lily retweeted
Some people I've talked to wonder why Elizabeth Holmes wanted to be filmed in the days leading up to her incarceration. It's very clear to me what her goals were for the documentary: it's a calculated PR bet for Elizabeth to launder her reputation.
I understand why Nathan Fielder doesn't relitigate her case in the documentary. That story has been told. The case is literally closed. Elizabeth is serving jail time for defrauding investors. Her guilt is incontrovertible and not up for discussion.
However, the documentary introduces (and reintroduces) Elizabeth's story to audiences who are either unfamiliar with her lore or who don't have the details of the case top-of-mind.
Elizabeth knows that it's highly unlikely her conviction will be overturned. But she can change her perception in the court of public opinion. In the doc, Elizabeth achieves her goal of recasting her public image from the cold, calculating CEO to a tradwife-adjacent new mom who seems too socially unaware/oblivious/confused to have committed the crimes for which she is serving time. With her wide-eyed stare, rosy cheeks, and beatific smile, she even looks cherubic. AND she's running her old playbook of deploying her romantic partner in the role of unlikeable male enforcer (previously her ex-boyfriend/Theranos COO Sunny, now her husband Billy) as a reputational shield, garnering sympathy for herself.
Because Elizabeth is difficult to read, she keeps her positioning options open. She could position herself as a poster-child for the new right's idea of womanhood: soft, feminine, devoted to her babies, and aligned with Trump, MAHA, and Charlie Kirk. Or she could fall back on her old 2010's-coded mission-driven girlboss CEO persona who just wants to save the world. Having Billy operate her Twitter account sets him up to be a potential fall guy and gives her plausible deniability about the views expressed online in her name.
Don't let her soft beige sweaters and feigned perpetual confusion fool you. Elizabeth has always been extremely strategic around her public image, and this documentary is no exception.
