The Devil Wore Anna
In Episode 2 of Inventing Anna, Vivian interviews Anna in prison. She discusses Anna’s personality and how she plans to speak to Val and get a more complete understanding of her. ..
Anna interrupts the conversation to say that she has to go, but Val tells her he will see her later. Vivian then leaves, and Anna turns to Anna, revealing that she knows about the kiss between Val and Vivian.
Anna knew what she was doing when she approached Chase and managed to capture his attention right away. Unfortunately, the plot thickens from there.
Vivian heads back to the office and catches up with her makeshift team, who piece together a timeline of Anna’s actions. In 2011, she attended a fashion program in Central Saint Martins, London. Then she head to Paris. In 2013, she seems to have become Delvey but the records are hazy. It’s here that Anna also met Val and it seems the pair have a connection to Acme Bar given they both have the same photo of it on their social feeds. ..
The team finds a chess set posted by both Chase and Anna. From here, their feeds are perfectly synced. With Chase having a constant flurry of “new money” coming in, given he did shows all over the place, Anna played her part well as his partner and lived up the lavish lifestyle. However, their feed went dead in 2016.
Val also brings up Anna’s friendship with Nora Radford, the middle-aged lady we saw last episode. Not only that, she also seems to have ties with a woman named Talia Mallay, which Anna needs the funds from Paul authorized for to go and meet her. Paul refuses initially, but Vivian eventually manages to twist his hand and he agrees.
Jack drops Vivian off at the front door of her house. Talia is incredibly rich, but she’s also a go-getter. She’s made her own money since branching out from her parents, admitting that she didn’t even turn on an oven until she was 25 years old. It’s a nice way of understanding Talia’s personality, given she initially presents herself as a rich girl with everything handed to her on a plate. I mean, hat is technically still true, but she’s at least trying to make a name for herself.
As they sit down and talk, Talia gushes over Anna’s tenacity and her knowledge in art. They first met at a gallery, with Anna admitting that her father will buy everything for her. This rubs Talia up the wrong way as she admits that earning it beats inheriting it any day of the week.
Anna and Chase’s opposing views sync when they find common ground on a photo, eventually leading to Anna and Chase meeting Talia on a yacht in Ibiza. Part of this comes from a guy called Henrick, whom Chase sees as a prominent businessman that could help get a foot in the door. ..
Anna’s pitch to Chase is convincing. She uses a story about Facebook, the telephone and the impending presence of death to convince him that he should consider moving to her city.
Anna outstays her welcome and stays on the boat for a week longer than everyone else, stealing a living. Talia is convinced that this is Chase’s doing, but that incident is the last time they actually spoke. ..
Rachel and Kacy refuse to see Anna at Rikers Island because the person in prison is not Anna Delvey and a con-artist.
Meanwhile, Talia finishes her story and offers Vivian the chance to stay the night, It’s a million miles away from her apartment, and Jack stays with her. They even have a guestroom with heated floors too.
After catching up with Val again, Vivian learns that he’s been seeing Anna. She’s not happy about it, but she stays with him because she loves him. After their argument, Chase breaks up with Vivian and Anna stays with Val.
In the morning, Chase rings and urges him to check her passport, believing Anna is lying about who she is. Val refuses but when there’s an issue at the hotel with Anna’s cards, she claims it’s her father that’s cut her off completely.
This is a big manipulation by Chase, and eventually he shows up and pays. As Val picks up his luggage, he checks Anna’s passport and notices it reads Sorokin rather than Delvey. Val encourages Chase to try and help but this revelation causes him to spin out.
Chase decides to live a lie instead of face the truth about his relationship with Val. He confronted Val about her name on the balcony overlooking the Eiffel Tower, but she was able to prove that she is actually Chase’s girlfriend.
Anna tells the story of her journey to become a top-level artist, starting with her efforts to create art studios in New York City. However, she can’t be questioned about how to get there. Her tenacity sees Chase stand by her side, as they both decide to conspire together and blame Val.
Vivian visits Anna once more at Rikers, telling her that Chase needs to talk to her. ..
The Episode Review
The second episode of Inventing Anna focused on the past and how Anna and Chase managed to work together and twist the hand of the social hierarchy. It appears they’re both in this together now and it explains away why Chase decided to blame Val. It is, however, a little questionable how much blame is being placed on Chase here rather than Anna but we’ll have to wait and see how this story plays out. ..
The story is well-told, with a good mix of flashbacks and main characters. The dynamic between Anna and her friends is interesting to watch, and the story will be interesting to follow later on.
In the first episode of Inventing Anna, the show left things wide open for the rest of the season. This episode continued that trend by focusing on Anna’s invention, which is still in its early stages. ..
