Is Believed – As the fourth episode of Painkiller begins, Shannon Schaeffer (West Duchovny) gets into an elevator and learns that other girls have been summoned to Connecticut too. Vice President and chief counsel of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, Howard Udell (Brian Markinson), thanks them for coming on short notice. Howard reveals they’re there because they’re the newest members of their Elite Toppers Club. They’re the 10 best performing sales reps in the country. Howard says they’ll receive a substantial bonus, a title promotion, and they’ll be responsible for recruiting the next generation of sales reps.
Howard keeps Shannon behind to personally congratulate her. If she has concerns in the future, she should call them. Later, Shannon asks Britt Hufford (Dina Shihabi) why they made her a topper. Shannon believes it is because of that girl and Cooper, but Britt insists that isn’t their issue. Britt urges her not to look back. In Blacksburg, Virginia in 2000, a police officer watches Kenny (Scott Wickware) pick up people in a van. Sheriff Baker (Anthony Jhade) talks to others about the drug abusers he has arrested. Edie Flowers (Uzo Aduba) explains that drug dealers were sending homeless addicts into clinics to get prescriptions.
Then, they’d drive them to pharmacies to get them filled. Scoop gets his prescription before getting back in the van. Edie says it was a new dope economy with all the chaos that came with it. Sheriff Wayne (Billy Smith) and Sheriff Dickerson (Anthony Gerbrandt) move in on the fan Kenny is driving. After a short pursuit, the white van ends up wrecking and getting hit by a bigger truck. The Sheriffs tell John Brownlee (Tyler Ritter) that they need help. He insists they’re going to do something about it. After that, John asks what laws Purdue is breaking because he can’t do his job without a crime.
Edie makes it clear she won’t stop going after those Purdue Malibu Barbies. She tells John about her brother who is locked up and her mother who was turned into a vegetable because of crack. However, those Barbies are out there being rewarded for doing the same thing her brother did. John again says they need to find a crime. Arthur Sackler (Clark Gregg) reads the news stories about OxyContin deaths to Richard Sackler (Matthew Broderick). Arthur suggests attacking the demand and the lowlife abusers. Edie reveals that the first attorney to move was Jay McCloskey of Maine.
Richard speaks to his team about their response. Michael Friedman (John Murphy) suggests putting out a press release while another recommends buying AA. Richard wants to back law enforcement so he asks Howard to tell McCloskey he has their full support. He insists the junkies are victimizers instead of victims. Glen Kryger (Taylor Kitsch) takes an Oxy before he is joined by Lily (Carolina Bartczak) and the kids. At work, Lily deals with something on the phone. Glen takes his daughter outside to look for his glasses. He ends up taking another pill before returning with the glasses. In the middle of the night, Glen gets up and goes to his vehicle to get pills.
Tyler (Jack Mulhern) catches him doing it. Britt takes Shannon shopping for cars. Shannon gets a car and a flat. She begins looking for recruits and comes across Molly Dover (Maddy Hillis). Glen tries to work on a vehicle, but he is out of it and can’t focus. The car ends up falling off the jack although it doesn’t hit anyone. Lily rushes into the room to find out what happened. Tyler tells her that he is sneaking out in the middle of the night to take pills. Lily gets upset and questions why Tyler didn’t tell her the mom he saw Glen do it. She blames Tyler for Glen’s condition and tells him to get out. Dr. Tim Cooper (Johnny Sneed) calls Shannon because protestors are throwing stuff at his office.
He questions what Purdue is going to do. Shannon insists she’ll take care of it. Richard instructs Howard Udell to hammer on the abusers and Howard does when speaking to the press. Shannon sits down with Tim Cooper as they begin blaming the daughter for being a junkie. Shannon wants to get him out there in front of other doctors because she thinks he is inspiring. Edie argues that Purdue will do whatever it must to protect its golden goose so they blamed the users. Howard says it was their understanding that Ms. Brewster had multiple drugs in her system. As a result, they can’t say whether it is related to OxyContin or Brewster’s history of ongoing, illegal drug abuse.
Dr. Fitzgibbons tells Edie that he delivered the daughter. Edie tells Brianna that Dr. Fitzgibbons had only prescribed OxyContin twice. He shows Edie every article and letter he sent to Purdue in 1998. Fitzgibbons shows her a video of the claim that OxyContin has an addiction rate of less than one percent. Edie knows Purdue claims it is from a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. When he shows it to her, Edie finds out that it is only a letter to the editor. She speaks to Dr. Hershel Jick who wrote the letter. He is surprised to learn that his letter is all over Purdue’s training materials.
Hershel questions how the FDA allowed them to get away with misrepresenting his letter. Edie learns about Curtis Wright. Tim Cooper speaks on behalf of OxyContin and says it can be a true path to freedom. Later, he admits to Shannon that the speaking fee makes him believe in it even more. Tim gives her a gift and tries to seduce her. Edie says Purdue’s walls were caving in. Richard Sackler learns that they’re being asked to testify before Congress. He doesn’t want to do it and says they need to put up a firewall between the name and the product. An upset Mortimer walks out of the room. Richard chooses three people to testify including Howard Udell.
Glen tells Lily that he can go over to Jack’s place to try to smooth things over with Tyler. She insists he needs to get off the pills. Glen knows it is his fault and he’ll do what he can to make it right. As Glen drives to Jack’s house, he takes another pill and seems to get groggy. Once he arrives, Jack (Kip Weeks) doesn’t want him to take Tyler because he is high. Tyler yells for him to go home. Jack urges him to go home and clean up. Glen leaves without Tyler. When Richard picks up Howard, he tells him that his kid got beat up by three others. The kids said his father was a murderer and sold poison to people. After that, Michael Friedman, Howard Udell, and Paul Goldenheim appear before Congress.
Richard watches the hearing on television. Glen attempts to get the scraps from his pills. He stops his truck to search for pills. Molly watches the hearing with Britt and Shannon. Glen buys OxyContin from a dealer while Lily leaves him a message to see if Tyler is with him. Glen snorts the pill in his truck. Lily tells him not to come back home in a voicemail message. During the hearing, Howard insists they only knew about OxyContin being used intravenously and snorted after Jay McCloskey reported it. Edie thinks she can prove that was a lie. Howard says Purdue had no prior knowledge of what was happening up in Maine or anywhere else in the United States.
Edie tells John Brownlee that Dr. Fitzgibbons had been writing to Purdue telling them about abuses years before McCloskey ever opened his mouth. Edie says they had them so bad.
Painkiller Review
If Painkiller is doing anything successfully, it is effectively showing viewers how reps pushed doctors to sell OxyContin while using bogus claims. The only issue with that is that the show is somewhat sugarcoating what offending doctors did by making it look like they were naïve and negligent. It is trying to cover so much without focusing on anything long enough for it to genuinely develop.
Glen’s story could be more emotionally effective if more time was dedicated to it. It is hard to imagine that the real sales representatives were as juvenile as Painkiller makes them out to be. Otherwise, they would’ve never pulled the wool over so many eyes. Truthfully, most of the characters are portrayed like this without any sense of reality.
The creators have made so many weird decisions that they’ve watered down the story to the point that it isn’t even believable sometimes. If there is a glimmer of light among the mess, it’d have to be the scenes featuring Glen Kryger and his family. Even then, those scenes could’ve been more effective. The episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Painkiller are available on Reel Mockery here.
Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
