Bad Blood: The Final Chapter: Episode 3: Sunny and Elizabeth

September 2, 2021 6:02 PM

Elizabeth Holmes is likely to allege at trial that former Theranos President Sunny Balwani was an abusive boyfriend who held her in his thrall and deprived her of her free will. But text messages between the former lovers don't back up that narrative.
posted by bq (5 comments total)

Interesting choice to have the texts read by actors. It’s pretty clear that Carreyrou has a point of view - and that point of view is that Elizabeth Holmes is a lying weasel. It’s interesting that he’s repeating the word ‘Svengali’ while presenting this material that portrays her as a manipulator.
posted by bq at 6:15 PM on September 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Well yeah, when someone builds a billion dollar company on a complete scam, people, especially reporters who investigated said company, do tend to think of that person as lying weasel. To be clear, Svengali is referring to a type of defense that accuses Balwani of manipulating Holmes.
posted by rdr at 7:01 PM on September 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

I know! But who is the real Svengali here? Perhaps they were both equally weaselly. Partners in weasel-dom.

The texts seemed shockingly casual. Did these people not realize they were conducting a huge scam? How were they not more high-pitched? Did they just assume they would get away with it? And why in the world did people keep giving them hundreds of millions of dollars?
posted by bq at 7:27 PM on September 2, 2021

It’s pretty clear that Carreyrou has a point of view

I think Carreyrou can be forgiven a little schadenfreude considering the way he was treated:

The leaders of Theranos stood before their employees and surveyed the room. Then a chant erupted. “Fuck you . . .,” employees began yelling in unison, “Carreyrou.” It began to grow louder still. “Fuck you, Carreyrou!” Soon men and women in lab coats, and programmers in T-shirts and jeans, joined in. They were chanting with fervor: “Fuck you, Carreyrou!,” they cried out. “Fuck you, Carreyrou! Fuck. You. Carrey-rou!”

posted by verstegan at 8:29 AM on September 3, 2021 [3 favorites]

Without question she’s extremely ruthless. I’m wondering what else will come out. Will we get skulduggery like the eBay stalking scandal?
posted by bq at 11:05 AM on September 3, 2021