Inventing Anna Season 1 Episode 3 Recap – Two Birds, One Throne

Vivian could not visit Anna as frequently as she expected, and Anna held it against her. She tells Anna that getting to Rikers has been difficult with the baby. Vivian asks Anna about Chase and inquires if he has helped her develop the idea for the Anna Delvey Foundation (ADF). Anna tells her that it was her idea and that Chase was just some guy she was screwing. She reiterates that they were building their businesses simultaneously, parallel to each other and not together. Anna makes it clear that she does not need Chase to help her with ADF because she speaks seven languages, has a photographic memory, is a mathematical genius, and has a talent for business. Anna tells her that being pregnant is a no-good excuse because it does not make Vivian special. She says that people have babies every day and even just squat in fields. “You get here, or we’re done,” she declares. She also asks Vivian to bring her underwear the next time she visits, but she wants it from a brand not cheaper than Natori or Bergdorf’s.

Vivian talks to Nora again. Nora tells her that she cannot be associated with the Anna story because it will keep her from doing her important job, being on the board of seven philanthropic organizations. Vivian reminds her that she knows Anna and Chase stayed with her and that she has been tagged in lots of Anna’s photos, so she can dig and report whatever she finds on the internet, including her name. Still, she is giving Nora the option to talk to her and stay anonymous. At the same time, they shed some light on Chase and Anna, and Nora gives in.

Nora begins her story. She says that Chase and Anna stayed with her for several months in 2014. She claims that she saw through Anna right away. She says that Anna is a name-dropper who claims to be better than anyone else when she cannot even get up before noon. She also says that she did not like Chase either, which turns out to be the opposite.

Flashback: Nora gets awakened by a noise outside her room. She sees that it is just Anna and Chase arriving from Paris. She ignores Anna and greets Chase with a kiss on both cheeks. She asks for Val, and Anna tells her he went to Alabama to visit his dad. Nora sits Chase down and tells him about a dinner she’s hosting. Once Anna and Chase are in their room, Anna tells Chase that Nora is an old bitch. Chase teases her and tells her that she does not want Nora because Nora likes him so much. He tells her he’s just kissing Nora’s ass so she’ll invest in Wake.

The following day, Anna comes down from their room to see Nora and Chase having breakfast. “Can you imagine if everyone slept as late as Anna? Wake would have double the data,” Nora chimes. They laugh at her sarcastic comment and leave to meet with potential players for ADF. While waiting for her meeting, Chase gives Anna information to read about the people she will meet. After only a few minutes, Anna gives him back the material and says that she’s done. She says she has a photographic memory and dares Chase to quiz her.

Her first meeting is with Gabriel Calatrava, an architect. She tells him that he needs to design her building to reflect that it is a space for the wealthy and a refugee from the outside world. He tells her that he’s intrigued but needs to know what kind of collection she’s thinking about before he decides to take on a project. He suggests she goes to a curator first and tells her that he’s in once a curator is on board. Her second meeting is with Sasha Thomas, a gallerist. She says the idea of ADF is lovely, but she says she cannot design a collection until she knows the overall feel of the space. She tells Anna to get an architect on board first, and then she’ll decide. Her third and last meeting is with Richard Lavin, high-end property manager. He looks for Anna’s investors and creative team and says he chooses who he works with based on people rather than ideas. All three of them ask her who Anna Delvey is and why they should care about her and tell her that she is a nobody.

That night, Anna dresses up thinking that she is going with Chase to the party Nora was talking about when they returned from Ibiza. However, Nora is only interested in bringing Chase, so they leave Anna behind. After the party, Chase comes to their room, and Anna tells him that he needs Nora to invest in ADF, but Chase tells her that Nora is not someone she needs on her team and that she is all about supporting minority business owners. Anna accuses him of not wanting to share Nora, and Chase tells her they’ll find ADF someone like Nora soon.

In Vivian’s interview, Nora tells her that Chase did not take Anna seriously. She says that Anna was only with him because she thought he would introduce her to the right people. Vivian asks her if she knows where Chase is, and she tells her that she has no idea.

Flashback: Anna impressed Nora when she demonstrated her knowledge of the arts. For the first time, Nora asks her to tag along as she goes to Bergdorf’s. Upon entering the store, they see a taxidermied peacock. Nora looks at it for a second, and then Donna Zaveri comes, and they get escorted to a special room. There, Susan Alcott, Patricia Conti, and Jodie Kleinsmith are already looking at some pieces. Donna, Susan, Patricia, and Jodie are all well-connected women whom Anna immediately takes an interest in. She hears from their conversation that 281 Park Ave is up for lease. She immediately does a Google search of the property. Nora tries on some clothes, and while she does, she asks Anna to pick some things for Chase. Anna brings the clothes for Chase to the counter, and the cashier informs her that Nora has left, but they are told that Anna will be adding some things. Anna smiles.

