What Is Linda Tanner's Tie to Theranos in 'The Dropout'?

May 2024 · 3 minute read

Linda Tanner is a part of the in-house criminal group for Theranos in the Hulu series 'The Dropout.' But was Linda a real legal professional? Here's what we know

Katherine Stinson - Author

Spoiler alert: The following article incorporates spoilers for Hulu's The Dropout.

Any lawyer representing Theranos would have had to be difficult as nails to handle the company's legal issues. In the Hulu sequence The Dropout, attorney Linda Tanner (Michaela Watkins) is a part of Theranos's in-house prison staff, and she or he by chance performs a role in the death of chemist Ian Gibbons (Stephen Fry).

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In Episode 5, "Flower of Life," Ian panics when he's served a subpoena to testify in the continuing lawsuit between Elizabeth Holmes and her outdated good friend/neighbor Richard Fuisz (William H. Macy). Richard had noticed that Ian's name was once on a lot of the Theranos patents, therefore why he served Ian with the subpoena.

Linda devises a strategy to get Ian out of attesting, and unfortunately, it ends in tragedy.

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Was Linda Tanner a real-life Theranos attorney?

Based on the ABC News podcast upon which The Dropout is primarily based, Linda Tanner used to be now not a attorney for Theranos in real life. In the sequence, Linda is more of a composite of quite a lot of prison group contributors that Theranos labored with over time.

Michaela Watkins, the actress who plays the legal professional, told Comic Book Resources that she used to be "fascinated" through Linda Tanner, explaining that she thinks Linda believes "that the people [she] work[s] for and the people that [she] think[s] are impressive are as great as [she] want[s] them to be."

"I think that Linda Tanner is all-in on Elizabeth Holmes," the actress persevered. "I think also [that] my character really wanted to believe that she [was] on a winning team."

Michaela also noted that the awe her personality felt toward Elizabeth Holmes parallels the awe she herself feels while gazing Amanda Seyfried embody the role of the disgraced Theranos founder.

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"[Amanda's] portrayal is so real that I got goosebumps all the time. Like I genuinely had a hard time being like, there's Michaela, who is just so impressed by Amanda, and then there's Linda Tanner, who's so impressed by Elizabeth Holmes. The two were happening at the same time," the actress stated.

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Linda is the closing individual to have interaction with Elizabeth in 'The Dropout' Season 1 finale.

Linda is positively gobsmacked by Elizabeth's cavalier attitude after her corporate in the end tanks. Elizabeth tells her she has a boyfriend and reputedly feels no regret for the truth that she's caused ache for such a lot of other folks.

At that point, it dawns on Linda that individuals might be hesitant to rent her as a result of she's labored for Theranos. "You hurt people!" she says to Elizabeth, who mainly runs away like a kid, going as far as to put in earplugs.

In the similar CBR interview, Michaela famous that the self-delusion that saved Theranos working and legally protected (up till it wasn't) used to be virtually darkly comical — "not that destroying people's lives is funny," she mentioned. "I don't mean that. I mean the mental gymnastics that my character has to do to make it OK to do it, and then find out that you're morally reprehensible — I think that is what's humorous, in like a Chekhov way."

All eight episodes of The Dropout are actually streaming on Hulu.

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