Lessons in Chemistry’s Double-Episode Premiere Cooks Up a Shocking Death — Plus, Grade It!
The second episode of Lessons in Chemistry‘s double-episode premiere was brutal — even for fans of the book who saw it coming.
The Apple TV+ series, based on the 2022 novel by Bonnie Garmus, kicked off on Friday by making us fall in love with the science community’s newest power couple before tearing our hearts out and running them over with an oversized vehicle.
During the two-episode premiere set in the 1950s, we follow lab tech Elizabeth Zott (played by Academy Award winner Brie Larson) as she falls in love with world-famous chemist Dr. Calvin Evans (Outer Range’s Lewis Pullman). But just after the couple’s romance and work partnership finally get going, Calvin is hit by a high-speed bus.
The George O’Malley-like manner of Calvin’s death is alarming on its own — much more dramatic than the book’s parking lot fall — but his demise is all the more heartbreaking because we know it will change the entire trajectory of Elizabeth’s life.
Why? Let’s back up a bit.
Elizabeth works at Hastings Research Institute as a lab tech, where Calvin is a notable scientist. When Elizabeth steals Calvin’s lab supplies to conduct personal research after hours, the pair become entangled in a brief will-they-won’t-they romantic and professional saga. (Spoiler alert: They will!)
It’s obvious why Calvin is interested in Elizabeth — she’s a motivated, intelligent and fearless woman who uses basic chemistry to make a near-perfect lasagna. But what does Elizabeth see in Calvin? When he catches her stealing his supplies, he assumes she’s a secretary; he throws up all over her at the Little Miss Hastings company pageant; he’s completely naive to the injustices of sexism. That a woman as qualified as Elizabeth — someone who nearly got her PhD in chemistry before being sexually assaulted by a superior and subsequently leaving her program — has to explain patriarchy to a man as educated and powerful as Calvin is arguably more painful to watch than him kicking the bucket. But as a woman working in STEM in 1950s Southern California, she’s used to it. Her main work responsibilities include fetching coffee and waiting on chemists who call her “sweetheart.”
Despite Calvin’s gross ignorance and Elizabeth’s disinterest in marriage, family, and practically anything that doesn’t pertain to science, she falls for him after they bond over their interest in abiogenesis — the theory that life arose from nonliving matter.
Their love is the all-consuming kind that’s sort of sweet but also sort of annoying, causing those on the periphery to take umbrage. (Yes, umbrage!) First, Calvin totally screws over his neighbor Harriet Sloane (How to Get Away With Murder‘s Aja Naomi King). She’s a young Black lawyer — not the middle-aged woman with an abusive husband from the book — who is trying to save their predominantly Black neighborhood from highway construction. Calvin promises to attend a city council meeting with Harriet since she says showing the city that a white man cares about the cause is crucial, but he’s too distracted by work and Elizabeth to remember to show up.
After a few brief bumps in the road, Elizabeth and Calvin find their romantic footing. They spend Christmas together and he invites her to move in with him. Elizabeth gifts Calvin a leash so her dog can keep him company on his jogs.
And their romance only fuels scientific discovery. In Episode 2, with Elizabeth as lead author, the pair present their research on abiogenesis to Hastings higher-ups in hopes of being selected to submit for a prestigious grant. Unfortunately, the sexism that Calvin has only just learned about rears its head as their work is dismissed as the “specious theories” of a “pretty lab tech.” Elizabeth offers to take her name off their work in hopes of allowing it to continue, but Calvin refuses. He declares that they will submit their research for the grant without the backing of Hastings.
But he never gets the chance. He goes for a run with Elizabeth’s dog. At one point, the dog doesn’t want to cross the road. Calvin gives the leash a tug and with his back to traffic the bus comes roaring through. He didn’t see it coming.
Elizabeth hasn’t learned the news yet. Calvin’s death will hit her hard enough and we know as a meticulous chemist she’ll be caught up in the details — her dog, her leash. In the wake of such tragedy, will her scientific aspirations survive?
Were you shocked by Calvin’s demise in Episode 2, and will you keep watching Lessons in Chemistry? Grade the episodes in our poll, then let us know in the comments!
