There are few things more embarrassing than being the victim of a scammer, especially publicly, and there are few things stranger than watching a docuseries about a scammer who personally scammed you.
Granted, I only spoke with Elisabeth Finch once about one episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.” But the whole interview was about how she wrote an episode featuring a storyline inspired by her own brain cancer. The headline was “Grey’s Anatomy’s Big Cancer Story Was Based on Very Real Life.” I had no reason to doubt that a writer on one of the biggest shows on TV was telling me the truth. I had no reason to believe that even my headline was a big fat lie. Why would one ever assume someone was lying about brain cancer? It would be disrespectful to even think about it.
To lie about illness is one (weird) thing, but to lie so hard that your fake cancer made it onto “Grey’s Anatomy” is another level.
For anyone with any attachment to the entertainment industry or any fandom of “True Blood,” “Vampire Diaries” or “Grey’s Anatomy,” Peacock’s docuseries “Anatomy of Lies” is beyond infuriating from beginning to end, and that’s to its credit. Over three distinct episodes, it tells the story of who Finch is, what she did and exactly who she hurt the most. There were plenty of interview clips of Finch to include in the first hour, which is an ominous explanation of how Finch got her writing jobs and weaseled her way into all of her colleague’s hearts. They thought their friend was dying, and who better to tell hospital stories than someone who had so many of their own?
From there, we learn how Finch’s alleged illnesses affected her work. She was hired on “Grey’s Anatomy” because Shonda Rhimes had read her essays about her cancer. She wasn’t fired from “Grey’s Anatomy” a few years later because she had cancer. She missed deadlines, because of cancer. She wrote episodes by herself instead of as a team because of her cancer. Finch did whatever she wanted to do, because cancer!
The second episode digs deep into the real damage that was done by her actions. Faking backstory on a TV show is one thing, but what she did to her former wife Jennifer Beyer is the horror “Anatomy of Lies” really lands on. Beyer is a vital voice in this docuseries, alongside her daughter, and she explains how Finch inserted herself into her life after they met at a treatment center. Beyer was in a fragile mental state, partly due to an abusive relationship with her husband, and Finch essentially stole all of Beyer’s trauma for the twisted narrative she fed in Hollywood. Beyer’s abusive husband became Finch’s abusive brother, Beyer’s PTSD became Finch’s PTSD and Beyer’s breakdowns became Finch’s breakdowns. And that was on top of Finch’s “cancer” and her trauma from having had to clean up her friend’s remains after the shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue, or so she said.
She had even adopted the name Jo from Camilla Luddington’s “Grey’s Anatomy” character — ironic, because Jo’s name isn’t really Jo either — who had been in an abusive marriage, discovered she was the product of rape (a story Finch stole from a fellow writer), and then went to a treatment facility for PTSD. When Beyer’s abusive ex killed himself, Finch’s abusive brother suddenly killed himself. As Beyer began EMDR treatment in therapy, Jo began EMDR treatment in therapy on screen. The line between Finch, Jo and the people in Finch’s life got so entwined that it’s hard to tell if this woman has actually ever been through anything at all, or if she’s even more fictional than the stories she tells.
There are a lot of documentaries, podcasts, and scripted series about scammers and their victims, including Rhimes’ own Netflix series “Inventing Anna” centered on Anna Delvey, who recently did a short lived stint on “Dancing With the Stars.”. People have lost their life savings or businesses, or they’ve been roped into dangerous cults. Finch didn’t technically steal money, and may not have even actually committed any official crimes, but her actions feel so nefarious that she could be compared to some of the most notorious cult leaders. She preyed on the empathy of everyone she came in contact with and stole their lives for her own gain, and then broadcast her lies on one of the biggest shows on TV.
“Anatomy of Lies” paints a compelling picture when laying out what Finch did and how it affected people, even if it almost can’t keep up with her lies. She told so many that it’s impossible to recount them all, or to fully track their consequences. She changed the trajectory of so many characters on beloved shows, while also infiltrating a traumatized family and mining their losses and pain for her stories. The doc rightfully focuses on Beyer, the one most taken advantage of by Finch, and the one who destroyed the facade by emailing the truth to Rhimes. She’s the hero in a horror movie who didn’t ask for any of this, and she leads the way in the third episode as she explains how she found out Finch wasn’t who she said she was, what she decided to do about it, and how long it took for anyone to take her seriously.
The truth eventually came to light after Beyer reached out to Rhimes in early 2022, and a Vanity Fair story exposing Finch was published later that May. Finch was put on administrative leave from “Grey’s Anatomy,” leaving her friends and colleagues shell shocked. Several former “Grey’s” writers appear in the doc to paint a picture of the writers’ room both before and after learning of Finch’s betrayal, but some big names are missing. Finch did not comment, Rhimes did not participate and Luddington also declined an interview. It does feel like the story would have been helped by her opinion, as the actress who essentially stood in for many of Finch’s fictional traumas on screen. Perhaps everyone still involved with “Grey’s” is still unpacking how a con artist had such an impact on their show.
Finch eventually admitted it was all because she got addicted to attention and has since disappeared from the public eye, though she told The Ankler that same year that she hoped to return to TV writing. “I could only hope that the work that I’ve done will allow me back into those relationships where I can say, ‘Okay, I did this, I hurt a lot of people and I’m also going to work my f—g ass off because this is where I want to be and I know what it’s like to lose everything.’”
“Anatomy of Lies” will probably not inspire anyone to hire Finch back for her dream job, nor should it, but at least we’re all talking about her again. Isn’t that what she really wanted anyway?
“Anatomy of Lies” premieres Tuesday, Oct. 15, on Peacock.