Episode 4 sees Walgreens bring a lab consultant with them to verify Theranos's authenticity before making a deal. What happened to Hunter in reality?

Warning: SPOILERS for The Dropout ahead!

The Dropout's Walgreens-employed lab consultant Kevin Hunter is regularly overruled when he asks to test Theranos’ technology’s authenticity, raising questions of what happened to the real Kevin Hunter and where he is now. The Dropout is an 8-episode miniseries from New Girl creator Elizabeth Meriwether, based on the podcast of the same name produced by ABC News. The Hulu limited series focuses on biotechnology entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes (played by Amanda Seyfried), who was convicted of criminal fraud in January 2022, and the fast rise and fall of her company, Theranos.

In The Dropout episodes 1 to 3, the truth almost catches up to Holmes and the board tries to remove her as CEO upon learning she has hidden things from them. She ends up being saved by her partner Sunny Balwani (Lost and Once Upon A Time’s Naveen Andrews) entering the company as COO. The Dropout episode 4 introduces a completely new challenge as, although Theranos’s product the Edison is nowhere near ready to be used in stores as the new plan envisages, Holmes and Balwani look for distribution to drugstores and grocery stores anyway, tricking executives from Walgreens and Safeway into believing they'll cut a deal with the other company. In The Dropout episode 4, titled “Old White Men,” the only character who seems to be able to see past Holmes and Balwani’s sketchy behavior is lab consultant Kevin Hunter (Rich Sommer), employed by Walgreens to verify the authenticity of Theranos’s claims.

As it turns out, Hunter’s role in the miniseries mirrors what happened in reality, as detailed by John Carreyrou’s nonfiction book on Theranos, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. Hunter collaborated with Carreyrou on his book to expose Theranos’ shady claims and dealings after Walgreens didn’t heed his warnings about the sketchiness surrounding Holmes’ company. Just as mentioned in Hulu’s The Dropout, Hunter’s industry has remained the same, and he's currently the President and CEO of Colaborate, a Florida-based laboratory management consulting firm.

While The Dropout episode 4 doesn’t say what happened to Hunter after the Walgreens deal was reached, Carreyrou’s book shines a light on that. In the show, Hunter is only seen opposing any suggestion Balwani or Holmes comes up with as he strongly believes their obsession with security and refusal to show him their lab hides some sketchiness. But the book Bad Blood explores more of Hunter’s role even after the deal between Theranos and Walgreens went through, and it reveals that Hunter continued to work with the innovation team, participating in field trips and being involved despite Balwani and Holmes often ending up getting their way.

Although there are still three episodes of the Amanda Seyfried-led The Dropout to be released, it doesn’t seem Hunter will make another appearance in the future. After all, Hunter is absent in episode 5, while Wade (Josh Pais) and Dr. Jay Rosan (Alan Ruck) still appear to handle Theranos’s wellness centers debuting in selected Walgreens stores. Still, whether or not Hunter will be back, The Dropout’s final episodes will surely deliver on the consequences of Holmes’ actions finally catching up to her, especially as episode 5 shows Holmes confident in her role despite everything collapsing.

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New episodes of the limited series The Dropout release Thursdays on Hulu.