From the very first episode of Netflix’s The Stranger, based on the 2015 Harlan Coben novel of the same name, secrets and lies threaten to shatter an idyllic suburban UK community. As the series progresses, longtime friends and neighbors of Adam Price (Richard Armitage) are revealed to be capable of unspeakable deception, and the greatest secret of all hovers over the Price family like a black cloud.
From fake pregnancies, to covert love affairs, hidden corpses, and revenge porn, The Stranger exposes the dirt on everyone, blackmailing them into submission. As Adam races to discover her true motive and the reason behind his wife’s disappearance, clues lead to more questions than answers. Here are 10 hidden details in The Stranger everyone completely missed.
THE SONOGRAM
When The Stranger approaches Adam with the heartbreaking news that his wife faked her third pregnancy, he doesn’t believe her. The seed of doubt is planted, however, and he dashes home to review the sonograms of his children. After comparing the three, he immediately searches for “Novelty Funsy” online.
What detail tipped him off? His sons’ sonograms had the name of the hospital printed at the top (the same hospital where Dante was treated), and the third (the generic fake purchased from Novelty Funsy) dated 2017 did not. They also specializes in fake injuries and fake pregnancy tests.
THE COBENS HAVE CAMEOS
Harlan Coben, the New York Times best-selling author of page-turning thrillers, wrote The Stranger in 2015, one of seven novels in a similar theme. Viewers curious to know what he looks like need only watch the detective at the computer in “Episode 2” of the Netflix series.
Good writing apparently runs in the family, and if viewers are paying attention to the credits in “Episode 5,” they might just catch the name “Charlotte Coben” flash across their screens. That’s Harlan Coben’s daughter, who wrote the arc in that episode.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
While The Stranger may be turning random individual’s lives upside down, most of them have reasons for her interference. If viewers are paying attention to Martin (Stephen Rea) in “Episode 6,” they might be listening for him to reveal the gender of the child he had with his dead wife.
His murder confession simply refers to his child being named “Chris,” but the innocent name drop ends up becoming a major clue in the final episode. Even though Adam grew up living next to Martin and his family, he never knew that Martin had a young child because he was much older and eventually moved away.
THE BRITISH INVASION
The Stranger novel originally takes place in the United States, predominantly in the suburbs of Ohio, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The Netflix series is set in England, forcing changes to everything from suburban culture to the details of the police investigation.
The original novel had a lot more firearms, but because of the UK’s very strict gun laws, they only appear at very key moments in the series. Adam’s sons tried out for football (soccer) instead of lacrosse (as in the novel), and every tense conversation was had over a cup of tea and a scone.
REVENGE PORN
When The Stranger approaches a woman at a bowling alley and explains pornographic videos of her have been leaked online, the woman explains she already knows about them — they were “revenge porn” from her previous boyfriend, whom she broke up with, and is now engaged to someone else.
The Stranger informs her it was her current fiancé who leaked the videos when she was still together with her old boyfriend, in the hopes that she’d break up with him. So how are they “revenge porn?” In the UK, any pornographic material leaked in that fashion is referred to as “revenge porn” by law, regardless of when it’s released, rather than its proper title, “image-based sexual abuse.”
WHAT’S WITH THE HAT?
Adam is surprised in “Episode 4” when his father randomly decides to show up at his son’s football match. His father abandoned his family when he was young, leaving Adam to tend to his sick mother, who ended up dying in front of him (as viewers learn in “Episode 5”).
One of the first things Adam remarks on — other than his father’s sudden appearance — is his hat. He’s never known his father to wear hats, especially not a blue baseball cap. The hat is nearly identical to the one worn by The Stranger, and foreshadows her importance to the Price family as the product of an affair between Adam’s father and Martin’s wife.
SMOKING GUN
In the exciting final episode of the series, Adam and Tripp argue out in the middle of the woods over Corinne’s burial site. Adam ends up shooting Tripp after he discovers Corinne’s body, and Tripp confesses to her murder. To protect Adam from going to jail, DC Johanna Griffin has to think fast.
She wipes his gun clean and, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene, plants it behind a brick in the wall of the crime scene (Ingrid and Chris’s apartment). Since it’s Katz’s personal firearm, it will link him to Tripp’s death, leaving Adam free from prison.
