What, exactly, is Elizabeth Holmes’s angle here? It is one of many questions raised in You Can See Everything, the three-hour documentary directed by Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder that has drawn hordes of theatergoers, leaving answers frustratingly elusive. Why did Holmes, the convicted fraudster sentenced to 11 years in prison for the bald-faced lies that once made her the richest self-made female billionaire in America, invite Fielder and a documentary crew to live with her at a rented beach house near San Diego for the entirety of her last month of freedom? “This is a question that we are still debating to this day,” the comedian recently told Wired.
Throughout the film, Fielder’s persistent questions are met by Holmes with vague responses, unsettling facial expressions, and a steadfast insistence on her total innocence—naivety, even—including the astonishing claim that she has never, in her life, told a lie. In many of these scenes, the Theranos founder cries or rocks her baby with a bare face and casual garb, entirely devoid of the signature red lipstick and black turtlenecks that once defined her public persona. Beside her is her domestic partner, hotel heir Billy Evans, who micromanages Holmes as she whisks eggs, attempts to manage her public image from behind bars, and brusquely intervenes when onscreen interviews veer away from his preferred direction.
All the while, the trio mills about a modestly furnished two-bedroom home in Del Mar, California, while an adjacent two-bedroom guesthouse hosts Fielder. The overall effect is striking, rendering Holmes surprisingly sympathetic to viewers who witness these intimate, domestic moments.
If you look past its direct beach access and affluent zip code—where Zillow estimates the simple house is worth $9 million—the 1940s dwelling is surprisingly unassuming. Wood-paneled and a bit outdated, it could easily be described as rustic, featuring interiors that are widely relatable to the average American family. However, Holmes and Evans had not been renting the home for long before Fielder and his cameras showed up. Less than five months before filming began, they lived on the sprawling grounds of a massive Silicon Valley estate that was then listed for an eye-watering $135 million.
In September 2021, public reports revealed that the couple had moved into a house situated on the historic Green Gables Estate in Woodside, a well-heeled enclave just outside of San Francisco. They resided in one of six secondary houses that share the massive 74-acre property with the main structure: a historic English country-style mansion spanning over 10,000 square feet. The estate was originally commissioned in 1911 by wealthy businessman Mortimer Fleishhacker, who hired renowned architect Charles Sumner Greene to bring the architectural vision to life. A tennis court, a 300-foot-long Roman-style swimming pool, and three additional conventional swimming pools dot the expansive property.
Holmes and Evans stayed comfortably ensconced within this elite environment throughout the duration of Holmes’s high-profile trial, remaining there at least until November 2022, according to multiple news reports. On November 18 of that year, she finally received her 11-year prison sentencing. The Fleishhacker family eventually sold the iconic Green Gables estate in 2025 for a discounted yet still record-breaking $85 million.
By April 26, 2023, production on You Can See Everything had officially begun, capturing Holmes and her family at their rented beach house in Del Mar, a quiet suburb of San Diego. Just weeks later, on May 7, a profile published by The New York Times alerted the public to their relocation to Southern California, where Evans’s family and their extensive hotel empire are deeply rooted. “Elizabeth Holmes blends in with the other moms here,” the article observed. “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.”
If renting that cozy, unassuming beach cottage was a calculated choice by Holmes to meticulously shape her public image, it would not be the first time she deployed real estate as a theatrical prop in her narrative rehabilitation. “She pulled this exact same move when Ken Auletta did a piece for The New Yorker on Elizabeth in 2014,” Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz recently pointed out. In that landmark profile, Auletta wrote, “Her home is a two-bedroom condo in Palo Alto, and she lives an austere life,” adding that Holmes “doesn’t date” and “doesn’t own a television.”
The reality behind the scenes was vastly different. At the exact time that profile was being constructed, Holmes was actually living in a lavish mansion in tony Atherton, California, alongside Theranos executive Sunny Balwani. The pair were secretly romantically involved, a relationship that remained hidden while Balwani managed the operational side of the fraudulent blood-testing startup. Balwani was later convicted of multiple counts of fraud and sentenced to nearly 13 years in federal prison. Court records show the couple jointly purchased the French provincial-style house in 2013 under a private LLC for $9 million. Spanning nearly 9,000 square feet, the luxury compound featured sparkling crystal chandeliers, dedicated staff quarters, formal English gardens, a separate guesthouse, a swimming pool, and a sprawling outdoor pavilion designed for grand entertaining. Balwani eventually bought out Holmes’s ownership stake in the property in 2018 for $7.9 million before selling the entire estate in 2022 for $15.8 million.
Whatever narrative Holmes ultimately hoped would emerge from the documentary You Can See Everything, it appears she was once again attempting to rewrite her character from the ground up—a feat that she may have successfully accomplished, at least in part, by carefully constructing her domestic setting for the cameras.