That night, Anna tells Chase that 281 Park is the perfect place for ADF, but Chase seems preoccupied with something. He tells her he needs to go to Berlin because he got invited to a talk in Open Air. Anna says she’ll go with him, but he refuses to bring her, claiming he wants to focus on work. Anna tells him he can’t leave because he was supposed to be helping with ADF. Chase tells her that ADF will come together when it’s ready. Chase even offers her a loan, but she refuses to take it, saying that her father can give her the money if she wants it, but she wants to build something she can call her own. Chase tells her that he’ll be back in a week.

Back to the present, Vivian tries to access the truckload of discoveries that Todd and Alexi are currently cataloging, but he does not let her have it.

Flashback: Nora throws a party at her house, and Anna sits bored on a couch. Nora asks her to pick up their takeout and gives her her card to pay for it. After she’s back, Donna asks for Chase, so Anna tells her he’s in Berlin for Open Air. Donna tells her that that can’t be true because Open Air has been canceled for the year. Anna calls Chase and tells him that she knows he’s lying. Chase drops the call and does not answer any of Anna’s succeeding calls. Anna gets desperate and tells Chase that she will be taking some pills even when she’s drunk after Chase has not returned any of her calls.

The following day, Anna goes to Wake’s offices to find it deserted, except for Raphael, a designer working for Chase. He is packing his things up. He tells her to talk to Chase and says he owes him his salary. Anna asks for his help finding out where Chase is by tracing the location from where his Instagram uploads were posted from.

At present, Vivian talks to Raphael. He tells her that Chase only wanted the app to look cool and did not care much about its functionality. He also says that Chase stopped paying them. He also tells Vivian that Chase told him he’s in Dubai, working for the Sheikh and that Vivian should send him an e-mail if she wants to see him, but Vivian tells him that she’s already done that.

Maud goes with Vivian as she tries to buy Anna the underwear she has asked for. Maud tells her that if Chase is working for the Sheikh, he must be in a hotel. Vivian gives up and declares that she’s not buying expensive underwear for Anna. Back at the office, she calls hotels in Dubai one by one in the hopes of finding the one where Chase is staying. Lou helps her out, and she finally finds Chase. She introduces herself, but Chase hangs up. She checks Chase’s Instagram posts and finds one of him with the hashtag #OHIO. She traces his parents and gives them a call. She talks to Chase’s mother, Susan, and asks her about Chase and Anna.

Vivian visits Anna and tells her that she didn’t buy her underwear immediately. She tells Anna that she talked with Susan and knows she loves Chase because she went to Ohio to meet his parents. Anna tells her what went down in Ohio.

Flashback: Anna arrives at Chase’s home in Ohio after Raphael traced the IG posts. She confronts Chase about what’s happening to Wake. Chase admits that he has run out of money. He says he has spent it mostly on Anna because she wanted a certain lifestyle. This does not sit well with Anna because she says that Chase was the one who spent a lot of time promoting the app instead of building it. Chase tells her that he has investors and employees breathing down his neck and Kickstarter funders threatening him over iPhone cases and t-shirts, not to mention the amount of pressure he is under to make Wake work. He says it’s why he cannot help in ADF and promises that after everything is sorted out, he will be focusing on ADF. He asks her not to tell Nora anything about his financial mishap because her friend is about to invest 2 million dollars in the app. He says they should wait for the investment to come in, and then it’s all ADF. Anna somehow believes him.

Anna walks out on Vivian and tells her not to come back until she has the underwear Anna has asked for.

At home, Vivian tries to talk to Chase again. She tells him that he is the star of her article. She tells him that he is the real con artist because he managed to leave Val and Anna during Fashion Week to talk his way into Henrick’s yacht and defraud Wake’s investors. She says that if she doesn’t get his side of the story, that is what she will print. She gives him the option not to be named in the report in exchange for talking to her. Not a minute has passed when Vivian gets a video call from Chase. He tells her his side of the story.

Flashback: They return to Nora’s house after being in Ohio, and Nora asks Anna to pick up their food again. Back at the house, while Chase is busy talking to some potential investors on the phone, Anna talks to Nora and badmouths Chase, in addition to telling her that Wake is not going in the direction it is supposed to be going. That night, at dinner, Nora asks Anna about ADF and tells her that she is taking her to the Storm King fundraiser to meet potential investors instead of Chase. On the day of the fundraiser, Chase decides to go still since his name is on the guestlist anyway. Nora introduces Anna to people who know Gabriel, Sasha, and Richard, the three people she had a meeting with previously. They each call her back eventually to say they are in on in ADF. Chase confronts Anna about copying and taking away everything from him, including Nora. He threatens to expose her identity, but Anna tells him everything about him is a lie. He demands 40% of ADF from Anna, saying that it’s for everything he taught her about business. Anna laughs at him and walks away.

