Annie Landsberg is the female protagonist of Netflix original series Maniac (2018). She is portrayed by Emma Stone.
Characterization[]
Annie is described as a woman with [personality disorder|borderline personality disorder] who dwells on her relationships. The most prominent and discussed throughout the series are her relationships with her late sister Ellie, who's death she feels guilty for, and her mother, who left her and Ellie when she was younger. In 1x05:Exactly Like You, after waking up from the 'B' pill, she admits to Dr. Mantleray that her reality is that she is 'horribly depressed'.
Annie is disaffected and unoriented, and claims to have not held a job for the past five months. She has seemed taken negative traits from her mother, a woman who constantly lied, manipulated, and cheated those around her, and apologises in 1x10:Option C, to Hank that she 'constantly reminds him of her mother'.
In 1x02:Windmills, she steals a wad of cash from Hank's safe to travel to Salt Lake City after attempting to quit her addiction to the 'A' pill, which she somehow ended up with a stash of from a man who's father works at Neberdine, but she soon becomes desparate for another fix, and ends up manipulating her way into phase III of Neberdine Pharmaceutical and Biotech's drug trial through a NPB employee named Patricia, who's daughter she threatens to kidnap, but in 1x10:Option C, she assures Patricia after the trial that she never intended to harm her daughter in any way.
In 1x02:Windmills, Annie revists the worst day of her life after taking the 'A' pill, and recalls the roadtrip to Salt Lake City with her sister, Ellie. When she recalls the day prior, Ellie was annoyed at her for pretending to take pictures of her during the trip instead of actually taking them. When Ellie asks to be the one to take the pictures, Annie insists that she's the designated photographer on this trip, despite Ellie buying the digital camera. The two make up the following morning, but Annie once again tricks Ellie into thinking she was going to take a picture of them. Distracted from the road, the two begin to argue about it once more and their car goes off of the road and rolls down a cliff, killing Ellie and injuring Annie. She wakes up in tears, as well as several of the other subjects.
In 1x03:Having A Day, Annie witnesses Dr. Robert Muramoto's death, which Dr. Azumi Fujita later concludes was due to an overdose of an 'A' and 'C' pill combination that he had been freebasing. Annie breaks into the drawer and almost takes Dr. Muramoto's 'A' stash, but ultimately decides against it and she and Owen leave his body to be discovered by someone else.
In 1x09:Utangatta, while in the second pill 'C' dream, Owen tells Annie that she made a deal to stay in the stimulation with GRTA, who's horribly depressed after Dr. Robert Muramoto's death. She doesn't remember at first, but once she sees her name plaqued to a bed, she remembers and goes to confront Gertie about it.
In 1x10:Option C, she tells Gertie that she doesn't want to stay, and instead decides to face the reality that Ellie is really gone. She then finds Ellie to say goodbye to her while Gertie stands behind, and after a heartfelt goodbye, Ellie joins Gertie in the elevator, and Annie wakes up after Gertie is shut down by Dr. Azumi Fujita and Dr. James Mantleray.
Annie and Owen go separate ways after the drug trial, but Annie begins to obsess over how she didn't admit to caring about him. After using a Friendproxy stand-in for Owen, she finds out in a newspaper article that Owen has been institutionalized, and takes her father's truck to go visit him. The series ends with Annie breaking Owen out of the psychiatric facility and driving off to Salt Lake City with him, along with a rescue dog that she picked up on her way to the hospital. The two end up becoming close friends and it is likely that the connection she shared with Owen ultimately 'fixed her'.
Linda Marino[]
Linda Marino is the character that Annie finds herself portraying in the first 'B' pill induced vision in 1x04: Furs By Sebastian. She is a nurse, mother of three and is married to the character that Owen finds himself as, Bruce Marino.
In the vision, Linda's patient "Nan" instructs her to take her beloved lemur, Wendy, who's cage was kept underneath her bed to her daughter, Paula as a sign of reconciliation.
Nan then dies, and before Linda is able to take the lemur out of the nursing home, she is stolen by Furs By Sebastian, a clothing store who intend on turning Wendy into a hat.
That night, Linda and Bruce break into Furs By Sebastian to steal Wendy back and take to Paula. They get caught, but the family who own Furs By Sebastian get caught up in a shoot-out with the game wardens who plan to take Wendy back to Madagascar. Linda and Bruce use this opportunity to make a break for it and drive Wendy to Paula's house.
Paula tells Linda that her mother did not send the lemur as a sign of reconciliation, but describes her as a 'fuck you lemur' and proceeds to read a rather nasty letter off to Paula that her mother had sent her the day prior that contradicts Linda's original beliefs.
Linda and Bruce then take the lemur home and plan to keep it, but game wardens show up at their house while Bruce is taking out the garbage.
Bruce surrenders himself, and insists that Linda had nothing to do with it before Annie and Owen wake up.
Arlie Kane[]
Arlie Kane is the character that Annie finds herself as in the second 'B' pill induced dream. She is a manipulative con artist who shares traits with Annie's mother, and she is also the ex-wife of the character that Owen plays, Oliver "Ollie" Hightower.
She first appears in the woods infront of the car that is chaufferring Ollie to the Neverdies' mansion where a sceance will be taking place later to reveal the final, missing chapter to Don Quixote. Arlie reveals to Ollie that she has a ticket to the event, and he tricks her into stepping into the car in what seems like a chivalrous gesture. Once Ollie slams the door on her, he instructs his driver, Bobby to take her as far away from the sceance as possible.
Arlie still manages to appear at the sceance, and Ollie eventually agrees to partner with him.
Once she and Ollie find the missing chapter, she steals it and leaves him, once again.
It is stated by Ollie that in the past, Arlie stole everything that Ollie had, slipped a date rape drug into a gimlet that he was drinking, disappeared, and Ollie woke up with the cops and spent three years in jail.
Annia[]
In the first 'C' pill induced dream, Annie portrays a half-elf named Annia, tasked with bringing a sick princess named Ellia to the Lake Of The Clouds that will supposedly heal her. 'Princess Ellia' is portrayed by Annie's late sister, Ellie,
Annie is lucid in this dream, and makes it clear that she is not fond of portraying this character. Fantasy has always been her least favorite genre.
However, the Lake Of The Clouds is infact a metaphor for the place where Ellie died in real life, and once they get there, she tells Annia that "This is how she [Annia] moves on."
Ruth[]
Ruth is the character that Annie plays in the second 'C' pill induced dream. She is a secret agent and a killing machine sent by the CIA to protect Owen's character, Snorri.
She shoots down countless men as she and Snorri navigate to an elevator, regaurding them as 'personal demons'.
Owen soon shrugs Snorri off and informs Annie that she 'made a deal' with GRTA to stay in the simulation forever. At first, she doesn't remember, but she eventually does once she is brought into the McMurphy room.