Inventing Anna – Season 1 Episode 4 “A Wolf In Chic Clothing” Recap & Review

A Wolf In Chic Clothing

Episode 4 of Inventing Anna begins in the past with Anna buying her building to hold the Anna Delvey Foundation. She wants it to be the exclusive it place for anyone who’s anyone in this world. She discusses at length about three restaurants, hotel rooms and even exclusive rooms too. The lease is $4 million a year but she’s going to need about $40 million in order to get this up off the ground.

Anna’s dream team is up and running, but in order to finance this lot, Anna heads off to see a guy called Alan Reed. She first met him in his office, pitching her Foundation to him and mentioning how it’s to be an exclusive club, giving her guests more than they had previously. Alan immediately brings up the volatile market, along with her KPIs and research. With no professional experience or capital, Alan rejects her claim.

When Anna talks to Vivian about why she was rejected, Anna tells Vivian that this is because she’s a woman. It’s not, obviously, but it’s enough to hook Vivian in. As she continues searching around, Vivian learns how Anna managed to convince those in business. Specifically, Anna starts to look the part, complete with glasses and a suit jacket. She even shows up at Alan’s office, indirectly threatening his daughter and using her as leverage.

This crazy play is what gets Anna’s foot in the door, specifically through talking to someone in Germany called Peter Henneke who happens to be in charge of Anna’s trust fund. To seal the deal, she invites Alan along to see how ADF operate and meet those influential people first-hand. All of this is, of course, a play to make him think she’s legit.

In the morning, Peter agrees to send over her trust in the morning, confirming she has around 65 million dollars. Believing it’s a sure-fire thing, Alan signs the box that confirms Anna is able to pay. It’s a completely ill-informed decision, and one that obviously comes back to bite him.

The thing is, for Alan this is all about money and with his services estimated to be an eye-watering $2000 an hour, it’s more surprising that he managed to clock up 200 hours for Anna without once being paid for it – much less with a retainer in place. The thing is, even Todd isn’t being paid by Anna either.

As Anna’s records begin to roll in, Vivian heads to work and is bombarded by her team. They’ve discovered that Anna actually chartered a $35000 private plane to take her to Omaha. But she didn’t pay for it – she stole it to go and see Warren Buffet’s conference. And she did that by texting a guy called Ron, who’s actually the CEO, allowing her to fly without any cash. A ballsy move for sure but according to Ron, that’s because she looked the part and seemed to be good for the money.

Unfortunately, Anna also manages to twist Alan around her finger and convinces him to be on her board of directors, forcing his hand to help with her finances. Alan does just that and manages to oversee her loan of $200k.

As Vivian and co. continue to do some digging, it turns out Peter Hennecke was actually just Anna with a voice distorter, using a virtual SIM to pretend she’s from Germany. This fraud leaves Alan in a difficult position but he falls upwards, managing to get himself a promotion. Vivian obviously jumps all over that, bemoaning how there are zero consequences for these men… while watching a broadcast of Donald Trump. Of course.

The Episode Review

This episode turns the attention around the Alan and specifically how Anna managed to con him into working with her. From harassment to looking the part, through to a big, elaborate scheme to convince him to play ball, the whole scheme sees Alan’s world come crashing down around him. Or, well, it would if he wasn’t promoted. How or why though is still unknown at this point.

It does give Anna ammunition to use against “the man” though, rather than calling out Anna for defrauding the entire system and stealing. I wonder if she’d have the same reaction if someone had committed benefit fraud? Vivian’s rhetoric is anything but balanced, and even after everything she’s learned, she’s still rooting for the ol’ con artist. Better make sure she doesn’t watch Tinder Swindler, I’m sure Vivian would be rooting for the con artist there too!

In all seriousness though, the midway point of this series serves as an interesting point in time as we know a lot about Anna’s ascent to the top. we’ll have to wait and see how that works with her downfall and if it’s as enjoyable as her ascent. We shall see.