The Stranger – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

The Two Strangers

Episode 5 of The Stranger sees our mysterious blackmailer working in a cinema. As she returns home to her studio apartment, in the morning the two girls prepare to leave, mentioning they have a bad feeling about their upcoming case. Arriving at a stadium, the stranger talks to a man named Dan and hands him an envelope which holds proof that his son has been taking steroids that could destroy his athletic career. She asks for £10,000 and leaves. Only, before she can go Dan smashes her face against the wall. Thankfully her accomplice tasers his neck which acts as enough of a distraction to allow them to flee the scene together.

Adam is brought into the station and asked questions about Corinne surrounding Heidi’s death, especially given her school fob was found at the crime scene. As Katz listens in, Adam mentions the stranger and the fake pregnancy. As he relays the information about what the girl looked like, the two strangers head back to their apartment but disagree over blackmailing methods. It turns out their message is “a secret revealed is a secret destroyed” but ironically the duo are holding secrets from one another too. Their end game, as it turns out, is one big ploy to buy a beach bar.

As secrets bubble over, Tom, Daisy and Mike all wind up falling out over the nude pictures as Mike makes it clear he wasn’t the one who sent them from Ella’s phone. Finally believing him, Daisy regrettably admits that she spiked his drink with PCP. As things look set to bubble over into an explosive argument, Daisy interjects and tells them Olivia was the one who started the rumours. Hot-headed and intent on some proper answers, Mike and the others march up to her door to confront her. Only, her Mother answers and tells them she’s in hospital.

The two strangers meanwhile learn of Heidi’s murder and prepare for their emergency exit. Johanna stews over Adam’s words back at the station and contemplates whether to look further into the stranger situation or not. Katz hands over the belated missing person file and the two detectives immediately notice that the woman is Corinne – the same woman of course who was filmed by Dante.

Meanwhile, Adam also gets some crucial answers, as Killane phones him and lets him know that the blonde woman named Ingrid has an alias by the name of Gabrielle Dunbar. She works for a detective agency too, which would explain why they have so much dirt on the various different people in the town.

Wes and Johanna continue their investigation, leading them to Bob who has information on Dante. He also mentions the stolen money which the police weren’t aware of as it turns out the officer at the scene the previous night wasn’t on-duty and clearly didn’t report this in. Adam and Tripp follow Gabrielle as she leaves her work, leading to a car chase through the streets. Unfortunately it all gets a little tense and they’re forced to stop the chase.

Defeated, Adam returns home empty-handed before receiving a call from Killane regarding his soon-to-be-demolished home. Defeated, Adam guides him away as the house is knocked down. Only, as the wall crumbles to the ground Killane apologises to Adam as a wrapped-up body tumbles to the ground where the episode ends.

Who is the wrapped up body? Is it Corinne? My money’s on Killane’s wife which would explain the whole sentimental speech about not wanting to leave given how many memories are in the house. At the same time, this new mystery coincides with our pair of blackmailers and as more of their motivations come to light, there’s clearly something bigger at work here.

It seems difficult to believe that two girls would go through all this trouble just for a beach bar. If they have such reputable jobs as detectives, why not get a loan? Then again, this could actually be the case for our stranger, given she’s clearly carrying around some serious baggage. For now though, the show continues to weave its thrilling web of deceit and with a few answers thrown into the mix this time around too, things look set to escalate from here on out.

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