This weekend, like any good terminally online people, my husband and I rushed to the theater to see Nathan Fielder’s A24 documentary, You Can See Everything. The film actually did not make me think much about Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes’ degree of guilt, or anything else in that milieu. But it did make me think about romantic relationships in general. More specifically: to what degree are people in “toxic” relationships—the kinds where all their friends think they need to be saved—actually exactly where they want to be?
I recently wrote about sex and relationships that can be consensual but still harmful if they involve manipulation or deceit. But what if someone has, for lack of a better term, consented to being manipulated? What if what looks toxic and controlling, or disrespectful and degrading to one person is another person’s bizarre ideal? And if someone’s ideal is deeply unhealthy, but they’ve chosen it with full knowledge of what it entails, how unhealthy is it really?
Anyone who has seen the previews or advertisements for *You Can See Everything *knows that the film follows the month-long period before Elizabeth Holmes goes to prison, but it wasn’t until I actually saw the film that I realized the most interesting content actually occurs more than halfway through the film, after Holmes is in prison, courtesy of the primary antagonist of the movie: Elizabeth’s fiance and business partner Billy Evans.
At this point, I should warn you that major spoilers abound, so be aware!
Billy Evans follows what I would call the *Lifetime movie husband plot arc (perhaps * The Housemaid is a better comp, actually.) Initially, Billy seems too good to be true for someone with as much baggage as Elizabeth Holmes. He’s impossibly tall, handsome and Chadly, with an absolutely massive hog, which we’re all shown in what can only be described as the first Nathan Fielder jump scare. Nathan even questions him about why
But then we’re shown a bunch of cracks in his foundation which have us nodding and saying, “Oh, okay.”
The first sign that something is up with Billy is when he snatches a bowl of scrambled eggs from Elizabeth’s hands and quietly admonishes her for not whisking “vigorously” enough. While he showers her with love and attention throughout the movie, things increasingly seem off. He takes a paternalistic attitude toward her, speaking for her, explaining her own comments and thoughts, and declaring that she “just thinks differently” and isn’t physically capable of understanding sarcasm or lying. He frequently talks about her like a developmentally disabled child. He abruptly shuts down interviews, often reminding Elizabeth that there’s something else she needs to be doing. At one point, he even pulls this trick with Elizabeth’s dad, who immediately capitulates to him and stops speaking. Billy’s behavior screams, at best, “has something to hide,” and at worst, “first wife’s body is in the freezer.”
And yet, all we see and hear from Elizabeth herself is how happy she is with him, how special their love is, and how crazy about each other they are.
