Note: This is a review of the first 3 episodes of The Dropout. This review contains spoilers.
The year is 2001. Young Elizabeth Holmes tells her family she doesn't want to be President, but a billionaire. She's already gotten into Stanford, where she'd study chemical engineering for nearly two years, only to drop out – with an idea that would supposedly change lives and would, in fact, make her the youngest female billionaire of her time, an idea that would quickly snowball into a massive medical fraud: Theranos.
The first three episodes of Hulu's The Dropout (available in India on Hotstar) offer a rather elaborate peek into the early life of Holmes, the founder and CEO of now-defunct medical company Theranos, her 'secret' relationship with the company's COO Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani, and her use of subterfuge to garner investments.
Holmes shot to success by falsely claiming that Theranos had developed a technology that would facilitate cheap, hassle-free blood tests, and in turn, revolutionise healthcare in the US. At its peak in 2015, the company was valued at $9 billion, and Homes' net worth at $4.5 billion. Soon, allegations of the 'groundbreaking' tech not working surfaced, and in 2018, she and Balwani were charged with 11 counts of fraud, of which she was found guilty of four in January this year (Balwani's trial is yet to begin).
Decoding the Fraudster
As I began watching the eight-episode miniseries, I wondered: why The Dropout, why not Theranos Scandal, like India's Scam 1992? Creator Elizabeth Meriwether, who has based the show off an ABC podcast of the same name, makes it clear – with extensive close-up shots of the infamous protagonist played brilliantly by Amanda Seyfried, minutes into the first episode – that the scandal is not the subject of the docudrama, but merely the object.
Over the last decade, Holmes' media appearances have been characterised as stoic and robotic, devoid of emotion – that of a real sociopath.
But Meriwether has brought to screen some intricate details of Holmes' life – her perseverance in a male-dominated world of entrepreneurship, her obsession with self-made billionaires of her time (read Steve Jobs), her emulation of their masculinity, her survival of rape, and her problematic relationship with Balwani – perhaps, to explore what it meant to be an ambitious woman in early 2000s, who appeared terrified of failure.
Whether, in reality, Holmes' personality traits were the work of a con artist is for experts to say. But Meriwether's depiction leans towards humanising the fraudster, physically and emotionally placing her in the circumstances that led to the downfall of Theranos.
'But You Are a Woman': Navigating a Male-Dominated Industry
It's 2002, and Elizabeth Holmes, a sophomore at Stanford who's way ahead of her peers, approaches Phyllis Gardner (Laurie Metcalf), Doctor of Medicine at the university, with an idea of a patch, a version of which would later go on to become Theranos' 'technology'. Gardner, however, shoots the idea down because it isn't feasible. Holmes appeals to her as a woman, to which Gardner says:
"Well, as a woman, let me explain something to you. You don't get to skip steps…And if you get anything wrong, they'll destroy you."
The reality of science, tech, and business being largely male-dominated fields was something that Holmes hadn't fully fathomed at the time. She was a woman with a plan – she wanted to invent a product that would "change lives" and start her own company that would make her a billionaire. She had it all figured out.
Though she manages to start the company and find investors after dropping out of Stanford, the cracks in her plan begin to show as the tech she believed in keeps failing. As the morale of the scientists working day and night for her vision takes a hit, Holmes tries to act tough, be a 'man'. You can’t be too beautiful, otherwise, they won’t take you seriously. You’ll need to start firing people, otherwise, they’ll disrespect you, she's told by Balwani.
On the other hand, Holmes, who's shown as someone who doesn't pay attention to appearances, is asked to dress 'like a CEO' by the company's designer Ana Arriola (Nicky Endres). 'I saw Mark Zuckerberg at a photoshoot wearing soccer sandals and flip-flops', says Holmes. 'But you are a woman. If you wear soccer sandals to work, everyone will think that you’re having a mental breakdown', Ana remarks.
As her web of lies grows larger, Holmes gradually begins emulating features of her male counterparts. Her Steve Jobs-like appearance and the conscious switch to a deep, baritone voice (which was speculated as fake by the media at the time) show her attempting to fit in and appear as 'trustworthy' as men.
Sunny Balwani – From Friend to 'Protector'
Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani, played by Indian-origin actor Naveen Andrews, was 37 when he first met 18-year-old Holmes in Beijing. Born to a Sindhi family in Pakistan, Balwani had migrated to India, 'because he’s Hindu'. He admits to Holmes that he later 'got the f*** out of there and moved to California'.
Meriwether's Balwani evokes a sense of uneasiness not just because of Andrews' powerful performance, but also because of how little we know of the self-made businessman – like why he goes by 'Sunny' and not 'Ramesh', and why the show has no mention of his first name. We see him through the eyes of Holmes, who finds a friend in him in the early days of their encounter, and he's gentle, protective, and even kind.
The show also locates Balwani as a brown man in the post 9/11 US, with multiple sequences of him being subjected to airport frisking and interrogation.
Holmes' and Balwani's relationship on screen is almost as good as any love story in the first two episodes of The Dropout. One even pities Balwani as Holmes tries to keep their relationship a secret, denying his existence as her boyfriend.
But that is until Holmes lets him in on her secret of Theranos' technology being fraudulent – Balwani then dons the role of her 'protector' and takes on the position of COO of Theranos, while simultaneously assuming control of her.
During Holmes' trial in 2021, she had accused Balwani of psychologically and sexually abusing her, criticising her work ethic, and constantly infantilising her.
Balwani, who dealt with the day-to-day operations of Theranos, had also reportedly 'terrorised' employees, according to The Washington Post journalist John Carreyrou, who broke the scandal. He would allegedly surveil them using security cameras, and apparently, had no idea about the details of the technology that Theranos worked on.
Interestingly, in The Dropout, Holmes isn't portrayed as a victim who lacks agency in her relationship with Balwani (so far).
At the end of episode 3, when Balwani hands over a glass of green juice (a sign of control) to Holmes who, by then, has fully adopted her Steve Jobs persona, she doesn't flinch; it almost appears as though she'd just handed him the key to 'controlling' her.
Though it's unclear whether making Balwani the COO of the company was just a means to a larger end for on-screen Holmes, from the way episode 3 wrapped up, his infamous reign of terror may soon be brought to the screen, shedding more light on what he was like as a person.
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