You Can See Everything Tests Elizabeth Holmes’s Image

By Tom Whitfield

Zillow estimated the rented Del Mar beach house where Elizabeth Holmes spent her last month of freedom at $9 million, as Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder filmed the three-hour documentary You Can See Everything.

Holmes, the fraudster sentenced to 11 years in prison for lies that once made her the richest self-made female billionaire in America, had invited Fielder and a documentary crew to live with her and her domestic partner, hotel heir Billy Evans. The access is exceptional; the explanation is not.

Fielder recently told Wired: “This is a question that we are still debating to this day.” His question was why Holmes invited the filmmakers into her home for the entire final month.

The film has drawn hordes of theatergoers, according to the source article, which supplies no box-office or attendance figures.

How the film builds sympathy

In the film, Fielder’s questions draw vague answers, unsettling facial expressions and repeated claims of innocence. Holmes insists that she has never told a lie in her life. She cries and rocks her baby, appearing bare-faced and casually dressed, without a red lip or black turtleneck.

Evans micromanages Holmes as she whisks eggs, misuses her public image once she is behind bars and brusquely intervenes when interviews do not follow his preferred direction. Together they occupy a modestly furnished two-bedroom home, while Fielder stays in an adjacent two-bedroom guesthouse.

The source finds the overall effect surprisingly sympathetic. That describes a constructed response to Holmes, not proof of her innocence.

The property trail

If the Del Mar rental was a calculated attempt to reset Holmes’s image, there was precedent. Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz recently pointed out: “She pulled this exact same move when Ken Auletta did a piece for The New Yorker on Elizabeth in 2014.” His claim sets up a pattern that the documentary leaves unresolved.

Direct beach access and an affluent postal address do not make the 1940s dwelling look luxurious. The source describes wood paneling, dated features, a rustic mood and widely relatable interiors. Zillow’s estimate measures property value, not the visible standard of living. Holmes and Evans had not rented the house for long before Fielder arrived.

Less than five months before filming began, the couple lived on the grounds of a much larger estate then listed for $135 million. September 2021 reports placed them in one of six houses at Green Gables Estate in Woodside, a well-heeled enclave outside San Francisco.

Green Gables covers 74 acres. Its main house is a historic English country-style mansion of more than 10,000 square feet, built for businessman Mortimer Fleishhacker. In 1911, Fleishhacker commissioned architect Charles Sumner Greene to design it.

• A tennis court and a 300-foot-long Roman-style pool.
• Three further normal-sized swimming pools.

Multiple reports put Holmes and Evans at Green Gables throughout her trial and through at least November 2022. Holmes received her sentencing on November 18. The Fleishhacker family sold the estate in 2025 for a reduced but still record-breaking $85 million.

By April 26, 2023, You Can See Everything had begun filming Holmes and her family in Del Mar, a San Diego suburb. On May 7, a New York Times profile disclosed the move and noted that the area was home to Evans’s family and their hotel empire.

The profile’s portrait was stark: “Elizabeth Holmes blends in with the other moms here.” It continued: “If you are in her presence, it is impossible not to believe her, not to be taken with her and be taken in by her.”

The 2014 contradiction

Ken Auletta’s 2014 New Yorker profile stated: “Her home is a two-bedroom condo in Palo Alto, and she lives an austere life.” Auletta added that Holmes “doesn’t date” and “doesn’t own a television.”

Those lines did not match Holmes’s actual home. In 2014, she lived in an Atherton mansion with Theranos executive Sunny Balwani, whom she was secretly dating. A court later convicted Balwani of fraud and sentenced him to nearly 13 years in prison.

The couple bought the French provincial-style house through a limited-liability company in 2013 for $9 million. It spans nearly 9,000 square feet and includes:

• Crystal chandeliers and staff quarters.
• Formal gardens, a guesthouse and a pool.
• A sprawling pavilion for outdoor entertaining.

Balwani bought out Holmes’s share in 2018 for $7.9 million, then sold the property in 2022 for $15.8 million.

What does the setting change for viewers?

It changes the way viewers judge Holmes’s account. The contrast among Del Mar, Green Gables and the Atherton mansion makes deliberate self-presentation a credible reading. But the source cites no lease, production record or testimony proving that Holmes selected the rental to reshape her image. For viewers, the practical change is interpretive: the film makes sympathy easier to grant while leaving motive unproved.

The beach house explains the film’s sympathy; it cannot settle the question of Holmes’s honesty.