THE BOLITAR HOTEL
When Johanna Griffin and her team set up the sting of Kimberley’s sugar daddy, they have her arrange to meet him at the “Bolitar Hotel”, hoping they can arrest him and use him to learn more about The Stranger’s blackmailing as well as Heidi’s murder.
The Bolitar Hotel is named after Myron Bolitar, the main character in several books by author Harlan Coben, including his first. Like Stephen King, Coben’s novels take place in a shared universe, with characters from one book often making small appearances in another.
BOB AND THE STRANGER
Late in the series, viewers learn that Bob, the surly coach of the football club that Adam’s son belongs to, is the man responsible for hiring The Stranger. He wanted her to investigate Corinne Price’s embezzlement of club funds as treasurer, not realizing it was Tripp who had framed her for his own theft of the money.
Bob was anxious to point the blame on someone else and clear his own name because he feared the community saw him as a desperate opportunist, a rumor Tripp was only too happy to circulate. In the very first episode he reminds Adam that the only reason Bob allowed a player a spot in the varsity team was because his father was a successful headhunter.
MONEY TROUBLES
To some viewers, it may have seemed like Doug Tripp’s monologue in the final episode of the series came out of nowhere. Why did he steal funds from the football club, especially knowing he could never pay them back? If viewers pay attention to Tripp as the series progresses, they’ll note that his lifestyle required large sums of money from the beginning.
He’s divorced, and as a PE teacher, shouldn’t expect to have the salary to live in one of the beautiful houses that the Prices do. He has a beautiful car, and the costume department makes it a point to dress him in flashy, expensive athletic wear.
KATZ’S INTEREST IN MALBEC40
In a “blink and you’ll miss it” exchange with Katz and Larry Powers, viewers can learn why exactly Katz needs to go to certain extremes to remain his head of security. As Malbec40, Powers had been cruising SugarBabies.com, and his infidelities would besmirch his integrity as COO of an “ethics app” he’s developing.
Katz has to protect Powers’ reputation at all costs, because investment in the app is the only thing allowing his daughter Olivia to get the medical treatment she needs for her unknown “illness.” His salary as a police officer isn’t enough, and if Powers falls, his daughter’s health could decline.
OLIVIA’S MYSTERY ILLNESS
As viewers come to learn later in the series, Olivia’s “mysterious illness” has been due to the slow, methodical, and progressive use of rat poison in her diet. Despite being treated by various doctors, her illness goes unexplained, and her mother is never determined to be the culprit.
Rat poison in low doses only presents as a deficiency in Vitamin K, seen in a complete blood panel. Even if poison is suspected, the results of an initial assay can be negative. Only after a variety of other factors are ruled out (diet, lifestyle, etc) is more sensitive testing specifically for rat poison even done.
ADAM’S FOOTRACE WITH THE STRANGER
The episode 7 footrace is one of many exciting moments in the series, especially since it alludes to Adam Price finally catching up with The Stranger and being able to interrogate her about his missing wife. He knows if he catches up to her, he’ll be one step closer to finding Corrine.
Then why does he run so slowly? Adam is a runner - he’s seen several times throughout the series going out for a jog. The run takes the pair through the hospital, all over the city, and down to the railroad tracks, and Adam keeps a steady pace because as any good distance runner knows, a sprinter will eventually get tired.
CORRINE’S KEY FOB
After Patrick Katz interrogates Heidi at the coffee shop, things get out of hand, and he murders her in cold blood. He attempts to cover his tracks by visiting the school where her best friend Corrine teaches and obtaining her key fob from her classroom. He plants this at the scene of the crime to throw authorities off his scent.
There is only one problem with his plan - Daisy’s mother (a fellow teacher) confirms that the key fob was outdated, and at least a year old. This should have tipped off investigators that something wasn’t quite right about the incident (besides best friends suddenly turning on one another).
MIKE AND THE ALPACA
When detective Johanna Griffin and her partner find the decapitated alpaca in the middle of the road, DC Griffin points out that there’s a crescent-shaped bite mark on its leg, indicating that it was bitten by a human (albeit one missing a bicuspid).
Eventually, Mike Tripp is found to have been the one who decapitated the alpaca with a shovel while high on PCP, except there’s one thing that discerning viewers will notice; he isn’t missing a bicuspid, meaning he may not have necessarily have been the one to chew on its leg.
