The Stranger

When Adam returns home, Ryan immediately asks where his mother is since he still can’t find his uniform. Adam lies and says that she’s traveling and out of cell-phone range. He offers to help look for the uniform, but Ryan anxiously cries that he needs his mother. Adam loses his temper and yells that parents have lives that don’t revolve around their children, which causes Ryan to run to his room. Thomas comes downstairs, and Adam repeats that Corinne is at a conference. Thomas, however, claims that he knows that’s not where she is.

Thomas is too embarrassed to share how he found his mother’s location, so instead, he explains that when Adam left the house earlier, he sensed that his father was lying. Adam confesses that he and Corinne fought and that he doesn’t know where she went. Thomas is wary about sharing his information since Corinne may want it kept secret, but he eventually explains that the whole family has a tracking app installed on their phones. Corinne wanted to use the app only in emergencies with the boys, and Thomas promised to never use it himself.

He shows Adam the app and the three blinking lights representing Thomas’s, Ryan’s, and Adam’s phones on a map. Thomas zooms out to reveal Corinne’s phone, which was last active in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Adam doesn’t know why Corinne would be there since she doesn’t know anyone in the area. Thomas helps Adam sign into the app on his own phone so that he can monitor when Corinne’s phone comes back online.

Bob Baime plays pick-up basketball with a group of fathers at Beth Lutheran Church. Bob feels like he’s on top of the world since he aced a job interview earlier and is playing amazingly on the court. Bob wishes that his strict father, who always ridiculed him for his softness, could see both his performance today and the life he’s built. Bob lauds the wealthy neighborhood he lives in and the expensive cars he drives. This life was briefly in jeopardy when he lost his job, but Bob is sure that everything will work out thanks to Jimmy Hoch’s father. Bob has no qualms about placing Jimmy on the lacrosse team as a thank you to his father.

Before play resumes, the Goldman company calls Bob back, but the man tells him that he didn’t get the job. Bob smiles through the disappointment and rages inside. He thinks about his fight with Adam and realizes that Adam must have been arguing as an outlet for his own anger since Bob knows that Adam learned about Corinne’s betrayal not long before. Bob wonders how Adam will react when he learns everything else about Corinne.

In the middle of the night, Adam remembers the story about Suzanne Hope, so he finds her address and phone number online. In the morning, he visits the Rinskys’ house and invites over a group of journalists. He tells the reporters the story of how Michael Rinsky bought his house after serving in the Vietnam War. He married his wife, raised their children, and paid off the mortgage after 30 years. Eunice recently grew sick and wants to live out the rest of her days in the house, but the local government is threatening to kick them out to build a strip mall.

The reporters frantically write down the story and ask Rinsky questions. Adam knows that he left out key details, but he wants to spin the best story possible. When the reporters leave, Mayor Gusherowski calls to say that he’s not intimidated. Adam promises to bring the mayor’s criminal history to light if he doesn’t leave the Rinskys alone.

Rinsky shows Adam his computer room, where he and other retired policemen work on cold cases. Adam asks for advice about determining whether a witness is at their house. Rinsky dials Suzanne’s phone number and pretends that he’s from a cleaning service. She hangs up immediately, but Adam now knows she’s home.

Adam drives to Suzanne’s apartment and knocks on her door. Through the door, Adam loudly explains that he’s looking for Corinne. Suzanne keeps the chain lock in place and says that the last time she saw Corinne was three years ago when she discovered her fake pregnancy. Corinne asked a lot of questions, and though Suzanne worried that she’d judge her, Corinne was understanding. Suzanne even lied about having a stillborn baby to soften the blow, but she’s never truly been pregnant.

Suzanne always dreamed of having a big family, and after faking a pregnancy one time, she became addicted to the rush from the attention she received. Four months ago, a man told her ex-husband, Harold, about Suzanne’s deception when she refused to pay him, and ever since, she hasn’t worn the fake bellies. Suzanne and Adam realize that they were both approached by the same stranger.

Suzanne invites Adam inside and pours them wine before telling her story. One day on her lunch break, a young man in a baseball cap sat down with her and asked if her husband knew her secret. The stranger claimed that he had proof that she faked her pregnancy and said that if she didn’t pay him $5,000, he’d tell Harold everything. Suzanne thought the man had a kind smile and seemed like he wanted to help her. She refused to pay the money, so the stranger told Harold about the website and fake pregnancy items. Rather than understanding Suzanne’s pain, Harold felt emasculated and left her. Suzanne is surprised that Corinne let the stranger reveal her secret since she had so much more to lose than Suzanne did.

