Dangerously Close
Episode 9 of Inventing Anna begins this finale with Todd visiting Anna and prepping her for the court case ahead. All of this is going to be decided on by a jury so Todd gives her instructions to tricking them into believing she wasn’t even close to receiving her money. While Anna sorts out a stylist to work on her hair, she rings Todd’s secretary and tells him to pass on a message. Specifically, to talk to Anna’s father and wire 10k to cover the costs. Anna isn’t happy with her clothes and forces Todd to head off and go shopping to pick up items that are closer to her liking. Vivian senses an opportunity and promises to do this for him in exchange for discovering everything about the case.
How does the case start?
Finally Anna gets dressed and Todd gives his opening statement, pointing out that Adam wasn’t close to receiving loans or money. The court case soon turns into a big fashion drive, with Anna getting dressed in various different outfits over the days but completely brushing over the real crux of the issue here. Kacy and Rachel aren’t exactly pleased with Neff, given her social media pictures and posts have turned Anna into some sort of icon like Rihanna. Rachel however, is worried about testifying but eventually she stands up and talks passionately about how Anna betrayed her trust and destroyed her confidence.
What happens with Rachel in court?
The next day, Anna ends up having wardrobe malfunction. Todd has had enough. He gives an impassioned speech against Anna and her constant BS, telling her she’s an awful con-artist and managing to get through to her. Todd plays Anna’s game and admits he’ll keep fighting because he’s doing it for himself. However, she needs to play ball and that includes Todd defending her honour and not exposing her as the fraud that she is. So next up, Todd grills Rachel and exposes her for being responsible for the sting operation. This forces Kacy to leave in the middle of court. Of course, all of this was done to expose Anna and as she and Kacy argue, thy miss the real point of all this – Anna never intended to pay back Rachel and threw her under the bus. Sure, American Express managed to sort out the charges but only AFTER Rachel exposed Anna as the scam artist. Anyway, Kacy soon leaves and bemoans Rachel for turning on her friend.
Was Anna Delvey found guilty?
After some drama involving Todd and Margaret along with Jack and Vivian (the latter is all about Vivian not being there for her daughter and it’s quite credible) we return to the courtroom for the closing arguments. Todd’s takes an interesting turn, distorting this across to blaming the bankers and betraying Anna, claiming her ideas were all a big pipe-dream rather than genuine. It’s the only way to try and get her out of prison but Anna is shell shocked and doesn’t know what to say or do. Finally we arrive at the grand finale, and a flurry of guilty verdicts come in. Now, it’s worth noting here that City National is classed as “not guilty”, which gains a bunch of whoops and cheers at Vivian’s workplace. Brilliant bit of impartiality there guys. The other not guilty comes from Rachel Williams. After beating two of Anna’s biggest charges, Todd decides to skip out on Margaret and returns to Anna’s side. He also chooses to ring Anna’s father as well to let him know.
Why is Vivian not happy after the case?
Meanwhile, Vivian returns to work where Paul and Landon are gushing over how well the article is doing online. For Vivian though, she’s still hung up on the white dress Anna was wearing in court. It’s hers, from her own wardrobe, but she’s spinning out. Vivian admits that she cares about Anna and got emotionally invested. She’s encouraged to move on to the next job but she’s not sure how The sentencing comes in and Anna is put behind bars for 12 years. (Or 4-12 according to optimistic Todd.) Vivian is not happy. In fact, she calls her a “middle-aged woman whose life will be stolen from her.”
How does Inventing Anna end?
Anna is moved to Bedford while Vivian visits one more time to say goodbye. As Anna is taken back into her cell, we jump to see what our various characters are up to now, including how Todd Spodek has become the defender of choice fort prominent fraudsters. Kacy has cut out “pain in the ass” clients, Neff is pursuing her film career while Rachel released her book to much acclaim. Meanwhile, Vivian Kent’s character was inspired by a real life reporter called Jessica Pressler. She worked as a correspondent for Vanity Fair and completed her book titled Bad Influence. As for Anna, she was released in 2021… and then arrested a month later by ICE for overstaying her VISA. Go figure!
The Episode Review
So Inventing Anna bows out its bloated run-time with a finale that finally sees Anna behind bars for her crimes. Even here though, the final episode has been much more about Anna’s fashion than her actual crimes and it’s a shame the show didn’t include the actual line from her court case, “She showed more concern for her attire than the emotions of those she hurt.” And that pretty much sums up Anna Sorokin. She played the system, hoodwinked banks and fraudulently managed to claw her way to the top while leaving may people scrambling to make sense of it all. Sure, you could argue that the bankers are bad or Trump is horrible, but then that’s like saying The Tinder Swindler isn’t that bad compared to other con artists. It’s still a scam no matter what way you slice it. However, the show has been an entertaining watch, despite it being drawn out way longer than it needed to be. Some of these episodes really didn’t need to be over an hour long. Despite all that though, Inventing Anna bows everything out with a conclusive chapter that leaves little doubt over how this story end.
