The stranger plot hole * spoiler alert *

[isittooearlyforgin]

Have just watched The Stranger and found it completely addictive. Loved it. But one things riles me. While I realise there are many plot holes including how so many people have so many dark secrets in such a small town, that is fine, it works for the sake of the plot. What I find hard to square is the Corinne lied so convincingly about her pregnancy for so long, bearing in mind she is a nice person, good mum, loving wife etc. To do something like that day in day out to your family you’d have to be psychologically disturbed surely. What do you think?

It could be that as a couple they didn't like to talk about it much day to day.

Yep massive plot hole.

Have you watched safe? That's even more unbelievable

Is Safe worth a watch or too ridiculous to enjoy?

I thought safe made more sense than the stranger. At least with safe, it all connected to something but the stranger didn't. The stranger just basically took a load of different stories and they didn't make sense. Why would Corrine even be worried about phoning and hassling her neighbour about stolen money when her husband had just found out that she faked a pregnancy? Why would she also say to him 'there's more to this?'. There was not more to it. She faked a pregnancy and it wasn't connected to any of the other plots. No one kills their best friends wife and neighbour over her finding out they stole money when she herself had done something awful! It would have made more sense if the neighbour was blackmailing her over the fake pregnancy and they had a scuffle and she died as an accident

I thought the whole thing was disappointing tbh, people are raving about it but me and DH thought the ending was complete shit. Though I find the ending of most programmes crap, almost like they run out of ideas or cba with it

I thought they must have a very compartmentalised relationship if she managed to get away with a fake belly (however small). Did he just never touch her, even a hand around the waist? Weird.

I also remembered the ex-policeman talking about having a son, and at the end it was a daughter. I could have gone back to check but tbh I didn't care

I agree it was preposterous but Corinne was terrified her husband was falling for another woman. What was nuts was that she’d fake a pregnancy, surely you’d just actually get pregnant rather than risk being found out?

Yes, it's the "there's more to this" thing that bugs me - you're right, there wasn't! Instead she just described another woman's life...and she didn't know the other woman was being blackmailed by the Stranger, did she? A lot of it seemed to be coincidence.

I didn’t get how he knew what company name to search for when he was looking for the fake pregnancy stuff. He then looked it up in the credit card statement. Wouldn’t it be the other way round?

Yes, the “there’s more to it” there wasn’t! And you’re right, why would you keep it a secret when your secret tops theirs massively. 🤔

I did think it was exciting though

The stranger told him the company’s name.

Bloody “Novelty Funsy” - I remember because it’s such a shit fake name I keep getting it going round in my head when I’m trying to sleep!

The thing I found unbelievable were the fantastic houses they all lived in and the fact that 3 teachers lived in close proximity to each other and all sent their children to the school they taught at.

And the lawyer husband NEVER WENT TO WORK! And nobody seemed to notice! Also, schools don't work like that, but then schools in TV shows are always just ridiculous, so that's nothing new.

I did really enjoy it but it was more that I could just binge it out and not really think too deeply into it? But yeap I agree with allllll of the above it was abit redic, however I did love the crazy detective at the end, cant even remember his name now!

I enjoyed it but it sort of felt like something I would have written at school, a bit over the top and not fully thought through. I think a lot of Netflix dramas feel like that

She said there was more to it, but there wasn't. She faked the pregnancy, there was more to the story but it wasn't related to the faking of the pregnancy. It didn't change the reason or that it had occurred.

Exactly, why didn't she just say "yes, I faked it, I did it because I felt insecure about our relationship but I don't want to discuss it in the garden, let's wait until the kids are in bed and we'll sit down together". No need for the mystery at all! It just didn't make sense.

I thought it was great while I was watching it. Now it's ended, I also keep picking holes! The ending was all wrong and there was too much going off !
I think the ex-policeman referred to his child as Chris so we assumed it was male but was actually 'Chrissie?'

I thought she said there's more to this because she knew he had an affair - hence fake pregnancy to get him to stay with her?

But maybe she didn't feel ready to talk about that just yet and needed time before everything potentially crashing down if she was going to bring up she knew about the affair and God know where else it would've taken them.

I thought that it started off really well, maybe about he first three eps?

But yes, there was nothing more to it-unless it was that Tripp had set her up about the money?

But surely nothing you couldn't explain?

It was silly and juvenile imo.

Why was the alpaca missing a tooth? Actually what was the point of the alpaca at all?

And why did Dennis Pennis kill Jennifer Saunders?? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I found Safe to similar to The Stranger to be believable (watched the stranger first!). Are all of Harlan Corben’s books like that? All upper middle class families with dark secrets, centred around a very posh high school?

I don't understand the alpaca thing - I mean I followed the storyline but it added nothing, just brought in more weird layers of coincidence and nobody addressed that it would be very very difficult to decapitate a alpaca with a shovel!

Exactly, why didn't she just say "yes, I faked it, I did it because I felt insecure about our relationship but I don't want to discuss it in the garden, let's wait until the kids are in bed and we'll sit down together". No need for the mystery at all! It just didn't make sense

@michaelbaubles. - Fabulous! think it would a great new thread to have mumsnetters offer valid real life alternatives which would shut down any show in the first 10 minutes.