As Adam drives home, he sees how the whole situation could be a blackmail scheme gone awry, but the more he thinks about Corinne’s behavior, the less he believes the theory. Corinne wouldn’t leave the boys and run away if she knew about the blackmail, and the stranger gave no indication that he was a violent person. Adam checks the phone-tracking app, but there is no update on Corinne’s phone. He doesn’t know whether to call the police or give Corinne space like she asked.

As he pulls into his driveway, he sees Tripp, Bob, Cal, and Police Chief Len Gilman waiting for him. Len asks to talk, and Adam fears the worst.

Police Chief Johanna Griffin, from Beachwood, Ohio, arrives at her first murder scene. She knows the victim, Heidi Dann, and can hardly bring herself to look at her friend’s unmoving face. Johanna and her young partner, Norbert Pendergast, know that the county police will take the case from them, but Johanna wants to investigate, for Heidi’s sake.

She sits down with Heidi’s husband, Marty, who explains that he came home from a conference to find Heidi shot dead. Johanna is sure that the county police will make Marty their primary suspect, but she has a gut feeling that he’s not involved. Marty can’t think of anyone who would want to hurt Heidi, and he can’t remember her acting strangely at all. Johanna offers to help Marty inform his children of Heidi’s death.

The county police arrive and cut off the interview. Johanna lets the men take over, but she vows to keep investigating through her own means.

At Adam’s house, Chief Gilman asks if they can go inside to talk. Adam and the men file into the house and take seats in the living room. Gilman claims that he’s not acting in an official police capacity, but he needs to speak with Corinne. He reminds Adam that Corinne missed the lacrosse board meeting, and since then, he’s been trying to contact her—even going to her school to find out that she’s been absent.

Gilman explains that there’s money missing from the lacrosse team account. He wants to hear Corinne out and hopefully settle the account without involving the law. Adam doesn’t believe that Corinne would steal from the team, but, remembering his own lawyerly advice to his clients, he keeps quiet and asks the men to leave.

Dan Molino watches his son Kenny prepare for the 40-yard dash in this high school football combine. He tears up thinking about Kenny’s bright future of college football on a full-ride scholarship. Kenny did well in the other combine events, and Dan is sure that the scouts will be interested if Kenny gets a good time in the sprint. Dan owns a furniture delivery service that’s been struggling to compete with larger corporations like FedEx. He still thinks that he’s had a successful life, especially since he married the love of his life, Carly.

The stranger sits down next to Dan, smiling and staring at the tearful father. He asks Dan if he “knows,” which confuses the man, but the stranger waits to explain until after the race. Kenny runs the race in 5.07 seconds, which will guarantee a scholarship, but Dan doesn’t feel any joy. The stranger hands Dan an envelope of proof that Kenny purchased steroids off the dark web. The stranger asks for $10,000, or else he’ll expose Kenny. As Kenny starts to jog over to his father, the stranger takes his leave.

Adam pulls into the Legion Hall parking lot to speak with the guard, John Bonner. Bonner fell on hard times due to his complicated mental illnesses, so the Legion gave him the parking lot monitor job to help him. Bonner keeps track of every vehicle that comes in and out of the lot, so Adam hopes that he’ll have information on the stranger’s car. Adam lies and says that a young couple hit his car on the night of the lacrosse draft and that he needs the license plate to file a claim. Bonner flips through his notes, but rather than giving Adam the information, he asks for $200. Bonner was there that night and didn’t see Adam’s car get hit, so he knows that Adam wants the plate number for something else. Adam agrees to pay Bonner.

Adam visits Rinsky, who tells him what he learned about the license plate: A woman named Ingrid Prisby from Austin, Texas, rented the car under a pseudonym. Adam isn’t sure what to do next, so he asks for advice. To Adam’s surprise, he tells Rinsky the whole story without leaving anything out. Rinsky supports Adam’s decision not to go to the police yet since they’d only suspect Adam of harming Corinne or of Corinne being a fugitive thief. Rinsky suggests waiting for Corinne to come back on her own, and he offers to do a background search on Ingrid in the meantime.

Adam suddenly remembers that Corinne was on the phone the morning she disappeared, so he and Rinsky log into the online phone account. In the call logs, Adam sees that Corinne’s last call that morning was with Tripp.