to use its name.
After just two weeks training, the beauticians can lease the X-ray machine for their own parlors.
Soon, there are Cornell tubes in over 75 American cities, radiating tens of thousands of women.
Herzig: The system was very easy to use.
The client would simply sit in front of the machine, the operator would flick on the switch.
After three or four minutes, the machine would turn off automatically.
Noble: Albert and Frank have made a fortune, but the beauties are about to bite back.
Dr.
Geyser Look.
Look what you have done to me! You swore this was safe, Dr.
Geyser.
Well, it isn't.
I'll see you in court.
[ Stammers.]
Miss Thomas.
Ida.
Ida Ida Thomas sues the Geysers for the $736 she spent on treatments plus $100,000 of damages -- over $1.
2 million in today's money.
She's just after our money.
This is ridiculous, right, pop? Yeah.
But Ida's lawsuit is just the tip of the iceberg.
Herzig: These cases were presenting themselves all over the country, and it usually started with pigmentation or depigmentation of the skin.
Finally, white dots would start appearing.
Those dots would sometimes then turn to ulcers, tumors, compound carcinomas.
One individual would go see her doctor.
That doctor might write to one health department.
But it took a very long time -- years and years -- for anyone to identify a larger pattern and to connect that pattern to X-ray hair-removal.
Noble: The Geysers' franchise system has spread radiation clinics all over the country.
It was like the wild west -- totally unregulated.
Beauticians were given as little as two-weeks training to use a machine that leaked enormous amounts of x-rays.
The beam was much too intense.
And as a consequence, untrained workers were giving lethal amounts of radiation to unsuspecting patients.
Pop Maybe, uh Look, are we absolutely certain it's not our tube doing this? Nein, nein, nein.
It is safe.
I have tested it and tested it.
Tens of thousands of women have used it.
I know, pop.
That's kind of what's worrying me.
If it were dangerous, we would have disfigured so many.
It cannot be so.
It is impossible.
I guess.
Sure.
I mean, 'cause, otherwise, the consequences would be, you know [Chuckles.]
Sure.
Herzig: These treatments caused a cascade of problems for the women who received them.
We now know that what was happening is the X-ray was mutating their DNA, the cellular level.
These were very, very serious injuries.
Noble: In 1929, the American Medical Association officially condemns the Cornell tube as highly dangerous to the patient, but back-street beauty parlors continue to sell the radiation treatments illegally.
Here, here, here.
The cops even busted one in Canada.
That's our system, our money! Not our problem, Frank.
They're operating underground.
There's nothing we can do.
It's over, son.
It's over.
The Tricho corporation goes bankrupt after a group of New York women mount a massive class action against it.
Thomas: You swore this was safe, Dr.
Geyser.
Albert and Frank disappear into obscurity.
Their patients are left to cope with the damage.