The Stranger

Adam chases the stranger, but the man escapes with a young woman waiting in a car. Adam returns inside for the team selection, though he finds it hard to concentrate. He absentmindedly crosses names off Corinne’s scouting report as each boy gets drafted. The group easily divides the remaining elite players until Bob Baime, the head coach, wants Jimmy Hoch to take the final spot on the B team. Even though his ranking is lower than some of the other players, Bob thinks that Jimmy is the better player and wants to cheer Jimmy up because he’s been dealing with his parents’ divorce. No one complains except Adam, who starts defending Logan, the boy whose ranking should guarantee him the spot. Adam doesn’t think that Logan should be penalized for having a stable home life, and he quips that Bob’s son should be demoted too since their family is so happy. As head coach, Bob gets the final decision, so Adam gives up, knowing that he’s only arguing because the stranger agitated him. He confirms that his son Ryan made the A team and leaves the meeting.

Adam sits down at the bar to drink a beer with Tripp. Tripp explains that Bob has been unemployed for a year and that Jimmy’s father is helping him look for a job, so Bob is just doing what any man would do to protect his family. Tripp claims that everyone in Cedarfield is living the American dream and that they don’t want that life to slip away. He believes that humans are inherently biased toward their own interests, especially when money is involved. Adam’s mind wanders to his own family.

Adam texts Corinne about Ryan’s team placement. Their eldest son, Thomas, greets Adam at home. Adam stares tearfully at his son, who looks just like him, and thinks that the stranger must be lying. He and Corinne taught their sons not to trust strangers, so he’s shocked that he would be so swayed by what the man said. Adam finds Ryan nearly asleep in his room, but he won’t tell him the results of the draft until the official announcement. Ryan drops off to sleep, and Adam looks at him with overwhelming love. Though he has a gut feeling that the stranger is being truthful about the fake pregnancy, he wants to confirm his suspicion with facts.

He logs into the family computer, which he and Corinne placed in full view so that they could monitor the boys’ internet activity. Adam recalls when he accidentally saw some of Thomas’s private Facebook messages, but he didn’t want to confront him and ruin their bond. He looks through the recent browser history before logging into his and Corinne’s shared bank account. He finds a nearly $400 charge from Novelty Funsy on their business Visa, but he can’t find the retailer online. He calls the customer-service line and asks for a detailed receipt of the transaction since the company is likely using a false name.

Thomas asks to go to his friend Justin’s house to pick up his gym shorts, so Adam sits in the passenger seat as Thomas drives over. Kristin Hoy, Corinne’s teacher colleague and a professional bodybuilder, lets Thomas into the house and greets Adam in the driveway. They chat about Corinne’s trip and their planned workouts before saying their goodbyes. As they drive off, Thomas expresses discomfort with Kristin’s obsession with her body.

Adam ignores a phone call from Corinne, but he sees an email from the bank exposing Novelty Funsy as a cover for Fake-A-Pregnancy.com.

Adam visits Fake-A-Pregnancy.com, which claims to sell fake pregnancy items for pranks. The company sells always-positive pregnancy tests, customizable sonograms, and silicone bellies. Adam tries to remember what the pregnancy test and sonograms that Corinne showed him looked like, but he can’t be sure they’re the same. Corinne uncharacteristically took the pregnancy test while he was home, whereas she usually liked to surprise him.

Overwhelmed, Adam turns in for the night. Corinne’s everyday items litter their room and trigger happy memories of their relationship. Corinne calls in a panic, but Adam says that he ignored her earlier to monitor Thomas’s driving. He briefly recounts his night and claims that he needs to get to bed before hanging up. He remembers when Corinne told him she was pregnant and how it came as a complete surprise at their age. He nearly orders a DNA paternity test online but decides against it. He lies down in bed, overcome with emotion.

In the morning, Adam tells Ryan that he made the A team and makes him a special breakfast. He drives Ryan to school and then goes to Walgreens, where he again almost purchases a paternity test. He quickly works out at the gym before heading to his office.

