Summary
Inventing Anna delves deeper into how the conservative money elite accepted Anna with a gripping episode in which she persuaded many to believe in her passion project.
This recap of Netflix’s Inventing Anna season 1, episode 4, “A Wolf in Chic Clothing,” contains spoilers.
Inventing Anna season 1, episode 4 recap
Anna creates a business plan and pulls in a group of advisor royalty for her ultra-exclusive social club filled with artwork, luxury hotel floors, restaurants, clubs within clubs, and even a German bakery. All at the perfect building at 281 Park Avenue. Abet Rosen owns the building, the most successful real estate mogul in New York City. All she needs is 40-million dollars to fund the project. The only question is who would give the money to Anna? That man would be Alan Reed (Anthony Edwards, Goose from Top Gun, kids).
Also, Anna is living with a new roommate, and his name will be familiar to you — more on that later.
First, Anna tried to secure funding from high-end conservative banks. This was different from talking her way into clubs and restaurants in SoHo. She didn’t dress or look the part, even if her clothes were expensive. These are conservative institutions, and you do not loan 40 million dollars to a blonde pixy dressing in Barbie’s clothes. Anna needed two things: A sponsor and a makeover. That’s where the dark hair and oversized glasses come in. The sponsor is where Alan Reed comes in.
Anna makes her pitch to Alan, but unfortunately, after a call with his privileged daughter, who wants a break from a job to go on a getaway after maxing out her credit cards. Or was it? Alan sees something in Alan that he doesn’t see in his daughter — ambition.
After Anna makes these necessary changes, Alan is invited to what is equivalent to an investor Kickstarter party. He is impressed with her connections, taken with the lifestyle. Imagine a successful yuppy business person who appreciates art and is knee-deep with creatives. He lets his hair down and enjoys himself. And when someone pretending to be Anna’s financial advisor calls Alan and answers all his questions with professional brevity (clearly knowing how these types of transactions work), he does something he never does. He checks the box and signs the papers before getting the information sent to him about Anna’s trust.
What’s the risk? He talked to Anna’s finance guy, Peter Hennecke. The money for the retainer is on the way, and he is sending the paperwork over. It’s not Mr. Hennecke’s fault that international transfers take two to three days.
Vivian wonders aloud, astonishingly, how does a senior advisor like Alan Reed would fall for Anna’s brand of bullshit? He lived through almost every financial crisis and lived to tell about it. It wasn’t sex, as people who know Alan laugh at the idea. He’s not that kind of guy. It’s simple. He never had Anna because she is headstrong and doesn’t need her family’s money. She also awakens something inside him. The feeling of what it was like to be young and starting a business with little money, a small, dirty apartment, and a dream.
He is typically paid 2,000 dollars an hour for his time, yet he puts in all the legwork for Anna without even obtaining a retainer. He gets sucked in, and Anna even manipulates him about cutting off her daughter. The plan is in motion, but the snag happens when the money hasn’t shown up, and the paperwork proving Anna’s trust is strangely vague. Fortress has the loan approved, but they want a 100,000 dollar deposit as a show of good faith. City Bank won’t support the loan because of the strange paperwork. Anna offers Alana a spot on the ADF board, enticing him to push the deal through. And he does, boy does he ever. He convinces a senior money manager to offer Anna an account with a $200,000 overdraft fee.
Why is this happening? For Alan, Peter Hennecke was a fake. Anna used an app to change her voice and a digital sim card to create a German phone number. For the rest, it seems that failing is not the issue. The next big thing missing from being on the ground floor is what people are afraid of.
The ending
Anna tells Vivian that defrauding Alan doesn’t matter because men fail and still earn promotions all the time. That’s what happened with Alan. He is promoted by his firm and lands a two-million-dollar a year job before bonuses. However, Alan loses his reputation, as he is regulated to the last racketball court at his private club.
Also, remember that roommate we talked about? His name was Bill McFarland. That’s right. The con artist created the fraudulent luxury music festival called the Fyre Festival.
What did you think about Netflix’s Inventing Anna season 1, episode 4? Let us know in the comments below!
You can watch Inventing Anna with a subscription to the streaming service.
