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The Stranger S1 Ep 5

Review: The Stranger Episode 5

Dhruv Sharma
January 30, 2020

There’s a scene in the fifth episode where the show drops subtle hints about the true intentions of the two “Strangers,” who are still not holding themselves back from ruining the lives of the ones around them. While one of them seems to have far more moral reasons for doing this, the other one is only in it for the money. They’re apparently a part of a game and maybe, just maybe, there are others out there who, just like them, are going around unraveling the buried secrets of other people.

Apart from that, after its streak of some fairly intriguing episodes, ‘The Stranger’ takes a step back from all of its underlying mysteries and further explores all of its pivotal characters. Eventually, it leads you to an end where it drops another bomb and makes you wonder how this newly-introduced plot-point could be linked to all the others.

The Stranger Episode 5 Recap

The 5th episode resumes the formulaic pattern of its predecessors and starts off by featuring another person who gets targeted by the Stranger. Her new target turns out to be a man named Dan. Like all of her victims, she approaches him and without beating around the bush, she confronts him by claiming that she knows all about his son’s drug abuse in sports.

She then demands ten grand from him and leaves him all helpless. But as she makes her way back to her car, Dan attacks her. Her partner comes to her rescue, tases Dan, and the two of them flee from there. Realizing that they’re putting a lot on the line, her partner later questions what they’re doing with their lives, but “the Stranger” justifies it by claiming that they’re only serving justice to the ones who keep secrets.

Meanwhile, Joe asks Adam all about his wife and without protesting, he complies with all of her questions, even telling her about his recent dispute with her. He also tells her all about the Stranger and how she has been approaching many other people as well. Adam later gets some leads on the true identity of the Stranger’s partner and he even follows her to the place where she works.

While Joe gets busy with stalking the woman, the detectives further investigate the case by approaching everyone who knew Carinne. They somehow get to know about her being a suspect of the money that has been stolen from the school and also figure out that she is lady from the videos on Dante’s computer. In the meantime, Adam tells Mike that it was Daisy who had spiked his drink at the party because she suspected him of leaking the pictures of a young girl online. When she tells him that it was Olivia who told him about it, all three of them head to Olivia’s home. Although her mother does not let them in, they secretly spy on her and catch her mother disposing a bag full of drugs and poison in the dump.

In the final moments of the episode, after Martin disagrees to comply with the demands of Mr. Price, his house is forcefully demolished. But it turns out that the only reason why he wanted to save his home is that, all this while, he was hiding a dead body there.

The Stranger Episode 5 Review

‘The Stranger’ does not use the typical “backstories” as a plotting device to add depth to its characters and instead, drops minor allusions here and there that keep you guessing what makes these characters who they are. Especially when it comes to “the Stranger,” who has been ruthlessly going around, causing mayhem in people’s life. Episode 5 makes you realize that her current actions probably have something to do with her troubled past. This makes you look back at one of the previous episodes where she saves a woman from her cheating fiancè and does not even demand money from her.

Sadly, though, these “character insights” feel uninteresting and make it pretty evident that the show’s core strength lies solely in its mysteries that are presented with big red markers and bold letters. Case in point; the cliffhanger of the episode which reveals that Martin has been hiding a dead body in his home in not at all predictable, but feels extremely unnecessary. The twists and turns are already aplenty and it was quite pleasant to watch some of them unfold in the previous episodes. But these sharps turns that are starting to show up almost in every corner are getting tedious and unnerving.

While the show keeps showering you with curveball after curveball, even its characters seem a little thin; though the performances of the actors playing them are right on the money. On the upside, one aspect of the story that really keeps you engaged is Adam’s exploration of all the riddles surrounding his wife. A woman who he thought he knew so well, is now surrounded by several troubling allegations and it’s almost like he never knew her at all. Moreover, he is so desperately trying to seek answers now, even if Cornine ever returns home, he will far too deep in the conflicts of the dangerous world he’s trying to delve in. But for now, we’ll just have to wait and see if he’ll get an emotionally satisfying ending or not.