Back to the present, he tells Vivian that Anna left the same night as the fundraiser for some unknown reason.

At the office, Vivian tells her coworkers how fascinated she is with Anna and how curious she is about what happened between her and Nora. Maud tells her to try and ask the defense. Vivian tells her that Todd is useless. Lou tells him there are always two sides to a story, and Vivian gets the idea to go to the prosecution. She goes to Catherine, who initially tells her that she cannot tell her anything about the discovery. Vivian says that she thinks Chase is the actual con, not Anna, and that once she publishes her article, it will look like the DA has the wrong guy. This convinces Catherine, so she tells Vivian that she cannot share what’s in the discovery, but she can share something that did not make it to the discovery because someone changed their mind about pressing charges. She tells Vivian how Anna bought lots of stuff using Nora’s credit card.

Vivian returns to Nora’s house and asks why she didn’t disclose what happened with her credit cards earlier.

Flashback: The night after the fundraiser, Nora, Anna, and Chase arrive home. Nora gets a call from her credit card company about strange charges on her card. Anna overhears this, so she packs her bags at once. It turns out that Anna bought some stuff for herself at Bergdorf’s when Nora told her to grab things for Chase, and then she regularly went there to buy more stuff under Nora’s account. Also, that night Nora asked her to pick up their food; Anna took note of Nora’s credit card details, which enabled her to use it online.

Back to the present, Nora tells Vivian that Anna charged a total of $400,000 to her credit cards. Still, she decided not to file charges because her finances were private, and the whole experience was humiliating. Vivian tells her that if she presses charges with the DA, she can still get her money back. However, Nora tells her that she already got her money back because one of her friends is the CEO of Federal Credit. She also shares that after everything Anna has done, she had the guts to send her a gift – a taxidermied peacock.

Back at their house, Vivan and Jack look at the peacock and think of what they will do with it because Nora just gave it to her.

Vivian visited Anna again and brought some underwear with her. Anna tells her that they don’t look like Bergdorf’s, but Vivian tells her that she has to accept them because since she already knows about how she stole from Nora, how she threw Chase under the bus, and how she gifted Nora a peacock, she has a story with or without her. She threatens Anna and tells her that she needs to cooperate if she wants any control over what she will write about her. Vivian then asks Anna if she stole all those money. Anna tells her that she always knew that she needed to work to get what she wanted, but Chase didn’t know that much. She also says that Nora treated her like a prop, so she decided to do the same with her. She boasts that she got her dream team through Nora and that she created a pitch deck with her business plan. She tells Vivian that it would be helpful if she reads it first before they meet next. She thanks Vivian for the panties and walks out.

Vivian presents Todd with the receipt for the panties she bought. Todd tells her that he will not pay for those, but Vivian tells him that she is not asking for a reimbursement. She tells him that she wants him to know that they are on the same side and that she cares for Anna, or else she wouldn’t have bought her underwear. She also tells him that she knows he is also dealing with the same kind of frustration from Anna. Todd finally opens up to Vivian and tells her that he is exhausted. Vivian begs him to let her help and count her as part of the team. She says she wants to see Anna’s business plan and that Anna instructed her to read it. Todd tells her no lawyer will ever let a journalist dig into his discovery. Still, even the best lawyer slips up sometimes and takes a coffee break, and leaves his discovery unattended. Vivian thanks him, and he goes to take a coffee break.

Vivian gets to work and takes a photo of all the pages of Anna’s business plan for ADF. She presents to Landon and Paul what she has so far on the story, and Landon decides to give her a couple more weeks on it.

Our Thoughts

Anna is something; she is in prison, and yet she still thinks that she is still better than anyone else. I don’t know if she is just so sure about herself or if she is just delusional. Whichever it may be, she is still annoying to me. I still cannot see the genius they’re all talking about. Stealing money from Nora even after she allowed them to stay with her without asking for anything in return is just unacceptable. Whatever happened to morals? Nora might have pushed her buttons when she asked her to pick up their takeouts, but that is nothing compared to the free board and lodging she’s giving them. Chase, on the other hand, benefitted from staying with Anna, so he is not entirely a victim in all these. Besides, he is not working on his app and is effectively scamming his investors. In this episode, we have seen that rich people are careless with their money, maybe because they know that their connections will do the work for them if they ever get scammed, like Nora, who managed to get all her money back.