'The Stranger': A classic tale of lies, deception and greed that meets a riveting end
This explainer contains major spoilers for 'The Stranger'
Seven gripping episodes later, where the audience is shown overlapping suspense storylines, Netflix's 'The Stranger' adheres to the age-old cliche that some secrets are best kept hidden. For those who haven't read Harlan Coben's novel of the same name, the ending is a stunner. Corrine Price's (Dervla Kirwan) disappearance in the first episode is finally explained and so is the identity of 'The Stranger'. The miniseries is a classic tale of lies, deception, greed and the adverse effects they have after consuming people.
Over the course of the miniseries, we are introduced to three main subplots.
Disappearance of Corrine Price
The first episode sees 'The Stranger' (Hannah John-Kamen) tell Adam Price (Richard Armitage) a secret about his wife, Corrine (Kirwan) faking her pregnancy.
It was revealed she purchased a fake belly, doctored scan reports and a pregnancy test kit that showed positive. A flummoxed Adam digs deep only to realize The Stranger was telling the truth. He confronts Corrine who admits to faking the pregnancy but leaves him soon after asking for time. The character is shown to have disappeared since and appears only in flashbacks where the family is shown to be sharing happy moments together.
The news of her disappearance is kept secret for a long time and Adam reveals it to his children Thomas (Jacob Dudman) and Ryan (Misha Handley), who are devastated. They follow every minor lead that pops up only to hit dead ends. Adam enlists the help of Martin Killane (Stephen Rea) and the former cop, whos home eviction case Adam handles.
Heidi's death
The Stranger approaches Heidi (Jennifer Saunders) and asks her for 10,000 pounds. She blackmails her by showing images and handing a docket about a porn site where her daughter works and has managed to garner three regular customers for it. They threaten to release the images online and a worried Heidi confronts her daughter, Kimberley (Callie Cooke), who breaks down saying she did so for the additional money.
Sorting the issue out, Heidi returns to her cafe and finds inspector John Katz (Paul Kaye) who confronts her about Kimberley's situation. He claims to be part of the Cyber Crime Unit and a doubtful Heidi reluctantly handles the documents only for him to shoot her in the knee and the head.
Beheaded Alpaca
The series opens with a naked Dante (Kai Alexander) running through the woods while a rave goes on in a field just outside the woods. The impression is that he's being chased by an unknown person. The next day, DC Wesley Ross (Kadiff Kirwan) and DS Johana Griffin (Siobhan Finneran) find a beheaded Alpaca in the city and an in-coma Dante. The latter is rushed to the hospital, while Thomas and his girlfriend, Daisy Hoy (Ella-Rae Smith), find out their friend, Mike Tripp (Brandon Fellows) beheaded the alpaca in a heavily drugged and intoxicated state.
Tying the loose ends
It is here that the miniseries starts connecting the dots and closing the storylines. Starting off with Dante's explanation to Wes and Johanna.
It is revealed that he was chased by the caretaker of the school's football team. Videography was Dante's obsession and he reveals he had filmed the caretaker fiddle with camera footage. When questioned, the caretaker reveals he was indeed in the woods, but only meant to clear the confusion with Dante. The boy seeing the caretaker with an ax vamooses petrified, and in the attempt, trips over a branch and knocks himself out. Plus, he admits he was on drugs and alcohol at the time.
As for why he's naked, it is revealed he had a major crush on Daisy who leads him to the lake. When he offers to swim together, she gets him to strip off his clothes and runs away with them. Mike is caught with the beheaded alpaca and is kept under observation. He gets grilled by the cops for his savage behavior and it is revealed that he was offered a potent dose of PCP by Daisy.
One of the minor plotlines is about nudes of Daisy's teen sister, Ella, circulated in school and Mike was the reason behind the leak. Daisy hears of this and spikes his joint at the rave causing him to go haywire. It is also revealed that Mike was in fact not guilty of the images.
The next explainer was Heidi's death. John Katz was working for a businessman to mint extra money on the side. The businessman was shown as one of Kimberley's customers and when the secret is out in the open, he enlists Katz to put an end to the matter. The cop kills Heidi and conceals the evidence.
Wes goes through some extensive camera footage the night of Heidi's murder and finds that Katz was behind it. The corrupt officer manages to escape. He, however, decides to close out Adam, the Stranger, whose name is revealed to be Chrissy and she was Adam's estranged sister born out of an affair his dad had. Chrissy was Killane's daughter who left him after he kills his wife.
Katz, Adam and Chrissy have a scrimmage at her apartment and it ends with Johanna bursting onto the scene and killing Katz. Chrissy is rushed to the hospital following the injuries she suffers while trying to save Adam but she later escapes.
Still searching for answers, it finally dawns on Adam that his friend and neighbor, Tripp, was behind Corrine's disappearance. She had found out about Tripp looting money from the football club and had given him time to sort out the mess. A troubled Tripp tries to reason with her and it ends with him bludgeoning her with a shovel. Corrine is knocked unconscious and he buries her in one of the cottages outskirts of town. Tripp confesses about murdering Corrine. However, Adam shoots Tripp with Katz's pistol.
Johanna follows Adam's trail and finds him weeping and clutching a dead Corrine. Six months later, Adam is seen cheering Ryan at a football game and Johanna has a quick chat with him about how some secrets are best kept hidden. Katz was guilty of murder and he was also essentially framed for Tripp's death considering Adam fired the cop's gun. The final shot is Chrissy watching the game from a distance.
'The Stranger' is available for streaming on Netflix.