Alright, So Here Is My Theory On What’s Happening With Brad And Anna After 4x09. 

alright, so here is my theory on what’s happening with brad and anna after 4x09. 

i think anna is playing brad with this whole scamming playpen thing; either she'll throw the blame on him and flee with the money OR she's trying to sink MQ with another scandal (first david and rachel's congress BS and now that an employee was caught trying to rob them - this would be like the kill shot to the studio essentially) and therefore "win" over brad and "destroy" the biggest rival to yara.

but like... brad is smart. surely he's being strategic by accepting the flash drive, walking into a studio that no longer employs him and flaunting it in front of david's face, right?

i don’t think brad's going to go through with the theft because there’s no textual evidence in the writing of the show to support that brad would engage in illegal activities for money - if anything, the show has gone out of their way to prove to us that brad wouldn’t. there’s no implications he’s ever “cut corners” personally or professionally to get money, we all know he didn’t do the insider trading thing and he doesn't even steal things when he "tries car doors" at the APEX awards - he just rearranges things😭 he even confessed in season 1 that he doesn't like money just for money's sake, which is essentially what anna is proposing; brad likes ownership of people, and money is simply the best way to do that in this society. 

so then the question is, what's the advantage of brad bringing the flash drive to MQ if he's not going to use it? i think he's going to give it to some of the "techy" people or his friends in monetization and get them to figure out what's on it and whether or not there's a "digital fingerprint" on it from anna, since he's likely not familiar with that type of stuff well enough to do it himself. that way he can gain proof that she made it, so when he leaks it to the press, or the police, it doesn't look like he made it (since he’s the one with the drive that could be incriminating so he needs evidence he's not involved).

i also think showing the drive to david and making it "clear" to david he was in the building with it instead of sneaking around is a strategy (or a deliberate writing choice) because (and this is when the delusional shipping part of my brain takes over) when david's job is at stake, as is alluded to in the description of the season finale, brad can say david was the one who identified this threat and protected the company, streetfighter-quarentine-donation style (swooping in to save him and make him look good though torturing him all the while). and then this is the ultimate "you owe me big time" because brad would have saved david from career ruin so brad gets full and complete ownership back over david (and he also gets to help MQ because he’s a softie). 

i could be wrong, obviously, but this resolution is in line with brad’s established character (good guy who puts on an “evil” front because of his fear of appearing weak), aligns with his motivations (to own people, specifically david after he outsmarted him in the poker episode), ties in to the main storyline of the season (the core cast trying to “leave” MQ because of selfish ambitions only to, hopefully, come back due to love of the craft), furthers brad’s character (by placing him against someone who is, on the surface, the same as him, but highlights what makes him fundamentally different from the persona he puts on for other people), makes great suspense for the penultimate episode (audience thinking he’s going to betray MQ because, ngl, it really looks that way with what they gave us, so finale will be exciting plot twist) and sets up storylines for season 5 (brad now, for the first time in the series, has complete control over david’s strings, adding new potential plot implications for the whole cast).