In the first episode, the Stranger exposed a secret seemingly in principle. In the second episode, she and her accomplice did it for money. The Stranger was now back as though she was just genuinely trying to help out.
The woman she approached, Michaela, once had a sex video posted online, she believed, by her ex boyfriend David. According to the Stranger, the one who actually posted the video was her current fiancé, Marcus, a friend of David's. Marcus did it because he wanted her to leave David so he could have her all to himself. In an effort to convince Michaela to leave Marcus, the Stranger even told her how her own mother married the wrong man so she was speaking from personal experience.
Michaela refused to accept the proof the Stranger was trying to give her, even when the Stranger went to her house. For Michaela, what Marcus did meant that he loved her desperately enough to resort to such a measure to have her. It was twisted, but it also made Adam think that Corinne's act of faking a pregnancy was done out of desperate love as well.
Adam and Michaela met, because Martin managed to track down the grey rental car. He also identified the blonde accomplice, Ingrid Prisby (Lily Loveless). This was the first time that Adam said out loud that Corinne was missing. He could not go to the police because Corinne sent a text message indicating that she wanted space; they likely would not take his report seriously. Adam, however, was now actively looking for his wife.
Adam also spoke to Suzanne, who had been faking pregnancies without her husband's knowledge. Suzanne said that the first time she faked a pregnancy, people were nice to her. Her fake pregnancy was her way of finding connections in the world outside of her abusive husband. The husband reacted violently at the mention of Corinne's name because he knew Corinne told Suzanne to leave him. Suzanne was also a victim of the Stranger's blackmail; Suzanne paid her off with five thousand pounds, all her savings.
Meanwhile, Mike was questioned by Johanna and Wes about the garbage bag with blood in it. Mike made up a story that Johanna did not believe. Johanna told him in a thinly veiled threat that if Dante died, a murder investigation would open. Tripp was there to accompany his son; it was very clear that Johanna was not impressed with him.
Tripp continued to be around Adam; he joined Adam when Bob and another football dad, Jason (a police officer) went to try and talk with Corinne. It was Bob who made the accusation that Corinne took money from the football fund. Adam went all lawyer-esque and did not give any indication that he had no idea where Corinne was. It was only later, when he and Tripp were alone, that he admitted Corinne was gone.
Adam had been lying to his sons, too, but the boys were getting desperate to talk to their mother. Young Ryan figured out that they could track Corinne using an app previously installed in Thomas's phone. It seemed to have worked; Corinne, or at least her phone, was only two miles away.
With the investigation into whatever happened in the woods keeping her busy; Johanna was not able to meet up with Heidi as they planned. The next day, when Heidi was still not answering her phone, Johanna went to the café. It was there that she discovered Heidi's body.
I like how the twists have been revealed so far; there were a lot of them, but they were paced in such a way that it was fairly easy to keep track of them even for someone like me who has not read the source material and is not familiar with Harlan Coben's work. The number of people touched by the Stranger continued to grow. The episode ended with the Stranger watching Ed, Adam's father.
At this point, the Stranger still swung from altruistic snoop to heartless blackmailer. The series has started to reveal parts of the true identity of the Stranger, however, just as its multiple mysteries were starting to unravel.
Strays
■ Michaela to the Stranger: 'You didn't reveal a secret. You just created a new one.'
■ When Johanna showed Katz a photo of herself with her good friend she meant to travel with, Katz immediately recognised her as the woman he killed.
■ Mike said that Dante annoyed people and was always taking videos.
■ In his room, Johanna and Wes found that Dante had plenty of photos of Daisy and videos of Corinne. According to Dante's Dad, Dante was well liked in school.
■ This is the second appearance of the sickly girl. She told Daisy and Thomas that Mike was arrested.
■ Daisy told Thomas that on the night of the bonfire, she spiked Mike's joint with PCP. Daisy found out that Mike posted the naked photos that he claimed were Daisy's sister Ella's. Daisy was worried that she was now accessory to murder, if Mike had something to do with whatever happened to Dante.
■ Adam's father Ed told him that Martin hired him because Martin knew Ed was on the board of the developer.
■ Martin to Adam: 'Women leave, Adam. Sometimes, they don't come back.' A long time ago, Martin's wife also left him and never returned.
■ Adam got the license plate of the Ingrid's rental from Max, a guy at the football club who appears to have a photographic memory.
■ In the phone bill, Adam saw that the person Corinne called that morning he saw her agitated was their neighbour Tripp.