Friends in Low Places
In the beginning of this episode, Vivian and Jack meet Todd and Mags at dinner. As they look into Anna’s past, they realize that Rachel paid most of the expenses on the trip. But how did this happen? And why? Well, to find out we shift perspective again and this time turn to Kacy. Kacy is a little more open about what happened on the trip, but she still doesn’t know who paid for it. We see her side of things and learn more about why she did it.
Anna and Kacy head to Morocco for a workout. They bring along a videographer, Noah, to film everything. Anna decides to film everything after finding inspiration from a Khloe Kardashian video. Specifically they find the spots that she posted from and take selfies there too.
We get a series of massages, drinking, eating and general tomfoolery. That is, until Kacy ends up getting sick from the food. She’s the only one but believes this is a sign from the universe to protect her from what’s about to go down.
Kacy is at home when she gets a call from Anna, telling her that she was mugged and asking her for money for a plane ticket. Kacy even has the audacity to ask for it first class too.
With Kacy back in the US and spending quality time with her partner Anna, she keeps ringing, claiming it’s an emergency and needing help. She even asks to stay on Kacy’s couch too. Kacy refuses though, until she threatens to commit suicide. That obviously affects Kacy a lot but when her partner Martin finds out, he’s not exactly happy and ends up leaving.
We see Anna, including how she took advantage of her hospitality, berated the dress Kacy gave her, and drinks the last of her water. As Vivian listens to this whole story, she’s shocked and taken aback by this turn of events. And as we soon learn, that incident that was filmed in Morocco included security showing and demanding Anna pay up. Of course, she doesn’t have the funds and even refers to Morocco as a “dirty country.” Wow.
Rachel offers to cover Anna’s travel costs for the trip, after Anna’s shock at learning that Rachel was also going on the trip. Anna nonchalantly shrugs it off, deciding to leave a one-star review on Tripadvisor instead. ..
Rachel’s American Express card was declined on her recent trip to the gardens, leaving her stranded and in hot water. Anna, who was left on the periphery of all this, is now the one who is struggling to get through to American Express. ..
Meanwhile, Anna manages to get her loan through just in time, but she also needs an investigator sent over to search through and verify her assets. Of course, that’s not going to work and Noah senses something afoul, especially when he finds a drunk Anna batting balls in the tennis court and fumbling her story about the loan.
Rachel, a recent college graduate, is caught up in the financial crisis. She’s paid for all of this on her personal and work hard, but she’s not sure how to get her money wired in for “a few days.” Noah suggests she take his advice and leave. This puts her plight and why she won’t see Anna at Rikers into perspective.
Despite leaving, Anna stayed at the hotel for another week and in that time, maxed out Rachel’s personal card and charged her Amex to the grand sum of $62000. Wow. Of course, Neff has a different perspective on this and claims that Rachel offered up her card and was happy to splash out. So who’s telling the truth? In order to find out, Vivian leaves a flurry of voicemails for Rachel, trying to get through to her and learning her side of the story.
The Episode Review
Rachel finally comes clean to Anna, and the two share a tense conversation in which Anna is made out to be the liar. This conversation speaks volumes about the woman, as she is very arrogant and doesn’t seem to care about anyone but herself.
Anna is finally seeing the real story of what happened with her earlier quips about Anna being misunderstood. Vivian is sure that Anna will now be seen as a victim, and not as the scheming woman she was before.
This episode is still longer than it needs to be. There is a good 10-15 minute period here with Anna and co. flexing their financial muscles and showing how flashy they are with dinners and pampering. We’ve seen that a lot this season but here it just feels like padding in the season as a whole. ..
Despite the complaints, this felt like a much more consistent and driven episode than what we’ve seen. Hopefully that’s a sign of things to come for the remaining episodes. ..
