Friday, February 18, 2022

What I’m Watching: Inventing Anna

Inventing Anna: Season 1, Episode 6 “Friends in Low Places” (B+)

I was wondering why it was that we hadn’t seen much of Rachel, played by Katie Lowes, who was a regular on “Scandal” and I had imagined would have a bigger part here (even though Joshua Malina’s role was small and we only first met Chris Lowell’s character in this episode). But, while this installment was technically about Kacy, played by the formidable Laverne Cox, its most compelling moments were when it turned into a horror movie and Anna couldn’t even be bothered to look up from her phone. We’ve seen before how Anna has expressed disgust at someone insisting on running her credit cards a second time, but this was a whole new level. Not even thanking Rachel for offering up her own credit card as collateral was much ruder than what she said she was going to be complaining about on Yelp, and it represents a total disconnect with reality. Everyone writing off the fact that international credit cards and banks are difficult is far too forgiving, since Anna is deliberately going on lavish trips and staying in hotels for weeks on end without any backup way of being able to pay for it. Hearing about all this and not seeing how Anna left Morocco after shamelessly charging everything to both of Rachel’s credit cards was almost more fitting than watching it happen would have been, since there’s still a part of it that just doesn’t seem real. The way that Anna pivoted to no longer wanting the money once it finally came through because she hadn’t figured they would actually send someone to Germany was unbelievable, and this is likely the beginning of her downfall as those who invested everything in her see that there’s nothing behind it. I am curious if we’ll ever hear from Rachel directly, since the ending of this episode seemed to suggest that would be next. I thoroughly enjoyed the opening scene where Vivian and Todd’s partners bonded over how obsessed they are with Anna and how they can’t be interrupted for even a second by anything else.

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