Adam’s paralegal, Andy Gribbel, reminds him that they need to visit a client, retired Lieutenant Colonel Michael Rinsky, soon. Rinsky is trying to fend off the demolition of his house for a gentrification project. Adam rejects Andy’s invitation to his cover band’s gig, and the pair playfully argue about the meaning of an Eagles song. In the back of his mind, Adam can’t help thinking about how cruel it is that the world keeps turning despite his personal tragedies.

He returns home at the end of the day and finds that Corinne is back early. He hopes that she’ll have an explanation, but he fears that their confrontation may destroy the perfect life they’ve built. Corinne and Thomas exit the house to go to Thomas’s lacrosse game. Corinne asks Adam to pick Ryan up from a friend’s house, and Adam hints that he wants to talk later. As his family drives off, Adam remembers how he and Corinne met in a bar and bonded over the fact that they both lost their fathers at a young age. When they got married, Adam was a low-paid public defender, and he got a higher-paying job to afford the house in Cedarfield that Corinne wanted. Adam happily let Corinne dictate their suburban life and build their “American dream,” which is all at stake if Corinne’s secret is true.

Adam and Ryan arrive at Thomas’s lacrosse game. Adam goes over to Corinne and Kristin. A group of fathers congregate at the end of the field, along with Bob and his cousin, who works at an investigative firm. Corinne is agitated because Thomas isn’t in the starting line-up and Bob’s son is in his place. She finally relaxes when Thomas is substituted in minutes later. She playfully banters about Adam, and when Adam notices that she’s still wearing the earrings he bought her for their 15th wedding anniversary, he can’t imagine how she’d ever deceive him.

Corinne and Adam watch the game with silent intensity, focusing on Thomas regardless of where the ball is in play. Adam once reveled in his obsession with his children, but he worries that this passion is a burden as they grow older. Thomas gets a break away, but the play is interrupted by a penalty call. The fathers yell about the bad call, and when the referee makes another slashing call minutes later, they erupt again. Adam disapproves of the raucous behavior, especially from the usually mild-mannered Cal Gottesman.

Tripp’s wife, Becky, approaches to chat with Corinne, so Adam slowly drifts down the sidelines to stand by himself. He looks back at his wife, whom he knows better than anyone else, and realizes that the stranger is likely telling the truth. Thomas scores a goal and celebrates coolly, but Adam knows his son must be ecstatic. He also knows that he would do anything to protect his sons’ happiness.

Thomas scores the game-winning goal, and Adam leaps up and cheers. Corinne and Ryan leave to get dinner ready, and Adam follows the team bus to Cedarfield High School to pick Thomas up. Cal Gottesman approaches him in the parking lot and congratulates him on Thomas’s performance. Cal thinks that Adam looked disgusted by the parents’ responses to the referees. He claims that he’s so vocal about the bad calls because studies have shown that referee bias is the main factor in home-field advantage. To Cal, he’s simply trying to level the playing field so that they can get more wins on the road. Adam doesn’t deny Cal’s data, but he thinks home-field advantage is just part of the game. He’d rather their sons lose a couple more games than see their parents behaving badly.

On the drive home, Thomas gushes about the game since he doesn’t like gloating in front of his team. Corinne and Ryan excitedly greet Thomas, and the family sits down for dinner. Adam dreads the idea that the happy picture could explode at any minute. When the boys go to their rooms, Corinne immediately asks Adam what’s wrong. With little hesitation, Adam asks if she faked her pregnancy.

The stranger and his partner, Ingrid Prisby, watch a table of four women at an Ohio Red Lobster. They impatiently wait for the gathering to end so that they can approach one of the women, Heidi Dann. The pair feel good about helping reveal the secret in her life.

They quickly pay their bill as the women do the same, and they rush outside. The women exit the restaurant and hug one another goodbye. The stranger calls out to Heidi as she walks to her car and asks if she knows a website called FindYourSugarBaby.com. Heidi is surprised by his bluntness, but she lets him explain that the website connects older men with young women for dates. The men and women negotiate a contract for how often they will meet, with the implicit understanding that they’re exchanging money for sex. In one case, a student is using the site to pay off her student loans, and she has contracts with multiple men at the same time.

Heidi sighs and assumes that one of the men is her husband, Marty, but the stranger corrects her and says that it’s the “sugar baby” she knows—her daughter, Kimberly.