Crazy Katz
Episode 7 of The Stranger sees Adam chasing the stranger down to the car park of the hospital and eventually out into the street. The chase continues to an abandoned train yard where the girl hides. As Adam tries in vain to look for her, he calls out and pleads with her to help find Corinne as she’s missing. Unfortunately she slips away before he can press further. Meanwhile, Tom continues to hide in Katz’s car until his phone goes off, prompting Katz to spin around and point a gun at his head. As they talk, Tom mentions the poison and the black bags they found at his house and it’s here Katz realizes that all of this has been a result of his wife’s Munchhausen. Olivia isn’t really sick and never has been. All his hard work and extra hours have been for nothing. Unable to accept this, he heads back home after dumping Tom in the middle of nowhere and sees the poison in the cupboard firsthand. Back at the hospital Dante wakes up, allowing Johanna to head in and ask him questions. He mentions going into the woods with Daisy and got naked because they were on their way to skinny-dip. Only she stole his clothes and ran off. It turns out Max was the one in the forest that spooked him and that’s why he was running away. The police then turn their attention to Max and ask him if he attacked Dante. He tells them he did chase the boy and saw him fall but left him there as he thought he was okay. At home, Katz continues to spiral, phoning his wife and leaving a message about what she’s done. Meanwhile, Ed arrives at Adam’s house with a private investigator and Adam tells him about the fake pregnancy and the fight he and Corinne had the day before she left. As Adam describes the stranger, Ed chimes in and mentions that the same person visited him too. Larry arrives at Katz’s house to talk but Johanna arrives soon after, prompting him to tell Larry to leave out the back. Rattled, Katz starts making a tea for her before spilling details about what’s happened with Olivia. However, Wes phones and tells Johanna the footage they’ve found links Katz to Heidi’s murder. Unfortunately all of this was revealed while on speakerphone, prompting the two to wrestle in his house, resulting in Katz holding her up at gunpoint. As the episode closes out, Adam and his Father begin looking through files until they find a photo of Killane and the stranger together. She’s actually called Krissy and she’s Killane’s daughter! What a twist! With a big reveal at the end and lots of tense drama to unwrap here, The Stranger sets up a thrilling finale to come after some bombshell reveals. Much like Coben’s previous thriller Safe, The Stranger keeps a lot of its best twists and reveals for the end and that much is absolutely the case. It helps too that Paul Kaye’s acting here as Katz is really good and the extreme close ups help to solidify his range. While many people will point to Richard Armitage as the stand out, Paul Kaye really steps it up here and plays this unstable character so well. With the stranger’s identity finally revealed, all roads point toward an explosive finale and (hopefully) a satisfying conclusion to our tale. While there are a few plot inconsistencies and you do have to suspend your disbelief a little, The Stranger is a solid thriller nonetheless and one that’s hard to predict. Roll on the finale!
