Netflix’s Inventing Anna covers the true story of a young socialite who defrauded New York’s elite out of millions of dollars. As the show explains, “This whole story is completely true. Except for the parts that aren’t.” Here’s a recap of Episode 2.
Refresher
Where we left off from Episode 1 is that Anna Delvey has already been arrested and is currently in prison without bail. We know the basics of her crime, or crimes. She is a 20-something New York socialite claiming to be a German heiress.
She came to New York to open an elite social club (“a place for artists”), which is the most bougie thing I can think of. In doing so, she swindled and defrauded a lot of important people and institutions out of at least $40 million dollars. And also never paid her fancy hotel bills.
Vivian Kent is the journalist from The Manhattan who is trying to uncover the story. She got Anna to not take the plea bargain after her first arraignment, which means Anna gets to stay in prison until her trial, giving Vivian more time to dig.
Anna
We get a real sense of Anna's timeline from Vivian digging through Instagram. We know that she studied in Europe between 2011 and 2013, before visiting the US for the first time and nerve going back to Paris.
When she comes to the US, we know Val (friend) and Chase (boyfriend) are two of her first acquaintances. With Anna being under the age of 25, she doesn’t have access to her trust money yet. So Chase is the one that funds their extravagant lifestyle.
During that time, Chase, Anna, and Val all stayed at Nora Radford’s apartment. Who is Nora Radford? Just another ridiculously wealthy, older New York socialite.
But this episode helps us uncover what went on between Chase, Anna, and Val.
Talia
Vivian is able to find someone from the Instagram posts that is in a photo with Chase and Anna. Her name is Talia Mallay, a business owner. Vivian travels up to the Hamptons to pay her a visit. Who, for being a ridiculously wealthy social elite, is warm, welcoming, and down to earth.
We learn Talia and Anna first met at an art gallery, where Anna shows impeccable and incredibly intellectual taste in her art knowledge. When Talia posts on Instagram that she is in Ibiza on a yacht that belongs to a friend from the tech world, Chase insists that they find a way to get there so he can get this guy to invest in his startup.
When they do make their impromptu trip to Spain, Chase pushes the shop talk a little hard and their hosts start to notice. Anna steps in with her people skills. It’s not exactly smooth talking. She is actually quite confrontational. But it’s clear she has an artful way of getting people to do what she wants. She is able to get the tech investor to drop $100,000 immediately into Chase’s startup fund.
But the relationship went sour when Chase and Anna outstayed their welcome on the yacht, after their hosts had already left the country. They racked up a $100K+ bill just keeping the boat crew around. Talia blamed the misstep of decorum on Chase, a freeloader.
Val
We are introduced to another unwitting player in the Anna game: Val. Val works in the high fashion industry and first met Anna at a runway show. As he explains, “Anna Delvey wasn’t thirsty. She was the real deal … she was queen b*tch.”
But he explains how things started falling apart at the seam after the Ibiza trip when he saw them arguing loudly outside one of his fashion shows. Chase goes behind Anna’s back and asks Val to check her passport because he’s starting to not believe her story.
Up until this point, Val was questioning Chase’s erratic behavior. But after they were kicked out of their hotel for non-payment on Anna’s part, Chase began to question her tall tales. He gives in to checking her passport and discovers that her surname is Sorokin, not Delvey.
When he reveals that to Chase, Chase betrays Val’s confidence and sells him out to Anna. To which Anna severs their friendship. In a flashback, we see Chase confront Anna on their Paris balcony, citing her real name of Sorokin.
Betrayed, Anna angrily deflects the attention off of her. She touts her business plans of grandeur, how everyone is beneath her, and how she will be the star of the new elite club she will create. Chase buys it and chooses to stand behind her.
Neff
After being approached by Vivian, Neff starts to try and get the old friend group back together to show Anna their support at Rikers prison.
But the first friend, Rachel, is adamant on severing ties with Anna. They both call each other out, saying they each sold out to Anna for her money.
Kayce is a little more open-minded but still drawing a line in the sand where she will not go visit Anna in Rikers. Kayce claims that the Anna they knew doesn’t actually exist. Kayce plants the seed in Neff’s head that if she goes to see Anna, she might not recognize who she sees.
Neff takes the bus down to the prison, but seems to change her mind at the very last minute.
