Kendra and Anna

There’s been some chatter about Kendra’s influence over Anna.  The question has been posed: How can Anna be influenced by Kendra so easily?

This is a very loaded answer, so I’ll try to unpack it.

In life, timing is everything.  Often, we have situations that pile up at the worst times.  For Anna and David, there seems to be a perfect storm of unfortunate things happening at the same time.  It’s during these chaotic times that other people can take advantage of you.  In this case, Kendra is coming in at the perfect time to influence Anna. As for why Anna would be so impressionable, there’s three main factors.

The first factor, and maybe the most obvious, is that Anna covets having a female BFF.  We hear this several times throughout the story, that she wishes she had this.  We know that during her childhood, her best friends were boys.  Growing up with three brothers, she always related to males more comfortably.  Coming from a smaller town there weren’t many female friends to choose from anyways.

Anna did gymnastics for a couple years in her youth, but she felt awkward around the other girls. They were overly dramatic, cliquey, and not much fun. They cared more about things she didn’t value... such as social status, fashion trends and celebrities.

The girls at her small private school weren’t much better.  Her female classmates didn’t like Anna because they were jealous of her looks, jealous of her ability to beat them in any school activity whether it was sports or classwork, and they were jealous of the attention she got from boys. Plus, she didn’t make the effort to suck up to them in order to be friends.

She finally met a girl she could relate to when she was in the 7th grade.  They quickly became BFF.  She was so happy to have a girl she could connect with, especially during that awkward time when a person goes through physical changes.  But alas, her friend moved away a year later, leaving her without a close female friend once again.

In high school she focused on swimming, but being on the swim team was very much an individual sport. She regrets not playing team sports where she could’ve become better friends with girls, but she was so good at swimming that she focused on it year-round.

Once she got to college, she finally began hanging out with other girls.  She made some good friends and learned a lot from them.  There wasn’t one girl that became her BFF, though, and once she was in law school those friendships fizzled out because she studied ALL the time. She still keeps in touch with her college friends, but she’s no longer close with them.

Because of never having true female best friends, Anna feels even more inadequate around other women now, as if she doesn’t fit in.  It’s crazy for her to think that way, given how sweet and personable she is, but she’s always been intimidated around females, as if she’s being judged unfairly.

Sure, she has her mom in her life, of course. But she doesn’t like talking about private, personal matters with her mom.  It feels too weird for her, even though she loves talking to her mom about most everything else.

The second factor to consider… Her promotion.  Let's be honest, Anna is a bit in over her head at the moment.  Nobody that young has ever been a manager at Lowery, and she doesn’t have the experience others have. I think we all know why Hank promoted her.  Anna – being the ambitious, hard-worker she is – wasn't going to turn the opportunity down.

Now she feels behind the curve, especially since she’s been away from the office for so long. She is looking for someone at the company to latch onto for help and guidance.  Insert Kendra, who, despite her deep flaws, is a resourceful person. Kendra is a schemer, so she knows the ins-and-outs of the company and its employees.  She has more experience than Anna, and frankly, Anna is perplexed Kendra didn’t get the promotion.  Therefore, Anna is immediately drawn to Kendra for help navigating her new job duties, especially since Kendra is so willing.

Kendra has always been a popular woman around the office because she’s bold, resourceful, and fun. She participates in a lot of company social events, such as happy hours and planning holiday parties. Anna has always desired to be included by Kendra in these work functions, because they’re things Anna finds fun too, but Kendra never included her, which only added to her insecurity around women.

Anna’s always been a bit of a lone wolf at the office... she’s always preferred to keep things professional and focus on working hard. The women coworkers take it as if she’s stuck up and thinks she’s too good for them, but that was never the case... she’s just a hard-worker, and she has insecurities about befriending other women.  She’s kept her distance from the men in the office because too many of them had made overtures towards her, and she didn’t want to be perceived as a flirt.

However, now that she was promoted and coming back to the office, she decided she’d be more outgoing and open to coworkers, so that she could enjoy coming to the office and build relationships with teammates, whether male or female. She didn’t want to be a lone wolf.

Therefore, Anna getting attention from Kendra is a big deal.  She knows Kendra is social, and being around her makes her feel like an insider... she feels closer to the pulse of the company and wants to learn more. She’s always wanted a work bestie, and here Kendra was quickly becoming that person.

The third factor to consider – Anna's current physiological state. As we’re aware, over the past couple weeks, she's experienced drastic shifts in her mood, whether it’s how she thinks, how her body feels, how she reacts to situations. Being an extrovert, she feeds off other people, and she’s especially needy at the moment, whether it’s compliments, attention, someone to talk to. Having another relatable woman to talk to is very comforting for her. Kendra recognizes this and plays into it by acting as a therapist to Anna.

Also, the strong sexual urges are confusing to Anna, and she wishes she had someone to talk to about it aside from a doctor.  She’s too uncomfortable talking to David and her mom about her urges, and she doesn’t fully trust Chris to have that kind of discussion.  So, when Kendra comes along and doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to sex-talk, Anna is drawn to her. Kendra gives off the impression that she’s experienced with sex and men, and Anna finds it very resourceful.  Even though Anna is more reserved, she loves that Kendra doesn’t have a filter and will tell it to her straight.

When you add these things up, Anna is extremely vulnerable to Kendra’s attention.  Unfortunately, this causes her to have on her blinders when it comes to what Kendra’s real motives are.  Sometimes a person focuses so much on themselves and their immediate needs that they don’t see the big picture, and that’s what’s happening to her.  And if it’s bad now... just wait until things start getting rocky in her marriage and she turns to Kendra for help...